A 21st century robbery attempt but with a 19th century twist

Such incidents weren’t that uncommon in L.A. say 150 years ago, but it had been awhile since police were notified of an attempted robbery by horsemen.

Officers went to the scene, at Hoover Avenue and 117th Street, where a motorist explained that “three men on horseback moved into the street, causing his vehicle to bump one of their horses,” reported the June issue of the Thin Blue Line, an LAPD newspaper.

“They tried to extort $500 out of him and then one of them jumped in his car and tried to leave in it.” But the intruder had a problem.

The newspaper explained: “It’s always embarrassing ... when you can’t drive a stick [shift] and then you have to get out and pretend that you didn’t really want the car anyway.” The three horsemen trotted off after warning the victim not to call police. But he did. When the riders spied a cop car trailing them, they broke into a gallop but gave up after three blocks. The officers had more horsepower.

Dueling encumbrances: Fred Kornfeld noticed that a street sign and a pavement sign were having a disagreement in West L.A. over just what to call a certain rise in the street (see photo).

No points for subtlety: On a visit to Pennsylvania, Ray Berg spotted the billboard of a doctor whose phone number left no doubt as to his specialty (see photo).

Quite a concession: Writer Hank Rosenfeld saw an ad for a new Landmark theater complex in West L.A. that boasted, among other things: “Over 40 Concession Items.” “When was the last time anyone counted?” Rosenfeld asked. “Is that really a selling point for a movie theater? You got your popcorn, your drink, your Jujubes, your Good ‘n’ Plenty....” He said he could just imagine a moviegoer at the concession stand complaining, “That’s it? No nachos or sushi. Man, this theater’s lame. I ain’t seein’ movies here anymore.” Of course, Rosenfeld himself needs only two items, besides the drink.

“I like to put my M&Ms; in my popcorn,” he revealed. “It’s an old trick I learned in North Dakota. You get a surprise chew every now and then.”

In a pickle: Gershon Keissar, 65, a white-bearded transplant from Israel, received a phone call from his grandson in Florida. “Grandpa, I saw you on MTV!” the young man said.

It was true. Keissar, a student in an acting workshop for older adults in L.A., was selected to appear on “The Andy Milonakis Show,” a comedy that celebrates weirdness. Keissar was asked to portray a man who attacks Milonakis with a pickle, which he did.

Then Keissar improvised -- he ate the pickle on camera. And he discovered that comedy can be a grim business.

Keissar recalled: “The director said, ‘Cut. What are you doing? That wasn’t in the script.’ I said I was destroying the evidence. The director said, ‘What if we have to shoot another scene?’ He asked the prop man, ‘Do you have more pickles if we have to shoot again?’ The propman said, ‘Yeah I got five pickles,’ but they decided to use that scene.” Glad the pickle wasn’t wasted.

miscelLAny: The acting workshop for senior citizens is sponsored by the L.A. Unified School District and is free (phone number: (323) 900-3500). Energetic instructor Adrienne Omansky has found jobs for her students ranging from a boxing spectator in “Ali,” to a corpse in TV’s “Six Feet Under,” to a commercial in which a man (Earl Schuman) is sweet on an unenthusiastic cow (see photo).