The Harmony Is Missing for Neighbors Stuck Over Songs in the Key of Strife

The police log of the Saddleback Valley News carried this complaint from a Lake Forest resident: “Informant states her neighbor is banging on a common wall with a shovel because he does not like her music.”

It can get tense when your neighbor doesn’t dig your music.

Unclear on the concept: Hugh Margerum of Santa Barbara snapped a sign that must have been posted by an overly optimistic gardener (see photo).

A real topsy-turvy effort: You might have suspected that the recent Times photo of an upside-down “Simon-for-Governor” sign symbolized the Republican challenger’s snafu-filled campaign (see photo). But George Bromberg of North Hollywood preferred to look at the positive side -- that the sign standing on its head could be read as “Nowis Simon.”

And, he added, “If you continue to the bottom of the adjacent sign, it reads ‘Nowis Simon Governor.’ ” I think Bromberg should go into politics as a spin doctor.

Coffee? Tea? Batteries? I read that two companies are working hard to develop cell phones that airline passengers could use during takeoffs and landings without interfering with the plane’s electronics. The FAA currently bans such practices. I don’t know about you, but I’m nervous enough during flights without a cell yakker in the next seat. But that’s not my biggest fear. No, my biggest fear is not that passengers will become addicted to cell phones but that pilots will -- on takeoffs and landings.

A different kind of travel: Scott Wilson of Long Beach passed along an ad for a machine that could seemingly transport one to a far distant time -- before cell phones, even (see accompanying).

Very funny: Brian Monahan of Venice spotted a sign at the Ontario Mills mall that would seem to taunt shoppers who can’t find their vehicles (see photo).

They don’t need no stinkin’ elevators: Of the more than 350 entrants in the Ketchum Downtown YMCA Stair Climb to the Top, the nimblest was Holger Beckman of Redondo Beach. He scaled the 75 flights of stairs in the Library Tower in 10 minutes and 10 seconds.

The charity event was a bit less colorful this year because another entrant, Tim Winter, did not compete in his Spiderman costume as he did in 2001. But he did make three climbs -- “just because I enjoy it,” he told the L.A. Downtown News. Then there was Connie Yuen, who placed first in her age division with a time of 17:34. Yuen is 62 years old, I mean, young.

MiscelLAny: In case you were wondering about the photo in Wednesday’s column of a “Posthumus Tax Cuts” sign next to a building labeled “Wilbert Burial Vault” ... It really wasn’t about cutting taxes for the dead.

Bob Patterson of Alta Loma and Dan and Joan Leb of Long Beach explained that the Republican candidate in the Michigan gubernatorial race is Dick Posthumus. I’d like to say that Posthumus is dead-even with his opponent, but he’s the underdog.

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LA-TIMES, 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]