A Clear Case of Passing the Buck

Barbara Baillargeon of Montclair swears it happened. “I was shopping at one of the 99 Cents Only stores,” she said, “and overheard one of the cashiers ask for a price check.”

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MY ENGINE USUALLY GIVES OUT AT 3,000 MPH: Mark Martin’s winning speed of 140.220 mph in the California 500 at Fontana wasn’t bad, but, as Bruce Gerhardt’s 1997 snapshot shows, Martin was several thousand miles per hour short of equaling the top mark at the California Speedway last year (see photo).

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GEE, GTE, DO YOU WANT TO PLAY 2 OUT OF 3? You can imagine the suspense among General Telephone customers as they await the letters from GTE revealing whether they are among the unlucky customers--those whose unlisted numbers were inadvertently published in directories made available to telemarketers.

Then there’s the case of Hilary Henson of Pacific Palisades. She received two missives from GTE--one saying that her unlisted number was published, one saying it was not published.

What does that mean? Maybe GTE only published four of the seven digits.

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EASTERN PLOT? Sheriff’s Chief Lee Baca has received a lot of publicity in his race against incumbent Sheriff Sherman Block. But is that really Baca running? Or is it New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani? (see photos) How far will Giuliani go in his quest to steal the Oscars show from L.A.?

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PERHAPS SHE’S JUST A PATSY CLINE FAN: I’m sure that when possible, the all-news radio stations check out the traffic warnings that motorists phone in. And they undoubtedly get to know which tipsters are dependable. Still, some of the nicknames used by the callers give me pause. For instance, that freeway tie-up that was reported the other day by “Crazy Susie” . . .

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TO LIVE AND DRIVE IN L.A.: Natalie Lettner and Werner Hanak, two Viennese journalists who visited L.A., found something curious about traffic customs here.

“When we fetched our car from the rental company and were released to the L.A. traffic for the first time,” they wrote, “we realized that you do not see those yellow-orange lights that Europeans use for letting people know which direction they will drive. We call them ‘blinkers.’ ”

The duo investigated why so few motorists here use their blinkers, or turn signals--especially on freeways.

“We found out that no one ever wants the driver behind you, or in the next lane, to know what you are going to do next,” they wrote.

Taking this thinking one step further, they have a proposal for L.A.: “Build Stealth Cars so no one will ever see traffic jams in L.A.” I bet Crazy Susie would approve.

miscelLAny:

I found this call on my office answering machine: “Good morning. My name is Kelly Taylor and I’m phoning from Las Vegas regarding booking Steve Harvey for a show here. . . . “ Sorry, Kelly. I’m already booked for several weeks in Tahoe, where I’ll be starring in my new Only in L.A. musical extravaganza, “Dueling Signs on Parade.”

But the TV comic who shares my name might be available.

Newspaper guy 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.