There’s a Very Small Window if You Want to Row Down the L.A. River

Scaling Everest and other tall peaks seems to be in vogue for thrill-seekers. But there are other types of challenges.

My old boss Dick Barnes spotted an online ad from one daring chap, who announced: “I need a cheap little boat because I am going to float the L.A. River from Los Angeles to Long Beach. Time is of the essence because pretty soon there ain’t going to be any water left in that river until next year. Right now the water level is just right.”

“Little” boat is right. I recall the story of the brave effort by Times reporter Chuck Hillinger and photographer Bruce Cox to traverse the length of the L.A. River in 1958.

The two adventurers made it only a few miles before encountering catastrophe: The water was so shallow their boat wouldn’t move.

Guide to Adventurous Dining: Here are today’s items du column (see accompanying):

* Barbara Peterson noticed an offering of chicken that apparently needs to be trapped by the diner.

* While I’ve heard of a Roy Rogers and a Shirley Temple in the drink trade, I was unfamiliar with the personalized beverage spotted by Peter Lee.

* And, finally, in the tradition of beef Wellington and oysters Rockefeller, we have ... shrimp Dodgers? T.K. Nagano alerted me to the official sponsor of the ball team. Good thing the Dodgers are winning some games, or their association with the lowly crustacean might also prompt a crack by my colleague across the room, T.J. Simers.

Guide to cutting down on the dining: I came upon a product that makes an unusual dietary claim (see accompanying). I guess as long as it curves you around high-calorie stuff, it might work....

Order in the classroom! To stress the consequences of drunk driving for youngsters, the trial of a 23-year-old alleged offender was held in the auditorium of Claremont High School. He was convicted twice, first by a jury of high school students in an advisory role, then by a Superior Court judge.

The 12 high school students were selected randomly from the 500 seniors in the auditorium.

“Apparently, the lesson was less than scintillating for some students [in the audience], who grew restless during the morning-long trial,” the L.A. Daily Journal said. Sheriff’s deputies and Claremont officers “took turns shushing students -- and waking them up.”

Sounds like some of those kids are in training to be real-life jurors.

Mondegreen of the Day: “I grew up in Detroit, and when I was young, my grandfather owned two gas stations,” wrote Fred Jones of Westwood, contributing our latest instance of misinterpreting the language.

“One was a brand new station, and the other was quite decrepit. My relatives identified these stations by their locations, the old one being at the corner of Warren and Lorraine. But for many years, as a child, I thought they were talking about the station that was worn in the rain.”

miscelLAny: In case you missed the story in Thursday’s L.A. Times, demolition of a south Orange County bridge has been postponed so that several hundred pregnant female bats can continue to use the span as a habitat. A heartwarming piece. But I don’t think I’ll be driving anywhere near that bridge.

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATimes, 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.