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Hendrix’s Convenient Fib to the Army? Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

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In the oldie-but-wrongie department, KFWB-AM (980) played a famous excerpt of Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” after a report that a new biography says the singer got out of Army duty by pretending to be gay. Afterward, the radio station translated the apt lyric as “Excuse me while I kiss this guy.”

How’s that again? It was a joke. That Hendrix passage, on the top 10 list of misheard lines, actually goes, “Excuse me while I kiss the sky.”

For the record:

12:00 a.m. Aug. 5, 2005 For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday August 05, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 41 words Type of Material: Correction
Only in L.A. -- An item in the Only in L.A. column in Tuesday’s California section about KTLA-TV Channel 5 airborne traffic reporter Desiree Horton said she was not the pilot of the helicopter. In fact, Horton does pilot the aircraft.

What can brown do for brown? Regine Wood of Mar Vista was outside in the sweltering heat when a UPS truck rumbled up. The driver dropped off a package, then “visited my neighbor’s lawn, where the sprinklers were on. He stepped onto the lawn and knelt down and rolled in the grass with water drenching him.”

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Wood asked the driver if he was OK. “Ah, I’m just so hot,” he responded as he resumed his summer rounds.

He was probably dry a block later.

Now that would be a tough delivery: Alan Frisbie of L.A. sent along a snapshot of a mailbox that he found in an unusual place: alongside the Pasadena Freeway (see photo -- it’s in the left-hand corner). Frisbie said it was there for several months before it disappeared as mysteriously as it appeared. Maybe the resident moved away.

A little privacy, please: Commuters shaving or applying makeup on the morning drive are not uncommon sights. While I was away, Don Barrett’s laradio.com website shared a shot of Desiree Horton of KTLA-TV Channel 5, who had not finished with her makeup when it was time for her airborne traffic report. Here’s the good news: Horton wasn’t the pilot.

Garfield must be jealous: Dean Gatons of Crestline noticed that a Redlands church lists a four-legged creature on its staff directory (see photo).

Getting back to my vacation: Make that, working vacation. I just spent two weeks teaching at a high school journalism workshop at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Our classroom was near the famous bathroom where “Weird Al” Yankovic, then a deejay at the campus station, recorded his hit “My Bologna,” the parody of the Knack’s “My Sharona.”

Our two dozen students were sharp, but they, like everyone else, occasionally fell prey to spell-check problems. One wrote in a news story that an armed robber brandished a “bun.” I was interviewed by the students in one class exercise and now I know how subjects of candid biographies feel. One girl’s story began, “His wrinkled countenance.... “

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And, yes, I’m forced to admit she was one of the most accurate reporters.

miscelLAny: I took a weekend side trip to SBC Park in San Francisco, where I noticed that Florida Marlin catcher Paul Lo Duca was booed by Giant fans. When I asked what offense the genial Lo Duca had committed, it was explained to me that he was an ex-L.A. Dodger.

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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