Welcome to L.A.:In addition to the usual...

Welcome to L.A.:

In addition to the usual assortment of free shower caps, toothpaste and soap, the amenity baskets at the posh Chateau Marmont Hotel on Sunset Boulevard now include a new item:

Complimentary condoms.

Abbott and Costello and Nina (cont.):

There’s a postscript to our item about Al Hirschfeld’s caricatures of comedians honored on new commemorative stamps. Hirschfeld, as his faithful fans know, delights in hiding his daughter’s name, Nina, in most of his drawings.

However, Linn’s Stamp News, an influential national newspaper, reports that it was told by the U.S. Postal Service beforehand that “Hirschfeld would absolutely not be allowed” to include “his Ninas” in the stamps.

The Postal Service later relented, “apparently a concession to Hirschfeld,” Linn’s says. (As you may have heard, the agency is a little short on funds.)

As a result, scores of readers were able to find “Nina” in Bud Abbott’s tie in our recent 49 Grand Sweepstakes Only in L.A. contest (some younger contestants identified him only as “the skinny guy”).

But, while his daughter’s name can be found in his portraits of Bergen & McCarthy, Jack Benny and Fanny Brice, he left her out of the Laurel & Hardy stamp.

Or did he?

What’s a 15-letter term for Unusual Panhandler’s Request:

“A red-eyed, somewhat disheveled gentleman” approached as Charles King sat on the Santa Monica Pier, reading a newspaper.

“I prepared myself for the request for spare change,” King said.

Instead, he was asked:

“Can I have the crossword puzzle?”

Precision Dining:

Reader Maurice Segal relates that when his wife called a trendy downtown restaurant and “requested a table for two at 6:15 p.m., there was a brief pause and the hostess said, ‘I can give you 6:10 or 6:20.’ We chose the latter and planned to eat fast.”

Freeway Advisory:

Ominous message on the license plate frame of a female Chevrolet driver in Northridge:

“I have PMS . . . and a Handgun.”

The current protests of fortune tellers over a proposal to license them in L.A. recalls the time a few years ago when they picketed the Long Beach City Council over a similar measure in that city.

Alas, they showed up to find out that the council session had been canceled because several members were out of town. The crystal-ball gazers had failed to foresee the hitch.

Greg Horbachevsky of Van Nuys noticed that a nearby Lucky supermarket has a sign that says, “No Candy Displayed in This Lane.” The shelves where packages of sweets normally sit beside the checkout counter are, instead, filled with childrens’ books.

“Now,” Horbachevsky said, “if they could just have a ‘No National Enquirer Lane’ for adults.”

miscelLAny:

The coldest days in L.A. history were Jan. 7, 1913, and Jan. 4, 1949, when the temperature fell to 28.