Rose Bowl officials have rejected Jim Purol’s...

Rose Bowl officials have rejected Jim Purol’s request for a one-day ticket to sit in all 104,091 seats of the stadium for charity.

But he’s not discouraged. Next he’s going to ask the Coliseum, which may have a lot of spare time--and empty seats--on its hands.

Purol, 38, wants to break the record he set/sat at Michigan Stadium, where he sank into all 101,701 seats and raised several thousand dollars in the process.

A member of Pasadena’s governing Board of Directors called his request “stupid.” (Plus, the august arena is busy, since it will soon be hosting a flea market and off-road vehicle races.)

Luckily for Purol, his talents aren’t limited to sitting. He’s also puffed on 152 cigarettes at once (“to show the stupid side of smoking”), stuffed an entire large pizza in his mouth (“everything on it but anchovies”), and played the drums in an underwater band.

If no stadium welcomes him, he has other mountains to scale.

“I might drive from New York to L.A. in reverse gear,” he said. “The world record’s 30 days. I think I could make it in three weeks.”

The L.A. Library Assn. is holding one of its biggest events of the year Thursday night and among the notables who aren’t expected to be seen are Century City businessman Ronald Reagan, authors Ray Bradbury and Joseph Wambaugh and director Oliver Stone.

There’s a reason. It’s the third annual Stay Home and Read a Book Ball.

Patrons are asked to save the money they would have spent on buying a ticket to a fancy dinner, renting a tuxedo, etc., and instead donate it to LALA, a support group for the L.A. Public Library.

Among those who praised last year’s Stay Home Ball was author Norman Cousins, who marveled: “I don’t remember when I’ve been to a better event.”

Lest we should be accused of editing the witty Robert Benchley, Thursday’s column should have said that when he fell into a pool at the old Garden of Allah hotel, he uttered: “Get me out of these wet clothes and into a dry martini.”

It’s been transformed into a pumpkin at Thanksgiving time. When the Dodgers won the World Series (remember back that far?), it became a baseball. Now, the storage tank at the Unocal refinery in Wilmington has been dressed up to resemble the world globe in honor of Earth Day.

The forecast for Unocal’s Earth, as you can see from the accompanying photo, is usually:

Cloudy.

Hummmm.

Michael, Row the Boat to Court . . . .

The original Highwaymen singing group has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit in L.A. against Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson, who now call themselves the Highwaymen.

misceLAny:

Parking rates at the Citicorp Plaza downtown are $2 for 20 minutes (and $20 for all day), compared to the 5 cents that Andrew Pansini charged in 1917 at one of the city’s first automobile lots on Olive Street. Five cents was Pansini’s all-day rate.