In our license plate referendum on the...

In our license plate referendum on the desirability of living in Southern California, we’ve reported yes votes (YIKM2LA, on a convertible, and 2JOY405) as well as negative ballots (YMINLA and HATE 405).

Now comes the tie-breaker, spotted on Ventura Boulevard: W84DBG1.

But is it pro or con? It could be a seismologist’s plate.

Sorry, Hot Wax Wasn’t Available:

A fire hydrant burst on eastbound Wilshire Boulevard near Westwood on Tuesday, and passerby Ken Rogers noticed BMWs, Jaguars and other cars going out of their way to take advantage of the free wash.

“They would veer to their right to get to the water and then they’d go through very slowly,” Rogers said. “I guess that’s what you’d expect in a drought.”

List of the Day:

“I Love Lucy” was honored this week by the Television Academy Hall of Fame in Beverly Hills. Some TV series that are unlikely to make it, listed in no particular order of awfulness:

1--”You’re in the Picture” (1961): Jackie Gleason hosted a game show in which four celebrities stuck their heads through cutouts in a plyboard scene and attempted to guess where they were. It lasted one week; Gleason apologized on TV.

2--”Mannimal” (1983): A professor transforms himself into everything from a penguin to a cobra to solve criminal cases. Critics called it a cross between a dog and a turkey.

3--”My Mother the Car” (1965): A lawyer’s mother is reincarnated as a jalopy--a talking jalopy. Lots of “car-thritis” jokes.

4--”Salvage One” (1979): Scrap dealer Andy Griffith blasts off rockets from his back yard to lasso abandoned satellites. Even Barney Fife wouldn’t have believed this one.

5--”Casablanca” (1983): A weekly version of the Humphrey Bogart classic, with David Soul as Rick. After a month, NBC said don’t play it again.

6--”Me and the Chimp” (1972): The stars--Ted Bessell and Buttons, respectively--didn’t mesh on or off the screen. Bessell complained that Buttons left puddles on the set.

7--”Run, Joe, Run” (1974): Joe, an Army dog, is falsely accused of assault and sentenced to die. He escapes, unaware he’s been exonerated, and his master travels from town to town trying to find him.

8--”The Man From Atlantis” (1977): Patrick Duffy as the half-human, half-fish star (with a visible vaccination mark). Critic Kevin Allman called him “a bionic mackerel.”

9-- “Cop Rock” (1990): ABC described it as “the gritty world of inner-city law enforcement with musical numbers.” The world wasn’t ready for an LAPD musical.

10--”Malibu U.” (1967): A college on the beach offers instructors who sing their lectures and classes that range from “Surfing” to “Girl-Watching.”

Life Imitating Sitcoms:

Malibu’s Pepperdine University is cited in Rolling Stone magazine’s Oct. 3 issue for offering one of the 20 easiest courses in academia. The class: “Surfing.”

At least there’s no “Girl-Watching” class.

miscelLAny:

The Aquarius Theater in Hollywood was named Earl Carroll’s Vanities when it opened in 1938, was renamed the Moulin Rouge in the 1950s, and Hullabaloo and Kaleidoscope in the 1960s.