It’s the Camaro That Thinks It’s a Speedboat

Tired of inching your way down Pacific Coast Highway in the traffic?

Soon, you’ll be able to take a right turn into the ocean. A prototype of a 2002 Camaro that doubles as a watercraft is on display at the Southern California Marine Assn. boat show in Newport Beach. Price: about $150,000 (windshield wipers included).

And wouldn’t you know it? The manufacturer, Watercar Inc. of Newport Beach, is working on a second amphibious vehicle.

A seagoing SUV.

So, yes, the day may be coming when you can’t escape SUVs even on an ocean cruise.

Creatures of the sea (cont.): Interesting, the differing descriptions of fish you can find (see accompanying):

* Respected (submitted by Kathleen Sheldon of Santa Monica).

* Coquettish (Jane Bush of Palm Desert).

* Less than delicious (Jim Mittelman of L.A.).

* And, finally, dangerous (Bennett Mintz of Chatsworth).

Flashback: I mentioned that during the great streaking craze of 1974, a Pasadena judge adapted a 19th-century English saying when he advised three young practitioners not to doff their clothes “in the streets or you’ll frighten the horses.” That prompted Dick Jackson of Arroyo Grande to recall “an incident in London where a chap who had streaked at a cricket [match] told the magistrate that he did it to win a 10-pound bet. The magistrate fined him 10 pounds.”

Flashback (cont.): The website www.streakerama.com offers many anecdotes about this daring sport, including the case of an Australian man who was caught running down the street while naked but was not charged. He explained to the officers that he had just jumped out of a casket, having been declared dead.

As if moving day weren’t traumatic enough ... : The police log of the Laguna Niguel News carried a call from a resident who reported that she had “hired two movers who are now in a physical fight.” Watch the lamps!

Mondegreen of the Day: For our latest ode to miscommunication, Phil Meengs of Lake San Marcos writes:

“Years ago, our daughter came home from kindergarten after rehearsing ‘Go Tell It on the Mountain’ for the Christmas show and informed us that her group would be singing ‘Goat Tail on the Mountain.’ ”

miscelLAny: I noted that San Diego, which long ago adopted the slogan “America’s Finest City,” is the home of the highest gas prices in the country. Which caused USC’s David Bondelevitch to muse: “Does this mean San Diego should now be called ‘America’s Refinery-est City?’ ”

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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., L.A. 90012, and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.