Looking for That Silver Lining Just Got a Lot More Expensive

Is there a positive side to the gasoline price hikes? Phil Proctor, this column’s man in Beverly Hills, heard an L.A. motorist tell “CBS Evening News”:

“I want to pay three or four dollars a gallon. I want to feel like I’m living in Paris.”

Ooh L.A. L.A.!

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AND THE WHINER IS . . . : So first the 4,200 Oscar ballots from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are misplaced. Then the academy condemns the Wall Street Journal for conducting a telephone poll of the Oscar voters.

Some nerve--I mean, on the part of the academy.

The academy should be grateful. In fact, it should just let the Journal take over the ballot chores.

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FOOD TO DIE FOR: Continuing this grisly Halloween-in-March edition, I offer “A Taste of Murder,” edited by Jo Grossman and Robert Weibezahl, a collection of recipes from mystery writers.

Southern California novelist-chefs mentioned include:

* Sue Grafton (“O is for Outlaw”), with a dish named after her no-frills investigator: “The Kinsey Millhone Famous Peanut Butter and Pickle Sandwich.”

“I get letters from readers who are completely aghast at the notion,” Grafton confides, “but others actually try it (with relatives standing by to dial 911) and confess it’s not half bad.”

* Martin J. Smith (“Shadow Image”), with “Jim Christensen’s Macaroni and Guilt,” named for his overworked crime-solver and parent.

Christensen serves his kids carrots, macaroni and cheese for dinner while comforting them with these words: “Orange food is good for your eyes or something, isn’t it?”

* And T. Jefferson Parker (“The Triggerman’s Dance”), with “Triggerman’s Rattlesnake.” In the novel, which is about the hunt for a killer in Orange County, the heroine serves the serpent to an unsuspecting fellow who thinks it’s either fish or chicken.

Parker’s directions: “Kill, skin and dress a rattlesnake. Remove the head, because a dead snake can still clamp his mouth on you.” (Peanut butter and pickles sounds more dangerous to me.)

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QUICK! MAYBE WE CAN MAKE IT TO ARIZONA: How bad was the recent storm? “It’s tsunami time,” wrote Kevin McDaniels of Santa Barbara after noticing that a local newspaper had forecast waves in excess of 70 feet (above).

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES, Ext. 77083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, Times Mirror Square, L.A. 90053, and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.