Hi, I’m your waiter and my name...

Hi, I’m your waiter and my name is none of your business: Hollywood’s Musso and Frank restaurant, we noted the other day, is 73 years old, meaning it has outlasted every eatery in the city with the exception of Cole’s and Philippe.

Dean Hansell of L.A. thinks he knows why. He gives the credit to Musso’s waiters, who have a non-smiley-face style all their own. The other day, Hansell relates, he ordered a Caesar salad and “the waiter asked if I wanted fresh pepper. I replied, ‘Yes,’ whereupon the waiter grabbed the pepper shaker on my table and proceeded to shake pepper on my salad.”

City Council visionary: Critics--and even some supporters--of Tom Bradley say he’s been mayor too long. True, he wasn’t in office when Musso and Frank was founded; it only seems that way. But he has been in the same job for 19 years.

Not that the city didn’t have fair warning about this potential problem. As far back as 1973 one City Councilman warned that “the vitality, creativity and innovation” needed to lead the city would best be ensured by limiting the mayor to two terms. And, the councilman added, such a prohibition would also protect against an “arrogant abuse of power” by the mayor.

That councilman was Tom Bradley.

A walk down the aisle: About to face a judge for allegedly scuffling with city Housing Authority Police, Ulysses Petro was informed that the charge would be reduced to disturbing the peace if he pleaded guilty.

Petro, 28, who was already headed back to County Jail for a parole violation, hinted that he would be willing to plea bargain under one condition: That the judge marry Petro and his fiancee.

His Honor agreed.

“Guilty,” Petro said.

The marriage was performed in court Tuesday before several of the couple’s friends and family members.

Deputy Public Defender Pamela Jones brought a cake. Deputy City Atty. Mark Lambert took Polaroid photos of the ceremony.

“I got a good shot of him in a top hat,” Lambert said.

Who supplied the top hat?

“I did,” Lambert responded.

Post-Perot era: Buzz Williams was walking by the Ross Perot campaign headquarters on Ventura Boulevard the night Perot officially declared his non-candidacy. The offices were dark but about 20 people wearing Perot buttons were milling about outside, including one woman who was showing off a book she had just bought. It was E.J. Dionne Jr.’s “Why Americans Hate Politics.”

Economic indicators the government doesn’t tell you about: The Pasadena Weekly’s Dan O’Heron reports that while passing through a plaza next to the Doubletree Hotel, he examined the contents of 19 fountains and found a total of one coin--”a shiny copper penny. . . . For an experiment and to up the ante, I threw in a silver dime. It was gone the next day.”

miscelLAny:

Maxwell, Barnes and Owensmouth were once the names of the communities of Studio City, Mar Vista and Canoga Park.