Sighting Has Neighborhood Abuzz

With street crime rare in Laguna Beach, local police find themselves tending to other concerns of their affluent populace.

Just the other day, the Coastline Pilot reported this dramatic development:

“High Drive and Aster Street: Police investigated a sighting of a large brown bug with a striped abdomen at 8:09 p.m. After calling police, the reporting party concluded the insect was a Jerusalem cricket, based on information obtained on the Internet.” Luckily, police hadn’t yet evacuated the neighborhood.

Guide to Adventurous Dining: Today we’re reading the small print (see accompanying):

* Bacon wrapped around something that would be hard on the teeth (Neil Van Scoten of Santa Monica).

* Cereal for those looking for a substance less fattening than milk (Byron Anderson of Santa Maria).

* And another cereal that assures children it doesn’t taste like anything healthy (Will Rogers of Glendale).

And the “Duh!” award winner: Carolyn Galik of Downey was shocked to read what happens to a frozen food when it’s heated up (see accompanying).

Fine mess: It’s sad to read that two challengers to San Diego Mayor Dick Murphy claim the burg no longer deserves the title “America’s Finest City.”

Murphy, who is of course blamed for the alleged decline, says yes, it is too “America’s Finest City.”

The title, you may recall, was conferred upon San Diego by no less an impartial soul than then-Mayor Pete Wilson in 1972. He was trying to cheer up the locals after the Republican Party changed its mind about holding a presidential convention there.

I dunno. Maybe it’s time for San Diego to search for a new slogan, lower its sights a bit. Other cities have.

Paramount, for instance, no longer claims the highfalutin title of “Hay Capital of the World.” Perhaps San Diego could build a slogan around its climate, which I think all the mayoral candidates would praise.

After all, look at what “Tan Your Hide in Oceanside” did for San Diego’s neighbor.

If you have any ideas, I’d be glad to pass them on to the worried folks down there.

miscelLAny: TV show exposed! Yes, Long Beach police arrested a 20-year-old man who had allegedly “run nude around a ‘CSI’ TV film crew,” the Press-Telegram said. Sort of a “crime seen, investigation” situation, I guess. Obviously, I can use the next couple of days off.

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LA-TIMES, Ext. 77083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A. 90012 and by e-mail at [email protected].