“What’s wrong with this picture?” is a...

“What’s wrong with this picture?” is a game you can’t help but play with the cover photo of Fodor’s 1991 L.A. tour guide.

Among the several buildings missing from the dated skyline shot of the City of Angels is L.A.’s tallest, the 73-floor First Interstate Tower with its distinctive crown and controversial, floating “I” logo. FIT opened two years ago. Oh well, at least City Hall is pictured.

The book’s text offers some surprises, too. It sings the praises of three local radio personalities who no longer have shows, recommends Santa Monica’s Second City Theater (which shut down last year), and reveals that there’s a “50% chance that (Raiders boss) Al Davis will move his team to Oakland.” (That issue has been settled, or does Fodor know something we don’t?)

The most curious dining endorsement is the SS Princess Louise, which Fodor says, “stays afloat with a piano bar and a good restaurant” in L.A. Harbor.

Actually, the Princess Louise filed for bankruptcy in 1988 and was towed away in 1989 . . . after sinking.

Extremely Wet Roads Advisory: While we’re on the subject of tourists, we’ve always wondered how many visitors spot the sign off the Long Beach Freeway (see photo) and decide that Santa Catalina is the place for them because it’s accessible by automobile.

Despite Arco’s publicity efforts, numerous motorists seem confused over the eye-catching (if not eye-distracting) electronic scoreboards on the north and south faces of the downtown Arco Center off the Harbor Freeway.

The abbreviation “LBS.” preceded by a changing eight-digit number has sparked various theories: It’s an ad by a diet-plan company listing the number of pounds its customers have supposedly lost . . . it’s a pro-war statement advertising the number of pounds of bombs dropped by the U.S. military in the Persian Gulf . . .

Actually, it’s the number of pounds of pollutants that Arco says are not entering the atmosphere since the company introduced new, cleaner-burning gasolines.

Though the scoreboards will be taken down soon, the Downtown News hopes that they won’t become a precedent for further “tacky” skyline ads. The paper moaned: “What’s to stop Bank of America or Security Pacific from flashing numbers every time it lowers its prime rate?” We hesitate to add that the downtown Wells Fargo Center has an occupant that has also been known to post numbers:

McDonald’s.

List of the Day:

The phone number for the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1882 was relatively easy to remember. It was: 1.

Other phone numbers listed in L.A.’s first directory that year:

Evergreen Cemetery, 69.

Los Angeles Club, 38.

Pico House, 9.

Police headquarters, 30.

University of Southern California, 58.

In the 109 years since, USC has added almost 800 more lines.

miscelLAny:

The senior performer at the Ralph Parsons Insect Zoo in Exposition Park is Maggie, a 19-year-old, red-kneed tarantula. Officials say the furry critter has allowed more than 10,000 visitors to hold her over the last decade without ever losing her temper.