A Sure Sign That the Mobile Phone Has Been Taken a Little Too Far
Some people drive with phones, but Howard Davis, well, he drives a phone. And you’ll never spot him dialing it on a freeway (see photo). Davis’ converted 1974 Volkswagen Beetle is one of several exhibits at “Wild Wheels: Art for the Road,” an exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum in L.A.
Other rolling sculptures include:
* Shelley Buschur’s 1983 Mazda “Eelvis,” which is half-fish, half-rock star. “Early Eelvis” would be more accurate because of its slimness.
* Actor Dennis Woodruff’s 1976 Dodge Colt “Make My Movie,” a motorized resume, covered with glossy photos of himself.
* And finally, David Crow’s “Cinderella,” a sexy vehicle he created after an argument with his girlfriend to “combine her shoe fetish with his hot rod fetish” (see photo).
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We get the idea: Marvin Popkin of Laguna Woods came upon a vivid homemade warning to motorists that might prove more effective than city signs (see photo). Not sure I’d try to carry out the penalty against Eelvis.
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Freeway obstacle du jour: A cell phone was dropped on the Ontario Freeway over the weekend, and my first reaction was to wonder whether a wildly gesticulating driver/conversationalist had made a sudden lane change with the window open. Or had a passenger who felt ignored snatched it from the yakking driver and tossed it?
My second reaction, of course, was to wonder how many other drivers tried to steamroll the thing when they realized what it was.
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Cell confession: I had an embarrassing driving experience with my own cell phone a while back. Wait -- don’t get angry until you hear the story.
I was driving home from Little League practice when another driver informed me my cell was on the roof of my car. I had placed it there while loading my son’s equipment. I forget a lot of things these days but at least I loaded my son. Anyway, the driver who lost his cell on the freeway might also have been imitating my inadvertent juggling act.
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Thunder Road West: The Grammys snubbed L.A. for New York this year, but I was happy to see that the City of Angels was on emcee Dustin Hoffman’s mind. He referred to Bruce Springsteen at one point as “Spring Street.”
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miscelLAny: On XTRA (690 AM), I heard sports talk show host Lee “Hacksaw” Hamilton refering to the few calls he receives from hockey fans. Which brought to mind the time that onetime L.A. Kings owner Jack Kent Cooke admitted that hockey wasn’t as popular here as he’d thought it would be, considering the large number of Canadian emigres in this area.
“Now I know why all those Canadians left Canada,” Cooke said. “They hate hockey.”
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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.