A Milestone in the Annals of Crime: Harassment With Movies by Phone

The police log in the L.A. Independent listed a complaint about a suspect who reportedly called a Westside resident “several times and played annoying movie clips over the phone.”

You can almost hear the victim saying: “Have you no mercy, man? Please--no more Sylvester Stallone!”

Plenty of nuthin’: Southern California Edison may have gone billions of dollars into debt, but its corporate parent doesn’t appear to be a big spender, as this payroll check illustrates (see accompanying).

On the road: Speaking of power, Rock Johnson of Palm Springs came upon an ad placed by a homeowner who seemed to have his own solution for beating high electricity bills (see accompanying).

Moving on to water conservation: Ted McGinn of San Gabriel spotted some product instructions that contained an interesting definition of regular toilet usage (see accompanying).

Blood cells, cell phones: “You’re not supposed to use a cell phone while you drive, but there’s no law [yet] against chatting on one during a blood drive,” says Russell Clampitt. “At the Long Beach Red Cross, the person lying on the cot next to me carried out her business via cell phone while her blood was drawn.”

Added Clampitt: “Fortunately for her, the needle was stuck in her non-phone-using arm.”

Old tail: A dragon attack . . . show biz . . . L.A. . . .

No, I’m not talking about the Komodo varmint’s assault on that newspaper editor who is married to actress Sharon Stone.

I’m talking about Stan Freberg’s 1950s comedy recording “St. George and the Dragonet,” a takeoff on TV’s “Dragnet.”

It opens with the dramatic “dum-de-dum-dum” theme music followed by a narrator sounding like fictional L.A. cop Joe Friday.

“This is the countryside,” he intones. “My name is St. George. I’m a knight.

“Saturday, July 10, 8:05 p.m. I was working out of the castle on the night watch when a call came from the chief. A dragon had been devouring maidens.

“Homicide.

“My job: Slay him.”

Eventually, the dragon is convicted of “maiden-devouring out of season” and sentenced to “not less than 50 nor more than 300 years” in a dungeon. The L.A. Zoo’s dragon, in contrast, was not punished. Obviously, this must be editor-devouring season.

miscelLAny

I mentioned the dog owner who filed a $1.5-million damage claim with the city of Escondido after a library cat attacked his Labrador mix. Well, the city has rejected the claim.

And the man, Richard Espinosa of San Marcos, is now “seeking a lawyer to take his case to court and has purchased a book advising people how to file their own lawsuits,” the Associated Press reported. Espinosa’s claim included $46.49 for veterinary bills and $38 in chiropractic bills [for himself].