There's a grammar problem on street signs in Los Angeles. It involves a busy Westchester street with a name that means "scissor." Not "scissors." Just "scissor."

La Tijera Boulevard will take you from the airport to the Baldwin Hills. But you need two "tijeras" to make a pair of scissors. Barbara Marinacci, who wrote the book California Spanish Place Names, says there are several theories about La Tijera.

"Well, it could be scissors, and it could be also like a water channel, I believe, or a blade, and it comes from the name of a rancho that existed right in that area: the Rancho Cienega O Paso de La Tijera."

The name translates roughly as "Swamp Ranch or Scissor Pass." Some say the two paths that crossed the Baldwin Hills looked to early Californians like a pair of open scissors – which still doesn't explain the grammar problem. Today, those paths through the hills are known as La Tijera and La Cienega boulevards.

(airdate: 5/16/2009)