Sandcastle Allegation a Sticky Subject for Festival

Is nothing sacred? The Los Alamitos News-Enterprise reports allegations that a 31-foot-high edifice at Seal Beach’s Sand Castle Festival was held together by glue. One lumber company rep told the newspaper that nine gallons of the sticky stuff had been delivered to the event.

Still, I can’t really blame the builder. Have you checked the price of earthquake insurance these days?

Why did the fish cross the street? That’s what Kelly LaFleur wanted to know after chancing upon a sign in Snohomish, Wash. (see photo).

Road kill or road catch? A clue to the mysterious warning may have been a sign farther up the street that said: “Watch for Fish/French Creek Watershed.”

Unclear on the concept (1): Charley Love isn’t too sure about the usefulness of some translated directions on equipment he purchased (see photo).

Unclear on the concept (2): Julie Maas of Long Beach studied the spelling on stickers attached to new clothing and concluded: “I guess they checked almost everything.”

Thanks but no thanks: Whether the parking offer applied to other offices in the building or to the Philadelphia Police Department’s Gray Bar Hotel, Gerald Bordin of Del Mar decided to pass it up (see photo).

A show with legs: The Angels and Dodgers are on the sidelines for the playoffs, but there’s no reason for Southland baseball fans to feel left out.

The Saddleback College Art Gallery in Mission Viejo is honored to host a collectibles/art exhibition of the Baseball Reliquary, an offbeat group that owns such treasures as a stogie supposedly smoked by Babe Ruth and hair curlers worn on the mound by eccentric pitcher Dock Ellis.

This time around, the reliquary’s big memento is one of the late Bill Veeck’s wooden legs. Veeck was a colorful baseball owner best known for using a midget as a pinch-hitter. After losing a leg because of a war injury, he had several wooden versions made, including one with a built-in ashtray.

The limb in the exhibit, says reliquary director Terry Cannon, “was originally given by Veeck as a memento to a Chicago area bar owner, who hung it from the rafters of his tavern for years.” The current owner outbid Ripley’s Believe It or Not for the well-traveled leg.

MiscelLAny: Panhandlers do market research, too, you know. A friend of mine was about to enter the upscale Water Grill restaurant in downtown L.A. when a moocher approached him for money.

“I don’t have any coins,” my friend said. “I don’t want coins,” hissed the transient. “I want bills.”

Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LA-TIMES, 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.