When the Mail Must Go Through

After this column talked about the skill of postal authorities in deciphering errant addresses, Duane Laible of Yorba Linda wrote:

“In the mid-1960s, I was a clerk in the Downey post office. There is a street in Downey named Pellet Street. One day we received a letter which, from the handwriting, appeared to have been written by a teenage girl. It was addressed to a number on ‘Rabbit Poop’ Street. Yep, it was delivered.”

WHERE THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER: Betty Wessel of Port Hueneme figures the ad she came across might appeal to someone “who wants the cutting edge in a legal education” (see accompanying).

WATCH OUT FOR SPLINTERS: “Boy, I’ll bet those are hard to pull on over one’s head,” wrote Allen Kessler of North Hills, who spotted an ad for some heavy clothing (see accompanying). Virginia Abrams of Burbank also sent along the ad.

TALK ABOUT COSMOPOLITAN: Pamela Rothschild of Beverly Hills discovered a salon with a touch of the Middle East (see accompanying).

STUPID DRIVER TRICKS: “I was on the interchange between the 405 south and the 10 east when I noticed that the driver in front of me was driving erratically,” writes Linda Whitehead of L.A.

“While traffic around us was going at 65 mph, he was doing a mere 55 mph and swerving within his lane. I could see his arm up near his head, but couldn’t tell what he was doing.”

When she passed him, she found out.

“I noticed that he had his head back and was putting eyedrops into his eyes,” Whitehead said. “I got away from the bozo as quickly as I could.”

AT LEAST HE WASN’T ON A CELL PHONE AT THE TIME: “There were four of us, one of whom was an English visitor,” writes Marge Schmit of Rolling Hills, “who will never forget seeing a man juggling on the 405 south through Culver City on a summer, slow-traffic day.”

THE NAME’S FAMILIAR BUT . . . : An item here about Ontario prompted Mark Scott of Chino Hills to recall the time he was flying into that city’s airport from San Francisco. As the plane began to descend, Scott heard a confused passenger tell a flight attendant that it didn’t look like his destination: Ontario, Canada. “I guess,” said Scott, “the smog and desert landscape didn’t remind him of the great white north.”

MYSTERY SCENE: Visitors to the lobby of a downtown building were warned to stay away from some broken chairs by tape that proclaimed, “Police Line--Do Not Cross” (see photo). Not that it was a crime scene or anything. The tape was no doubt the nearest thing handy. It was the lobby of the LAPD’s Parker Center.

miscelLAny:

Speaking of drivers’ non-driving activities, columnist Jack Murphy of the Truckers News points out that a survey by Pennzoil found that 46% of the female respondents admitted applying makeup while behind the wheel. As did 4% of the men. “The survey also found that more than 9% of the respondents have plucked nose hairs while jammed in traffic,” Murphy wrote.

From rabbit pellets to nose hairs--that’s all the news for today!

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.