Even at the Library, There’s No Escaping the Humiliation of a Cat Attack

Bad kitty: A San Marcos man is suing the city of Escondido for $1.5 million because a cat at the local library scratched his dog, Kimba, the L.A. Daily Journal reports. He says the attack by the cat, whose name was not given, caused him humiliation, depression, nightmares and chagrin while his dog had to undergo $46.49 worth of treatment for scratches and punctures.

My correspondent, the car: I received a fax Friday in the form of a letter from a Ford--a Ford with the California plate 3HRTOUR. You may recall that I wrote that the plate had been spotted in Boston.

Anyway, the Ford explained that its owner, who recently moved to Boston, is a “Gilligan’s Island” fanatic (the plate refers to a lyric in the show’s theme song).

Sadly, the car also revealed that the owner, screenwriter Victor Nawrocki, became unduly excited when told by acquaintances he had been mentioned in the newspaper.

“Could it be that after 14 years of lugging his spec scripts around L.A.” that someone “wanted to locate and pay him?” the car asked. “No, darn. It’s L.A., not Oz.” I can almost see the Ford’s windshield wipers brushing away its tears.

There goes the neighborhood. . . . Oh, just kidding about the two signs producer David Russo put up in Pacific Palisades and Malibu (see photo).

In fact, the Hollywood connection has caused some residents with available houses to greet him warmly.

Russo, who’s moving his family here from Hawaii, said that among the offers he has turned down was one for $60,000 a month for a five-bedroom house. “We don’t have prices like that in Hawaii,” he commented.

On the hunt: A home owner in Beverly Hills takes his lawn ornaments seriously. A sign in front of his Doheny Avenue house says he’s offering a $10,000 reward “for arrest and conviction of thief who stole temple lions from this lawn” (see photo).

The theft did not leave the lawn bare, however; sculptures of several other critters, including an elephant, remain.

When I phoned the house, the person who answered declined to speak. But the lawn sign informs those with information about the lion-rustlers to write to a post

office box.

miscelLAny: Mike Rose of Hollywood called to say that one show that would be ideal during the current electricity crisis was a vaudeville-type stage production created by Ken Murray in the 1940s. “They’d tell one-liners, and after each joke, they’d turn the lights out,” Rose said.

Thus the name of the show:

“Ken Murray’s Blackouts.”

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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.