Traffic prompts honking from an inhabitant of Big Sky Country

You think traffic is noisy here? In the police log of her hometown paper, the Bozeman (Mont.) Daily Chronicle, Shelley O. Smith of Granada Hills spotted this shocking item: “A goose was running along Cloninger Lane, honking at traffic.”

Speaking of ear-splitting sounds ... : Kim Airs of L.A. noticed that one house seller has evidently cut down on the din by forbidding freeway traffic from going through his residence (see accompanying).

Sleep of the Union? The caption in the Washington Post said that L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley were “sleepily” flanking D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty during President Bush’s speech (see photo).

Was the mayor snoozing?

No, said Villaraigosa aide Matt Szabo. “The photo just caught the mayor with his eyes closed,” Szabo told City News Service.

No one could argue with that.

Szabo insisted that, while the mayor “was tired” because of a seven-hour flight delay out of LAX, “he was awake, alert and attentive” for the entire 50 minutes that Bush spoke. (The photo was snapped about two-thirds of the way through.)

Whatever, the Post ran a caption contest for the photo, which drew these entries, among others, from readers:

* “Wake me in 2008.”

* “I do miss my BlackBerry.”

* “I think we should all sleep on this.”

* “Ladies and gentlemen, the gas leak should be repaired shortly.”

Oh, by the way, officer ... : The crime trail may have grown a bit cold in the case of a theft complaint that Ron Keyson of Big Bear Lake read about in the local Grizzly newspaper (see accompanying).

Don’t leave home without it: Marilyn Stein of Pacific Palisades was on the San Diego Freeway when she passed a driving school’s car whose driver was yakking on a cellphone.

Stein didn’t notice any passengers, so maybe it was an instructor. Or maybe, she theorized, driving schools now consider cellphone use a vital skill for operating a vehicle hereabouts.

miscelLAny: Linda Taubenreuther points out that in its section on “quality of life,” the city of Monrovia’s annual report boasts: “More than 36,000 drop-in visitors had the opportunity to experience the beauty and solitude of Canyon Park ....” Taubenreuther can imagine someone at the park saying, “Hey, keep it down over there -- we’re trying to experience the solitude!”

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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.