TV Station’s Coverage of Inland Empire Turns Into a Martian Chronicle

Talk about a realignment of the planets! On KCBS’ 5 p.m. newscast the other day, “a report on strong winds in the Inland Empire was supposed to go live to Fontana’s stretch of Interstate 10,” wrote columnist David Allen in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.

“Instead of Fontana, viewers saw several seconds of a bleaker landscape: the surface of Mars, as seen from the Spirit lander.” Added Allen: “Wonder if L.A. viewers noticed the difference?”

Meanwhile, back on Earth: As for my list of TV weathercasters with catchy names, Carole Bede said: “Don’t forget Amy Freeze in Philadelphia (at WCAU).”

While Freeze belongs in the East, Alan Beauchesne of Boston wrote: “There are two TV reporters who belong in L.A., not here. WBZ has a meteorologist named Barry Burbank, and one of the anchors is named Joe Shortsleeve.”

Muddy dish forecast: While in San Francisco -- also no place for Joe Shortsleeve -- Barry Mowry of West Covina feared he had ordered a sandwich that sounded as if it had been through bad weather (see photo). Luckily, it was a “savory mustard chicken” concoction.

You really drink this black: Since he’s a senior editor of Healthy Living Magazine, John Gorham couldn’t help but notice a Mobil station’s comparison of its coffee (see photo). And the coffee doesn’t come cheap.

Home of fire and brimstone sermons? Actually, said pastor Matt Seargeant of Brea United Methodist Church, the top sign referred to a Christmas tree lot that had leased land from the church (see photo).

Speaking of heat: While USC’s football team has been lapping up the honors after its No. 1 finish in the AP rankings, UCLA disintegrated, losing its last five games (including one to Cal State Fresno).

And Susie Tso of Rancho Palos Verdes, an admitted Trojan, couldn’t help but laugh over a clothing sign’s spelling of “Bruins” (see photo).

Streets of dreams: My colleague Bob Browning points out that in a middle-class area of Redondo Beach, there’s a section “where a bunch of east-west streets are named for men who created huge fortunes: Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Rockefeller, Huntington, Marshall Field, Pullman, Spreckels, Armour. Maybe the developer thought the names of such successful men would attract people hoping to make their own fortunes.”

Added Browning: “Diagonally cutting across the area is Ripley (as in Believe it or Not?).”

miscelLAny: Those who feel weathercasters are full of it would no doubt pick as their favorite Julie Bologna of WPXI in Pittsburgh.

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