Something smelled, all right:Photographer Henk Friezer heard...

Something smelled, all right:

Photographer Henk Friezer heard this tale from an L.A. cop. During a recent rainstorm, a man was driving down an Eagle Rock street while sticking his head out of the car window. He wasn’t driving erratically, but it still seemed like odd behavior in a rainstorm. So the cop pulled him over.

The explanation was simple. The driver had just bought several bags of fertilizer at a K Mart and couldn’t bear the fumes. A few rain drops on the noggin were a small price to pay to avoid the odor.

LITERARY CRIME TOUR: Ah, summer. It’s always meant the beach--and murder mysteries--to us. For those with similar tastes, we present you with a coastal roundup, north to south. Be careful not to step on any bodies.

* “A is for Alibi” (among others) by Sue Grafton (set in Santa Barbara).

* “Voodoo Ltd.” by Ross Thomas (Malibu).

* “North of Montana” by April Smith (Santa Monica).

* “The Big Fix” by Roger Simon (Venice).

* “Last Dance in Redondo Beach” by Michael Katz.

* “Half a Mind” by Wendy Hornsby (Long Beach).

* “Dead Man’s Dance” by Robert Ferrigno (Seal Beach).

* “Tapping the Source” by Kem Nunn (Huntington Beach).

* “Just Another Day in Paradise” by A. E. Maxwell (Newport Beach).

* “Laguna Heat” by T. Jefferson Parker

* “Finnegan’s Week” by Joseph Wambaugh (San Diego).

We’re still waiting for the great Oxnard suspense novel.

STICKY SITUATION: Eagle-eyed Jerry Cowle of Pacific Palisades noticed that a household lubricant makes an unusual crime-fighting claim (see accompanying). Not a bad opening scene for a potboiler, either.

FIRST, SIGALERTS--NOW, SURFAlERTS?Who wants to waste time sitting on a surfboard in the water, waiting for a wave that may not come for several minutes? Now a company called SurfLine will call or page you for as little as $5 per month when the surf’s up. But not all moondoggers are happy about the service.

“The idea of a million yuppies and their three friends getting a page when the waves are good is absurd,” a Dana Point man wrote Surfing magazine. “If you think it is crowded now, think of how it will be when the new program takes off. . . . Every kook in the county will be at the beach.”

UNOFFICIAL ECONOMIC INDICATORS: We didn’t know how bad the real estate situation was until Harry Hultine of La Canada Flintridge sent in a clipping from an area newspaper. It showed a photo of three agents posing with trophies they had been “awarded for sales of $5 in the year.”

miscelLAny A display of prominent alumni of L.A. city high schools at the Board of Education headquarters on North Grand Avenue includes a photo of attorney Arthur Snyder, who was recently indicted for allegedly conspiring to funnel thousands of dollars in illegal campaign funds to local and state politicians.