Beware the Toilet Cam in San Diego
Bathroom humor? Perry Allen of Carlsbad wondered whether I was familiar with the stickers that say “Toilet Camera Is for Research Only” in the restrooms of the San Diego Convention Center.
I wasn’t, but my scientific mind wanted to know more.
So I phoned the convention center and learned that the stickers, stuck at random on the inside of the toilet stalls, were actually the work of pranksters.
Spokesperson Gayle Falkenthal pointed out that the building is open to the public and said the mock notices were probably the work of youngsters.
Convention visitors, who recently included groups of real estate agents and salespeople, were not suspects.
Falkenthal said maintenance crews would be checking every two hours on their regular rounds for any recurrence of the stickers.
“We want to make people feel comfortable,” she said. “You can’t be comfortable when you see that on the back of a toilet stall.”
FORGET ABOUT THOSE OLD ASSUMPTIONS: Southern California is known for its relaxed attitudes toward untraditional sex, which may explain the following items (see accompanying):
* A male pattern baldness drug prescription with warnings about physical conditions usually associated with women.
* A Twentieth Century Fox poll that left open the possibility that viewers might belong to a third sex (from Renee Wright). Of course, Fox does produce “X-Files.”
* An L.A. merchant who seemingly claims to be an expert when it comes to transsexual operations (from Dennis Levin).
* And, obviously trying to take away some of Southern California’s business, a gender-change service in Mexico (from Judi Watkins).
STUPID DRIVING TRICKS: Matt Pomije was in congested traffic on the Pomona Freeway when a driver in front of him “pulled down her visor, opened her vanity mirror and those two little lights came on. She began teasing her hair with a brush and her free hand. She was looking in the vanity mirror all this time. She never swerved or weaved, but here is the amazing thing.
“She made a good lane change to the right and continued teasing her hair. How did she do that? Her hands never touched the wheel.”
Added Pomije: “The only gripe I had was that she didn’t signal. But then again, what part of her body would she use?”
miscelLAny:
On the subject of signs in other countries, Bill Vos of Claremont related driving a rental car in England “on the ‘wrong’ side of the road, of course. My wife was scared to death and many times yelled out, ‘Watch it!’ In western England, she said, ‘Look, even the British are warning you.’ There was a roadside sign for the village of Watchet.”
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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.
