The shock of the previous week’s storms...

The shock of the previous week’s storms apparently hadn’t worn off for a group of young office workers who were leaving the First Interstate tower for lunch.

One woman looked out the door and stopped. “I don’t want to go out in this rain,” she said.

Indeed, drops of water were falling from the sky. But it was an odd downpour, her companion pointed out. No rain seemed to be falling across the street.

For good reason, First Interstate spokesman Ken Preston explained later. “We had window washers working up above,” he said.

One of the recordings offered as a premium by public radio station KCRW during its subscription drive was “Sex,” a new import by an Australian group.

Spokeswoman Ann Berkovitz picks up the story from there:

“The phone rang. An eager novice pledge-taker gave her cheerful, ‘Good morning. KCWR. Are you calling to subscribe?’ ‘I want “Sex,” ’ the caller replied--and was promptly hung up on.

The clock on the east face of the downtown County Courthouse was out of order Friday. Does that say something about the slow wheels of justice?

One-seventh of the 63 candidates on the ballot in the New Hampshire primary were from Southern California, but all the media attention seemed to be devoted to out-of-staters with names like Bush and Buchanan and Tsongas.

Well, for the record, local Republicans lagging behind President Bush (92,233 votes) were: Thomas Fabish of Harbor City (25), F. Dean Johnson of Long Beach (24), Oscar A. Erickson of Hollywood (16) and Tennie Rogers of Sierra Madre (24).

And, for the Democrats: Dean Curtis of Venice (43), Ron Kovic of Santa Monica (25), Tom (“Billy Jack”) Laughlin of Hollywood (2,304), Larry Agran of Irvine (298) and Jerry Brown of Hollywood’s El Adobe restaurant (13,612). (The eatery posts Brown’s photo near the front entrance.)

Philip Ashmallah, a 10th Southern Californian, has declared his candidacy in several newspaper ads but passed up New Hampshire, perhaps choosing to wait for the Super Tuesday primaries next month. Ashmallah is the first Democrat to go out on a limb and announce whom he’d like to have for a running mate: retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf.

Bipeds aren’t the only fitness freaks in L.A., jogger Manuel Duarte discovered in South Pasadena. While Duarte was jogging, two goats escaped from a pen and fell into line behind him. The critters, bleating all the way, were retrieved by their owner in mid-stride about a mile away. Their times for the distance were not available.

David Scully of Marina del Rey finds it ironic that the West L.A. office of the Internal Revenue Service is in the same building as the American Blood Institute.

C ut! Take 3!

Actor Karl Malden, in announcing the Oscar-nominated films to the media at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences the other day, twice referred to “The Fisher King” as “The King Fisher.”

USC student Craig Carlson notes that the marquee at a neighboring theater complex lists “Beauty and the Beast” as “PG-13.”

“I guess,” said Carlson, “it’s the uncut version.”

miscelLAny:

One hundred years ago, Edward L. Doheny dug L.A.’s first significant oil well near Glendale Boulevard. Dug it with a shovel, too.