What’s Going on Here, for Crying Out Loud?

The role of a carwash in child rearing has become something of a weekly topic in the letters pages of the Palisadian-Post.

It was inspired by complaints of an allegedly noisy carwash in the area. One parent wrote a letter that said: “When my son was a baby, the only thing that would stop him from crying and put him to sleep was a stroll past the carwash. Please don’t make it quieter or I can’t have another child.”

To which another reader responded in the next edition: “Did you also drive him through, to give him a bath before bedtime?”

Which brought this rebuttal the following week:

“As for your suggestion that we use the carwash to bathe him as well, thanks, I’m sure he’ll like it much better than our lawn sprinklers.”

So goes the carwash controversy, waxing and waning.

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A brake on singing? Rich Schieber of Woodland Hills found indications of such a closed-mouth policy on a visit to no-fun Wisconsin (see photo).

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What won’t they think of next? After spotting an ad for a fishing rod, Don Delegal () of Rowland Heights asked, “Does this mean I can get my taxes done while I fish?” (see accompanying). Perhaps, unless the ad was supposed to say “hook keeper.”

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Unclear on the concept: Rodney Hoffman of L.A. isn’t sure who, with the possible exception of masochists, would want to hear one speaker whose goal he read about (see accompanying).

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Absentee chroniclers: OK, it’s time for a roll call of prominent writers of Southland crime fiction:

* Walter Mosley, author of the Easy Rawlins mysteries set in L.A., lives in New York.

* Michael Connelly, author of the Harry Bosch mysteries about an L.A. cop, lives in Tampa, Fla.

* Robert Ferrigno, author of “Horse Latitudes” and other Orange County thrillers, lives in the Seattle area.

* James Ellroy wrote “L.A. Confidential” while living in Kansas City. He has since moved to Carmel, which isn’t exactly known for having mean streets.

* Kem Nunn, author of “Pomona Queen” and other mysteries set in Southern California, lives in Northern California.

Almost seems as though these literary heavyweights feel that Southern California is a nice place to write about but they’d hate to live there.

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miscelLAny: In the Claremont Courier, Marilou Doepke noticed a resident’s complaint about a park disturbance. The item ended this way: “The park, she commented, was quiet, but the people, she complained, were loud.” Glad she let the trees and grass off the hook.

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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.