Creepy-Crawly Puts Filmgoer on Edge

It wasn’t quite “Snakes in a Movie Theater,” but it was disconcerting.

A man at a Long Beach multiplex phoned police one recent afternoon to report that someone was crawling under the seats, the Beachcomber newspaper said. The informant added that when he challenged the slitherer, the latter fled -- on foot.

Where is thy sting? Guinness World Records 2007 is out, and once again it is packed with items that will inspire those seeking to achieve greatness. For instance, the book relates that on Oct. 20, 1998, in Los Angeles, “Dr. Norman Gary held 109 honeybees in his closed mouth for 10 seconds.”

Please don’t try it in a movie theater.

Traffic advisories: We start out with the world’s shortest stretch of roadwork, spotted by Mel Carreon on the San Diego Freeway near El Segundo (see photo).

Meanwhile, Joel Davis of Glendale saw a warning in the Los Feliz area that was apparently aimed at shabbily dressed motorists (see photo).

Turns out JCL Barricades, owner of the sign, was announcing a clothing sale for charity.

A warning you’ve driven out of the United States? That’s what it seemed like in the Inland Empire with the arrival of 500 traffic cones that said “Country” of San Bernardino (see photo).

“But don’t start making plans to trade in your currency or get a new passport just yet,” the Riverside Press-Enterprise declared.

It was just a mistake by the county’s vendor. Officials haven’t decided whether to send the cones back for correcting or sell them as collectors’ items. In the meantime, they are off the street. Said a county spokesman: “They’re on lockdown.”

Heel! On a visit to Carmel, my colleague Janet Eastman picked up a permit that releases the city “from any claims for damages arising from the wearing of shoes” with illegal heels (see accompanying).

A 1963 ordinance forbids heels that “are in excess of two inches in height and less than one square inch of bearing surface.” Mayor Sue McCloud told Carmel magazine that the precaution was necessary because of the possibility of falls resulting from the city’s “many uneven streets and protruding tree roots.”

Eastman adds, by the way, that she didn’t see any police officers writing tickets to people with illegal heels.

miscelLAny: Pluto has been demoted in status, so now schoolchildren will need a new code to memorize the order of the remaining planets (I’m sure you’ll recall that Mercury is closest to the sun, followed by Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune). “My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas” won’t work as a mnemonic, points out Carl Ehrlich of Calabasas. He suggests: “My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nachos.”

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.