Soccer Mom’s Daughter Calls Inventor Bell the Object of Her Hero-Worship

“Who is your hero and why?” the Daily Pilot asked some grade school kids in Costa Mesa. Alina Carnahan, 8-year-old pragmatist, replied: “Alexander Graham Bell, because he invented the telephone so after soccer practice you can call your mom and it doesn’t take a long time.”

Speaking of great names: On a trip to New Zealand, Sue Crose of Redondo Beach snapped a shot of a roadway sign that included two names that have been paired in this country too (see photo).

And listen, you Republicans out there, I don’t want to hear any comparisons to the New Zealand sign that appeared here earlier in the week--the one for Puke Puke Road.

Spacey stuff: Fashion items at the Space and Aviation Memorabilia auction this weekend at the Santa Monica Museum of Flying (see accompanying) include:

* A Soyuz 3 cosmonaut’s white leather helmet with “white mesh top

* And for $500 to $750, you can grab an astronaut’s “1970s partial pressure suit pants used to limit blood flow to the lower extremities” during some maneuvers. (I get the same effect when I try to put on my old size 34 Levis.)

Hot air: Some unusual quotes from local news programs collected this year on the media Web site www.ronfineman.com:

* Colleen Williams of KNBC-TV Channel 4, in a piece on a popular rental car, said it was “renting like hotcakes.” (Fineman, a radio newsman, commented that he didn’t know anyone who rented hotcakes.)

* Harold Greene of KCBS-TV Channel 2, in a bit of shameless plugging, said: “If you watch the CBS crime show ‘CSI,’ you know how important a good crime lab is to police work.”

* Mario Solis of KNBC, in a promo for his sportscast, proclaimed that it had been a good day for auto racing, adding: “If you like crashes, it was even better.”

* Mia Lee of KCAL-TV Channel 9 said on Presidents Day, Feb. 18: “The nation’s first president would have celebrated a birthday today.” Actually, George would have celebrated it on Feb. 22, his real birthday.

Famous draft dodgers: The recent pro football draft will make millionaires of some college stars. But the event nevertheless lacked the star power of the 1974 World Team Tennis draft. To garner some publicity, the Boston Lobsters drafted Elton John in the 10th round, the Hawaii Leis took Bill Cosby in the 13th round, and the L.A. Strings selected Johnny Carson in the 14th round. (None signed, by the way.)

Before sports became such big, serious business, some other leagues had drafts with light moments too.

When Larry Brown became New York Nets coach, he selected Vic Sison in the 10th round. Sison was an equipment manager at UCLA. Then there was the time Minnesota Vikings Coach Norm Van Brocklin couldn’t remember whom he was drafting in the 20th round. He blurted out “John Wayne.” Asked what college Wayne attended, Van Brocklin responded: “Fort Apache State.”

Stupid criminal tricks: The Beach Reporter said a woman screamed when her purse was stolen in Redondo Beach. Witnesses chased the thief and found him hiding in an appropriate place: a trash can.

miscelLAny: In the classifieds of a San Diego County newspaper, Steve Wiener spotted an item that mentioned a Jack Russell “terror.” Must be murder on the carpet.

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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.