It turns out that the identical Paul...

It turns out that the identical Paul Bunyans standing guard in front of a golf course in Carson, a gas station in East L.A. and a tire store in Van Nuys have hundreds of clones around the nation.

Not to mention a few big sisters.

Steve Dashew, whose fiberglass company gave birth to the 20-foot creatures between 1964 and 1974, recalled that the family of giants began when a Phoenix restaurateur wanted a large Paul Bunyan built to advertise his business.

Dashew wisely kept the mold.

A Nevada gas station dealer reported that his business doubled after he bought one of the statues.

Soon Dashew’s company was bombarded with requests for Bunyan varieties--spacemen, pirates, cowboys and Indians (for Mohawk gasoline). A Bunyan-esque gal, Miss Uniroyal, wore a plastic bikini.

“We were constantly making axes,” recalled Dashew, who now writes books on sailing. “Wherever we had a lumberjack, college kids would steal his ax.”

Stricter sign standards around the country doomed the next generation of Bunyans. But other originals remain in this area, including a King Midas at a Whittier muffler shop and a Frosty Man-turned-Sombrero Man at a Foster’s Freeze-turned-La Salsa restaurant in Malibu.

And where were all the oddball giants created?

Why, in Venice, of course.

Remember when those Oscars were being auctioned off in Hollywood last year?

Such probably won’t be the case with the statuette unveiled at the Carnegie Deli in Beverly Hills on Wednesday.

It really was chopped liver.

While we’re on the subject, Sylvester Stallone dominated the nominations released by the Golden Raspberry Foundation, which honors Hollywood’s biggest turkeys. Sly is up for Worst Actor of the Decade for a series of epics, including “Over the Top,” in which he portrayed a sensitive arm wrestler.

A hair-cutter can make it big in these parts.

There was Perry Como, the barber turned singing star. Then came Jon Peters, the hairdresser turned movie mogul.

And, now, Vidal Sassoon, the one-man hairstyling industry turned . . .

Mayor of L.A.?

Well, Sassoon recently told the Boston Globe that he wants to be the successor to Tom Bradley. Perhaps he stands a chance, since there’s no hair apparent (particularly not on the pate of city Councilman Nate Holden, who last challenged the mayor).

Santa Monica City College recently instituted a unique weekly break for all non-teaching employees, which is why anyone calling the school at mid-morning on Wednesdays hears this somewhat startling recorded message:

“Thank you for calling Santa Monica College. On Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. all college departments are involved in a campus-wide reading program. It is requested that you call back after 10:30 a.m. However, if this is an emergency, please call the campus police. . . . Thank you for calling.”

Now, shhhh.

Barely half the seats were filled Wednesday for the noontime rally of the county Task Force to Promote Self-Esteem and Personal and Social Responsibility in the County Mall.

The speakers included county Supervisor Mike Antonovich and state Assemblyman John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara).

The weather was cold and windy.

The rally was held outside.

You could call the poor turnout evidence of a lack of self-esteem among downtown workers.

Or of sound judgement.