During St. Patrick’s Day Week, There Are Rhymes and a Reason

To raise this column to a higher plane (at long last), I turn to poetry -- specifically, the St. Patrick’s Week Limerick Contest sponsored by the L.A. Downtown News.

The Walt Disney Concert Hall was prominent in the minds of many versifiers, including Carol Donlan, who contributed this:

A pre-concert dinner of checca

Near downtown’s new cultural mecca

We drank Glenfiddich

And staggered to WDCH

Then dozed while we heard Esa-Pekka.

Donlan won honorable mention (for rhyming the name of the Philharmonic’s music director with two different words, if nothing else).

And the winner...: Pat Nordstrom, who saw hope despite the sad state of baseball and pro football here:

There are those who would put L.A. down

But the sky’s lookin’ bluer, not brown

Rid the Dodgers of codgers

Fill the hotels with lodgers

And bring back the Raiders to town!

I would argue that bringing the Raiders back to town would scare away lodgers, but I guess Nordstrom should be allowed some poetic license.

Unreal estate: Today’s showings (see accompanying) include:

* A delightful bathroom that is unaccountably lacking a stove (from Ruben Vives), and,

* A “Riverbed” housing development for those who take literally the lyrics of that old song, “It never rains in Southern California” (from Ann Gilman).

Actually, it’s named Riverbend, which would still make me nervous on cloudy days.

Unclear on the concept: In a Claremont store’s flier, T. Michel Dawson noticed a weapon whose name seemed to have been inspired, in part, by an overweight tiger (see accompanying).

Drink up! Catherine Marie Bazar spotted a carton that reassured kids that there’s nothing healthy inside (see accompanying).

Mondegreen of the Day: Forty years ago, the Beatles invaded America, and while they turned out a couple of hits (as I recall), their accents sometimes made them difficult to decipher. Bonnie Luck of Goleta recalls her son singing this line from “I Saw Her Standing There:”

“And the way she looked with gravy in her hair ... “ Truly way beyond compare.

miscelLAny: On the baseball front, it doesn’t seem fair that the City of Angels should be stuck with the Dodgers (instead of the Angels).

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@la times.com.