Expect to See Him Lurch to the Finish

When you’re one of 20,000 entrants in a race, it’s difficult to stand out. But computer teacher Charles Delvalle should have no such problem in the L.A. Marathon a week from Sunday.

Delvalle, whose head is shaved, says he’ll dress as the Uncle Fester character in the old “Addams Family” television series, complete with a lit lightbulb in his mouth.

If he wins the marathon, he might face a challenge for the prize money from Thing, the famous detached hand in the TV show.

Thing is riding on Delvalle’s head.

I don’t know about you, but I find satellite technology more and more inexplicable. Consider the snapshot taken by Neil Dixon at a Playa del Rey diner (see photo). Since it holds a hot dog, I assume the structure on the roof is a microwave dish.

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AHOY! A while back, a “Yaerd” Sale sign appeared in this space, followed some weeks later by a notice for a “Multy” Family Yard Sale. In that tradition of adventurous spelling, Mary Sutorius of Duarte passed along an announcement of what sounded like a neighborhood shipyard sale (see accompanying).

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UNUSUAL TEST DRIVE: A shiny new Lexus, which had just been delivered to a dealer in Van Nuys, was driven right off the delivery truck and out of the lot by a thief, police said. It was found abandoned a bit later. No surprise, since the car had just a few drops of gas.

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WE’RE WAITING, GUYS: The Los Angeles Clippers, winless in 14 games this year, use this slogan in their advertising:

“It’s Time to Play.”

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TEN YEARS AGO: Woody Allen came out with the movie, “New York Stories,” in which a voodoo priestess is advised to leave her small apartment in Manhattan and move to Southern California. “By now,” she is told, “you’d have a swimming pool and your own church.”

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WHICH REMINDS ME: The L.A. Daily Journal reports that members of the former Little Country Church of Hollywood unsuccessfully sued the new owner after they were ordered off the property. The members claimed that their late minister had guaranteed that they could use the facility “until Jesus comes again.” The court noted that it was not clear if the minister, a radio evangelist named William B. Hogg (a.k.a. Josiah Hopkins) ever owned the property in the first place.

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SIGALERT DU JOUR: A big rig spilled 80,000 pounds of beef on a freeway transition in Boyle Heights, giving new meaning to the term shoulder roast.

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ALL SOMETHING, ALL THE TIME: Adding to the list that appeared here, radio buff Tom Bratter points out that the first all-comedy station was KMDY (850) in Thousand Oaks. That format got the hook soon afterward.

And though KGIL (1260) had an all-Beatles format locally, L.A. missed out on one innovation. It was KRAK (1140) in Stockton that came up with an all-Sinatra format. The station no longer does it Frank’s way, though.

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So one of the new models for American Express is Tommy Lasorda, the former Dodger manager (see photo). You’ll notice he’s only been a member since 1996. Shows you what happens when you lose access to the clubhouse buffet.

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 dog sled at L.A. Times, Times Mirror Square, L.A. 90053.