Sentiment Fails to Put a Smile on Faces of Drivers

A colleague in the San Fernando Valley noticed that the electronic readout on the screen of a self-serve gasoline pump said: “Hey, look up here! That’s right, you. The least you could do is smile. Hey, why not? Life’s too short not to enjoy it.”

Nice sentiment. Of course, if the oil companies hadn’t jacked up the prices for gasoline, a lot more motorists would be smiling.

LEADED OR UNLEADED? Henk Friezer of Eagle Rock found a pump on his side of town that was missing one letter from the company name, thereby giving the impression that it sells a type of gasoline that your car’s fuel injection system wouldn’t like (see photo).

NO ICE CUBES NECESSARY: Continuing today’s program titled “Bizarre Fluids,” Dennis Dugan of Pacific Palisades came upon a marquee listing for a soda that must have originated in Alaska (see photo).

MYSTERY OF THE WEEK: In a recent item labeled “Malibu Sign Language,” I related how a reader was cut off by another motorist, who then made a sign in which he closed his fist and showed his index and pinky fingers. What did the gesture mean?

Several readers felt the driver was apologizing. A couple felt the driver was saying something bad. But Paul Ecker of Diamond Bar, noting that the incident occurred in Malibu, offered these interpretations:

* May you find Robert Downey Jr. sleeping in your bedroom.

* “Baywatch” filming; drive carefully.

* Valet parkers always have the right of way.

ANGELENOS ABROAD: Gene Casstevens of Sherman Oaks reports that while traveling in Scotland, “I hailed a taxi and noticed a large sign by the road that read ‘No Tipping, by order of such-and-such constabulary.’ Several miles down the road, there was another ‘No Tipping’ sign. The scene repeated itself over and over until reaching my hotel. Just as we pulled in, another ‘No Tipping’ sign. Not wanting to scoff the law of the land, I diligently refused the driver’s and porter’s outstretched palms much to their outwardly displayed dismay.”

Later, when Casstevens asked why tipping wasn’t allowed, the hotel manager “said they couldn’t allow the countryside to be covered with city folks’ litter. He explained tipping was what we call dumping.”

RECALLING L.A.’S PRE-SIGALERT ERA: I heard an advisory for a traffic problem on the Antelope Valley Freeway “near Vasquez Rocks,” a bulletin with a bit of historical irony. After all, the 19th century outlaw Tiburcio Vasquez, for whom the rock formation is named, chose that area for his gang to hide because it had so little traffic.

HIGH DRAMA: During a crucial moment of the USC-UCLA game at the Coliseum on Saturday, a plane appeared overhead pulling a banner that said, “DIRTY RESTAURANT LIST SUNDAY 11 P.M. . . . CBS 2.”

COLISEUM RECORD: Congratulations, by the way, to the nearby resident of the Coliseum who is believed to have broken the record Saturday for asking the highest-ever price for event parking:

$50.

And he was getting takers.

I felt like tipping there--in the Scottish sense.

miscelLAny:

I’m still hearing from UCLA fans such as Anthony Hicke, who advised me to “start coughing that shoe out of your mouth,” after I inexplicably picked USC to win Saturday. That’s why I’ve retreated to Vasquez Rocks indefinitely.