OC Character’s Admission to Berkeley a Bitter Pill for Rejectees

The suspense is over for high school seniors who are (a) delighted or distressed that they were (b) admitted to or rejected by the colleges that they applied to. (I’m not in English class so I can end sentences with a preposition.)

Anyway, the Contra Costa Times reports that in the Bay Area some are still buzzing over the episode of “The OC” in which erratic glam girl Marissa Cooper is admitted to UC Berkeley. It’s fiction, of course, but still....

Referring to Marissa’s checkered past on the show, one e-mailer wondered on the www.televisionwithoutpity.com discussion board if Cal had established a “special scholarship for ex-anorexic, alcoholic, coke-snorting, pseudo-lesbian train wrecks who shoot their boyfriend’s brother. It’s an underrepresented minority. At Cal, anyways.”

Another viewer wrote, “As a Berkeley rejectee myself, it just sucks seeing that Marissa got into Berkeley and I didn’t.” But Tara Wheatland, a law student at Berkeley’s Boalt Hall, approved of Marissa’s acceptance, saying, “The show is due for a venue change and a new name: The AC -- Alameda County.”

Unreal estate: Ed Schlossman of Thousand Oaks ran across a firm that seems to specialize in property for smart-alecks (see photo).

Mystery of the Day: In China, Dave Kenney of Palos Verdes Estates noticed this sign on a small boat on the Yangtze River (see photo). What did it mean, readers? (Just to be safe, Kenney said he did not play hopscotch onboard.)

Before gas hits $5 ... : Phil Proctor of Beverly Hills saw a summary of a TV episode that sounded as though Earth were being taken over by gas-saving vehicles (see accompanying). And not a moment too soon.

You can’t stand anchovies as a bad pizza topping? Well, you might favor them over the chunky variety spotted by J. Sugino of L.A. (see accompanying).

No stinkin’ badges: The controversy over honorary badges given to pals and financial donors by law enforcement chiefs calls to mind an era in the 1940s and ‘50s when newspaper types were given similar trinkets by L.A. County Sheriff Eugene Biscailuz. One L.A. Herald-Express photographer, so the story went, was involved in a road-rage incident and thought he’d throw a scare into the other driver. He flashed his badge. The other driver looked at it, then flattened him with one punch.

miscelLAny: Ever wonder why those ubiquitous destination signs for film crews in downtown L.A. carry the same message in two positions (see photo)? (Please answer “Yes” so I can continue.)

They’re designed that way so they can be used on one side of the street or turned upside down and used on the other side. I didn’t know until I researched the matter, but then I’m not Berkeley material.

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES, Ext. 77083, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A. 90012, and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.