Mickey Mouse visions are more common than...

Mickey Mouse visions are more common than you might think.

“I’ve probably gotten more than 100 photos this year from people who see Mickey’s markings on things,” said Disneyland publicist Diane Turner.

“We get dogs, cats, horses, cows. A family in L.A. has a Dalmatian dog with one set of spots that resembles Mickey’s head. There’s a cat in Montebello with Mickey markings. Believe it or not, we got a photo of some shrubbery in Lompoc off Highway 1 that’s shaped like Mickey. Probably the most unusual was a baby bottom with a Mickey birthmark from Michigan.”

Disney hasn’t decided what, if anything, to do with the Mickey visions.

“We get most of them,” Turner noted, “when the moon’s full.”

Among the local contributors to Turner’s file was Isabelle Adams of Canoga Park, who has a Mickey-head tomato. (Or is that Mickey tomato-head?)

“One day I opened the leaves of my tomato plant and I thought I saw a cluster of tomatoes,” she related. “Then I saw it was just one tomato. It’s got his big fat ears and face. Of course, it doesn’t have eyes and nose and so on. But when I show it to people they always say, ‘It looks like Mickey Mouse.’ ”

Adams’ curiosity, being produce, has few public showings.

“I keep it in my freezer,” she said.

“Carbo-loading” isn’t a ritual one would normally associate with homeless people. But that was the billing for the free meal offered Friday at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Hollywood. It was the eve of the 10K Run for the Homeless. About 65 homeless people showed up, spokeswoman Meredith Preston said. And at least 100 are expected to compete alongside other runners in the Griffith Park race this morning. Each entrant will receive a coupon for a free dinner from the Spaghetti Factory, and registration fees from non-homeless runners will go to Crysalis, a nonprofit group that aids the homeless.

List of the Day:

While some claim that L.A.’s freeways are confusing, Elliott Dixon of Long Beach points out that all you have to do is pay attention to the name of each one. You can take:

1--The San Bernardino Freeway to get to Pomona.

2--The Pomona Freeway to get to Riverside.

3--The Riverside Freeway to get to Artesia.

4--The Artesia Freeway to get to Long Beach.

But there is an inconsistency. Despite the urging of Caltrans, the Long Beach Freeway still doesn’t reach Pasadena.

miscelLAny:

The first report of hazy skies in Southern California came from Portuguese navigator Juan Cabrillo, who described one local harbor as Bahia de los Fumos (Bay of Smokes). Historians disagree over whether he was insulting San Pedro or Santa Monica.