Go See John, Go See John, Go...

Go See John, Go See John, Go See John:

In a moving ceremony, L.A. City Councilman John Ferraro turned over a 1960 fire truck to New Zealand authorities, who’ll transport it to a transportation museum in Auckland.

Perhaps the New Zealanders would also be willing to take in an L.A. firm that’s having difficulty relocating.

What a catchy name the company could adopt:

The Auckland Raiders.

Personalized traffic enforcement isn’t always appreciated.

Some drivers, for instance, have been angered by those Pasadena signs that proclaim: “Smile--Speed Enforced With Photo Radar.”

Now comes a CHP officer who hands out pens that say: “Caught by California’s Finest--Officer Scott McCann.”

The reaction of recipients, he says, has been positive.

“My friends and relatives really like them,” said McCann, a seven-year veteran who patrols around Gorman in the Tehachapis.

And ticketed motorists?

“Oh, I haven’t given any to them,” he said. “I’m afraid they’d think I was trying to be a smart aleck.”

Comedians Plus Learn From Us--the traffic school that does try to make ticketed motorists smile--issued a grim courtroom objection Thursday to a proposed Department of Motor Vehicle policy.

Comedians Plus frowns on the DMV’s idea of listing traffic schools by their state license numbers rather than by their names.

The DMV said it was only reacting to non-comic traffic schools and non-comic judges who complained about the names. A DMV rep testified: “The department has its own interest in preserving the dignity of the process.”

The DMV rep didn’t say whom he was referring to, but we know that it couldn’t have been such pillars of industry as A Free Pizza For You-Comedians Too, Whee-L Make U Laff, and L-Carro-Loco-Cheap-O Traffic School.

Retiring County Supervisor Pete Schabarum made no secret of his contempt for journalists, especially three locals he referred to as That Little Sonofabitch, That Nasty Broad, and That Jackass.

It came as a surprise to some USC alumni, then, when Schabarum recommended as his replacement Superior Court Judge Gregory C. O’Brien.

O’Brien graduated from USC with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and was once editorial director of the Daily Trojan.

Schabarum apparently dismisses O’Brien’s involvement with journalism as a youthful indiscretion. We say “apparently” because Only in L.A. didn’t attempt to contact the supervisor, fearing what nickname he might be holding in reserve for your correspondent.

And, now, from Thomas Lo Castro of Simi Valley, the winner of this week’s Malathion Poetry Contest:

Approaching helicopter

Hide fly, hide

Run man . . . run!

Frantic cities,

Sprayed, sprayed, sprayed,

Our rights waived, waived, waived!

Lo Castro would have won for the poem’s title, alone:

“Die, Die, Medfly?”

MiscelLAny:

An estimated 9,000 New Yorkers move to Southern California each year--about one an hour. Some of them admit they like L.A.