Sex and the single subway: Writer Jonathan...

Sex and the single subway: Writer Jonathan Richmond believes that the backers of light rail in L.A. were controlled by subconscious sexual feelings, among other influences.

Richmond, a visiting scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is the author of “Transport of Delight: The Mythical Conception of Rail Transit in Los Angeles.”

In the unpublished manuscript, Richmond points out that the cover of the February, 1991, edition of “Metro Moves,” a county transportation publication, illustrates a Metro Rail story with the headline: “Tunnel Just Waiting for a Train.” And, he says, “the tunnel is in the shape of a heart.”

Richmond, who recently spoke on the subject at UC Berkeley and UCLA, views the Libido Line--excuse us, Metro Rail--as costly and “out of sync” with the needs of L.A.

He also asserts that numerous symbols, metaphors and images have been used to push the concept of rail transit, including the expression that Angelenos “are addicted to gasoline.”

“When the people of Los Angeles turned to autos they already had a rail transit system,” he pointed out.

Richmond hopes his manuscript will serve as “a form of therapy for decision-makers.”

Of course, defenders of Metro Rail might paraphrase Freud thusly:

Sometimes a train is just a train.

Just Burbank’s luck: In the same week that Johnny Carson’s favorite city decides to name a park after him:

* Mr. Blackwell files a lawsuit against the comic for joking that the fashion critic once described Mother Teresa’s outfit as that of a “nerdy nun.”

* U.S. Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) reacts angrily after Carson ridicules the congressman’s excuse for writing a bad check in the “Rubbergate” scandal. Dornan, you may recall, claimed that he used the money to build a shrine to the Virgin Mary at his home, leading Carson to quip that another congressman “said he bounced a check to finance a decent burial for Bambi’s mother.”

Celebrity corner: Incidentally, Carson may have his own park, but Preben Sorensen of L.A. points out that another star has his own intersection in Beverly Hills (see photo).

Shangri-L.A.: “It is quite true that there are too many traffic accidents in Los Angeles,” says an Auto Club News article that was mailed to us by Richard Turnage, KMPC’s traffic reporter. The article continues: “Never have I been in a city where I saw so many motor drivers who appeared tense, frightened or even partially dazed.”

That’s L.A., 1992. It was also L.A., 1920, when the piece was written.

miscelLAny:

Happy birthday to Capt. James T. Kirk of the starship USS Enterprise. Kirk, who turned negative 236 today, was born March 21, 2228.