Horse Trail Droppings and Road Bumps of a Slightly More Political Nature

Present-day riders of the purple sage have problems that didn’t confront folks in the Old West. The police log of the Capistrano Valley News reported: “A woman at the Mission Trails Stable office reported that she had lost her cellular telephone on the horse trail.”

He won’t be playing possum: It may not go down in history with such presidential utterances as “I did not have sex with that woman” and “I am not a crook.” But Gov. Gray Davis’ assertion that every time people “say I’m road kill, I continue to win” would at least seem deserving of a plaque in one special L.A. museum (see photo). Alas, this shrine, which sat near Alameda Boulevard a few years ago, was just a prop for a Bill Murray movie.

Road kill ruminations (cont.): Davis’ imagery, as he faces a recall election, is further proof that in California every story has a driving angle.

Really personal banking? Tony LaHood of Irvine noticed that either there was a misspelling on a sign or one Cathay Bank “offers one customer preferred parking” (see photo).

Electrifying offer: Margaret Barnett spotted a real estate development in Nevada where you’d be well advised not to touch the ceilings (see accompanying).

El Lay vs. Noo Yawk (cont.): On the differences between the two burgs, San Gabriel-raised Barbara Giammona observed: “In L.A., after you are done waiting in line for fast food, the server asks you if that’s ‘for here or to go?’ In New York, the question is: ‘To stay or to go?’ ”

But when she resettled in Manhattan, Giammona said, she thought New York servers were uttering a single word: ‘Tuhstayotuhgo?’ ”

L.A. speak: “When I first moved here, I kept looking for the subterranean streets,” said Patrick Derby of Manhattan Beach. “You know, the ones below the ‘surface streets.’ ”

miscelLAny: As for eye-catching names of law firms, a Riverside reader just received some papers from Lawless & Lawless of San Francisco. And Tony Briggs of Costa Mesa writes that the firm of Trickey & Crooks of Austin, Texas, disbanded with the retirement of Trickey. Another law firm took in Crooks.

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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