Talk Radio and Car Phone Talkers Could Be Driven Apart by a New Law

Quieter freeways? Proposals to ban motorists from yakking on cell phones prompted this headline on the media Web site https://laradio.com:

“Can Talk Radio Exist Without Car Phones?”

I mention it in case you need another reason to support the cell phone ban.

Prime-time murder: Sgt. Richard Longshore of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department can tell that one particular CBS show is a hit. And not just by its high ratings.

Longshore, a homicide investigator, said that he recently arrived at a murder scene where a resident asked him: “When’s CSI getting here?”

She was obviously a fan of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigations,” a show about a formerly obscure unit.

While waiting for CSI, the resident asked Longshore how many murders he handles a day.

“About two a month,” he replied.

The surprised resident asked: “What do you do the rest of the time?”

Concluded Longshore: “I guess she thought it takes about an hour to solve a murder--just in time for the commercials.”

Weird Animal Kingdom: For your viewing pleasure, I’ve captured these specimens (see accompanying):

* Some small dogs that don’t appear to be housebroken (Arline Miller of Thousand Oaks and Lois Clark Cook of Simi Valley, among others).

* A type of leopard that prompted Ann L’Heureux of Carlsbad to ask: “Do baubles come with the bangles?”

* Some kennels that would be ideal for dogs the size of mice (Patti Frezzo of Cerritos).

And, finally:

* A friendly invitation--though it comes from a health food store not a pet shop (Frann Shermet of Cypress).

Stupid Criminal Tricks: Two stolen car suspects being pursued by L.A. County sheriff’s deputies jumped out of the car and scaled a 5-foot gate in a Paramount business complex. Bad decision. The city’s newsletter points out that the business turned out to be a “security-conscious storage facility surrounded by 20-foot-high fences ringed by barbed wire.”

The suspects were transported to a human kennel.

The long and short of it: The item here about intersections with comical names brought this note from Chris Arndt: “Here in San Luis Obispo, in a newly developed shopping area, we have Long Street and Short Street (and Short is, indeed, shorter than Long). However, Short and Long are parallel. They are connected by one-block-long Cross Street.”

Ah, such street memories: “Years ago in the San Diego area I was doing an antenna survey for KABC Channel 7,” writes Gene Mappin Jr. “We came upon a street that really had an unusual name. I was trying to sound it out as we recorded it. The street was Haveteur Way. After a few minutes it came to me. There must have been a really heated discussion with some city fathers and finally some one said ‘Oh, have it your way.” ’

I should add that Haveteur Way does not intersect with another contrary San Diego street--Noah Way.

miscelLAny: Did you hear about the White House being partially evacuated after a bomb-sniffing dog misinterpreted a smell inside a visitor’s car? Larry Hill of Malibu writes that his wife said of the poor hound: “Well, what do you expect? It’s only human.”

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LA-TIMES, 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.