Stormy Weather Is Music to One Driver’s Ears

Driving down Cahuenga Boulevard, Warren Cereghino saw a license plate that said LVLNINO. It seems sort of difficult to understand someone expressing love for El Nino. Then again, the plate was on a truck belonging to a roofer.

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DON’T MAKE JACK MAD: You have to wonder if the makers of “Good Will Hunting” will feel a backlash in the Academy Award balloting from some Oscar voters--the ones who are also Lakers fans. After all, the movie is set in Boston and one of the main characters wears a pro-Celtics T-shirt that proclaims “I Hate L.A.” Maybe Jack Nicholson didn’t notice.

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NOT SO FAST WITH THAT DRIVER! Erle Daft says his Palos Verdes-area home is adjacent to a beautiful golf course but “the problem is, it’s difficult to par the longer holes and obey the posted signs” (see photo).

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IT DIDN’T COMPUTE IN DOG YEARS, EITHER: The latest bulletin from the Pasadena Humane Society read like something out of the “Twilight Zone” in one section. Dede Stokes of Duarte pointed out that the publication said that the Humane Society’s Adopt-a-Thon ’98 event would take place in a year that has already passed and on a day of the month that will never arrive (see accompanying). For the record, the date of Adopt-a-Thon--at which cats, dogs and other critters will be available for adoption--is (this) May 2.

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DUH! AWARDS: A warning label on Lee Lavallee’s new coffee maker offered tips on how to “avoid breakage or injury,” including such expected advice as “do not clean with materials that scratch” and “do not use on any range top or hot plate.”

But this warning caught Lavallee’s eye: “Do not hold over people.”

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SUDDEN REVERSAL: “Bilingual Education: The Case for Science over Politics” was the title of a study put out by an institute based at the Claremont Colleges. However, a supplemental sheet for reporters, containing phone numbers for contacts, etc., reversed the title--and the thesis--making it: “Bilingual Education: The Case for Politics Over Science.”

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EVERYONE’S MEDIA SHY THESE DAYS: The L.A. Zoo issued an announcement saying that “Kivuli and Maadili, the two female Grant’s zebras scheduled to debut in their new exhibit [on Thursday] have developed a shy streak. According to the keepers, the 9-month-old sisters refuse to come out of their off-exhibit corral. Enticements of food and treats have failed to lure them through the open gates into the public viewing area.”

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NEEDLES OPTIONAL: Lester Young of Barstow found an acupuncturist who had an unusual name for someone in that profession (see photo).

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LOTS OF LITTLE DEPOSITS? The downtown high-rise used in the since-disbarred TV show “L.A. Law” was in the process of being renamed the Citibank building the other day. But at one point during the transformation, the business sported a very modest moniker. One part of the new sign had not been installed on the top. So it read: ITIBANK.

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GREAT PUBLIC DIALOGUES: The Daily News of L.A., which runs a daily, front-page reader poll, posed this provocative question the other day: “Do you think picking toothpaste is getting too complicated?”

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A radio commercial for an eye surgery clinic postulated that the reason traffic is so congested in L.A. is that myopic drivers “can’t read freeway signs.” Talk about straining for the Southern California angle. . . .

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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.