For those who prefer to skip the...

For those who prefer to skip the museum and go directly to the gift shop:

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is opening a retail outlet in the Century City Shopping Center this fall.

In addition to posters and stationery, reproductions of sculptures from the Met’s massive collection will be offered for purchase.

Also available will be museum memberships--for the old-fashioned folks who would rather gawk at the originals on 5th Avenue than spend all their time and money at the West Coast, Westside retail emporium.

Switching from Manhattan to Manhattan Beach, but keeping with the subject of art:

Those city-installed dumbbell sculptures that were heisted from a seaside bench last month still have not been recovered.

“It would be a surprise if they did turn up,” acknowledged Howard Spector, the community’s public arts administrator. “There was no reward put up this time.”

“DDumbbell,” consisting of two cast bronze 25-pound hand weights, was first stolen hours after being bolted down by city workers last September. The art piece was recovered that time with the help of a $500 reward. Police were on the lookout for any suspicious-looking hulks, possibly with hernias.

Add serial criminals: the mad manhole-cover lifter is still on the loose.

City sanitation officials report that 185 of the iron covers now have disappeared in little more than a week in locations ranging from Hollywood to South-Central Los Angeles.

With the total replacement cost exceeding $15,000, authorities are beseeching the public for help.

“If you see someone lifting a manhole cover, especially the ones in the sidewalk near the corner catch basins, please report the event,” says Sanitation Bureau Director Delwin A. Biagi.

Authorities surmise that the thief has been getting away in a vehicle. Each cover weighs 40 pounds. Police were on the lookout for any suspicious-looking hulks, possibly with hernias.

America’s most wanted: Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, who has shunned the spotlight since his defeat in the June Democratic primary for state attorney general, also skipped the National District Attorney’s Assn. conference in Kalispell, Mont., this past weekend. The session was held at a rural resort called, of all things, the Outlaw Inn.

Need a lift? Today marks the start of “Things Are Looking Up Week” in Los Angeles, in conjunction with the 1990 International Jugglers Assn. convention at UCLA. More than 1,000 prestidigitators are expected to be on hand for a slew of juggling-while-running races, consecutive-toss contests and an all-star comedy-juggling show. Police were expected to be in the audience, on the lookout for anyone juggling manhole covers.

Do city sign makers have trouble with heights?

After seeing a picture of a “Castle Hegihts Avenue” street sign in Only in L.A. last month, reader Steve Kipnis reports that he happened upon a sign in Hollywood for “Crescent Heihts Boulevard.”

miscelLAny:

Faith, Hope and Charity streets were once side by side in downtown L.A. But residents of the latter resented jokes about “living on Charity,” and it was changed to Grand. Faith was later renamed Flower. Hope remains.