Need One for the Road? Here’s a Drink That Goes Down Slowly
Hank Rosenfeld of Santa Monica caught an L.A. joke early in the Albert Brooks film “Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World.” In the scene, Brooks notes that while the Manhattan cocktail honors New York, there’s a drink named after L.A.: the Freeway. “From the time you order it,” he says, “it takes three hours to get here.”
You’re not laughing? Perhaps I should add that Brooks plays a down-on-his-luck comic.
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To live and drive in L.A.: In a later scene, Brooks agrees to make a secret late-night trip across the border into Pakistan to meet with a group of aspiring stand-up comics. When the driver blindfolds him, an already nervous Brooks says there’s no need for such caution, pointing out, “I don’t know this area. I can hardly get around Los Angeles at night.” Luckily, the drive takes less time than it does to order a Freeway.
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Bureaucratic humor? Bette Balliet of Mission Viejo wonders if the “Non-Accessible Entry” sign at a local park might translate into English as “No Entry” (see photo). The sign, by the way, would seem to be bad news for prospective restroom users.
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Beware of identified flying objects: On an athletic field at Cal State Long Beach, Bob Richards of the City of Commerce found a macabre warning (see photo).
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Love what you drive: In Bakersfield, Scott Rosenlieb saw a carwash for overprotective motorists (see photo).
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Life notice: Myrna Oliver, the eloquent obituary writer, retired last week after 34 years at The Times -- having outlived her own 2001 death notice in a New York newspaper (see accompanying). What happened on that occasion was that Oliver’s article on a British actress was picked up by the Eastern newspaper, and an absent-minded editor, seeing Oliver’s byline, inadvertently put her name in the headline. Reporters don’t like to become part of the story they’re covering -- especially in this case.
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Name game: After reading an item here about a Venice artist named O (pronounced “Oh” not “Zero”), Sherwin Olken of West L.A. was reminded of a waitress in Palm Springs whose name tag said, “My name is O Miss.”
Olken says she adopted that persona because “customers were always shouting, ‘O Miss, can you get me a menu?’ ‘O Miss, what’s taking so long for my order?’ ”
Perhaps the Venice artist chose his name because “O” was the reaction his work usually elicited from passersby.
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miscelLAny: Long Beach Press-Telegram columnist Tom Hennessy writes that when governments solicit official slogans they’re just asking for wisecracks, as the state of New Jersey recently learned (one rejected entry: “New Jersey: Most of Our Elected Officials Have Not Been Indicted.”)
Indeed, Hennessy admitted that once, when he asked readers for slogans about Long Beach, the suggestions included: “Long Beach: It Could Be Worse” and “Long Beach: Beats the Hell Out of Pacoima.”
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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.