More proof that confidence is key

The October issue of Sunset magazine reports that AIRe Global Cuisine, a restaurant in Costa Mesa, offers a “Low Self Esteem” cocktail made of peach liqueur and bourbon.

Guess who could use a few rounds? The owners.

After the magazine went to press, AIRe Global went out of business -- ran “out of AIRe,” as its website puts it.

All wet: During the rain the other day, Mark Willis was stopped at a red light in San Pedro when he noticed the driver behind him “reaching out his open window, squeegee in hand, hurriedly trying to scrape his windshield clear before the light tuned green.”

Guess it had been so long since the last rain that the poor guy forgot cars are equipped with automatic wipers.

Bold journeys: For you off-season travelers, I recently showed off signs from such intriguing locations as Hellenbach, Germany; Angri, Italy; Orgy, France; and Barf, England.

Which prompted Val Rodriguez of Signal Hill to tell me about an Austrian town that has an extremely short name. He inspired me to put together a second package of colorful stops (see photos).

At least the Austrian town had a name, which is more than could be said for a Colorado rest area found by Paul Brodt of Claremont.

Then there was the street name in New Zealand that was very long but didn’t translate well, contributed by Nat Read of Pasadena.

Finally, Mary Anne Peterson noticed a community in Portugal that seemed the wrong place to make hotel reservations in advance.

Stupid criminal tricks: In high-theft areas around the state, the CHP has been setting out “bait” cars, unmarked vehicles that have video cameras and microphones hidden inside. The cars can be tracked with global positioning devices, and officers can stop them by remotely shutting down the engine and locking the doors. The program was featured in a recent Court TV show, “Bait Car.”

Those episodes aren’t available. But YouTube.com has tapes of bait-car incidents in other states, where you can hear would-be thieves utter such immortal last words as:

* “I hope this isn’t another bait car, man.”

* “Please don’t let the [police] dog chew me.”

And, over a cellphone:

* “Mom, we’re in a stolen car!”

miscelLAny: The upside-down bottle of Heinz Ketchup in our refrigerator bears a label that brags: “No wait, no mess. Ketchup stored on its cap is ready to pour when you are.”

Great. But I think the label should also carry an apology that says, “For all of you who beat your hands raw on the side of glass ketchup bottles for decades, trying in vain to get a drop out, we’d just like to say we’re sorry it took us more than 100 years to figure out that all you had to do was turn a bottle upside down.”

I know it would help my self-esteem.

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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.