Brahms meets “The Birds.”Hecklers are one thing,...

Brahms meets “The Birds.”

Hecklers are one thing, but a blackbird landed on the head of KUSC’s Gail Eichenthal in the midst of her preconcert radio broadcast at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion the other night. After a few moments, the stealthy intruder set sail--only to circle back and graze her forehead.

“People don’t realize how dangerous classical music broadcasting can be,” Eichenthal cracked. The bird also decamped for a period at her podium, prompting Eichenthal to pause in her talk on Brahms and ask her unscheduled partner, “Don’t you agree?”

(“I think I saw it nod,” spectator Shirley Howard said later.)

One sympathetic member of the audience attempted to capture the fowl in his coat but failed. Others opened the auditorium’s doors, and after several minutes, the creature blithely exited to cries of “Bravo!”

On her morning program the next day, Eichenthal played a tribute to The Bird That Stole the Show--the Rossini overture to “La Gazza Ladra” (“The Thieving Magpie”).

Today marks the 107th anniversary of Los Angeles’ first telephone book. The city of about 12,000 inhabitants had a three-page directory that listed 92 numbers, including those of 22 residents, eight physicians, four horse stables, one real estate man and no lawyers.

The Call of the Suburbs:

Homeowners had complained that a “big white dog” was running wild near the Lake Encinco Reservoir, even pausing at one point to eat a pet rabbit.

The Department of Animal Regulation set out a “bring-’em-back-alive” trap, and Lt. Fred Michael was more than a bit surprised to find that the varmint was a white wolf. “That’s the first wolf we’ve ever found in the (San Fernando) Valley, that I know of,” Michael said.

The wolf seemed tame, and officers were seeking out the owner, explaining that no one--not even singer Michael Jackson--can get a permit to keep such an animal in the city.

Animal Regulation was, however, thankful that dogs, coyotes and wolves usually prefer to stick to their own kind for romance.

“If she interbred with all the coyotes we have out there,” Officer Michael said, “we might have a hell of a new kind of coyote around here.”

“Buddy, can you spare a dollar?” is a not-uncommon line on the streets of Los Angeles. But a driver was hit with that plea in a mid-city gas station the other day--by another driver.

“I need it for gas to get to West L.A.,” the mooching motorist explained.

“I don’t have any cash,” his mark said.

“You could put it on your credit card,” the moocher pointed out.

“OK,” said the mark, unable to dispute such logic.

It’s the home of the world’s largest white elephant--the permanently grounded Spruce Goose--and now Long Beach can also lay claim to housing the world’s largest bed.

The Acme Mattress Factory unveiled the 40-foot-by-25-foot cradle (sleeps 40) Friday.

The king-and-his-royal-court-sized mattress owes its existence to a television program, explained co-owner Ellen Boles. “My husband and I saw this show about a 40-foot-long salad,” she related, “and we thought, ‘Why not a big bed?’ ”

Naturally, the Boles will seek immortalization of the vessel in the Guinness Book of World Records. And then what’ll they do with the bed?

“Gee,” she said, “we hadn’t thought of that.”

The times, they have a-changed:

Adjourning Friday in memory of the late Abbie Hoffman, the counter-culture leader who delighted in mocking government bodies, was . . . the Los Angeles City Council.