First sign of spring’s approach:As he motored...

First sign of spring’s approach:

As he motored down the Santa Monica Freeway, Mitch Giannunzio spotted a pickup truck displaying a brightly colored potted plant.

On the vehicle’s hood.

Let that be a reminder, Giannunzio says, “to drive and smell the roses.”

WHAT WOULD EDDIE HASKELL SAY? “June Cleaver Changes the Rules” is the title of a painting by Rene Norman but don’t try to pick out June, Ward, Wally or the Beav in the work.

“It’s about my mother deciding to get a divorce after 43 years,” said Norman. “She was the stereotypical, June Cleaver type of mother.”

The artist said her mother is on the far left and the artist’s three brothers are on the right. The tall figure in the center is Norman’s father--”the one with steam coming out of his head.”

WIDE-EYED IN L.A.: Kathlin Carmean’s “A Look at L.A.” was recently named one of the winners in L.A. County’s “Art in the Park” competition. Carmean, a student at Pasadena’s Art Center of Design, casts an eye at such elements of L.A. life as the Hollywood Bowl, City Hall, the downtown skyline, a sea gull, a jetliner and, of course, the Richter scale.

LESS IS MORE, RIGHT? Mike Kotzin, Dan Olincy and Bruce Malion all suggested the same name change for L.A. in the event that the Valley, San Pedro and Venice secede:

Less Angeles.

Malion adds, “The area where I came from in Ohio was commonly referred to as ‘L.A.,’ i.e. ‘Lower Akron.”’

That reminds us of the memorable comment by an L.A. Chamber of Commerce official at the 1929 opening of the Samson Tire Works, the Assyrian-themed palace along the Santa Ana Freeway. “Los Angeles,” the official said, “is now the Akron of the West.”

THE CITY OF COMMERCE IS GOING TO BE JEALOUS: Hollywood has made many notable movies with great cities in the title role. “Is Paris Burning?” and “Meet Me in St. Louis” come to mind as does “Escape from L.A.” (which is not about the Valley secession movement).

The San Gabriel Valley can take pride in the next one of that genre: “City of Industry,” a crime flick starring Harvey Keitel (ever notice that Harvey Keitel is in about half the movies that are released these days?).

“City of Industry”--the cinematic images that city (pop. 2,100) can conjure!

Speedboats on the San Gabriel River. . . . Train chases on the Southern Pacific tracks. . . . The 60 Freeway at rush hour. . . .

Who cares if it’s no Akron?

miscelLAny:

Ironic that 18 votes that former Rep. Robert K. Dornan classified as “suspect” during the last election would turn out to be those of Catholic nuns living at one address, as The Times reported Friday. After all, it was Dornan who claimed during the 1992 House banking scandal that he bounced a check to build a shrine to the Virgin Mary at his home.