Fine China Atop Car Brings Kindly Gesture -- and Gesture of Another Kind

Nothing like starting the day with an opportunity to be a Good Samaritan.

“I stopped at a red light and noticed a fine china cup and saucer on the top of a station wagon in front of me,” said Jim Helms of Arcadia.

“I honked my horn, pointed to the roof of the car and pantomimed drinking a cup of coffee.”

And the thanks he got?

“The driver stuck her hand out the window and flipped me off with the infamous middle finger,” he said.

She drove off after the light changed, but when the cup crashed to the street, she pulled over.

Helms had noticed that a man whom he presumed to be her husband was in the passenger’s seat.

Considering the mood of the driver, Helms added: “I hope it wasn’t the husband who left the cup on the roof.”

Not another spillage item, I hope: Don Belcher of Palm Springs says he doesn’t want to know what was on the floor inside the business he spotted (see photo).

On the road: In Nevada, Marvin Popkin of Laguna Hills came upon an eye-catching combination of signs (see photo).

Talk about a no-frills flight: Mark Steinberg noticed on his credit card invoice for airline tickets that he was being charged extra for a pretty basic commodity (see accompanying).

Gee, a fee for on-board movies is one thing....

Attn. fashion police: Today’s disastrous misspelling of Florsheim shoes has appeared in this column before.

But the ad spotted by Roxanne Coogan of Cathedral City and Tim Kraushaar of Seal Beach also mentioned an undergarment not normally worn by men (see accompanying).

A fresh approach: Second-graders in Nancy Clanton’s class at Fremont Elementary School in Long Beach were asked to fill in the missing words of some proverbs. The imaginative results:

* Where there’s smoke, there’s ... people.

* A miss is as good as a ... Mr.

* The pen is mightier than the ... crayon.

* You can lead a horse to water but ... not a sink.

* An idle mind is ... funny.

* Don’t bite the hand that ... waves.

miscelLAny: The Dana Point News police log reported a sighting of a person “under the freeway bridge with a black bag trying to blow it up. The informant said he thought it could be ‘Saddam Hussein.’ ” Or one of his doubles.

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LA-TIMES, Ext. 77083; by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A. 90012; and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.