Southern California is the Land of Lincoln...

Southern California is the Land of Lincoln for Charles L. Brame, an Abe-look-alike who has portrayed the 16th President on TV as well as at numerous local schools and community functions.

Lincoln, of course, used to chop his own wood. When Brame needed some new cabinets, he took the 20th-Century approach and made a $463 purchase at a Home Depot store the other day. Afterward, he noticed that a clerk had mistakenly credited his account for that amount.

“What we did was give him the cabinets and the $463,” store manager Bill Gray confirmed with a laugh. “Quite a bargain.”

True to character, Brame notified the store about the error, Gray said.

“It was the right thing to do,” Brame explained later.

After all, he has to stare at Honest Abe’s face in the mirror every morning.

The Railsplitter would also be proud of Ramon Arnaga, who recently took care of the $11.37 bill that he has owed The Times since 1967.

Arnaga, a retired maitre d’ and voice coach who lives in Hollywood, wrote:

“The fault is mine . . . by my having placed your correspondence in a suitcase with the hope of taking care of things. . . . (But) it so happened that the suitcase went on a trip to the French Basque Pyrenees and did not return to L.A. for 22 years.”

Reached by phone, Arnaga explained further: “I loaned it (the suitcase) to a nephew who moved back there (southern France). I kept saying, ‘I’ll be over, I’ll be over.’ But I never did go. Finally, my nephew moved back.”

Arnaga sent The Times a check for $27, adding: “I hope that takes care of the interest.”

The explanation, alone, is worth the interest, Ramon.

Burglary detectives watched as two men in black rubber diving suits parked their car in Van Nuys and disappeared into the darkness with an empty knapsack. They returned with a full knapsack.

The booty? More than a thousand wet, slightly used golf balls that the divers had allegedly fished out of a pond at the Van Nuys Golf Course.

The men were arrested on suspicion of theft, but Police Detective Richard Weaver admitted: “We thought we really had something a little more serious going on.”

She’s 105 now, but Lottie Hicks of Alhambra still likes to celebrate her birthday in a big way.

She took her first helicopter ride at 101, sailed aloft in a blimp at 102, was a guest on the Johnny Carson show at 103, and rode on Home Savings’ Rose Parade float at 104.

What’s left?

Lottie, who reached 105 on Jan. 30, was a guest on the Pat Sajak show the other night. But that isn’t her big birthday wish for this year.

“She wants to meet President and Mrs. Bush,” said Raphael Cordero of the American Centenarian Committee, a nonprofit charity that honors people who’ve reached the century mark.

Cordero said that his committee and the Sajak show are “working on her wish.”

No hurry. Just make sure it’s set up before she makes her 106th birthday wish.

Joan Dektar noticed that three mailboxes at the Van Nuys Post Office have been decorated in honor of Valentine’s Day.

Obviously, the Postal Service wants to show that, even though it has proposed raising the rate for first-class stamps from 25 to 30 cents, it does have a heart. At least, in that zip code.