One Cellphone User Apparently Had More Pressing Concerns

Don’t condemn all thoughtless cellphone users, says Jim Elder of Calabasas. The other day, “I had just missed the elevator in my office building and pressed the ‘down’ button anticipating the usual long wait,” Elder recounted. “Lo and behold, the doors immediately opened and there was a woman busily talking away on her cellphone.

“She had, thankfully, forgotten to press the ‘down’ button when she entered and apparently was content to continue talking in an elevator going nowhere.”

Guide to Adventurous Dining: Today’s specials du column (see accompanying) include:

* Some pasta that figures to pop, not melt, in your mouth (Dean and Kathryn Gatons of Crestline).

* From a restaurant in Istanbul, some gritty shrimp as well as a bread dish that sounds painful (Phil Proctor of Beverly Hills).

Unclear on the concept: Mike O’Neal spotted a faulty English translation of “Cinco de Mayo” in Santa Monica (see photo). Then again, Hollywood holds its Christmas parade in November.

Dizzy land: It’s something of a tradition for Cal State Fullerton students to work part time at Disneyland. The Magic Kingdom is, of course, considered a model of amusement park efficiency. But it was the wacky moments of his employment there in the 1960s that CSF grad Lawrence Brooks recalled in a letter to the school’s Titan magazine. For instance:

* “The co-worker who got his tongue stuck on a frosted-up CO2 soft-drink regulator.”

* “The mouse that ran through the burger machine at the Tomorrowland Terrace food stand.”

* “And, the time a co-worker accidentally substituted industrial-strength cleaner for a similarly colored pink syrup in one of our drink dispensers (fortunately the suds tipped us off in time before anyone drank it!).”

miscelLAny: Dork Street, in Pico Rivera, first appeared on an L.A. County tract map in 1936. Its derivation is not known but a city staffer told Debbie Trunnell of the Whittier Daily News that it probably was named for a Dork who lived back then.

Whatever, it’s not exactly a prestige address for those on Dork. Said resident Mario Saucedo: “I had a resume kicked back because someone thought I was kidding.”

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATimes, Ext. 77083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by mail at Metro, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles CA 90012, and by e-mail at steve.harvey@ latimes.com.