A Missing Kitty Causes a Panic When It Turns Up -- in Harm’s Way
Lois Hagen of Watsonville was telling her sister, Joyce Hiller of Redondo Beach, about a neighborhood cat that was missing one morning. The owner, deciding after a fruitless search that she might as well go to work, got into to her car and started the engine. And guess what happened? “Stuff came flying out from under the car,” Hagen said.
“Stop! I don’t want to hear any more!” Hiller responded.
“No, no, it’s OK,” Hagen said. “Stuff was the name of the cat.” Tough Stuff was OK.
Where are substitute teachers found? Joel Davis may have come up with the answer when he chanced upon a sign on a basement door at Franklin Avenue Elementary School in Los Feliz (see photo).
Death Valley South: It was hot earlier in the week, but Mark Miller didn’t know how blazing until he noticed a temperature gauge in south Torrance (see photo).
Guess they don’t like crowds: The Daily Trojan reported that security officers “responded to a report of several perpetrators swimming ... without authorization” at McDonald’s Swim Stadium on campus. Can’t figure out why the swimmers would have aroused anyone’s suspicions.
Except perhaps that they were spotted at 3:08 in the morning.
Letter imperfect: Anne La Voie of Chatsworth noticed that a misspelling in a tour guide item seemed to imply that Temecula was a pretty freewheeling place (see accompanying).
Driving away “oops!” events: “Years ago, I took my pregnant wife to a drive-in to see Steve McQueen in ‘The Sand Pebbles,’ ” began my longtime colleague, Lou Mack of North Hollywood.
“About halfway into the movie, she declared her water had burst.
“In a panic I backed up, nearly hitting several cars, and forgot to unhook the sound wires, dragging them all the way to the hospital.
“When we got there it proved to be a false alarm and we had to wait a few more days. Eventually, we did see the movie but with an extra passenger.”
Mystery of the day: Spectators at one youth soccer game in Long Beach were confused when a sideline referee began waving her flag frantically while the ball was on the other side of the field. What ruling could she possibly be making?
None, it turned out. The ref, 15-year-old Tanya Carabio, was swinging at a June bug circling her.
“I hate June bugs,” she explained.
miscelLAny: A reflection on the intellectual content of this column? I received an e-mail that began, “Hi, Steve Harvey, your college degree may be closer than you think. We remove the obstacles that cause adults to abandon hope.” (Of course, a prerequisite is that I need to have a high school degree. There’s always a catch, isn’t there?)
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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.