Dog days: Two Elysian Park residents felt...

Dog days: Two Elysian Park residents felt it was unnecessary for us to suggest that the home of the lowly Dodgers deserves to be annexed by the nearby area of Dogtown. After all, point out Scott Facjack and Mary-Austin Klein, the geographical names on an 1876 map of what is now Dodger Stadium “will do just fine” as symbols of the team’s condition. The ballpark sits amid features once known as Cemetery Ravine and Sulphur Ravine.

List of the day: Some L.A. County traffic trivia from KNX reporter Jill Angel, in honor of Ride Share Week (you did know that it is Ride Share Week, didn’t you?):

1. Average number of SigAlerts per day in the county: 3.

2. Busiest freeway interchange: Santa Monica/San Diego, 513,000 cars per day.

3. Percentage of air pollution caused by cars: 60%.

4. Percentage of gasoline wasted in traffic congestion: 25%.

5. Amount of commuters who regularly drive alone: 77%.

And, finally, to answer the No. 1 question that Angel is asked: The No. 1 lane on a freeway is the fast lane.

Speaking of traffic hazards: The slow-moving jerk in the Porsche--the guy who’s yakking to his agent on his car phone in front of you--is not a new phenomenon.

We were reminded of this by a movie rerun the other night. The film’s narrator, Joe Gillis, reminisces about riding with his sugar-mommy, or benefactress, in her Isottal-Franchini coupe. “The whole thing was upholstered in leopard skin,” he said, “and had one of those car phones, all gold-plated.”

The movie was “Sunset Boulevard” (1950).

You should see him thumb rides: But back to Sunset Boulevard, 1992. A man in a white robe was observed on that fabled rue holding up a sign that said: “Will give karate training for food.” He was shadow-boxing at passing cars. Or, rather, shadow-chopping.

Would you buy a used candidate from this man?Lillian Needleman noticed that an off-beat used-car dealership in the San Fernando Valley is displaying the name of a famous on-again, off-again presidential aspirant.

The candidate who had nothing to hide: The recent court decision upholding a ban on nudity at California public beaches calls to mind the brief but glorious Nude Beach movement of 1974--at Venice, of course. It even drew support from one gubernatorial candidate, the Peace and Freedom Party’s Elizabeth Keathley. An anarchist, she campaigned in the buff there one day. Ignored until then, she attracted 30 newsmen. No newswomen attended.

miscelLAny:

Sixty years ago today, a 24-year-old actress named Peg Entwistle, apparently upset over bad reviews for her first big film, climbed atop the 50-foot-tall “H” in the old HOLLYWOODLAND sign and jumped to her death.