The Pershing Square apparatus that was recently...

The Pershing Square apparatus that was recently dubbed the Civic Center’s “Most Mysterious Object” by the L.A. Downtown News has been identified. Turns out it’s not a barbecue, a religious shrine or a sculpture left by ancient astronauts.

“I did the thing,” Hollywood artist Bob Wilhite told Only in L.A. “It’s a wind instrument.”

Wilhite, 44, explained that the Gyro/Cone, as the thing’s called, was constructed for a music festival in the park in 1985. “It was set up so that the gyroscope on top would spin and wobble every three minutes,” he said. “And the vibrations and the spinning noise would be amplified by the cone.”

Alas, a few months after its debut, “a bearing went out and it started to make more noise than the city wanted, so they disconnected it.” The former managers of Pershing Square “didn’t do a good job of maintaining it,” said Al Nodal of the Cultural Affairs Department.

Nodal and Wilhite hope to reactivate Gyro/Cone in either MacArthur Park or Barnsdall Park. But even while it’s been lifeless, the sculpture has served a purpose, Wilhite believes.

“I tried to make an object that had curb appeal,” he said. “I figured a lot of people wouldn’t want to walk in the park so I wanted something that they’d see as they drove by, something that would make them say, ‘Whoa! What’s that?’ ”

“The Best Places to Kiss in L.A.” sounds like an invaluable book for summertime visitors. But author Paula Begoun’s heart doesn’t really seem to be in it.

She writes that when she asked people where they would go for romance in L.A., some answered: “Hawaii’s pretty romantic.”

She dismisses the downtown area as “an urban blight,” though she recommends the Biltmore Hotel’s high-ceilinged bar, especially if you only have to walk there “from your (hotel) room.”

Mostly her book--published in Seattle--lists restaurants and hotels; she finds none in the San Gabriel Valley worth kissing in, by the way.

Even some of her compliments might give quake-wary tourists pause. In recommending Topanga State Park, she says, “You can almost feel the ground move under you. . . .”

Begoun also sprinkles quotes throughout her book, including one from “Thomas Wolf.” The big, bad author?

The Times has been mailed malathion short stories, malathion poems and malathion songs and, now, malathion, period. A resident evidently taped a postcard to the outside of his house during a recent spraying and then dispatched it to us.

He asked that the newspaper “send back the malathion.” But we could only find a couple of specks. We don’t intend to check the post office’s lost and found, either.

Dale Lacasella of Glendora was tuned in to an FM music station Friday morning, so she figures that’s why the newscaster mentioned gubernatorial candidate Dianne Feinstein’s position on the aerial spraying of “flute flies.”

miscelLAny:

The Southern California Joint Pole Committee has heard from people who mistakenly thought it was involved with Polish people, political polls and even the sport of polo. Actually, the obscure organization keeps records on the more than 20 local utility companies that share the area’s 1 million power poles.