Spoon-Feeding a History Lesson

Some anecdotes about students’ misspellings occasioned a note from elementary school teacher Suzanne Covert-Hein of Santa Clarita. She once asked her sixth-graders, “In what historical period would you most like to live?” One of her students wrote very neatly, “I’d like to live in the Silverware.”

Covert-Hein added: “It took me a long time before I figured out he meant the Civil War.”

SPLIT DECISION: Covert-Hein has had adventures with her own name. Once she called a friend at a bank and tried to leave a message with a new secretary.

“I left my first name,” she said, “but when the secretary asked for my last name I said, ‘Don’t bother. It’s too complicated. It’s hyphenated. She’ll know who it is.’ Sure, enough, my friend returned the call and explained how confused she’d been by the message, ‘Call Mrs. Hifenated.’ ”

CAN’T WE ALL GET ALONG? Well, in the case of dogs and cats, the Beverly Virgil Animal Hospital on 1st Street seems to have given up, judging from its dueling signs at the entrance (see photo).

ANGELENOS ON THE ROAD: “Enclosed is a photo from Seattle,” wrote Superior Court Judge Lance Ito, after a recreational change of venue. “This is across the street from Lake Washington of ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ houseboat fame. The rub here is that your compass needs to be working” (see photo).

GARAGE GARAGE SALE: The “Garage for Sale” photo that recently appeared here didn’t strike Dave Turner of Redondo Beach as odd at all.

“Years ago, that could have been my sign because I actually sold a garage,” he said. “It was a 20-foot-by-20-foot prefab I got through Sears. When we sold the property, the new owner wanted to demolish the house for a parking lot and didn’t care what we did with the garage, so we sold it. It came apart in pieces and was later reassembled in Lomita. It could still be standing today.”

Let’s hope that El Nino doesn’t render it roofless in Sylmar.

EASY FOR THEM TO SAY: Andy Schuchman of Yorba Linda sent along a warning label that appeared on a box containing his computer monitor. It said:

CAUTION: Must Be Removed

The Tilt/Swivel Base of the Monitor When

It Is Packing Or Moving the Monitor.

WHEN YOU NEED A COP . . . : Disruptive spectators have been ejected from MTA board meetings by MTA cops in past years. But the other day, the speakers kicking up a fuss were a couple dozen MTA cops themselves, some wearing their guns. They were expressing concerns about the LAPD taking over the transit policing.

Observers noted that the board members paid much closer attention to the cops, especially the armed ones, than they normally do to other members of the public who speak.

Board Chairman Richard Riordan quipped: “We don’t have any police ready to throw them out.”

miscelLAny:

Theodore Hasapes of Woodland Hills appeared on the Sally Jessy Raphael TV show billed as the “oldest, strongest man in the world.” Hasapes, age 77, played the world’s smallest harmonica, which didn’t look very heavy. Oh, yes, while playing the instrument, he lifted a 100-pound dumbbell 10 times.

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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.