Get Started on That Hand Rehabilitation Process With a Big, Loud Knock

Ham-handed treatment? Jolene Collins of Tujunga saw a sign at a doctor’s office that said: “Hand Rehabilitation Clinic Is Open. Please KNOCK LOUDLY.”

With your good hand, presumably.

Hot stuff: Apropos of this post-summer heat wave, Natalie and Jon Olson of Seal Beach sent along a snapshot of a theater whose partially burned out sign seemed to offer relief (see photo).

If that doesn’t cool you off, I found an old “glacier” ad in my files (see accompanying). (And, no, I don’t know if the company found one with a good driving record.)

Luckily, the heat wasn’t as bad as the slightly errant weather report spotted by Roger Preuss of Mission Viejo in an Orange County newspaper (see accompanying).

Still, Richard Tyler sent me an ad indicating it was hot enough for one real estate agent to brag that a client’s house has never had a roof (see accompanying).

Plates o’ the day: The latest personalized plates to win spots in the https://www.knx1070.com Web site’s Hall of Fame:

* OVRWRKD, owned by Patty Lynch of Riverside, who explained: “I am in education and I am overworked. My roommate is also a teacher and her plate says, ‘UNDERPD,’ so when we park next to each other our license plates say it all!”

* REVSHOE, Rev. Donald Shoemaker of Long Beach: “I’m a clergyman. My license plate frame says, ‘I Fix Heels, Mend Souls, and Make Pairs.’ ”

* BYBYLA, Victor Nawrocki, Gloucester, Mass.: “After 14 years in Los Angeles, I moved away and have a view of the nation’s oldest seaport.”

Nawrocki’s previous plate, 3HRTOUR, appeared in this column as a mystery of the day. Several readers informed me that it was from the theme song of TV’s “Gilligan’s Island,” and Nawrocki later confirmed he was a big fan of the show.

I guessed the 3HRTOUR referred to his L.A. commute.

Plate movements: BYBYLA stands in contrast to one of my favorite personalized plates, which is still listed on the DMV’s Web site. This plate belongs to a driver who evidently lives in the City of Angels but isn’t sure why.

It says: YMINLA.

Those outrageous lawsuits: Have you seen the item on the Internet about the L.A. teenager who won a judgment of $74,000, plus medical expenses, after “his neighbor ran his hand over with a Honda Accord. [The victim] apparently didn’t notice someone was at the wheel of the car whose hubcap he was trying to steal.”

OK, you can calm down. The San Fernando Valley Folklore Society investigated the story and determined it was a hoax.

Symptom of a clogged artery? I was listening to one of the all-news radio stations on the freeway when my 8-year-old son asked, “Why is the lady talking about a rash on her shoulder?”

It turned out she was a traffic reporter talking about a crash on a freeway shoulder.

miscelLAny: Ardis Dahl of Inglewood saw a car with the license plate 5(*)CHEF pulling out of a McDonald’s drive-thru in El Segundo. Is this where Wolfgang dines on his day off?

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., Los Angeles 90012 and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.