Getting out the non-vote: Ski Demski of...

Getting out the non-vote: Ski Demski of Long Beach used to boast the distinction of displaying the biggest Perot for President flag in the country, a 20-by-40-footer.

Now he displays the biggest upside-down Perot for President flag as well as numerous anti-Perot banners and signs.

“I’m really angry at him for quitting,” said Demski, a bumper sticker manufacturer. So angry that Demski calls his home the National Anti-Perot Headquarters and is campaigning to have the name of the former “unannounced candidate” removed from every state ballot in the country.

“I even demonstrated outside a Perot headquarters in Belmont Shore in my firetruck,” Demski said.

Sidestepping the issue of why he drives a firetruck, we asked Ski whom he now supports for President. “My parrot Peppy,” he said. He explained that he added “ppy” to his old Perot stickers. “All I had to do was take the ‘rot’ out of Perot.”

Media conspiracy?After Miles Corwin’s story on paparazzi appeared in The Times on Tuesday, a reader accused him of glossing over the incident in which an uninvited free-lance photographer parachuted into Elizabeth Taylor’s most recent wedding. “You conveniently forgot to mention that it was a Times writer--Scott Harris,” the caller said.

Actually, the parachuting photographer is a different Scott Harris. Pointed out The Times’ Scott Harris: “I’m not that dedicated.”

Penny-wise: A survey of local residents found that the average man carries $1.95 in change while the purse of the average woman contains $4.01 in coins.

We don’t know why women tote more change and we really don’t care. But we do know that Great Western Bank can help you get rid of that secret cache of pennies in your home. All coppers lugged into the bank’s branches will be donated to the California Special Olympics as part of a “Pennies for Gold” drive.

More ghosts: No sooner had we listed a few defunct amusement parks--to show what kind of company the Queen Mary may soon be joining--than several readers scolded us for omitting their favorite oldies. OK, OK.

Scott Hughes singled out the California Alligator Farm (1907-1984), which crawled from L.A. to Buena Park in 1953. Marty Owens mentioned Buena Park’s Japanese Deer Park (1967-1974) (as well as its short-lived successor, Enchanted Village).

And Jim Ezell voted for Van Nuys’ Busch Gardens (1966-1979).

“Busch was a great theme park, though, of course, the theme was beer,” said Ezell, recalling the park’s custom of giving out free suds to adult visitors. Kate Skye, meanwhile, recalled that “when I visited relatives here in the ‘50s, they took me to a wonderful place called Pop’s Willow Lake in Tarzana.” Then, when she returned to L.A. years later, “I was told that no such place existed.”

So, Skye wonders if anyone knows what happened to Pop’s. Or can at least confirm that Pop’s really did exist. Pop, are you out there?

Clipping customers: In honor of--and hoping to cash in on--the Barcelona Olympics, Supercuts shops are offering free haircuts to anyone named Gold, Silver or Bronze. Needless to say, Supercuts wants no part of anyone named Steroid.

miscelLAny:

Vacationing Ron Burton was sad to read that engineering students in Manchester, England, set a world record by creating a 25-foot-tower consisting of 16,215 champagne glasses. The old mark had been set in Los Angeles in 1984. One more L.A. distinction lost.