The shipment of several hundred boxes of...

The shipment of several hundred boxes of condoms was supposed to go to Whittier College, which was holding a safe-sex program.

“But the delivery people got the wrong address,” said college spokesman Yuko Sakamoto. “Instead, the shipment was delivered to an 89-year-old man who lives in the community. When he saw what it was, he said something to the effect, ‘I can’t use them.’ ”

The matter was straightened out when someone noticed the designation, “Attention: Whittier College,” on the order. But the accidental recipient didn’t let the matter drop there.

Said Sakamoto: “Then he asked the delivery people, ‘What the heck’s going on at that college?’ ”

You can see all types of passersby around 5th and Spring streets, but downtown resident Jack Biggs never saw a buffalo in that vicinity until the other day.

Biggs snapped a photo of the beast, a film veteran named Cody who was making a battery commercial with those infernal, drum-beating toy rabbits. The buffalo, gently hemmed in by yellow “caution” tape, required more than a dozen takes to make a short jaunt down the street, according to Biggs.

Once, Cody even stopped to stare at his reflection in a store window. Checking his makeup, no doubt.

As a public service, we recently published a photo of a sign that asked people not to put such items as indoor plants and yogurt in the drinking fountains in the county courthouse. (The plea appears to be working; when we took a sip there afterward, we didn’t brush against any vegetation.)

Perhaps because of all the legal proceedings there, the courthouse offers a rich variety of posted warnings. Lois McKinney of Whittier recalled seeing a handwritten sign on one floor that said, “No Trespassing Beyond This Point.” She concluded that trespassing elsewhere was welcome.

And then there was the sign that said: “Quiet, Please. Electronic Recording Equipment Inside.” It stood next to the men’s room.

Orange County seceded from L.A. County in 1887. But, in a recent summer vacation issue, USA Today listed Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm under the heading: “Suburban Los Angeles.”

Who should be insulted more--Angelenos or Anaheimers? Pasadenans or Placentians? While you ponder that, keep in mind that USA Today isn’t alone in refusing to recognize Orange County’s break from L.A.

Anaheim’s Los Angeles Rams are holdouts, too.

miscelLAny:

Brown Mountain, above Altadena, was named through the efforts of local mountain men Jason and Owen Brown. They were honoring their father, John Brown, the pre-Civil War abolitionist.