This Windshield Wiper Runs the Risk of Swiping Your Car Too

Jean Ratajczak of Huntington Beach was behind a car that “was weaving back and forth. When I pulled up in back of him, I realized what had caused his problem: He was washing his windows. As he attacked the right side of the windshield, the car would drift to the right. And it would drift to the left when he did the left part of the windshield. He was sure polishing up a storm.”

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TRAFFIC SIGNS (CONT.): I’m declaring an intermission in the debate over the meaning of the Parisian sign that shows a slash mark through an image of an adult holding a child’s hand. Instead, let’s consider a puzzler from Jay Berman of Manhattan Beach, shot in Canada (see photo). Berman wonders if the sign means it is permitted to float in the sky above one’s bicycle.

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DON’T SQUEEZE THE DURACELL! Patricia Bales of San Pedro saw an ad that might cause one to wonder if the batteries were supposed to be gentler to the touch (see accompanying).

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WHAT’S IN A NAME: Some companies and organizations whose names don’t necessarily mean what they say:

* Ant Painting Co.: I couldn’t get an explanation for the name. The Garden Grove company paints buildings, not insects. Too bad. As writer Cathy Franklin pointed out, it might have been the solution “to ridding Orange County of red imported fire ants (just paint ‘em blue!).”

* One Day Paint and Body: Commercials say the average job takes three days.

* Dollar Rent A Car: Offered a Volkswagen bug for $1 a day when it opened in L.A. in 1956. The cheapest current rate I could find was $30.99.

* Motel 6 chain: Founded in Santa Barbara in 1962, it derived its name from its $6-per-night charge. The rate is now more than $40 in the Southland.

* American Assn. of Retired Persons: To join you must be 50 or older, but you don’t have to be retired.

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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., Los Angeles, CA 90012 or by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com