The Panama operation only reinforces L.A.’s reputation...

The Panama operation only reinforces L.A.’s reputation as a trend-setter.

Aside from the $1 million reward for strongman Manuel Noriega, the Pentagon also announced that it would pay $150 for each firearm surrendered by one of Noriega’s troops--the same type of offer that City Councilman Nate Holden made earlier this year to owners of assault rifles.

But Holden, who’s apparently a better fund-raiser than the Pentagon, offered $300 per rifle.

Best noontime show in the Civic Center Thursday was staged by an L.A. police helicopter that made repeated takeoffs and landings on the roof of City Hall East while a daredevil stood on the craft’s skids.

What was going on? Had the search for Noriega turned north?

Actually, said an officer in the LAPD’s air support division, it was a training exercise designed to perfect “rooftop insertions.”

Asked who the daredevil was, the officer said with mock seriousness: “A fool.”

You may have heard that thousands of Lockheed Aircraft Corp. employees in Burbank watched an SR-71 Blackbird spy plane make three final fly-bys the other day before it was retired for budgetary reasons. Well, they weren’t alone. Michael McDermott of Metro Traffic Control reports that numerous motorists on freeways slowed to a halt to watch, jamming up traffic all over the Valley.

F. Scott Fitzgerald said there are no second acts in American lives. Obviously, he wasn’t thinking of L.A., where almost anything can be reborn as a movie set.

Defunct high schools and hospitals have been turned into film stars. And, the Hollywood Location Co. recently sent out flyers announcing:

“Now Available for Filming! The Herald Examiner Building.”

The 66-year-old headquarters of the recently disbanded newspaper is considered an architectural masterpiece, from the Spanish Colonial exterior with its domed towers to the ornate lobby with its figurines and carved marble columns and arches.

The message of the building’s agent is clear:

You liked the newspaper--you’ll love the movie!

“Gee, I never thought I’d hear ‘Reseda’ mentioned in a song,” marvels Pam Faherty, a native of same.

She’s referring to the Tom Petty song, “Free Fallin,’ ” which salutes the seldom-celebrated suburb with this tender lyric:

“It’s a long day living in Reseda/ There’s a freeway running through the yard.”

Reseda might feel snubbed in Petty’s “Free Fallin’ ” video, though. In several scenes, West L.A. was used as a stand-in. As Randy Newman would say: Santa Monica Freeway! We love it!

Let’s see: How else can we commercialize the fall of the Berlin Wall, now that efforts of various entrepreneurs to sell it piece by piece seem to be fading?

No problem! A press release from L.A. radio personality Susan Block, who “loves unusual twists on the theme of matchmaking,” says she’s going to try to bring together L.A. and East German singles on the air.

Yes, welcome to another edition of “Fraulein Finders.”