Those Freeway Chickens Are Real

There’s been enough talk about turkey this week. Let’s move on to chickens. The San Fernando Valley Folklore Society, which investigates urban myths, declares that “the Freeway Chickens of Los Angeles” are for real and still exist along the Hollywood Freeway.

The feathered stragglers are believed to date back to a poultry truck crash near the Vineland Avenue offramp about three decades ago.

I had heard of them. But what I didn’t know is that there is also a tribe of New Freeway Chickens, near the Burbank Boulevard onramp, about two miles away.

No one knows whether the two groups are related. Over the years, various individuals have given alternate versions of the origin of the chickens: They were chased to the area by a pit bull who lived near the freeway, in one version. In another, they were dumped along the freeway by children who had kept them as pets and were afraid they’d be taken away.

Whatever, Barbara Mikkelson of the Folklore Society (www.snopes.com) points out that the birds were immortalized a while back in “Freeway,” a video game “in which players were challenged to guide their chickens safely across a busy 10 lanes of freeway traffic.”

NO CHICKENS, BUT . . . : Speaking of freeway curiosities, I’ve mentioned that the Santa Monica Freeway has its share, beginning with the “California Welcome Center” sign near the Robertson Boulevard offramp. (It’s not for people parachuting into California; it refers to a tourist office.)

Then there’s the Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway sign on the freeway in Santa Monica--one of just two such signs on the I-10. The other is in Jacksonville, Fla. (The Columbus Highway idea came from a former Caltrans director who failed to persuade other states on the route, with the exception of Florida, to adopt that designation.)

Philippe Brieu of Westwood points out still another unusual feature of the I-10. Driving east from Santa Monica, you’ll find that the offramps are numbered until you pass Robertson Boulevard (“Exit 5”). Then the numbering of exits stops.

I wonder if it resumes in Jacksonville, with “Exit 3,872” or so.

IN LIEU OF LEFTOVERS: For those with no desire for turkey (or chicken a la freeway), here’s this column’s Dining Guide for the Daring (see accompanying).

We offer:

* Some garlic you should avoid if you have to drive afterward (Carol Schneider of L.A.).

* A smart-alecky shrimp (though considering its fate, do you blame it?).

* A Glendale coffee shop whose cleanup sign indicates it must have a tough clientele (Jackson Sleet).

* And, a restaurant whose coupon doesn’t ever seem to be good (Frank and Susan Berman of Villa Park).

TRANSLATION, PLEASE: As a bonus, Jack Ross of Torrance noticed a menu sign for diners wondering how to say “tortillas” in Spanish (see photo).

miscelLAny:

A profile of radio talk jock Tom Leykis (KLSX-FM 97.1) in the newspaper New Times reveals that one caller who was not permitted to speak to him on the air one particular day was a Simi Valley man who wondered why “no one ever says the D in Wednesday.” Why is Leykis ducking this issue?

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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, 202 W. 1st St., L.A., 90012 and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.