QUESTION MARK

Dear Mark:

I’ve heard that exotic dancers in Los Angeles are prohibited from serving alcohol if they are completely naked. But they can serve it if they wear G-strings. What gives? Is this a moral code or a health thing like the sneeze-guards at salad bars?

-- Sick of Smuggling in Pints of Bourbon.

Dear Sick,

‘Fraid you don’t have it exactly right. It’s not the city or county but the State of California which, in 1970, nixed the combo of booze and nudity. The California Code of Regulations--in Rules 143.2 and 143.5--says that in order to sell or serve alcohol a person cannot expose certain parts of his or her body. This means women must wear a G-string and pasties. If the dancers stay on stage, however, the regulations ease up a bit and the pasties can go. The logic or reasoning behind the restrictions concerns what law enforcement officials felt was undue rowdiness at these establishments.

Sneeze germs, as you probably know, would be killed upon contact with alcohol anyway.