What’s in a Name: No Way Jose

A new sandwich shop, called NDSF, has opened on 1st Street in Little Tokyo. It’s next door to Senor Fish. As a matter of fact, that’s what NDSF means, “Next Door to Senor Fish.”

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L.A. VERSE: Speaking of food, today’s guest poet, Keren R. Herscowitz, rhapsodizes about the offerings in her salute to the downtown streets:

“My Main squeeze eats a Spring roll on Broadway, while my over-the-Hill father eats an Olive-topped pizza (instead of working out at the gym). My Grand-father is Hope-ful that I will be the Flower-girl at his wedding on Figueroa.”

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D.C. VERSE: Runner-up in our street poem competition Monday was Mary Maher, who wrote of “the Main story” about the “Grand Old Party Hope for victory” in 2000 even though, “in the last two polls, the tale of Gennifer Flowers didn’t Figueroa for naught.”

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BE ON THE LOOKOUT . . .: As part of a public service, various government entities have posted signs around the Southland notifying the citizenry of singular hazards (see photos). Some of those I’ve collected over the years warn of a slow truck in San Bernardino (spotted by Bob Roddick), a scary fisherman in Redondo Beach (snapped by Al Kouba) and a troublesome bicyclist in the San Fernando Valley (spotted by Don Salper).

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YOU KNEW IT WOULD HAPPEN: Richard Rocha was watching a recent piece on the TV news “featuring Assemblyman Wally Knox and his vision of how to relieve gridlock on the 405/101 interchange. He held a press conference, in the middle of the day, on a freeway overpass overlooking what appeared to be the 405 Freeway. Sure enough, the scene behind Assemblyman Knox was that of slow traffic, with looky-loos slowing down to see what was going on.”

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YEAR 1955 PROBLEM: Alfred Lopez, a customer service manager for Sanwa Bank in Alhambra, recently received a customer’s bank statement that the U.S. Postal Service had returned with the notation, “Received in Damaged Condition.” Couple odd things about it: The return address said, not Sanwa, but Valley National Bank. It turns out that Valley National had a bank at that address several decades ago. Which explains the postmark on the statement:

March 23, 1955.

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ANGELENOS ON THE ROAD: Katie Shiban of Pasadena ducked into the lobby of the snooty Hotel Triton in San Francisco and came upon a brochure that said: “Good-looking, well-behaved pets welcome with an additional $50 charge per stay.”

I’ve heard of the Beautiful People but never the Beautiful Pets.

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AS IF GASOLINE FUMES WEREN’T BAD ENOUGH: Most unsightly SigAlert of the season occurred on the Century Freeway, where a full porta-potty fell off a truck and exploded.

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A SHORTAGE OF WHITE HATS: First, City Councilman Mike Hernandez admitted he had a cocaine problem. Then a judge said that Councilman Richard Alatorre had flunked a drug test for cocaine usage. Public cynicism was bound to grow. A constituent phoned the office of a Valley council member to get directions to the council’s temporary digs in City Hall East. Before hanging up, the caller said, “Then I guess I just follow the white line, eh?”

miscelLAny:

The phrase “Road Rage” has been mentioned of late in Kia and Ford commercials, a Liberty Mutual Insurance radio ad and a billboard for radio station KCTD (1540-AM). It’s almost enough to make you scream.

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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.