Unemployed advertising writer Craig Copeland represented his...

Unemployed advertising writer Craig Copeland represented his most important client ever this week: Himself.

Laid off by a Beverly Hills ad agency, Copeland took up a five-hour residence at the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards while brandishing a sign that said: “Will write ad copy for food.” He included his phone number.

Passers-by seemed confused but sympathetic, he said, adding: “Some people even offered me money but I turned them down.”

Copeland, who sent out 500 resumes to land his last job, felt this personal approach might be more effective. And three advertising agencies have contacted him.

The “for food” line--a bit of imaginative ad copy--was not completely in jest. Copeland said that “to get my foot into the door, to show someone what I can do, I would work for food.”

But, he quipped, “A friend told me, ‘Before they hire you, tell them what restaurants you plan to eat at.’ ”

Even before Hollywood, sunbathing and freeways, people were bashing L.A. More than a century ago, a Hudson’s Bay Co. official described it as that “noted abode of the lowest drunkards and gamblers.”

Making fun of El Lay is now, of course, a national sport. The latest entry, in case you want to update your collection, comes from writer Ian Shoales, who referred to our fair, deal-cutting city as “The Queen of the Angles “ in the San Francisco Examiner’s Image magazine.

You can file that alongside such descriptions as: “Cuckoo Land” (Will Rogers), “Double Dubuque” (H. Allen Smith), “Stank of orange blossoms” (H.L. Mencken), “Queen City of Plastic” (Norman Mailer), “No more personality than a paper cup” (Raymond Chandler), and “Lozangeles” (Herb Caen).

Our favorite is the answer of the late heavyweight boxer Primo Carnera when asked his opinion of Los Angeles.

Carnera responded: “I knock him out in two rounds.”

Noting that Disneyland has raised its admission prices again--to $27.50 for adults and $22.50 for children 3 and older--Laura Goldman of Redondo Beach sends along a page from “A Complete Guide to Disneyland” (published in 1956).

The excerpt boasts: “The average cost of a visit to Disneyland is $2.29, which includes admission to the park, rides, amusements, souvenirs and parking.”

Comments Goldman: “Jiminy Cricket! Nowadays $2.29 won’t buy much more than a small soft drink in the Magic Gougedom--I mean Kingdom.”

And, finally: Wondering what to do with those 22 miniature Mounds bars you have left over from your trick-or-treating?

Believe it, or not, Vege-Match, a vegetarian singles group in Redondo Beach, could provide the answer at its Nov. 11 meeting.

“We’re holding a pot-luck,” President Marla Friedler said, “for vegetarians who love chocolate.”

miscelLAny:

Motorcar speed limits at the turn of the century in L.A. were 8 m.p.h. in residential sections, 6 m.p.h. in the business district and 4 m.p.h. at unmarked intersections.