Was it a hint to the county...

Was it a hint to the county Board of Supervisors? Tuesday’s meeting, which began at 9:30 a.m., dragged on for so long that at 5 p.m. the county security guards removed the outside metal detector and left.

It isn’t true, as some have alleged, that Los Angeles has no sense of civic identity.

After all, L.A.’s the place that offers the Chicago Pizza Works, Detroit Diesel Corp., Boston Deli, Philadelphia Red Fox Steaks & Hoagies, St. Louis Drug Co., St. Petersburg Art Gallery, Chicago Radio Syndicate, New York Bakery and Paris Fashion Wigs.

The name “Los Angeles” not only seems to lack a bit of magic in L.A., it’s practically nonexistent elsewhere in the nation, though a football team in Anaheim insists on using it.

One of the few exceptions is Los Angeles Jewelers in Miami. A nice tribute to our diamond trade? Not exactly.

“My name is Angel and my son is Angel,” Los Angeles Jewelers owner Angel Meana said in Spanish via telephone. “We are two angels. So we use the name, ‘The Angels.’ ”

Feeling left out because you weren’t considered for the jury in the Zsa Zsa Gabor trial? The firm of Acetta-Mosier, which is polling the public, will let you cast your vote for one dollar.

Phone 1-900-400-6281 if you find Zsa Zsa innocent of the misdemeanor charges growing out of her confrontation with a Beverly Hills police man .

Phone 1-900-400-6282 if you find Zsa Zsa guilty--even if it’s just for misdemeanor over-dressing.

Richard Leishman knew the minute he leaped out of the plane that his first parachute jump would be his last.

“I decided then that this was not for me,” the 27-year-old Torrance man said later--from his hospital bed.

Leishman, enrolled in a four-hour sky diving class in American Fork, Utah, was taking a 5,000-foot “assisted free fall.” At 4,000 feet, two instructors falling with him pulled his parachute rip cord.

But the chute malfunctioned and he was unable to control the parachute.

Traveling about 20 m.p.h., Leishman slammed feet-first into the ravine, breaking both legs. “It didn’t exactly tickle,” he said.

He’ll probably wear casts on his lower legs for about six months. But, in a few weeks, he hopes to return to his job at an aerospace firm here. And at least that old urge to sky-dive will have been quashed.

It’s unfortunate that the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau has withdrawn the city’s name as a candidate to host the 1992 Democratic National Convention, ostensibly because of the Democrats’ insistence that the host put up $15 million in goods and services.

No convention has played in L.A. since 1960 when the Democrats nominated John F. Kennedy at the Sports Arena.

The Freeway City last seriously wooed the Democrats in 1976, and it would have been interesting to see how many of the advertising pitches from that year would have been retained for the 1992 bid.

A few examples:

--”Conventions love sunshine. And L.A.’s got it everyday--cloud-free and clear.”

--”A composer of national repute (will) write a special song for the convention.”

--”Because L.A. has more cars per capita than any other major city in the world, there’s far more personal transportation available.”

--”The world-renowned Los Angeles freeway network shrinks miles into minutes.”

And brains into quivering masses.

Dining in the Beverly Hills Hotel recently, Barbara Rosenstein came across a menu item described as “an unctuous Madeira sauce with curry.”

“I asked the waiter if they realized that ‘unctuous’ means greasy,” she said, “and he said that the chef has a little difficulty with English.”

One can only hope that the chef spruces up on the language so that Beverly Hills doesn’t get a reputation as a haven for unctuous spoons.