It’s a sign of the times that...

It’s a sign of the times that Nordstrom department stores has been solemnly promising in its advertisements that “you won’t find any Christmas trim in our stores until after Thanksgiving is over.”

The Alliance for Survival is holding a different kind of Christmas toy party in Santa Monica on Saturday (well, it is two days after Thanksgiving.)

At noon, the other Santa--Claus--will pull into Palisades Park, at the corner of Ocean and Colorado avenues, and give away teddy bears to anyone who turns in their war toys to him.

It’s the kids’ version of L.A. City Councilman Nate Holden’s offer to buy back the automatic rifles of area residents earlier this year.

The week before the recent opening of “Back to the Future Part II,” time played some tricks off screen.

First, a giant billboard digital clock on Sunset Boulevard that was counting back the hours to the film’s opening stopped a few days early and had to be repaired.

Then, writes attentive viewer Joyce Clark Shults, the night that NBC played the original “Back to the Future,” it followed up with “a promo on the 11 o’clock news for the Carson and Letterman shows with film clips from the previous night’s show (which I had seen). Whoever was in charge must really have got sucked into the movie.”

Ever wonder why Pacific Bell shed the term “information” for 411 calls in favor of “directory assistance”?

The company says the problem was that it was often being asked, not for telephone numbers, but for general information.

For instance, three of the more memorable questions thrown at operators were:

“How deep do you bury a dog?”

“How do you cook a roast?”

“What beats five-of-a-kind and a Royal Flush?”

Cannes, France, is the sister city of Beverly Hills--what a glamorous family--and to celebrate the relationship, Mayor Michel Mouillot flew over here the other day.

He attended a Beverly Hills City Council session, at which lawmakers wore formal attire in honor of the occasion. Afterward, everyone trouped off to a gala at the Beverly Wilshire that featured such celebrities as George Lazenby, the one-movie James Bond, and Arthur Kassel, owner of the Beverly Hills Gun Club.

“Zsa Zsa was there, mingling with the crowd,” reported publicist Michael Sands.

Perhaps she was lobbying for a special showing at the next Cannes Film Festival of her unforgettable 1959 hit, “Queen of Outer Space.”