In that clever parody of the Doo...

In that clever parody of the Doo Dah Parade--the Tournament of Roses version--Pepsi is avoiding the wet look this time around.

The company’s last float, as a press release gently puts it, “was unable to parade in all of its glory.” In fact, Pepsi’s “Luau,” which offered Polynesian swimmers, a 30-foot-long water flume and a waterfall, was believed to be the first Rose Parade float in 100 years to fail to make it to the starting line.

Road-tested before it was filled with water, it moved gracefully. But when all 16,000 pounds of the wet stuff were added to the 19,000-pound frame for New Year’s Day, the “Luau” displayed all the mobility of a roasted pig.

The “slosh factor,” one official explained.

A tow truck broke an axle trying to raise it. Another also failed. Rather than attempt to pull it up the parade route, the “Luau” was finally dragged ignominiously off onto a side street.

Pepsi has bravely returned with a float that celebrates Dixieland jazz.

There are no water flumes, no waterfalls.

Call it Pepsi light.

Talk about tough assignments: The Silver Lake Merchants Assn. is holding a contest among John Marshall High School students to see who can best improve the appearance of the area parking meters.

No hacksaws allowed.

Florence Savage received a phone call from an anonymous male who wanted to confirm that she lived at such-and-such address in Studio City. Next thing she knew, an envelope was left outside her door, containing her lost wallet and an unsigned letter.

The note said:

“You dropped this wallet directly outside your car door on a side street off Ventura Blvd. I picked it up. I was broke and needed money. That is no excuse for stealing, I know. But I did it with the belief that I would return the wallet with the cash ($125) that was in it to you. It’s taken much too long . . . but here it is. I hope somehow you can forgive me. . .”

What stunned Savage was that she had lost the wallet three years ago.

“I wish I could thank him for his holiday spirit,” she said Friday. “You know--he even returned 75 cents in change I had in the wallet.”

It’s Beethoven’s 219th birthday today, though his bronze figure in Pershing Square seems too lost in thought to notice.

The statue, commissioned and paid for by members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, was dedicated in 1932 and was the sight of one of Mayor Frank Show’s more memorable malapropisms. Shaw declared that it was wonderful that the city had such a splendid “sympathy” orchestra.

Marija Erika Schwepper, who calls herself “the No. 1 clairvoyant in Europe,” is moving to L.A.

Following Nancy Reagan, no doubt.

Schwepper’s press agent dropped off a packet of clippings at The Times and said, “She knows you’re going to want to do a story.”

She was right. We wanted to do a story, but needed a final Only in L.A. item.