Only in L.A. / Steve Harvey

The summer-like temperatures seemed to throw L.A. slightly out of kilter Friday:

--There was the case of the two tots who disappeared from their apartment around 2 a.m., prompting a frantic call to police from their mother. The youthful escapees were later found splashing about in inner tubes in a nearby apartment house’s swimming pool.

--Several drivers phoned radio stations during the day to report a strange obstacle--bees--near where the Artesia and Harbor freeways cross. In that area, at least, it was a bad day for convertibles.

--And, finally, city firefighters rushed to an address in Venice but they found no evidence of an emergency. The call they had received warned of:

“Artist stuck on the side of the building.”

Ronald Reagan, meanwhile, adopted a rubber duck. But this move, at least, made sense: The creature will be entered in the Great Southern California Duck Race, a charity event for Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.

Plenty of other toy quackers are adoptable at $5 apiece by phoning 800-753-DUCK. Organizers plan to release 50,000 of them in a watery racecourse off Santa Monica Pier on May 19.

Entrants are eligible for more than 200 prizes, including free use of a jalopy from Ugly Duckling Rent-a-Car. A step down from Air Force One, but. . . .

Somewhat overlooked in the controversy over the appropriateness of the 19-foot-tall Seven Dwarfs on the side of Walt Disney’s new headquarters in Burbank are the structure’s rooftop domes (see photo). One Disney source says they were inspired by Mickey Mouse’s ears.

Mindless TV shows are bad enough, but they deal a double insult when they try to exploit a geographical name.

“Sunset Beat,” which just folded after two episodes, was an ABC series about five cops posing as motorcycle gang members. On quiet Sunset Boulevard, yet! The very idea! It joins the list of such locally based flops as “The Baileys of Balboa,” a 1964 knee-slapper about two bickering skippers, and “San Pedro Beach Bums” (1977), described as “the misadventures of five knockabout young men on an old fishing boat.”

At least, “Malibu U.,” about a rock ‘n’ roll university on the beach, made an impact. The series quickly folded in 1967. But six years later it became reality when Pepperdine University moved to Malibu.

How much have newspapers changed in the last 30 years? Speaking at an L.A. Press Club tribute for retired editor Herb Krauch, age 93, Daily News sports columnist Joe Jares said:

“I recall a very dapper Herald-Express editor going to the window, putting a bet in a tin can, and lowering it on a string down into the alley (to a bookie).”

Noting how much newspaper people bet on horses back then, Jares said it’s only appropriate that the press club’s headquarters is the L.A. Equestrian Center.

The Sacramento City Council has ordered officials to come up with a nonsexist word for ‘manhole,” and KMPC disc jockey Robert W. Morgan conducted his own poll.

One listener found most of the nominees--”personhole,” “streethole cover,” etc.--too dull for glitzy Westside manholes. He suggested something with a French twist for that area:

“L’hole.”

miscelLAny:

The LAPD’s Wilshire Division station is on Venice Boulevard while the Pacific Division, which used to be the Venice Division, has headquarters on Culver Boulevard. Oddly enough, the 77th Street Division station house is on 77th Street.

GARY FRIEDMAN / Los Angeles Times

Rooftop domes on Disney’s new headquarters: C’mon boys and girls, do those really look like my ears?