Signs Rely on Fear of the Unknown

You may recall that I spoke of an imaginative Hollywood resident who kept dog owners away with a warning that his plants had been sprayed with dioxinleucomaine -- a made-up word.

“Some years ago,” Bob Noble wrote in response, “I heard of an elderly lady who lived in a part of Pasadena troubled with house break-ins. She posted a sign reading ‘Beware of Agapanthus,’ and she was not bothered by vandals again.”

Of course, Noble added, there’s really no way of knowing how frightened the vandals were of lilies.

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Which reminds me: Art Lloyd of Hollywood saw a listing of a cake that was made by a chef who apparently didn’t have a green thumb (see accompanying).

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More food for thought: I’m sure they’re delicious and nutritious, but some foods from overseas don’t translate very well, including a fish cited by S. Moore of Long Beach and a Japanese dish identified as a “hot food” for obvious reasons (from Judy Griswold). Then there’s the dish that would be a big hit on St. Patrick’s Day (and notice it also has the ingredient missing from the previously mentioned cake) (see accompanying).

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Baseball bites: The Baseball Reliquary, a Monrovia-based group that likes to poke fun at memorabilia collectors, has included a tooth knocked loose by Pete Rose in a display at the Pomona Public Library.

The tooth was disconnected from the mouth of catcher Ray Fosse when Rose collided with him in an All-Star game. The reliquary previously has displayed such treasures as a hot dog allegedly left half-eaten by Babe Ruth (though there is no record of Ruth ever failing to finish a hot dog).

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Stupid criminal tricks: A thief emptied money from a shop’s tip jar into a box and fled, the Beach Reporter said. A worker chased him, whereupon the thief threatened to hit the worker with the box. So the worker fled. That wasn’t good enough for the thief, though. The latter chased the worker into a parking lot, where two young men intervened. When the thief threatened them, they held him down until police arrived.

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Name that interchange: It was noted here that while Orange County freeway junctions have colorful names like the Orange Crush and El Toro Y, L.A. County’s are lacking. Even the 405/101 interchange in Sherman Oaks, the busiest in the nation, is just a number (well, several numbers).

John Robotham of Carpinteria, who formerly lived next door to that junction, has solved this problem. He suggests that the 405/101 be known as Sherman Chokes.

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miscelLAny: While we’re still on the traffic watch, Mike Kirwan of Venice recalled “having an out-of-town visitor in the car when the traffic report mentioned a truck overturned on the ‘El Toro Y.’ My passenger said he hoped nobody in the building was hurt.” But that traffic-clogged stretch is no gymnasium.

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATimes, Ext. 77083, by fax at (213) 237-4712 or by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.