Long Beach, whose nervy slogan is “The...

Long Beach, whose nervy slogan is “The Most on the Coast,” boasts the most Italian-style gondolas and the biggest parked airplane in the nation as well as the oldest tattoo parlor. It also lays claim to the narrowest free-standing dwelling--the Skinny House, as it’s affectionately known.

The Tudor-style abode is 10 feet wide, just enough to accommodate double doors in the front. Talk about a “starter” house.

Located just north of 7th Street on Gladys Avenue, it was built by one Newton Rummond in 1932. He bet a friend he could squeeze a house into a 10-foot-by-50-foot lot. His creation was paid the honor of a mention in Ripley’s “Believe It or Not.”

Now the mini-mansion’s for sale--for $199,000. Fat chance, you may say. But real estate agent Mardella Newkirk points out that it is three stories tall.

And why is the current owner selling the Skinny House?

“He needs more space,” Newkirk said.

Believe it.

L.A.’s the Platz:

It seems only fair that the L.A. City Council should consider designating a part of Griffith Park as Berlin Forest. West Berlin, a sister city of L.A., long ago designated an expanse of its lawn as Los Angeles Platz. True, one doesn’t usually associate L.A. with verdant growth. But the German park does have a true L.A. touch: A parking garage underneath.

Downtown jury candidates peering at novels or crossword puzzles to take their minds off their surroundings met with a distraction the other afternoon. The TV set in the Criminal Courts’ waiting room was tuned to Channel 9--”Divorce Court.”

Grace Lyon of Burbank is getting her birthday wish from the American Centenarian Committee, a non-profit group that honors senior, senior citizens. She’ll attend a game at Dodger Stadium Sunday with a group of her friends. “I already feel like Queen for a Day,” she said.

Grace proudly confided: “You know, I am older than the Dodgers.”

She’s 101.

Six years can make for a big generation gap:

Actor Joshua Rudoy, age 14, visiting the Playboy Mansion with his family during a charity benefit for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, complained: “There’s no bunnies here.”

“Sure there are!” said Pamela, his 8-year-old sister, pointing to a four-footed critter bounding across the lawn.

Dan Bernstein, a columnist for the Riverside Press-Enterprise, is weary of seeing newspaper references to the Inland Empire as a sort of affordable feudal suburb for L.A. or Orange County wage slaves.

“Yeah,” he wrote. “Out here in the empire, we say, ‘Serf’s up.”’

miscelLAny:

L.A. lies to the east of Reno, Nev.