Go Cubbies: On you-know-what day, Hollywood Park...

Go Cubbies: On you-know-what day, Hollywood Park attempted to fool passengers flying into nearby LAX by hoisting above its pavilion a yellow banner that said, “Welcome to Chicago,” in 20-foot-high red letters.

Which raises a question: If this were Chicago, would Carl Sandburg have called it City of the Big Freeway Shoulders?

Letter imperfect: Our note about the mail clerk who figured out that “E Cikiradi Vkvd” meant E. Colorado Blvd. prompted professional postal sleuth Jackie Schottel to send along some mysteries that she has solved in the San Fernando Valley. (“E Cikiradi Vkvd,” you may recall, was the apparent result of the typist’s right hand being stationed one key to the left.)

Schottel enclosed the following mis-addressed street names and numbers (with the corrected version in parentheses):

* Roxo (Roscoe)

* Queen Bee (Quimby)

* Fig Tree (Victory)

* Courts (Quartz)

* 7th Floor 23 (7423)

* Big Tree (Victory)

* Pawns (Ponce)

and Stewart’s favorite:

* Running Nude (Runnymede).

Nicht! Schottel and her fellow detectives have been known as “nixie” clerks in the Postal Service for as long as anyone can remember, though the origin of the nickname is a mystery. Postal spokesman Dave Mazer says one theory is that “it’s related to the German word for not, nicht .”

Thus, possibly decades before Wayne and Garth on “Saturday Night Live” supposedly popularized the use of the in-vogue expression “not!” postal clerks may have been saying: “Roxo . . . nicht !”

Speaking of Not! We recently said that Ed Gilbert took a photo of a sign at San Gabriel Mission High that seemed to ban the driving of cattle on campus. Actually, as Gilbert pointed out, the sign was at another school. Also, a couple of days ago, we published what we said was a photo of the Pacific Design Center (or Blue Whale, as it’s nicknamed)--when it really was the center’s green annex. Sorry about that, but all photos in Only in L.A. look gray to us.

One more thing to worry about: L.A. City Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores has asked L.A. port and airport authorities to guard against the invasion of Formosan termites in wooden products. The super-bugs, a nest of which were recently found in a San Diego-area residence, are said to be able to tunnel through pavement.

So you can see Milke Flores’ real concern: L.A.’s freeways could be in danger!

It should be noted, though, that the San Diego discovery aside, only 16 Formosan termites have been found in the state since 1956. No need to panic yet, Caltrans.

miscelLAny:

“Inside Rock History,” a UCLA extension class on rock music featuring such guest speakers as Screaming Jay Hawkins, will meet on campus at the Neuro-Psychiatric Institute.