Thank goodness it wasn’t a double-digit rate:...

Thank goodness it wasn’t a double-digit rate: Easterners, as so often happens, were a bit confused by the earthquake here. A National Public Radio news reader in Washington said that it “measured 6.1 percent on the Richter scale.”

Good timing: Leave it to Mother Nature to make the most resounding statement on Earth Day, which, of course, fell on (and slightly fractured) Wednesday.

Everybody’s a media critic: A Carson woman, who phoned KCAL (Channel 9) news after the jolt, announced on the air that she wasn’t exactly sure what had happened because “I was asleep in the recliner watching the Channel 9 news.”

Quaking hours: The 9:50 p.m. shaker reinforced the theory of some amateur seismologists that such cataclysms are more likely to occur near sunrise or sunset when the gravitational tug of the sun upon the Earth is strongest.

The other major Southern California quakes since 1857 and their arrival times:

1--Tejon (7.7+ magnitude), 1857, about 8 a.m.

2--Northwest L.A. (6.0+), 1893, 11:40 a.m.

3--Imperial Valley (two, each 6.0+), 1915, 7:59 p.m., 8:56 p.m.

4--Santa Barbara (6.3), 1925, 6:42 a.m.

5--Long Beach (6.3), 1933, 5:54 p.m.

6--Brawley (7.1), 1940, 8:37 p.m.

7--Sylmar (6.6), 1971, 6 a.m.

8--Imperial Valley (6.4), 1979, 4:16 p.m.

9--Whittier (5.9), 1987, 7:42 a.m.

10--Sierra Madre (5.8), 1991, 7:43 a.m.

A theory you’ve never heard: More than one person phoned The Times speculating that the upheaval was caused by the underground gas explosions in Guadalajara earlier in the day.

If it’s not one thing: The quake preceded, by a few weeks, the appearance of millions of butterflies in the Inland Empire, a population explosion spawned by the recent heavy rains.

When The Times initially queried local police departments about reports of the insects interfering with traffic, some officers were understandably suspicious.

“Is this a joke?” asked one policeman.

At another station, an officer paused and asked, “Is this you, Fred?”

No swarms of teen-agers, though: With schools staggering their Easter vacation schedules, this had been one of the quietest spring breaks in years in the Palm Springs area--until 9:50 p.m. Wednesday.

Heavenly appeal: Scott Dewees found an ad on a downtown L.A. building that could be Coca-Cola’s response to Pepsi’s flashy campaign. You know: We’ve got the right Scripture, baby. Uh huh.

Or is it merely quake insurance?

miscelLAny:

Members of a Spanish expedition through Southern California in the 18th Century named one area San Gabriel de los Temblores because there was an earthquake the day they arrived. De los temblores was later dropped by the town’s Chamber of Commerce.