Trash Incinerator Sent All Her Potential Profits Up in Smoke

A discussion here of backyard trash incinerators, which were banned in L.A. in the mid-1950s, brought this note from Pat Wilson of Corona.

“We had an incinerator,” she recalled of her childhood, “and before I burned my worn-out paper dolls, I would cut their little heads off so they wouldn’t feel the fire.” Added Wilson: “The joke’s on me. Paper doll sets from the ‘40s and ‘50s now sell for $100-plus.”

Oooh L.A. L.A.: Lucy Marsh of Northridge spotted an ad that seemed to contain a sexy suggestion (see accompanying).

Try, try again: In a local weekly, Mike Kirwan of Venice noticed that the word “chic” was misspelled as a facial feature in one ad. Someone evidently pointed out the booboo, and the next week it was changed -- and misspelled as an Arab leader (see accompanying).

The ABCs of Chinese eateries: After I mentioned the ABC Chinese restaurant of L.A. and the NBC Chinese restaurant of Monterey Park, dining aficionado David Chan wrote:

“ABC opened in 1984 at the location formerly housing the historic Lime House Chinese restaurant. It was such a rollicking success that they opened up the larger Monterey Park branch in 1986, naturally calling it NBC.”

Chan said that when the eateries were kidded about taking the names of television networks, the maitre d’ at ABC denied the allegation, claiming ABC stood for “America’s Best Chinese” restaurant and NBC meant “Next Best Chinese” restaurant.

A few years ago, ownership of ABC changed hands, and some of the staff broke away to start a new restaurant just down the street. Its name: CBS. Chan never heard a theory about what CBS stood for.

ABCs of Chinese eateries (cont.): Several years ago, a CNN Seafood restaurant opened in Monterey Park.

“My greatest disappointment was that when I went out to dine there, no more than four or five years after it opened,” Chan said, “it had already gone out of business.” Or was canceled, as they say in TV.

Hot topics: Mary Beth Crispino sent along an item from the San Clemente Sun Post’s crime log about a husband who accused his wife of throwing scalding water on him while he was showering.

However, officers determined that she had merely neglected to warn him that she was flushing the toilet, which caused a change in the water pressure and water temperature.

Or, as a poet at the Sun Post put it, using an old expression for blasting in mining operations, the wife “flushed without yelling, ‘Fire in the hole!’ ”

miscelLAny: Here it is, just a few days before the Oscars, and I’ve yet to see several films of the last year. In fact, I’ve never even heard of the third movie listed on a marquee that Jim Walker of Burbank snapped (see photo).

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.