Aside from quarterbacks Rodney Peete and Demetrius...

Aside from quarterbacks Rodney Peete and Demetrius Brown, hundreds of USC fans demonstrated their throwing talents during the Rose Bowl game. They tossed seat cushions at the University of Michigan band near half-time and rained more down on the field late in the game after a controversial Wolverine touchdown.

The cushions, handed out free to spectators before the game, were a promotion of a soft-drink firm.

Such outbursts aren’t unusual. Students elsewhere have been known to shower toilet paper down on basketball players from rival schools.

What surprised Rose Bowl personnel, however, was that some of the USC rowdies returned to the scene of the cushion crime Tuesday.

“Can you believe it?” one guard said. “They want the cushions back that they threw yesterday.”

The fans were denied custody.

City Councilman Joel Wachs asked Tuesday that a motion he introduced last year be placed in receive-and-file status--meaning, no one has to do anything.

It would, after all, be sort of late. The motion asked that no demolition permit be granted for the building formerly occupied by the Church of the Open Door and topped by the landmark sign JESUS SAVES.

While the motion was awaiting a vote by the council last year, a company bought the building, obtained a permit and demolished it.

Donors to causes often give so much for each mile a celebrity walks or jogs. The Ralph W. Schreiber Hall of Birds has a different concept.

Bird-watcher/author James F. Clements is asking for individuals to pledge anywhere from 1 cent to $2 per sighting that he makes on an around-the-world odyssey this year.

Clements is attempting to raise $500,000 to complete the construction of the Los Angeles County History Museum’s bird hall, named for the late curator of ornithology there.

In return, donors will receive mentions in a leather-bound book permanently displayed at the entrance. Clements’ goal is to break the world record of sighting 1,200 species in one year.

Forty years ago the controversy raging was whether, in the words of one newspaper, the Los Angeles City Council would be “a party to a cheap chisel at the expense of its citizens and visitors.”

In other words, would council members approve the introduction of parking meters. They did. And soon 400 of the curbside confiscators sprouted up along Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood.

Back then, a motorist could rent one for a nickel an hour.

Today, the meters charge as much as $2 an hour--a healthy increase of 3,900%.

City Councilman Nate Holden introduced a motion Tuesday to roll back the rates to 25 cents an hour, pointing out that the city has a parking-meter fund surplus of $30.7 million.

Robert Yates, the city parking administrator, opposes the move, maintaining that the meter fees reflect nearby off-street rates and that the surplus money is needed to build city lots, among other things. Holden’s proposed rollback, he said, would create a “circling the wagons effect . . . traffic would become more congested as people circled around and looked for meters.”

Evan Anderson Braude, while touring New Year’s Eve festivities around Long Beach, was “appalled” in just 10 minutes at an Ozzy Osbourne rock concert.

Explaining that he had to listen to a graphic recital of Osbourne’s sex life as well as a recommendation from Osbourne that audience members beat up homosexuals, Braude--who is also a Long Beach city councilman--said Tuesday that he would ask city attorneys to investigate whether the material violated obscenity laws.

Osbourne, you may recall, is best known for allegedly having bitten into a bat.

Late returns on Carie and Ron Simms, the Seal Beach couple who were married on a float during the 5 1/2-mile-long Tournament of Roses Parade:

“We kissed 55 times,” revealed the bridegroom, or once every 528 feet.