Appearances are important in Lawndale, the city...

Appearances are important in Lawndale, the city that once tore the artificial turf from medians on its major thoroughfares because rival burgs were calling it “Astrodale.”

Nor did City Councilwoman Carol Norman’s three male colleagues like it when she took to blowing a whistle to signal her desire to speak during council meetings--before an audience of cable-TV viewers, yet.

The soft-spoken Norman was angry because of the breakdown of the desk-top electronic system she used to signal the mayor when she wanted to speak. Norman escalated her campaign next by appearing in a red firefighter’s hat with a revolving red light on top.

On Thursday night, her foes introduced an ordinance that would outlaw “ringing bells, blowing whistles, displaying banners, flashing lights and . . . other auditory or visual distractions” during council sessions.

It not only passed but gained the approval of Norman, who pointed out that her electronic signaling system has finally been fixed.

Plus, she still has one weapon in reserve.

“If it (the breakdown) happens again,” she said, “I’m just going to wave an American flag.”

A shapely TV set with a pair of motorized arms, a “Pig Descending a Staircase” artwork and an ant farm shaped like an Egyptian tomb are among the illustrations in “Motion Motion Kinetic Art,” a new book by local artists Jim Jenkins and Dave Quick.

Jenkins and Quick have had showings in numerous galleries, including L.A.’s Museum of Neon Art. Baseball fans may recall the Quick work that featured a miniature tarpaulin running over a baseball player while a voice shouts, “Vince look out”--a re-creation of an actual accident involving St. Louis ballplayer Vince Coleman.

The controversy is heating up over Long Beach’s new logo--an artsy symbol with ocean waves set against a backdrop of skyscrapers.

The Grunion Gazette pooh-poohed a poll in the rival Seabreeze newspaper that found that Beachites dislike it by a 2-1 margin. One Seabreeze reader said the logo, which won out over more than 100 other entries in a public contest, “looks like Long Beach is sinking into the waves after the next earthquake.”

The Gazette said Long Beach needs one “immediately identifiable” symbol, pointing out that the city’s welcoming signs “show some kind of silly bird” and the park signs “feature a droopy palm tree.” Besides, the Gazette added, think where we’d be if McDonald’s mogul Ray Kroc had listened to critics of his logo. Imagine a world with no golden arches.

OK, it’s a swell gesture for California Pizza Kitchen to announce that it will donate more than 1,000 pizzas to the needy. But its press release painted sort of a messy picture: “Santa’s bag will be filled with pizza rather than toys . . . “

Did you notice that the Noriega Hotline was established the same week that Foster Farms established a service for cooks called the Turkey Talkline?