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When Raincoat Sheds Ice, Buyer Returns the Stuff in a Flash, and Takes Heat

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I guess even Hollywood types put away something for a rainy day. That was the discovery made by schoolteacher John Lisowski after he paid a TV commercial director $20 for a raincoat at a Venice garage sale.

When Lisowski got home, he reached into a pocket in the liner and found a velvet pouch containing a diamond ring and a diamond necklace. He took the trinkets back, and the director laughed and said he had bought them for an old girlfriend.

Oh yes, they had cost about $25,000.

A friend of the director said, “I don’t think I would have brought it back.” Another told Lisowski, in true Hollywood fashion, “You’ve got good karma coming.”

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And he was correct. Lisowski didn’t get a reward exactly. But a couple of weeks later, he again ran into the director, who was building a house on his property. He gave Lisowski his old water heater.

The heck you say: Georgia Dupuis of Somis found just the garage sale for someone having a devil of a time at home (see accompanying).

From Satan to the legal profession...: A smooth transition, don’t you think? A reader sent along a notice for a creative writing course for lawyers (see accompanying), but pointed out that they need no instruction in this area. “Read any briefs lately?” asked the reader, who is, of course, an attorney himself.

Before you’re in over your head...: John Weingartner of Orange was aboard a ship that made it clear that jumping overboard was not recommended (see photo).

California, the pacesetter: Obviously inspired by porn actress Mary Carey, who ran for governor in the recall election, Jodie Moore of X-rated movie fame in Australia is running for a senate seat in the state of Queensland. But a billboard featuring her has been censored by the Main Roads Department because “it is driving motorists to distraction.” I guess the CHP can be grateful that Carey never used billboards.

Mondegreen time: In our novel reinterpretations of lyrics segment, Shirley Serna of Covina, among many readers, thought Johnny Rivers was singing “secret Asian man” in the song “Secret Agent Man.” Mike Roush of Woodland Hills always thought the lyric “I’m not talkin’ ‘bout movin’ in” sounded more like “I’m not talkin’ ‘bout linoleum” in the song “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight” by England Dan and John Ford Coley.

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And Mary deVall of Santa Monica recalled her younger brother warbling this line from “Home on the Range”: “Where the deer and the envelopes play.”

miscelLAny: Writer Argus Hamilton says of the controversy involving a certain Giants slugger: “If it turns out that Barry Bonds used steroids to bulk up and add muscle mass, he could get four to eight years as governor of California.”

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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.

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