Famed composer linked to Heidi!Brian Vaughn of...

Famed composer linked to Heidi!Brian Vaughn of Sherman Oaks said that he and the other singers who performed at Carmel’s Bach Festival couldn’t help but chuckle backstage over one unexpectedly ironic lyric.

The line, from Franz Haydn’s “The Seasons,” translates as “O industry, noble industry!” But, in German, it’s “O fleiss, O edler fleiss.”

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Just in time for the dog days of summer: Manhattan Beach has chained stainless steel bowls to five public water fountains so that pooches can have their own designated drinking spots.

“We did some research beforehand and found that some people were letting their dogs drink directly from the spigots,” said Joe Ferrer, the community services manager. “Others were plugging up the basins, which would overflow, and others were using dirty cups and then leaving them in the fountain. So we thought the bowls would be the best solution.”

Fine. But we wonder if area feline lovers will demand special treatment, too. Then again, cats already have the world’s largest litter box at the beach.

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Lyrics with a double meaning: One of the tunes that will be sung at a local reunion of Japanese-Americans interned during World War II will be “Don’t Fence Me In.”

“It was a popular song of the time and it was popular at Manzanar,” says George Kiriyama, chairman of tonight’s Manzanar Reunion at the L.A. Airport Marriott Hotel. “It was very appropriate when you’re surrounded by barbed wire.”

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Now, for our next musical selection--”It’s a Small World”: A small cluster of balloons landed on a street in the Silver Lake area, tied to a note that said: “I am Terry Wagner. I live (in) Paramount, Calif. I like to play with balloons. Please write back.”

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From our nonsmokers-of-history file: Abraham Hoffman of Reseda is confident that the fellow who penned the following lines would have backed L.A.’s ban against smoking in restaurants:

“Is it not both great vanity and uncleanness, that at the table . . . the men should not be ashamed, to sit tossing of Tobacco pipes, and puffing of the smoke of Tobacco one to another, making the filthy smoke and stink thereof to exhale athwart the dishes and infect the air, when, very often, men that abhor it are at their repast?”

So huffed King James I of England in his “Counterblaste to Tobacco” in 1604.

Do you know the way to L.A.?Rue Pine sends along a photo she took in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Does the sign refer to our L.A.? If so, is the City of Angels’ urban sprawl more pronounced than we figured?

miscelLAny:

When Bellflower resident Robert Miller became the one-millionth person to apply for a card at an L.A. County library, a party was thrown for him in Bellflower’s library. Yes, the no-talking rule was lifted for the event.