Mama Bear Finds This Swimming Pool’s Water to Be Just Right

Don’t you just hate it when guests show up without phoning first?

Especially to use your swimming pool.

Ron Schwartz of Monrovia looked out his back window and saw an adult bear climb his wrought iron fence and then take a plunge.

“She was in for five to 10 minutes, swimming back and forth, enjoying the waterfall into the pool,” Schwartz said.

The bear also looked over the sauna but left without trying it -- the temperature was in the 90s, after all. Next stop: The frontyard, where she had left her two cubs.

Observed Schwartz: “It’s almost like she’d said, ‘Wait here, kids. Mom’s going to the day spa.’ ”

Which reminds me: Florence Riegert of Tehachapi wonders where the line forms in the pool she read about (see accompanying).

Unclear on the concept: Mai Ebbets of Sylmar would like to know one truck’s definition of “good stuff” (see photo).

The public be darned?: James Rodriguez of Fontana heard a news announcer introduce a story on the West Nile virus this way: “Next, how to eradicate the public, I’m sorry, educate the public.”

Milestone: Congratulations on the 50th anniversary of Cerritos College -- or, as some students call it, UCLA (as in, University of California, Left on Alondra).

Other college business: Henry Hespenheide and a couple of other readers pointed out that the UC Irvine Anteaters’ cheer -- “Zot!” -- originated in the Johnny Hart comic strip “BC.”

El Lay vs. Ess Eff: My mention of the lack of love that San Franciscans have for L.A. prompted a note from Rich Flynn of Huntington Beach, who recollected how he’d be teased about being an Angeleno when he visited his company’s office up north.

Finally, he informed the workers that while the Bay Area was obsessed with L.A., San Francisco “is just another city in California to most Angelenos.” Flynn added that the kidding stopped when “I pointed out that there are freeway signs all over the Bay Area directing people to Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, there are no freeway signs with directions to San Francisco.”

Confession: I borrowed “Ess Eff” from the late San Francisco writer Herb Caen, who once contrasted the mind-sets of the two populaces this way: “If you insult San Francisco to a San Franciscan, you’re starting a fight. If you insult Los Angeles to a Los Angeleno, you’re starting a conversation.”

miscelLAny: Actress Shirley MacLaine claims she can see into the past and recall her other lives but, in the current issue of AARP’s magazine, she admits she has a harder time looking into the future. “I sold my big Malibu apartment house six frigging years too soon,” she said. “I should have waited until this year and I’d never have to work again!”

Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES, Ext. 77083 and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.