You might have figured that the recent...

You might have figured that the recent fire that destroyed the Pan Pacific Auditorium in the Fairfax district was easy to spot, inasmuch as the flames shot an estimated 200 feet into the air and the smoke from the blaze could be seen from as far away as the Civic Center and Silver Lake.

Not so, says County Supervisor Mike Antonovich.

He’s proposed a law to require all buildings three stories and taller to paint their addresses on their roofs because, he says, the Pan Pacific fire “pointed out the need to improve our ability to fully respond to major emergencies.”

Antonovich explained: “I’m advised that the Fire Department’s aerial units had a great deal of difficulty in locating the key buildings because there were no addresses visible to the aerial units.”

How the numbers could have been seen through the smoke and flames was left unexplained.

Stars and Gripes:

At a time when numerous people are expressing outrage over the Supreme Court’s recent decision protecting the burning of American flags, Thomas (Ski) Demski of Long Beach finds it ironic that he has to appear in court Thursday because he’s too patriotic.

He insists on flying a giant flag, which measures 47 feet by 82 feet, on a 132-foot-tall pole in his front yard. City authorities, and some of his neighbors, say it flaps too loudly.

Demski noted that a Las Cruces, N.M., man was recently found guilty of refusing to take down a noisy 3-by-5-foot flag. The Las Cruces patriot hasn’t been sentenced yet. But Demski joked: “If he gets 30 days I guess I’ll get 20 years. My flag’s 250 times as big as his.”

Demski, an unsuccessful mayoral candidate who campaigned on a motorbike with a parrot on his shoulder, will hoist a second American flag to coincide with his appearance in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

It’s the one that says: “Don’t Tread on Me.”

The Supreme Court flap moved Supervisor Kenneth Hahn to recall when, as a Los Angeles City Councilman after World War II, he helped push through an ordinance banning desecration of the American flag.

Hahn took the action because, at the time, “there was a surplus of American flags, which used-car dealers bought and cut into pieces for streamers.”

A common complaint of executives is that, when it comes to practicing their putting stroke, the shag carpets in their offices are too bumpy.

Now there’s an alternative. The Pacific Concourse, a business park just south of Los Angeles International Airport, will feature an outside putting green made of real grass as well as a chipping area. The chip-shot practitioners naturally will be stationed farthest from office windows.

A convention of 911 emergency operators gathered at the Queen Mary recently--presumably they remembered to keep the phones back home manned in their absence--and swapped stories.

Convention speaker Arnold Shapiro, producer of the CBS television series, “Rescue 911,” was told that one burglar broke into a store only to discover it was protected by ferocious guard dogs. What to do? He dialed 911 and asked the police to rescue him.

It was not known if the store building had a number on top.

A motorcycle show benefiting the Los Angeles Mission will rumble into view today through Aug. 30 at Spice, a Hollywood Boulevard nightclub.

Name of the event: “Harleys for the Homeless.”