Are the Proverbial Deck Chairs Included Too?
Rich Turner of Long Beach noticed this item offered by a Southland resident on craigslist.org: “Titanic model ships -- (have slight water damage to deck only) -- $60.”
Slight damage, eh? I suppose they’re unsinkable too.
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Unreal estate: Today’s showings (see accompanying) include:
* An older property that could be haunted, submitted by Bob Warner of Altadena. “However,” he added, “I suspect the price is causing much of the terror.”
* A house that seems to be cheesy, despite the $1,450,000 asking price (spotted by Phyllis Marks of Glendale).
* An opening for agents, even those with a few miles under the hood (spotted by Victoria Vidal of North Hollywood).
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One less distraction for drivers: George Waters of Pasadena found a no-break-dancing warning in La Verne (see photo).
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Barking at the neighbors: KCBS-TV Channel 2 news anchor (and USC alum) Kent Shocknek, no doubt in a bad mood after the Trojans’ loss in the Rose Bowl, grumbled in his blog on the station’s website about neighbors who let you know what they “think of you ... with their garbage [when] they put it on the curb ... and how long, before trash day.
“On my block, it’s unanimous: My neighbors hate me. Otherwise, I’m hard-pressed to explain why three of the four houses closest to me would toss out their old Christmas trees, directly adjacent to my driveway. Or maybe they think I’m a tree doctor. A bark beetle would feel right at home.”
“Hmm,” commented Kevin Roderick on his laobserved.com website. “Wonder where he lives. And whether he gets egged at Halloween.”
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Low-definition TV: An angry letter writer to the Long Beach Press-Telegram said: “To the black Lexus in front of me at the pharmacy last night: Please be aware that TVs on the back of the headrest are very observable from other cars. If I had children in the car viewing your hard-core porn film, I would have been very upset.”
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“Duh!” awards: A group called Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch runs a Wacky Warning Label Contest, and one winner was the tag on a toilet brush that said: “Do not use for personal hygiene.”
I was reminded of the comedy “Naked Gun 33 1/3 : The Final Insult” (1994), in which ex-heavyweight boxer Randall “Tex” Cobb plays a prison inmate so tough that he brushes his teeth with a toilet brush. Doesn’t use toothpaste, either.
That’s the movie in which Leslie Nielsen portrays a police officer who goes undercover in the prison and remarks that life among the assorted thugs “was like being in the stands at a Los Angeles Raiders game.”
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miscelLAny: Don Barrett’s laradio.com website carried this thought for the day from ex-newsman Jerry Clark: “I don’t understand the flap over the National Security Agency wiretapping U.S. citizens. One of the most frequent complaints I hear from callers on talk radio is that the government does not listen to the people.”
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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.