Switching Gears on Signs for Drivers
In the never-ending search for an apologetic signal for drivers, a reader of the Auto Club magazine Avenues points out that there is such a gesture in the “American Sign Language. . . . [You] make a fist with the right hand, place it over your heart, and rotate it counterclockwise a few times.”
As Rich Roberts of Wilmington points out, though, that’s a difficult maneuver if the right hand is your coffee hand or cell phone hand.
And I’m not sure I’d recommend making a fist at another driver, either.
Barbara Johnston of Monrovia has her own solution. “I usually just slink down, trying to hide,” she said.
MOTORISTS WITH THE PERSONAL TOUCH: Bill Keene, the retired TV and radio newsman who lives in Arizona, says he took a bit of a straw poll at a University of Arizona football game “to see what bothers Tucson commuters most.”
Their answer: Road rage.
And, Keene says, the locals point out that the problem is different in Tucson. While L.A. motorists’ squabbles occur “at fairly high speeds on the freeways and usually amount to a little more than raised finger or such, when somebody cuts someone off [in Tucson], it occurs usually on a surface street--where it is possible for the ‘rager’ to exit his car and actually attack the ‘ragee.’ Such incidents apparently occur here with some frequency, according to the local gendarmes. . . .
“I guess that may make us the bloody nose capital of the nation.”
FOR THE POSITION OF ASSISTANT LIQUIDATOR? Rodney Nelson of L.A. found a store whose signs indicated that it was going out of business yet was “now accepting applications” (see photo).
MATCH THIS, IBM: The last couple of decades have not been good ones for the typewriter makers. But maybe they’re fighting back against the computer folks. Jan Janicek of Sherman Oaks noticed an ad in a weekly for a typewriter that makes coffee (see accompanying). Just the thing for the bleary-eyed commuter who needs a clear mind while rapping out a memo on the drive to work.
ROYAL RELIEF: Passersby may notice that the Queen Mary in Long Beach looks more dignified than she has in years. Why? The 21-story bungee-jump tower next door has been dismantled to make room for another attraction. At least the replacement will have a bit of historic value--it’s going to be a Cold War-era Russian submarine.
HOME SWEET HOMONYM: For today’s mix-up yarn, Ralph Orozco of Norwalk relates that he was once hired by a steel company for a construction job at Edwards Air Force Base.
“On entering I had to check in with a sergeant who asked me the name of the company and the work they did,” Orozco says. “I told him they were steel erectors. He wrote down, ‘Steal Directors.’ I wondered why they were watching us so closely. . . . “
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Finished your holiday preparations yet? If not, forget it. Dan Fink of L.A. saw a flier from a restaurant saying it’s a good time to make Father’s Day reservations.
Steve Harvey can be reached by phone at (213) 237-7083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com and by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, Times Mirror Square, L.A. 90053.
