Underrating local motorists:Jim Brazeau of Duarte was...

Underrating local motorists:

Jim Brazeau of Duarte was driving on north Broadway when he drew up behind a Lexus that was occupying two lanes, mainly because the man at the wheel was talking on a cellular phone.

Brazeau decided to heed some recent advice in this column--he flashed the yakker a four-finger sign, symbolizing the fact that cell-phone users are four times as likely to have a wreck as drivers with their ears free.

We had said, in passing, that there was no danger of receiving the more traditional one-finger salute in return because the cell-phoner’s hands would be occupied.

How naive of us. “He flipped me the finger with his right hand,” Brazeau reported. “It was free because he had the phone cradled between his shoulder and his neck.”

What makes the athleticism of the Lexus driver even more remarkable is that he was using his left hand to hold a Thomas Street guide.

“He was steering with his knees,” Brazeau said.

PERMANENTLY TEMPORARY OR TEMPORARILY PERMANENT? Kevin Burne of Victorville spotted a notice in the student newspaper at Cal State San Bernardino that raises a philosophical question about the nature of existence (see above).

SPEAKING OF TEMPORARY: Mark Sherwin, meanwhile, snapped a street sign in Century City that--given its spelling--deserved to have a short life (see photo).

SOMETHING TO CHEW ON: Our mention of professionals with unusual names brought more mail. Rosie Rosenlof recalled the ordeal of wearing braces on his teeth, asking, “Can you imagine, as a 12-year-old, walking into a Long Beach dentist’s office twice a week, and seeing this name on the door--Dr. Wildman?”

James Hardie remembered a sign in Hawthorne that said, “Chiropractor--Dr. Will Pounds.”

L. C. Storms was reminded of a doctor and dentist in one building with the names of Ray J. Gay and Roy Joy, respectively, not to mention poetically. And Linda Getty wondered if the parents of one boy “somehow knew he’d be a doctor?” A boy who grew up to be Dr. Gene Poole.

A PLOY THAT BROUGHT NO JOY: When last we heard from businessman and aspiring actor Steve Modena he had bought space on several bus benches, advertising his availability to Hollywood.

Modena phoned the other day. “It’s discouraging,” he admitted. “After I had those ads, there was a movie called ‘Jimmy Hollywood’ about a guy who wants to break into the movies--and puts ads on bus benches. I was never contacted to be in the movie.

“I worked in a hospital when I was younger and I’ve met George Clooney (star of TV’s ‘ER’) at least 10 times at parties, but I can’t get a part on that show. And a while back I wrote a screenplay about a wild and crazy radio personality. Then what happens--the Howard Stern movie comes out.”

miscelLAny

Our mention of an Apple Valley student with a green hairdo prompted a note from David Grudt of Long Beach, who pointed out that such coiffures didn’t originate with the punk/Generation X crowd. He found a reference in Time magazine to the “high school boys at Van Nuys [who] began dyeing their hair green this spring, to the dismay of parents and teachers.” Date of the article: July 4, 1949. Perhaps the reoccurrence of this phenomenon could be explained by Dr. Gene Poole.