Agencies Anonymous: For 44 years, the often-times...

Agencies Anonymous: For 44 years, the often-times controversial government branch revealed nothing more of itself than a tiny gray plaque camouflaged against the gray wall of its Spring Street building.

“If you were giving directions to someone driving downtown and said it was between 1st and 2nd (streets),” spokesman Russell Snyder said, “they might zoom right on by.”

It’s kind of ironic that motorists, of all people, wouldn’t be able to spot it.

But that’s all changed. And, so, ladies and gentlemen, it’s with particular pride that we publish a photo of the new, blue-green logo outside the regional headquarters of . . .

Caltrans!

“It’s the power of the press,” quipped Snyder. “We put up the sign because Only in L.A. said we were the shyest building in downtown L.A.”

Just goes to show what results this column gets. We gave the popular agency the Downtown Shyness Award just two years ago.

Then there was the $%!&? Building: Just down Spring Street, the new Ronald Reagan State Building opened several months before its ID was posted over the entrance.

That delay was caused in part by the discovery of a suspicious box outside the structure one weekend. The area was cordoned off. After efforts to identify the box’s contents failed, authorities blew it up. Only afterward was it discovered that the box contained the letters for the new sign.

Life’s a beach: A student--who gave the USC Medical School as her address--writes:

“I will never buy another Times. How can those talentless bums in your weather department be so wrong--with the equipment that is available today? You said there would be rainstorms during the day and night, and here we have the hottest, clearest weather with blue skies. You’ve ruined our day--for all 74 of us who were going to have an outing. Blast you all and may the next riots burn your building to the ground. Bums!”

Yeah, but we bet you love our comics pages!

One popcorn, hold the dust: You know how hotels under repair will offer “remodeling specials?” We wonder if that principle had been adopted by movie theaters after seeing the enclosed paragraph in a coupon relayed to us by Elyse Verse of West L.A.

And don’t throw them at the judge, either: Among the instructions given to a group of jury candidates in the Long Beach courthouse the other day was this warning:

“Don’t throw paper planes off the balcony.”

miscelLAny:

Just when L.A. was starting to relax again, Stephen Kaplan, director of the Vampire Research Center in Elmhurst, N.Y., sent us a press release announcing that L.A. is the nation’s vampire capital, with 20 confirmed bloodsuckers--not counting Hollywood agents.