Steve Harvey will be on vacation until...

Steve Harvey will be on vacation until Aug. 20. While he’s gone, this space will be filled with excerpts from the book “The Best of Only in L.A.,” just published by the L.A. Times Syndicate. Here are some items from the “Lifestyles” chapter.

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WHERE BAD HAIR DAYS ARE A REAL CRISIS: After taking up residence in affluent San Marino, Lori Levi received a welcome note from a dentist as well as a sticker on which emergency numbers could be written. There were spaces for physician, veterinarian--and hair salon.

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ARE YOU SURE WE’RE ALONE?--PART I: Patrolling the skies in KABC’s traffic helicopter, reporter Jorge Jarrin looked down to see “a couple in the throes of ecstasy on a blanket in what they thought was a secluded pasture off Mulholland Drive. We were probably only 100 yards off the ground. The guy jumped up and started doing the one-legged hop, trying to put his pants on.” The woman was a bit more relaxed, Jarrin recalled: “She jumped up and started waving to us.”

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ARE YOU SURE, WE’RE ALONE?--PART II: A couple made love on a ridge behind the Hollywood Bowl during the 1993 Playboy Jazz Festival, apparently unaware that hundreds of spectators had binoculars trained on them. One audience member noted that each time the duo “would change whatever they were doing, people would cheer them on.”

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REMEMBER WHEN SCHOOLS RAISED MONEY WITH CARWASHES? They did it differently one year at Franklin Elementary School on trendy Montana Avenue in Santa Monica. The donated items in a silent auction included a consultation with a fertility specialist, walk-on parts in two TV shows and a seven-day Caribbean cruise for two.

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SIT! HEEL! REFLECT! Twenty-five portraits of dachshunds by artist David Hockney hung on the walls of a gallery in Venice. A visitor, pleased that her male companion seemed to be showing interest in the art, confided to another spectator: “I’ve never taken him to an art gallery before, but he just had to see this show.”

Yes, her male companion was a dachshund.

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A RETURN TO NORMALCY OF SORTS: Tents erected on the front lawn of a house destroyed in the Northridge earthquake suddenly acquired all-too-familiar markings: Someone had covered them with graffiti.

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BRAINSTORM: Radio talk show host Joe Crummey produced a 30-minute video of his brain operation, including an interview with the surgeon. Said Crummey: “You can look inside my head for $22.50.”

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THOSE CAVIAR STAINS CAN BE MURDER: Alaska Airlines magazine asked the general manager of the posh Hotel Bel-Air why residents from million-dollar estates in the neighborhood occasionally check into the hotel. “Sometimes, they just don’t want to deal with the mess in their houses,” he explained.

miscelLAny:

Gay and lesbian vegetarians with a sense of humor formed a cooking group called Passion Fruits.