Stunning view from Long Beach high-rise

One of “the advantages or disadvantages” of working in a particular high-rise in downtown Long Beach is that you can see what’s happening on the roof of the nearby library, crime reporter Steve Propes wrote in the Beachcomber newspaper.

What was happening the other day, an office worker complained to police, was that a naked couple was making whoopee up there. What would Marian the Librarian say?

Unclear on the Concept

Mathy Wasserman of Hidden Hills chanced upon a billboard that she said was “seen (or not seen) in Sherman Oaks” (see photo). Come to think of it, a more appropriate place for the billboard would be Hidden Hills.

Unclear on the concept, Part 2

Judging from the “For Lease” sign, Jack Herman of Encino surmised that the Help-U-Sell real estate business could have used some help itself (see photo).

Decisions, decisions

Len Kuhn of La Crescenta found a place in San Antonio where you evidently wouldn’t have to wait in line to use a restroom -- once you’d made up your mind which one to use (see photo). Actually, the signs were about to be placed around the city for a civic celebration. (Obviously, the celebration occurred before the San Antonio Spurs’ series with the Lakers.)

Glad they got this guy off the road

The Coastal View News of Carpinteria reported that a man who was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving gave officers a $1 bill when they asked to see his license. “Although this might initially be seen as a bribe,” the newspaper wrote, “it turns out that the man was so intoxicated that he thought the currency was actually his license, according to the police report.”

Way off base

You’ve heard of athletes who get lost on the way to their games. But how about an athlete getting lost in the middle of a game in which he was playing? That was the unusual fate of Long Beach Polytechnic High School’s Brent Tani, but the all-league shortstop had a pretty good excuse.

The game was halted after seven innings because of darkness, but officials ruled that it had to be completed that night because the playoff schedule was supposed to be released. So the teams were directed to report immediately to a lighted field in Compton.

Tani, a senior, asked a teammate for directions. The directions were perfect except that the teammate left out one freeway. Tani was in the San Gabriel Valley when he realized something was wrong. He turned around and found the college, luckily missing just an inning in Poly’s 10-8 win over Long Beach’s Jordan High.

Afterward, he said, he took some kidding for having asked an underclassman for directions. The other players “wondered why I would take advice from someone who doesn’t drive yet,” he said with a smile.

miscelLAny:

A law firm that specializes in representing injured pedestrians is named, appropriately, Walker & Walker.

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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