Blame Tipsy Pedaler’s Muddle-Headed Reply on His Intoxication With Life
A bicyclist who was pulled over by police on suspicion of drunken pedaling didn’t help his case when questioned by police. The L.A. Independent newspaper said the boozy bicyclist complained: “Can’t a guy walk the street?”
On the road: Some eye-catching material forwarded by vigilant Only in L.A. readers (see accompanying):
* A library with a possibly overenthusiastic sign in Boise, Idaho (submitted by Elizabeth Johnston of Chatsworth). The exclamation mark has stirred controversy among locals. For one thing, it could be interpreted as meaning “Even Boise has a library!”
* A medical clinic in Murrieta that doesn’t mince words about the fact that it specializes in treating injuries (Jim McGee of Sun City, Calif.). I’m surprised that “Ouch” isn’t also followed by an exclamation point.
* An Arkansas storage facility for those who like to take a chance (Frank De Haan of Sun Valley). * And a directional sign for a mysterious restaurant in Budapest. “We were unable to find it,” Danny and Kathleen Langdon of Santa Monica added, not surprisingly.
TV or not TV: Television talk shows provide daily evidence that people will make the most humiliating admissions to get their faces on camera.
The lure was not as great in 1949 during the infancy of television (some would say it’s still in its infancy). TV pioneer Jim Hawthorne told the media Web site https://ronfineman.com that he began hosting a 15-minute show called “Eyewitness News” (“sound familiar?”) on KTLA-TV Channel 5 that year.
The idea was to interview “local people who were involved in a news story” at the studio, he said. But “there were not enough people who wanted to be seen on TV, and those who did were afraid they wouldn’t ‘look good.’
“Some days we really were up the creek,” he added, “and had to bring in people from nearby Melrose Avenue and ‘create’ stories.”
Once he interviewed a man who used sign language, but since “there was nobody to ‘translate,’ I simply guessed what his answers were.” When the subject realized what was happening, he began laughing, and Hawthorne said he and the cameramen broke up as well, ending the interview.
Twisted patriotism? A caller told Larry Elder, the KABC-AM (790) radio talk show host, that she went to buy a gift certificate at a Westside business, and while she was gone, someone stole the American flag off her car.
Location, location, location: Lewis Hirsch of Malibu saw a three-line marque that listed the movies “Glass House” and “Closet” along with one somewhat related business--Expert Realtor Services.
miscelLany: I’ve recounted the many times that Richard Riordan’s name was bungled by the media when he was mayor of L.A. (Time magazine once called him Robert Riordan). Now, Bill Cohen of West Covina tells me he was watching a network news show a few days ago and saw Riordan’s successor, Jim Hahn, identified on screen as “Mike Haan.” Ouch!
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.