WEED MY LIPS: THIS GUY MADE A REAL HASH OF GETTING HIS PHOTOS DEVELOPED

Sometimes a gardener can be too proud. Take the case of the L.A. man who
was arrested after he took a roll of film to a drugstore. Seems the photos
documented the growth of his marijuana crop.

Traveler's note: After reading mentions here of the villages of Barf,
England, and Orgy, France, Judi Birnberg wrote: "I drove through a
Portuguese town called Chaos, although things seemed quite peaceful at the
time." Speaking of unusual names, Fred Miller was motoring through rural
Pennsylvania when he saw a street sign that was in need of a checkup (see
photo).

From Barf to blah: While Sara Olberg of Tujunga noticed a somewhat
derisive page heading in a San Fernando Valley phone directory, I'm sure
the publication wasn't implying that the Valley is a less-than-exciting
place (see accompanying). Twins separated at birth? Catherine Karklyn
snapped a shot of two banks that occupy the same building on Fairfax Avenue
and could be having identity crises (see photo). California National Bank
moved in after it bought People's Bank.

Webbed sight: It was Marilyn Cagle who notified this column about the
mother duck that brazenly walked across the San Diego Freeway with a dozen
young ones in West L.A. one recent morning. While a California Highway
Patrol officer was halting traffic for the feathery jaywalkers, she was
amazed at how calm commuters were. (By "she" I mean Cagle; the mother duck
seemed to show no concern.) Anyway, Cagle got to wondering afterward what
happened to the creatures.

She phoned the CHP and was told that the officer had released the ducks on
their own recognizance to the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area in Baldwin
Hills. That proved a bit of an adventure too. "After the officer drove
off," Cagle said, "he heard some peeping in his car. Evidently, one of the
ducklings had hidden under the seat, so he had to return and let him out
with the rest."

Dog daze: Marilyn Stein, an athletic-looking resident of Pacific Palisades,
was shopping there when a woman asked her: "Who's your trainer?" The woman
meant who was the trainer of Stein's dog, Sammy. This is an L.A. trend that
Stein hadn't heard about: dog trainers who are making house calls.

What struck Stein as somewhat absurd is that Sammy is hardly a designer
dog, being a mutt--and one who is not all that slim. In fact, Sammy
required no training to learn a favorite trick: begging at the dinner table
for scraps.

miscelLAny: I thought The Times picked an appropriate day--Monday, April
15--to publish Tom Maugh's fascinating piece about King Scorpion of ancient
Egypt. It was Scorpion who may have ordered the development of writing more
than 5,000 years ago. Why? One theory holds that he wanted to record the
payment of taxes by his subjects. I wonder if the king allowed extensions?