Imagine L.A. as an outpost of eastern...

Imagine L.A. as an outpost of eastern California and Needles as prime oceanfront property.

You could have gotten that impression from the outline of the state that was printed on some Democratic ballots last week.

California was flip-flopped. Talk about The Big One!

Contacted about the upheaval, one official in the secretary of state’s office rationalized at first that the error “was probably intentional as an identifying mark to keep someone from duplicating the ballot.”

Yeah, right.

However, when it was pointed out that the L.A. County registrar-recorder had dug up some Democratic ballots with California right side up, the official himself flip-flopped and admitted there was a mistake.

Republican and nonpartisan ballots, which carried other symbols, weren’t affected by the problem.

At day’s end, no one in the secretary of state’s office had an explanation.

Bearers of the misprinted Democratic ballots can flip-flop the stubs and hold them up to the light to observe the correct shape of California. While you’re at it, don’t forget to hold the primary winners up to the light, too.

A for-rent ad placed by the owner of a North Hollywood house sounds like a great deal:

“$50 Week . . . TV, stereo, shower, phone, nr stores/bus.”

Especially if you don’t mind the other condition:

“Sleep on couch.”

OK, gossips, listen up:

A story that said that Elizabeth Taylor was(a) romantically involved with a 23-year-old aspiring actor and (b) underwent surgery over the weekend was a hoax, the star’s publicist said Monday.

The prankster outwitted the media by using an elaborate scheme involving the answering service at La Liz’s public relations firm, Chen Sam & Associates in New York.

“It is apparently somebody using my (telephone) service,” Sam said of the original reports. “It is a hoax. . . . We are going to conduct an investigation.”

Freeway Obstacle du Weekend: A rooster, loose on the Glendale Freeway.

Which reminds us:

The Times received a press release the other day that said:

“The chickens sold around the world by Kentucky Fried Chicken last year, if laid head to claw, would stretch from the Earth to the moon and 42,000 miles beyond, the company said today.”

No, this release wasn’t a hoax.

misceLAny:

The only saint ever to come to L.A. was Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, who praised the city’s “perfect scheme of electric trains which connect Los Angeles with its suburbs” during a 1905 visit.