Sneaky Driver Was Sacked, Anyway

The discussion here of broken parking meters brought a note from Steve Cannata, who was reminded of “a story involving my good friend’s older brother, Nick. It seems Nick had a habit of carrying a paper bag with him in his car. On the outside of the bag, Nick wrote, ‘Meter Broken.’ He would put the bag over parking meters while he parked.

“One day Nick returned to his parking space only to find the bag under his windshield wiper with a note saying, ‘Look inside.’ When he looked inside, he found a parking ticket.”

Observed Cannata: “At least the cop had a sense of humor.”

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MEDIA CHICKEN FEED: Chicken Boy back in public? Chicken Boy (see photo), the Garbo of restaurant mascots? After 15 years in storage? It was an exciting prospect, to say the least.

A weekly newspaper announced that the 22-foot-tall fiberglass giant was “roosting in the frontyard of some local Chicken Boy fans (who prefer not to be named), high atop a hill in Silver Lake, where he can be seen throughout the district.”

Well, put your binoculars down. It isn’t true--yet, says Chicken Boy owner Amy Inouye, who rescued the feathered lad in 1984 from the roof of a defunct downtown eatery.

Inouye, a designer, started a Chicken Boy catalog of novelty items, ranging from a Chicken Boy Fez to Chicken Boy Beak Wear. But she’s never found a permanent home for C.B.

And while Inouye has talked with a fan in Silver Lake about installing C.B. at his house, it’s just talk right now. (What would the, uh, neighbors say?)

In the meantime, C.B.’s head is ingloriously housed in Inouye’s small studio while a friend keeps the creature’s body in her backyard.

“You know, [Times columnist] Al Martinez wrote that he dreamed Chicken Boy was on top of the Staples Center,” Inouye mused. “That would be nice.”

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REAL COMFORT FOOD: Meals as home furnishings--now there’s a concept (see accompanying). Susan West found a pork plate you could curl up on (unless the ad was supposed to say “chunks” instead of “cushion”). And John Yozzo came upon a snack bar that must serve up starchy items.

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WEATHER OR NOT: TV news anchors in L.A. generally don’t have to give weather reports, unlike the case with their radio brethren. So you could excuse a slight meteorological lapse on the part of Kelly Lange during her stint as a radio anchor on KFWB-AM (980).

At one point she said, “Sunny and warm today”--then quickly added the words “of course.”

Because it was, after all, nearly 7 in the evening.

miscelLAny:

Dotti Due of L.A. saw an ad for a house made of “naughty pine.” Naturally, it was in Hollywood.

Steve Harvey can be reached by phone at (213) 237-7083, by fax at 213-237-4712, by e-mail at [email protected] and by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, Times Mirror Square, L.A. 90053.