Ex Won’t Stop Sleeping Over

Well, it is a bit early for Santa. The Los Alamitos News-Enterprise’s police log carried this item out of Cypress: “A woman found a blanket on her roof, leading her to think her ex-boyfriend was living up there.”

A ROCKY ROAD: Sad to say, this column’s presidential ice cream flavor contest is mired in controversy just two days after it began.

Libertarian member Steve Kelly protested my omission of that party’s candidate, Harry Browne, from the ballot. But Kelly added: “As loyal as I am, I must admit I’d think twice about tasting any ice cream named Harry Browne.”

Still, rather than risk a court fight, I’m opening the contest to include a Libertarian variety.

Meanwhile, other readers pointed out that I asked for a Pat Buchanan flavor even though he’s the nominee of only one of the Reform Party factions.

Luckily, Frank McDonald of El Segundo has a solution: “What about a Buchanan Banana Split Ticket flavor?”

MORE OBJECTIONS: Another reader declared that naming ice cream flavors after promise-making politicians wasn’t appropriate. He suggested snow cones instead.

NO NEED FOR SUCH MODESTY: Ann Gray read an L.A. County Museum of Art announcement (see accompanying) and remarked, “I’ve always thought LACMA tours were exceptionally good, not just ‘decent.’ ” I’d give some of the credit to the docents who lead the tours.

MORE CULTURAL NOTES: Robert Crawford of Studio City took a shot of a Westside sign that had nothing to do with Barbra Streisand’s approaching farewell tour (see photo). Crawford informed me Diva is the name of the store.

IT MUST HAVE SEEMED LIKE THE PERFECT CRIME, TOO: The police log of the Westsider newspaper reported two men were in an L.A. department store when “the first took a blue cap, removed the tags and gave it to the second, who put it on. The two walked to another display. The second thief took a gray cap, pulled off the tags, gave the first thief the blue cap and put on the gray one. They passed several open and manned registers, and were detained outside by security.”

UNCLEAR ON THE CONCEPT: Robert Kinsella of Woodland Hills noticed some cooking instructions that seem to require the impossible (see accompanying).

UNCLEAR ON THE CONCEPT (II): “Please Tell Us Why You Did or Didn’t Participate in the TRW Employee Opinion Survey” was the title of a follow-up survey given to employees of a company affiliate in the South Bay.

Employees who hadn’t filled out the original survey were asked to explain their noncooperation in the follow-up survey by checking one of nine boxes, including:

“(i) I do not complete surveys.”

Don’t you love the bureaucratic mind?

miscelLAny:

Folksy KCET personality Huell Howser no doubt took some kidding from colleagues for an episode that occurred during the taping of his show, but to his credit, he didn’t cut it. While he was interviewing people in Echo Park, a car pulled over and the driver said that he recognized Howser. And who did the driver think he was meeting? “Bob Vila,” he said, mistaking Howser for KCET’s home improvement guru. Or is that the Reform Party’s other presidential candidate?

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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.