Resident’s Scare Tactic Combines Psychological, Biological Warfare

A variation of germ warfare? The crime log of the San Clemente Sun Post News said that during a neighborhood dispute, one resident aimed a loudspeaker in the direction of another resident and started coughing into it.

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Don’t even think about calling room service for this: Hotel California’s owners are working on a $200,000 deal to provide bull semen to 10 buyers over the next three years, the Wall Street Journal reported. Hotel California is the name of a prize animal on the Professional Bull Riders Assn. circuit.

Don’t think I’d have the nerve to recite one Eagles’ lyric to this Hotel California. You know, the one that goes: “You can check out any time you like but you can never leave.”

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Unclear on the concept: David Chan noticed a frankfurter decorating a Thai eatery in Hollywood (see photo), prompting him to speculate that perhaps the hot dog was invented in Thailand. Or, perhaps, the current owners didn’t want to mess with the expense of removing the bunned dish of the previous business.

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Unclear on the concept (cont.): Over the years, I’ve encountered numerous examples of vestigial business symbols in these parts (see photos), including a T-shirt emporium that occupied a former ice cream shop, a dental office that took over the former Penguin Cafe (note the toothless mascot) and a family dental clinic that replaced the Packard Grill Diner. At least Family Dental added some teeth.

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Carried away: A resident phoned authorities to report seeing a plane crash in the Saddleback Hills, the Rancho Santa Margarita News said, but the craft turned out to be a remote-controlled model.

The most spectacularly wrong sighting of this type that I can remember occurred a few years ago in Seal Beach, where a man told police he had been looking through his telescope when he spotted a heavily damaged pink Corvette being pounded by waves near the pier.

A check revealed that the stranded vehicle was a Barbie toy. The resident admitted he was just learning to use his telescope.

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miscelLAny: Just when I thought my coverage on the subject was complete, Ginger Durgin pointed out that my list of celebrity kids with unusual names should have included Michael Jackson’s son, Blanket.

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATimes, Ext. 77083, or steve.harvey@latimes.com.