Now we know: KCBS Channel 2 news...

Now we know: KCBS Channel 2 news reported a dispute between a woman and American Honda Finance over the seizure of her car by repo men while she was driving on the Ventura Freeway. The station followed with a commercial that began: “What would it take to get you out of a Honda Accord?”

Galloping escargots: Race organizer Jim Pepper recruited the competitors from some “real wet, goopy bushes behind a strip mall in Hacienda Heights.” And they made up the fastest field ever for the Great Snail Race at the Puente Hills Mall.

Children in attendance coached the entries, whose course was a 12-inch-high pole. Winning coaches and the times were:

1. Jill Gonzales, El Monte, 1:58.

2. Katie and Stacey Mack, Long Beach, 2:11.

3. Dario Villa, Hacienda Heights, 2:28.

Pepper says the 1:58 mark was faster than the Guinness record. But it won’t be submitted because the judges didn’t make a videotape of the race, as Guinness requires. You know how influential videotapes can be.

Riot irony: Lorrie Foulks found a sign in midtown L.A. that, in the wake of the riots, took on a double meaning that requires no explanation.

Riot irony II: Then there was the Olympics-theme sign spotted by Sanford Arnoff in a burned-out area in South-Central L. A. It declared the

U. S. Postal Service to be “a Proud

Sponsor of Those Who Carry the Torch.”

El Lay vs. Es Eff (the sequel): When Bay Area columnist Herb Caen speculated that San Francisco has the most neighborhoods bearing the names of movies (“Pacific Heights,” etc.), we gave L. A.’s ‘hood credits in response. But we got some streets mixed up (as we do while driving). The film “Miracle Mile” was incorrectly listed as “Wilshire Boulevard.” We forgot “Sunset Boulevard,” as Mary Lou Montagna pointed out. And are we ashamed that we omitted “Valley Girl”? Totally.

List of the day: Don’t think for a moment that schools didn’t have problems in the old days. A local official named Dr. Everett C. Beach, in a 1912 interview with the old L. A. Examiner, warned that one dangerous student activity should be avoided for the following reasons:

1. “It is not genteel and refined.”

2. “It causes indigestion and spoils the appetite.”

3. “It is unsanitary and unhealthful.”

4. “It is a commercial habit.”

5. “It is not a necessary habit.”

The big school problem? Gum-chewing.

miscelLAny:

Omaha, Neb., ranked first in a survey of the percentage of city-dwellers who subscribe to science magazines. L.A., No. 55, finished behind Anaheim (No. 30) and Riverside (No. 43).