Sunny side up: On the first night...

Sunny side up: On the first night of the riots, a city employee named Curt Darden threw an egg that struck Los Angeles Police Capt. James Tatreau outside Parker Center. Tatreau arrested him.

“This guy (Darden) was a white male, about 37, bald, and he winds up in a tank with a bunch of gang members talking about their exploits,” Tatreau said. “He was scared.”

Darden’s cellmates asked why he was arrested. He showed them his booking slip, which said: “Assault with a deadly weapon, egg.”

“Everyone got a big laugh,” Darden recalled later.

He was transferred to County Jail, where his next shock was an encounter with some deputies holding eggs. One asked if Darden knew “the concept of an eye for an eye.” Darden noticed that the deputy’s name tag said “Tatreau.” It was the captain’s son, James Jr.

“He (young Tatreau) handed me the egg . . . and put his arm around my shoulder,” Darden said. “Then one of his friends took out a camera . . . and took our picture.”

Darden, who served four days in jail, had his charges dropped after he personally apologized to Capt. Tatreau. “Guilt-stricken,” as he put it, Darden has written a 13-page account of his experience, which he hopes to publish.

The photo, meanwhile, wound up in the hands of Capt. Tatreau. Scrawled on it were the words, “The yoke’s on you, Dad.”

Bonus question: Lee Rivas writes that his daughter Tina-Marie, who finished second in a Knights of Columbus spelling bee in Whittier, should get extra credit for spotting an error at the event in the program (see photo).

Driving Miss Maybelline: Oh, those skillful L.A. drivers. One of our spies noticed a young woman in a Toyota who was applying blush at 60 m.p.h. in early morning traffic on the Ventura Freeway as she whizzed past Balboa Boulevard. She was clocked at 40 m.p.h., near Coldwater Canyon Avenue, while dabbing on eye shadow. And she had slowed to 30 m.p.h. near Laurel Canyon Boulevard, making it hardly any challenge at all to apply lipstick.

Her license plate: N2STYLE.

Wipe that clown off your face: Sure, the National Guard has come and gone. But the mail’s slow in arriving from some outposts of Venice. So we pass along this display of gratitude for an unsmiling trooper--photographed by Lance Diskan--for your riot scrapbook.

We assume that the guy with the red nose applied his makeup on the freeway, too.

miscelLAny:

Maureen Reagan, defeated in the primary in the 36th Congressional District, was trying to become the first daughter of a former President to serve in Congress. Seven sons of Presidents, including the late Democratic Rep. James Roosevelt of L.A., have served.