Today is Jan. 27, a date that...

Today is Jan. 27, a date that you instantly associate with one unforgettable event. No doubt most people can remember exactly where they were at 6:30 that evening in 1984, when the dramatic news flashed across the wires:

A smoke bomb burst during the filming of a Pepsi commercial at the Shrine Auditorium, setting singer Michael Jackson’s hair on fire.

Some Westside residents are a bit sad to see the demise of a neighborhood institution, the 42-year-old Picwood Theater--especially since it’s being leveled to make way for an expansion of the traffic-choked Westside Pavilion mall.

But the Cleveland Wrecking Co., which is carrying out the demolition, takes a more light-hearted view of the situation, as you can see from the accompanying photo. Nothing like a grinning executioner.

When City Councilman Joel Wachs proposed changing the name of Ventura Place to Sakharov Street in honor of the Soviet dissident, a group of residents came up with what they thought was a better idea.

They voted 65 to 0 to change the name of the Joel Wachs Senior Center to the Andrei Sakharov Senior Center, says Kurt Hunter, president of the North Hollywood Residents Assn.

What the residents didn’t know was that the Wachs Center was renamed the East Valley Center when it landed in Councilman John Ferraro’s district after reapportionment a few years back.

Wachs, incidentally, doesn’t have anything named after him now. Greg Nelson, his spokesman, was reminded of the political saw: “Don’t have anything named after you until you’re dead. Then they won’t dare change it.”

In “Departed (Yet Unlamented) ‘80s Restaurants,” critic Deborah Sroloff of the Reader’s Guide newspaper cheerfully sounds taps for some unfavorite eateries that failed to make it into the ‘90s.

She singles out the late 1520 A.D. on La Cienega (“this truly stupid, fake moyen-age palace of Henry VIII-inspired gluttony”), Gatsby’s on San Vicente (a nominee for “the Ugliest Buildings in L.A. Hall of Fame”) and Patrick Terrail’s Hollywood Diner on Fairfax (“disastrous attempt to cash in on the then-hot diner craze”).

Alas, we should also note that the ‘80s saw the passing of several landmark eateries, including such Sunset Strip institutions as Schwab’s (1932-1983), the Cock ‘n’ Bull (1937-1987), and the Columbia Cafe (1933-1983); one-time Wilshire stars, such as the Original Brown Derby (1926-1980), Perino’s (1934-1988) and Dolores’ Drive-In (1938-1981), and Hollywood’s Tick Tock (1930-1988).

Gone also are the two Googie’s (of downtown and the Sunset Strip), whose wildly angular designs and lavish use of glass walls inspired the use of the term “Googie” to describe ‘50s coffee shop architecture.

And, last, the most fatefully named eatery to disappear on the Westside: Fiasco.

You may recall that Joe Brito suggested here recently that Santa Monica could end its desperate search for an official city song by adopting the ‘40s tune, “When Veronica Plays Her Harmonica on the Pier at Santa Monica.”

Now, T.E. Foreman of Riverside writes:

“I remember it as, ‘When Veronica Plays Her Harmonica Down on the Beach at Santa Monica.”’

Next, we’ll learn it was really, “When Max Plays His Sax (etc., etc.). . . .”

Noting that L.A. hosted the first Super Bowl in 1967--and that Green Bay was one of the contestants--a Redondo Beach reader recalls a popular riddle of the time:

“What would happen if the Green Bay players celebrated a bit too much on the Sunset Strip?”

Answer: “(Sheriff) Peter Pitchess would pinch a pack of pickled Packers.”