Florida Offers Rude Welcome

A Drudge match? Conservative cyber-gossip Matt Drudge has moved from L.A. to some luxury digs near Miami Beach, where he has already felt the sting of one of his new neighbors--a man-of-war jellyfish. “I was skinny-dipping in the ocean one night,” he told the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, “and one of those things got me on the behind.”

Small consolation, however, for Democrats who believe they suffered a worse stinging in Florida in November.

GUIDE FOR ADVENTURESOME DINERS: Today’s selections (see accompanying) include:

* A pizza chain that has turned the name of the town of Devore into a subliminal eating suggestion--or just badly misspelled it (submitted by Jim Matthews of San Bernardino).

* A Hard Rock Cafe with a modest budget in New Zealand (from Sarah Lifton of Culver City, who said the name was apparently scrawled by American engineers at an underground power station).

* A sign for “Hot Wings” accompanied by a likeness of the famous painting “The Scream.” And it’s appropriate, in a way, points out John J. Flynn. After all, the artist was Munch--Edvard Munch.

STUPID DRIVER TRICKS: “My roommate, Mark Beechum, saw a man tying his necktie while driving, with no hands on the wheel,” related James Berry of Santa Monica. “I hope he didn’t tie up traffic with an accident.”

Added Berry: “Of course, I’ve been known to do that myself, except, when the car is moving, I’m just holding on to the knot with one hand, waiting for the next red light to finish doing the tie.”

Perhaps the DMV should require clip-on ties for drivers.

SCARY PASSENGER TRICKS: When a Santa Barbara woman stopped her car to avoid hitting a man wandering in traffic, the pedestrian climbed into her car. Fortunately another driver saw what happened and pulled the intruder out. Police, who were acquainted with this street person, told Santa Barbara News-Press columnist Barney Brantingham that when the man’s off his medication, he has a “bad habit of stopping cars and climbing into them. He’s perfectly harmless, but he scares the heck out of people.”

miscelLAny:

That Oakland pro football team’s talk of moving back to Southern California is obviously on people’s minds (if not on their nerves) here. I heard a radio reporter make a reference to “L.A. Raider, uh, Mayor Richard Riordan.”

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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.