Canine Competition Will Have Mongrel Contestants Lapping Up Attention
At last, a dog show for owners of unpedigreed hounds to drool over. Nuts for Mutts, a May 3 charity event at Pierce College, offers prizes in such categories as “Fastest Eater,” “Longest Tail,” “Best Stupid Pet Trick” and, of course, “Worst Breath.” Glad I’m not a judge.
I guess there was no bed tax: After reading about the “improvements” listed by one hotel (see accompanying), Lee McDonald of Claremont asked: “Before, the guests slept on floors?”
Guzzling postal: In Bakersfield, David Sheats reports, they’re evidently trying a new way to keep some federal workers happy (see photo).
Food for thought: Visiting CNN studios in Atlanta, Dennis Rahn of Idyllwild noticed an athletic club where the idea must be to gain weight (see photo).
Premature honor? I thought state officeholders didn’t have streets named after them until their terms were over. And I was unaware of a movement to honor Gray Davis, who is not universally loved by Republicans or Democrats. But the proof is in the shot by Gary Ribiat of Camarillo (see photo).
Whoops! I just noticed that Ribiat snapped the sign at Vermont’s state capitol in Montpelier.
Bringing crime to the cops: The Coastline Pilot said that a lost purse brought into the Laguna Beach police station contained arrest warrants for driving with a suspended license and writing bad checks. The owner showed to claim the purse, anyway, and was arrested.
Dum de dum dum: On KNX-AM (1070) radio, I heard a 50-year-old broadcast of radio’s “Dragnet,” which concluded with a plug for the TV version on NBC. But the series is on ABC, you might say. Right, the 2003 series. The one being plugged on KNX was the original series.
Devil of a town: My complaint about the irrelevance of the Lakers’ name -- an import from Minnesota -- moved Joanne McPortland to write: “Surely some poetic license is allowed in the naming of places. Otherwise, Los Angeles itself would be out of luck, there being relatively few of the winged holy ones left in the place.” Indeed, the authors of “Death in Paradise” say that during the pueblo’s lawless period in the 1850s and beyond, L.A. was dubbed “Los Diablos.” Of course, that was before Sgt. Joe Friday came along.
miscelLAny: TV news folks, as we all know, get worked up about the slightest bit of rain, labeling almost anything over an inch a “killer storm.” Media critic Ron Fineman got a good laugh when KCBS anchor Laura Diaz responded to a recent forecast of rain by asking, “Can this be April?” Commented Fineman: “Anyone ever heard of the saying, ‘April showers bring May flowers?’ ”
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.