Spiel Just Keeps Coming, No Matter if Listener Is in Golden or Sunshine State

Telemarketers, as we all know, will say almost anything to keep a conversation from ending. One solicitor was so persistent that an exasperated Trudi Dieterle of Malibu finally told him she didn’t have time to talk because she was up to her you-know-what “in alligators.”

The telemarketer’s response: “Oh, you live in Florida?” She swears he wasn’t joking.

You could take a bath on this transaction: Ken Anderson of Laguna Beach spotted what appeared to be an unusual piece of property for rent (see photo).

Such a deal: A truck ad that bragged about the basics caught the attention of Art Zuhlke of Whittier (see accompanying).

Ups and downs: Allen Kuhn of L.A. noticed a tow truck that apparently works only in the lower climes (see photo).

Adventurous drives (cont.): Bob McMeekin of Hollywood, a retired LAPD sergeant, once got a call at the stationhouse about a possible disturbing-the-peace problem in Baldwin Hills. He set out in his car, not knowing that a prankish colleague had placed a chicken in his back seat.

McMeekin said that when he arrived, “there were well over 100 people milling about. There were some heated tempers.”

Then, a fellow officer approached and asked what was in the back of his car. McMeekin opened the door to look.

“Wham -- out ran the chicken,” he said, “right through the crowd. A couple of youngsters started chasing it. Everyone else started laughing, including me. That broke up the disturbance and everyone went home.”

And the bird?

“I never saw it again,” McMeekin said. “I imagine someone had it for dinner.”

Still on memory lane: Recollections here of mishaps at Disneyland prompted Bruce McIntosh of San Gabriel to relate the time he and his brother, both teenagers, were minding their own business near Snow White’s Wishing Well.

Suddenly, Miss White and the seven dwarfs appeared, with a crowd of kids chasing them. Unfortunately, the McIntoshes got wedged into a spot between the crowd and the dwarfs.

His brother kept accidentally stepping on one dwarf’s feet until finally the cartoon character growled, “If you do that one more time, I’m going to punch your lights out” (or words to that effect).

What the McIntoshes found stunning was the threatening dwarf’s identity. He was Bashful.

miscelLAny: So who would offer a meal of turkey, kidney beans and chocolate chili? Or beef skewers with chocolate barbecue sauce? Why, the Curators Cafe at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum, host of “Chocolate: The Exhibition” through May.

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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.