Former Cabdriver Takes His Geography Issue to the Streets

Reader Andy Adler wants a little street justice for Southern California.

He contends that one local roadway was unjustifiably omitted from the “Weird Street Names� chapter of a new book by Brandt Maxwell.

Gasoline Alley (Victorville) and Jokers Wild Lane (Grass Valley) received recognition. But there’s no Easy Street in the tome “The Largest U.S. Cities Named After a Food and Other Mind-Boggling Geography Lists From Around the World.�

There’s one in the Highland Park area, though. Adler remembers when he was on Easy Street.

“I spent several hours there many years ago when I was a cabdriver,� he said, “sitting in a broken-down cab waiting for a tow. The tow driver couldn’t find the street. I guess it wasn’t Easy for him!�

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Nothing’s easy about traffic here ... : Including trying to read the warning signs, such as one snapped by Irene Walker (see photo).

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Turning north ... : “Your comments about unusual street names reminded me of some my brother-in-law created when he was working on a development in San Luis Obispo in the 1970s,� said Craig Walker of Orange. “Two of them were Della Street and Lois Lane. Needless to say, the city planning commission had other ideas and renamed them all.�

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Buying a car can be painful: As if you needed proof, check out the online directions that Ralph Morin spotted for one dealership (see accompanying).

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Well, they say that age is just a state of mind: A reader found a day-care provider who handles a really wide variety of “kids� (see accompanying).

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A story with wings: It was July 2, 1982, when a North Hollywood truck driver named Larry Walters, seeking to fulfill what he called a “dream,� strapped himself to a lawn chair that was attached to several weather balloons. Then he lifted off from San Pedro, reaching an altitude of about 16,000 feet. He landed by gradually shooting out the balloons with a pellet gun.

Now, more than two decades later, his feat is recalled in a new book by the late George Plimpton: “The Man in the Flying Lawn Chair and Other Excursions and Observations.�

Of course, fascination with Walters’ feat has never really faded.

Over the years, it has inspired two theatrical plays. And it figured into an episode of TV’s “Malcolm in the Middle,� in which smart-aleck brother Reese catches religion and tries to float up among the angels. Reese, being Reese, eventually crashes his lawn chair through the stained-glass window at his church.

Ironically, Walters didn’t live to see the spin-offs from his achievement. He committed suicide a decade ago.

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miscelLAny: The other day, I quoted a chapter in Maxwell’s above-mentioned book that said Orange (population about 128,000) is the largest city in the nation named after a food. Jim Wilson of Nuevo wrote: “Who forgot Buffalo (pop. about 280,000)?� While we’re at it, was Boston named after the cream pie?

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATimes, 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].