Farming Lesson

    WRITER Martin Ragaway was snared immediately by two motorcycle officers as he made a left turn at a busy Sunset Blvd. intersection.  He didn’t think he’d done anything wrong and in the ensuing debate he protested, “I saw you and your partner there on the corner.  Would I deliberately make an illegal turn knowing you were watching?”

The smiling young officer said, “I suppose there’s a touch of masochism in all of us.”

Awed by his psychiatric touch, Martin foresees the time when drivers suspected of misbehavior will have to lie down on the curb and be analyzed on the spot.  By the way, he got no ticket.

 OR POSSIBLY CROW
The welfare secretary will
dine
On traditional turkey, I’ve
heard.
At least the cranberry mer-
chants
Would like to give him the
bird.
–JUNE R. DRUMMOND

    SPEAKING OF which, Shigeru Tomita, who presides over the fruit and vegetables at the Vicente market in West L.A., has posted this sign:  “Be brave. Live dangerously.  Eat more cranberries.”

QUOTE & UNQUOTE — Overheard exchange at Lockheed:  First engineer:  “I don’t know why I don’t get married — maybe I’m afraid to.”  Second engineer:  “There’s a scientific term for that –matriphobia!” . . . Profound and better economic truth uttered by a Hill Streeter named Ted:  “All a dime’s good for these days is to put with two other dimes to buy a pack of cigarettes.”

ONLY IN L.A. — A woman walked into a drugstore at Wilshire and Alvarado and asked, “Where is the drugstore that used to be on this corner?”  The staff is still spinning . . . For his birthday, female office employees at Baker Oil Tools, Inc., on E. Slauson Ave. greeted the boss, Charles Sullivan, with their hair sprayed different colors than normal — mostly gray so they could tell him I had gotten that way overnight, working for him . . . For sale ad in the North American Skywriter:  “Barbell set; pair of crutches; cemetery lots in Green Hills Park.”  Let that be  a lesson to everyone.

    AN OUTRAGED Reseda householder who received a property tax bill of $638 has put up his home for sale.  That amount, he points out, will pay the rent on a $100-a-month apartment, which he has selected, for six and one-third months.  You paying attention, supervisors?

AROUND TOWN — Pancake houses are springing up all over.  Newest is Uncle John’s $200,000 pancakery in Santa Monica —  20th in the chain started by John Dahl three years ago in Santa Barbara.  The question is, will pancakes replace pizza? . . . You’d never guess the name of the store detective at a Montebello market.  Yes, George Seemore . . . There are 45 coffee houses in the L.A. area, the Canyon Crier reports.