More evidence of the tyranny of the...

More evidence of the tyranny of the automobile here in Freeway City:

Author John McKinney, who’s writing a guidebook on urban hiking, applied to the Department of Motor Vehicles for a personalized license plate that said, “WALK LA,” only to have the agency ask for an explanation of the “configuration meaning.”

The DMV noted curtly that it has the right to refuse any application “that may carry connotations offensive to good taste and decency. . . .”

Obviously, walking fits into that category in L.A.

OK, time to pick up the pace here. Domino’s Pizza held a “Toss ‘N’ Sauce/Two-Tray” contest in West L.A. the other day to show how quickly its chefs work. Here’s the good news: Domino’s plans no competition to show how quickly its drivers can move on the streets.

Dueling Signs Dept.:

If you’re in a hurry to catch a bus in Santa Monica, you might be in for a long wait at one stop, cautions Stuart Muller of Pacific Palisades (see photo).

Even though this is the rainiest July on record in L.A.--we’ve already been pelted with 0.13 of an inch--the drought goes on and on, sort of like the city’s police chief and mayor.

Here’s a ray of sunshine, if you’ll excuse the expression in these parched times.

In recent months, the city Fire Department has saved several hundred thousand gallons of water. How? When 500-gallon fire trucks come in for repairs, they must be emptied so that they can be hoisted for repairs. In the past, the wet stuff was merely allowed to run down the drain. The new policy is to save the water by pumping it into a tank truck.

Far be it for us to wonder why this principle occurred to no one at the department during the first few years of the drought.

In past summers, a preacher who wore a plastic cup on his head would show up outside City Hall and lecture passersby. Observers would debate whether it was a balancing act or a demonstration of the strength of glue on skin. Whatever, he hasn’t appeared this year--perhaps he’s out of cups.

But a number of other interesting zealots have been spotted in recent weeks.

One evangelist with a new type of delivery was seen near City Hall, alternating his exhortations with bird calls.

There was a sighting of a man pushing a 6-foot-tall wheeled cross down 1st Street. And, near Bunker Hill, a street-side evangelist recently drew stares as he orated while a ventriloquist’s dummy--apparently on its break--hung silently from his back.

miscelLAny:

A big step forward for the Long Beach Police Department, author Loretta Berner wrote, was the purchase of a motorized vehicle in 1915 to carry drunks to jail. Before that, a wheelbarrow was used.