Don’t Blame Bill for This Risque Site

Greg Nelson, an aide to City Councilman Joel Wachs, says that staff members trying to contact the Clinton administration via the Internet made a surprising discovery.

Instead of typing “www.whitehouse” with a “government” link, they inadvertently typed it with a “commercial” link. Quite a difference in this case.

The latter offers pornographic material.

No jokes, you Republicans out there. After all, the porno operation says it “is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the U.S. Government,” which is good enough for me.

Wachs’ aides, it goes without saying, immediately signed off from the site.

ACTORS AND OTHER ANIMALS . . . In the early 1900s, when those wild movie folks began setting up shop in Hollywood, some hotels in that town posted signs saying, “No dogs or actors.”

Now, at the other end of the century, a Venice company has a sign that says, “No Actor Parking,” which Jan Murray of West Hollywood snapped (see photo).

No offense this time around. Kurtz is a casting agency. “We hold auditions for commercials,” said Kurtz’s Sherree Strong. “We may see a hundred actors a day and we only have three parking spots in our facility.”

CLOSE, BUT NO . . . Phil Proctor of Beverly Hills found a sign in Woodland Hills that only sounds as though it’s related to the state’s new no-smoking law (see photo).

DIDN’T CATCH THE NAME: Speaking at a lunch involving local government and movie folks, county Supervisor Mike Antonovich repeatedly referred to Tom Short, president of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees, as “Ted.”

Mayor Riordan, who also attended, tried to help at one point but only increased the confusion. Riordan yelled to Antonovich, “His name is Chuck!”

BUT NO ONE’S PERFECT: After I erroneously wrote that the chimney sweep song in “Mary Poppins” is “Chin Chin Cheree” (instead of “Chim Chim Cheree”), several readers phoned to correct me, including Jon Evans of Woodland Hills, who sang it. Not a bad voice, either.

SHIFTING PLATES: Definitive translations of vanity license plates are difficult. But it appears that a number of motorists aren’t sure what they’re doing in L.A., judging from the messages they’re displaying. Some examples:

YAMINLA

YMIINLA

YMINLA

YMINLAY

OYMINLA

And then there’s a motorist who may have been forced to take the closest available message, ungrammatical though it may be: YRINLA.

PUFFERS’ PARADISE: Regarding the smoking law, “my husband and I were having breakfast at the restaurant preferred by the locals in a North Carolina city that will remain nameless,” writes Doris Larson of Arroyo Grande. “My husband very politely asked the lady at the cash register whether they had a nonsmoking area. She replied, “---- no, honey, you can smoke anywhere you want!”

miscelLAny

The discussion of translated show titles here prompted John Price to relate that, in France, TV’s “Sesame Street” was rendered very literally--and amusingly--as “Rue de la Sesame.”

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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.