March 27, 1958

A man driving east on Melrose Avenue about three weeks ago around 6 p.m. turned left into an alley near Western Avenue.

He was stopped by a gendarme and given a citation for violating Sec.
544 A of the vehicle code–illegal turn. The motorist didn’t agree with
the officer and said so.

The other day when he appeared in traffic court he was prepared to pay
the fine and forget it. He can’t afford the time that pleading innocent
would entail.

BUT INSTEAD of
the usual routine he was informed a formal complaint had been filed
with the city attorney’s office charging him with the offense and
giving a more detailed account of his alleged derelictions.

It stated (take a deep breath) he "willfully and unlawfully turned such
vehicle from a direct course and moved right and left upon the roadway
when such movement could not be made with reasonable safety and without
giving an appropriate signal of his intention to turn such vehicle
continuously during the last 100 feet traveled by such vehicle before
turning, when there were other vehicles which might have been affected
by such turning movement."

Our man took a look at the amended charge and became a tiger. It
happens he is employed by the Motor Vehicle Department and knows
something about the rules. He whipped out his big, fat Motor Vehicle
Code and pointed out to the judge that it is a violation of Sec. 739.2
for a police officer to alter or add to the charge as written at the
scene of the alleged violation. The judge agreed and set a date for the
case. Incidentally, the motorist spent from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. in traffic
court getting his point across.

And so, in this corner, Irate Citizen. In this corner, Majesty of the Law.


ONLY IN Santa
Monica — A man and his wife recently decided to sell their home. They
listed it with a real estate firm, meanwhile sought another.

A house-for-sale ad in last Sunday’s paper caught their eye. It was
just what they wanted. Moreover, the same real estate firm that was
acting as their agent was handling it. You know the rest. A salesman
drove them to their own home.

Mighty potent adjectives the boys use.

SHORT SHORT STORY — At
7 a.m. the other day a man was changing a flat tire in the right lane
on the Hollywood Freeway outbound near Santa Monica Boulevard. It would
have been safer for him to have moved his car off the freeway, onto the
siding, But obviously he was too disgusted to give a darn. He was
wearing shoes, socks–and a knee-length maroon bathrobe.

ONLY IN HOLLYWOOD — A
girl filling out an employment application in a theatrical agency
Monday looked up and asked another girl, also filling out a blank,
"What date is it today?"

"It has to be the 24th," was the reply, "because Wednesday is Oscar day and that comes on the 26th, remember?"

AROUND TOWN — Remember
the recent panel showing Carmichael, ax on shoulder, saying fiercely,
"I didn’t get any coffee but at least I got my dime back"? Well,
they’re posted on every coffee machine at Hughes Aircraft … A
postcard from Paul Drus contains 228 legible, pencil-printed words.
Anyone want to try for 456? Or is everybody busy engraving the U.N.
Charter on the head of a pin? … Youngsters can be embarrassing. Robin
Gee, 4, of Palmdale insists she "flushes" the toaster … Don Quinn’s
definition of a greedy agent: A hog that lives high on the ham … A
trash box on Beverly Boulevard near June Street had the Christmas
wrappings of at least a dozen liquor bottles strewn on top. What a
party that must have been Imagine people still Yule-tiding.