The little old mayor from Pasadena ....

The little old mayor from Pasadena . . . Rick Cole, the mayor of Pasadena, says he wasn’t making a political statement when he decked himself out in a T-shirt, jeans and tennis shoes to greet a Japanese delegation at City Hall.

But Cole, 39, admits that some “stuffy Pasadenans” have interpreted it that way.

His Honor explained that City Hall was closed last Friday when the delegation of Mishima Mayor Kichiro Okuda showed up. “I agreed to come down in the clothes I was wearing,” he said. “I hadn’t anticipated a formal presentation.”

But the Japanese wore business suits for the event, which was arranged by the Pasadena Sister Cities Committee.

Cole, who said he’s an admirer of the Japanese work ethic, admitted that he has heard “conflicting reports” about whether the visitors were annoyed. (They might also have wondered about the rock music message on the T-shirt, “Censorship Is Un-American.”)

Whatever, the delegation attended a Fourth of July celebration with Cole at the Rose Bowl the next day. Cole wore a T-shirt again. The Japanese wore business suits again.

List of the Day: Richard Rosenthal of Long Beach, noting the times of the Twin Temblors (4:58 a.m. and 8 a.m.) and Wednesday’s 5.4 aftershock (6:44 p.m.), asked us to reprint our eerie list of arrival times for local quakes.

It seems to reinforce a theory that jolts here are more likely to occur near sunrise or sunset when the gravitational tug of the sun upon the Earth is strongest. The other major quakes to hit the region since 1857:

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

2. Tehachapi (7.7), 1952, 4:52 a.m.

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

4. Sylmar (6.6), 1971, 6 a.m.

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

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

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

8. Desert Hot Springs (6.1), 1992, 9:50 p.m.

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

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

Even if there’s something to this pattern, it doesn’t help us sleep any better.

“OOPS!”That’s supposed to be the one-word exclamation on area billboards promoting a doctor-referral service. But Stan Sieger of Pasadena found a prankster’s retouched version in Hollywood. Like any work of art, it can be interpreted in a couple of ways.

No, the company wasn’t a sponsor: Ashley Steinbach of Bakersfield found it ironic, in the aftermath of the riots, to come across a brand of lighter fluid bearing the message, “Approved for L.A. Area.”

miscelLAny:

Wilshire Boulevard’s world-famous Brown Derby, one of many L.A. landmarks allowed to fall into disrepair by the city, shut down in 1980. Part of the plaster chapeau was moved around the corner to a mini-mall, where it now houses a Korean restaurant in virtual anonymity.