Sewer workers throwing smoke bombs? Sounds like...

Sewer workers throwing smoke bombs? Sounds like the kind of activity that would have appealed to Ralph Kramden’s friend, Ed Norton.

But this wasn’t mischief. Sewer detectives with the Los Angeles Public Works Department went prowling beneath Van Nuys on Thursday. They were smoke-testing for leaks in the city’s pipes as well as unauthorized connections to the sewer system, which was once featured in the movie, “Alligator.”

No sooner had they set off one bomb than odorless smoke drifted up through a front lawn on not-so-dull Lull Street. The smoke indicated that the house had a leaky yard drain; yard drains are illegal because they allow rain and lawn water into the already overburdened sewers.

Public Works, which has examined 250 miles of the city’s 6,500-mile sewer system, has found numerous leaks so far. But no alligators.

Maybe this is the flag the U.S. Supreme Court had in mind:

The Beastie Boys, a bratty rock group, raised what a press release called “their own 15-foot-by-25-foot version of the American flag with the Beasties’ logo” at the Capitol Records Tower in Hollywood.

As for the real American flag, one of its biggest fans--Thomas (Ski) Demski--appeared in Los Angeles Superior Court Thursday. Demski insists on flying his 47-foot-by-82-foot Old Glory, though the city of Long Beach says it flaps too noisily.

The city was appealing a Municipal Court dismissal of seven misdemeanor counts against Demski on the grounds that the complaint was not properly filled out.

Thursday, the Superior Court’s four-judge appellate panel tentatively voted to reverse the dismissal and send the case back for trial. A final ruling is expected next week.

Stay tuned for the next Ski report.

It’s odd how you can look at something for years without really noticing it.

In the case of Cmdr. Bill Booth, the chief spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department, it’s a press release form that spells out how information is to be passed from officers to the media.

When a reporter showed Booth one warning contained in the form, he laughed and said: “I wonder if whoever wrote that knew what it meant. Fortunately, we haven’t obeyed it.”

The form warns officers not to give the media “information which may later be pertinent to the case.”

Using information supplied by United Press International, this column incorrectly reported that Superior Court Judge David Yaffe threw out a lawsuit by a female stabbing victim. (The woman had alleged that security was negligent at County-USC Medical Center because her attacker was able to sneak into the facility and stab her again.)

Actually, the suit was dismissed by Superior Court Judge Edward Ross, who ruled that no negligence was involved because “the only way to handle determined attackers is station police personnel by every citizen. . . . This is unfortunately the situation here.”

Unauthorized alterations of the HOLLYWOOD sign have ranged from HOLLYWEED (the work of a pro-marijuana group) to OLLIEWOOD (in honor of Ollie North).

Now comes the latest indignity--and from the industry itself!

The opening credits for a CBS television pilot depict the sign being blown up--and replaced by the show’s title, B-MEN.

Could be the start of a diamond-roots movement:

Frank Saraczewski of Hollywood reports he saw a bumper sticker that said:

“Free Zsa Zsa!”