Maybe He Means L.A. Ranks No. 1

You have to admire Mayor Riordan as a guy who welcomes a diversity of opinion. In the reception area of his office there’s a giant photo that shows a smiling Riordan at the start of a bicycle race with a couple hundred other pedalers suitably attired in helmet, tight pants, etc. Most of the competitors are waving in a friendly manner to the camera, with the exception of one black-bearded bicyclist off to the side. This scruffy fellow is giving a one-fingered salute.

SUCH CYNICISM: Henk Friezer of Eagle Rock noticed a directional sign for crews shooting a movie that is apparently about people who sometimes stretch the truth (see photo). How unfortunate the sign would be adjacent to the downtown Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce building.

NOW FOR SOME REAL CANDIDNESS: Terri Abbott of La Crescenta came upon a classified ad placed by an employer who is frank about the job (see excerpt).

AVOCADO SLIP: Howard Seelye, a spokesman for the state Avocado Commission--yes, there is a state Avocado Commission--was not pleased to see a reprint of an ad for “Half Avocados� in this column.

But he did solve the mystery of why a market would seemingly advertise the fruit--or is it a vegetable--by halves. It was a misprint.

One of Seelye’s “biggest challenges,� he said, “is to get people to spell Hass avocado correctly. This includes not only growers, but food markets and consumers. Everyone seems to want to spell the word ‘Haas.’ � Until now, he added, he had never seen it spelled “Half.�

The developer of this variety, by the way, was Rudolph Gustav Hass, who owned a small ranch in the 1920s. Hass isn’t around anymore, but no telling how angrily he’d react to the misspellings. He was, after all, a postal worker.

FURTHER PROOF THAT TIME IS RELATIVE: After this column’s dramatic disclosure that the 24 Hour Fitness salons are not open 24 hours a day, Ned Conklin of Manhattan Beach sent along an ad placed in the South Bay by a 4 Day Tire Store. This outlet does business Tuesday through Saturday. 4 Day, as the ad boldly declares, is “open 5 days.�

ANDY VS. LAUREN: The recent discussion here of the longtime legend that Andy Williams’ voice was used in a song performed by Lauren Bacall in the 1945 movie, “To Have and Have Not,� raises the questions about what the principals say.

Bacall has always denied it. But what about Williams? The Times’ Todd Everett, when he was a music critic at the old L.A. Herald Examiner, once asked Williams about the rumor.

“His answer (and I paraphrase),� Everett says, “was that he and his brothers were under contract to the studio at the time, and that he was indeed called in to record the song for use if Bacall’s vocals weren’t worthy.

“But the answer remains cloudy. Williams added that he’s not sure which version was used and (gentleman that he is) said that he had never seen the film.�

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As she went through her mail one day, City Council aide Sharon Delugach noticed that she had received a brochure inviting her to enroll in a seminar “to de-junk your life. . . . Let go of your ‘pack rat’ mentality. . . .� Then she noticed that her mail included a second, identical brochure. When she threw them away her desk was less messy.

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.