At least these birds won’t send you to a carwash

Seven months ago, I mentioned that L.A. motorists were seeing UFOs -- wooden birds hanging from power lines around town (see photo). Now the mystery has been solved for me, thanks to Barbara Barnard of Santa Monica. She directed me to that city’s Daily Press, which reported that the whimsical (and clean) creatures were hatched by an Echo Park artist named David Browne.

Browne said he has tossed up about 300 of the figures, which dangle from ropes with padlocks as counterweights. He has gotten mostly positive feedback from bird-watchers but not from the Santa Monica Police Department, which told the Daily Press that Browne could be cited for malicious mischief and vandalism. (For foul fowls, in other words.)

Due to the wind, and apparently the actions of local authorities, the birds’ population has dwindled to about 60 (the other day I spotted one over Sepulveda Boulevard, just north of Culver City). Also, Browne has been busy selling his most recent creations online (www.studiobrowne.com) at $50 each rather than launching them.

Browne is an interesting bird himself. He declined to say what his creatures symbolize, explaining: “I think it’s obvious but apparently it’s not.” As it turns out, the Daily Press was not the first to write about the artist -- the L.A. Weekly and Will Campbell of Metroblogging L.A. interviewed him previously -- but the Santa Monica paper was the first to get the artist to reveal his first name.

As for the meaning of the birds, a Venice artist named Art Monkey told the Daily Press, “A machine gun or barrels of oil may better represent what’s going on.”

Who says L.A. has no style? Bill Minderhout of Pacific Palisades saw a reference to what sounds like a bear-skin rug while Jack Walsman of Manhattan Beach found something even stranger -- a wooden carpet (see accompanying).

Life in the fast lane: People are in a rush even in Prague, it seems. On vacation, Joyce and Jim Brown spotted a parking garage that evidently doesn’t even allow you to come to a stop (see photo).

Machines insulting humans (cont.): Sue Rose of Pasadena says, “I picked up the phone to hear that telltale pause followed by a click and [a computerized voice saying] ‘We’re sorry, but this message was intended for your answering machine. Please excuse the interruption.’ ”

Thought for the day: In the “Halos and Pitchforks” section of Carpinteria’s Coastal View News, a reader condemned the local high school for refusing to sell triple tickets to the prom. Said the reader: “I mean, come on! Sometimes you have too much love for just one girl.”

miscelLAny: Anaheim and Long Beach and three other cities are the finalists for the title of “Best Tasting City Water in America.” They, along with Colorado Springs, Colo.; St. Louis; and Toledo, Ohio, were chosen over 88 other cities on the basis of taste, clarity and aroma.

The finals will be held later this month during the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in L.A. The mayors themselves will blind-taste the various water samples. Then, a little later, I imagine the mayors will taste something a bit stronger.

Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES, Ext. 77083.