Some Old Sticks of Furniture Are Like Boomerangs: They Keep Coming Back
Tales told here about people trying to get rid of furniture moved Mike Patricelli of Anaheim to relate the case of “The Couch That Would Not Die!”
One day, Patricelli phoned the city to take his old sofa. But before workers arrived, someone snatched it off his lawn.
“That night it was back,” Patricelli said. “A neighbor saw two people carrying it back to our house. Apparently some other neighbors had taken it home, then decided that they didn’t want it.
“I was a little ticked,” he continued, “because now I had to call the city again. That night I had to attend a meeting and on my way home I stopped at the grocery store. When I pulled into the lot, I saw a group of teenagers sitting on a sofa. My sofa!”
It had been snatched again.
Added Patricelli: “I was tempted to tell them not to bring it back but didn’t, because that might encourage them to return it. That was the last I saw of it.”
So far.
Something else to get rid of: While Joseph Yukelson of Beverly Hills was in Los Osos, he saw a sign placed by someone looking for a little free gardening (see photo).
Memorable intersections: The latest addition to our list comes from Georgia Feingold, who found a blessed street corner in Pasadena (see photo).
More irreverence: Jim Moore of Nipomo chanced upon a car that he figures is “prone to overheating” (see accompanying).
Curbing one ordeal: A friend of mine let his license expire for a few years and had to take the driving exam to have it renewed. He discovered that the parallel-parking test is no longer given. This is an exquisite torture that every young driver should be forced to take, mainly because I was.
When I attempted to back my father’s 1959 Chevrolet into a curbside spot in Culver City, I banged one of the rear fins on a palm tree, ensuring that I would flunk. (The examiner dismissed my claim that the tree leaped into my path.)
That particular test was eliminated about a quarter-century ago, a DMV spokesman explained, because “most places offer alternatives to parallel parking.”
Or, as Alicia Silverstone’s character says about learning to park in “Clueless”: “What’s the point? Everywhere you go has valet.”
miscelLAny: Madeline Walker of Torrance spotted a license plate frame that was upside down and tried to get close enough to tell the driver. “Then I read the upside-down words: ‘There is no such thing as a dumb blonde.’ ”
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., Los Angeles, CA 90012 and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes. com.