Now for some good news: L.A. wasn’t...

Now for some good news: L.A. wasn’t hit by a 5-plus-magnitude earthquake Tuesday.

A few weeks ago, Menlo Park geologist Jim Berkland picked Jan. 22 as a likely date for a shaker. He based his his prediction on a number of factors, including:

Higher than normal tides, the “unusual earthquake drought of the last few months” and the “largest number of missing animals in the L.A. Times classifieds in the last 20 years.”

Missing-animal ads do seem to be on increase, we found, but then so do missing sunglasses ads.

Any longtime Angeleno (and, therefore, amateur seismologist) could have pointed out that a necessary component was missing Tuesday: “earthquake weather,” which folklore defines as still and unseasonably hot.

Berkland pointed out, by the way, that his predictions can be heard on QuakeLine, a 900-area code, toll number.

Thanks. But we’re more worried about the sunglasses problem.

List of the Day:

One reason why Midwest residents were more panicky over their earthquake forecast last December is that L.A. may have “earthquake droughts,” but no prediction droughts.

Surely, you remember where you were the day it didn’t happen:

1. May 10, 1988, picked by followers of the 16th-Century prophet Nostradamus.

2. April 10, 1981, 5:31 a.m., picked by Wall Street guru Joseph Granville.

3. June 9, 1980, picked by a Hollywood evangelist, who called a press conference to warn the world and then arrived 20 minutes late because he overslept.

4. Feb. 12, 1969, picked by devotees of the book, “The Last Days of the Late, Great State of California.”

Still to come: Oct. 17, 1992, picked last year by a Jamaican-born clairvoyant, who explained: “I have an antenna behind each ear and they throb when an earthquake is coming.”

Bella Jonassen of Long Beach spotted the sign of a local dentist (see photo) who specializes in working with a large--though fairly secretive--segment of the population.

Does K-SURF radio know about this?

Strange things pop up in the ocean after even the smallest rain storm in L.A. The talk o’ the water at Topanga State Beach the other day concerned a television set that floated up alongside a line of surfers. One regular--a long-boarder, in the parlance of the sport--was said to have entertained his companions by putting the set on the nose of his board and riding a wave in.

Totally tubular.

Robert Borden of Santa Monica found a restaurant in that People’s Republic that seems to prove that fast food has come a long, long way, baby.

miscelLAny:

In his “City of Quartz,” author Mike Davis says there is no evidence that antelope ever roamed the Antelope Valley, though some were resettled there after World War II in an effort to make the area live up to its name.