Mystery solved: One reader guessed that the...

Mystery solved: One reader guessed that the object in our What-Is-This-Gizmo? contest (see photo) was a high-dive platform. Some thought it measured air quality (or the lack thereof). Scott Tefkin joked that it could be “an exceptionally large Medfly trap.”

But most of the 100-odd callers and faxers correctly identified the device atop the hose tower of a Studio City fire station as a World War II-vintage air raid siren. Veteran Angelenos will recall that the sirens sounded off at 10 a.m. on the last Friday of every month until the system was discontinued more than a decade ago.

And now for the awards ceremony:

--Third-place caller Mike Sullivan wins a book that is a must for any driver--”Commuter Calisthenics” (turn your own car into Gold’s Gym at 70 m.p.h.!)

--Runner-up George Derby wins a book designed for the chef stuck in traffic--”Manifold Destiny--the One and Only Guide to Cooking on Your Car Engine.”

--And the winner, Andy Zeff, is the proud owner of an Elvis-Meets-Nixon T-shirt. Zeff, by the way, phoned in the answer at 5:30 a.m. Thursday. We were out of the office.

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Readers’ question of the day: Some callers, such as Wally Brown and Bob Wood, asked how they were supposed to enter a contest when we listed no phone number? A bonehead mistake, we agree. But wasn’t giving up that Elvis-Nixon classic punishment enough?

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On second thought . . . : We feel so guilty that we’ve figured out a way to have every reader mentioned in today’s Only in L.A. (see photo).

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List of the day: We recently discussed two of the more diminutive streets listed in Thomas Bros. L.A. guide--two-block-long Gen. Thaddeus Kosciuszko Way (just long enough to fit in all the letters) and San Diego Way, which is zero blocks long for drivers since it was converted into a walkway.

Some readers sent in their own candidates, enabling us to compile a more thorough survey of pint-sized rues:

--George Tyndall pointed out that Nelrose Avenue in Venice is just a block long. (And you know what else? No matter what you may have heard, there isn’t a single decent place to shop on Nelrose, either.)

--Louis Mraz demanded recognition for Short Way (one block) in Mt. Washington. We’re sure that Arcadia and Pomona each feel the same way about their block-long Short streets.

--Bruno Street in industrial L.A. (one block) has been designated a city landmark because of its “original paving of hand-hewn granite block,” laid by Chinese railroad workers in 1902.

--Powers Place, said to be L.A.’s tiniest street, is a 22-foot-long strip of brick roadway west of downtown that was also designated a landmark because “it recalls the era when horse power was prevalent in the city.”

--And, then, of course there’s El Monte’s Easy Street (two blocks). Several years ago, the City Council briefly considered changing the name after a newspaper brought it national attention by revealing that one of the buildings on Easy Street was a county welfare office.

miscelLAny:

In an apparent attempt to concoct a rival to the Manhattan, the “Old Mr. Boston Deluxe Official Bartender’s Guide of 1935” listed a “Los Angeles Cocktail,” consisting of gin, vermouth, ginger ale, carbonated water and sugar. It didn’t catch on. At least, we don’t remember ever hearing someone saunter up to the bar and say, “Lemme have a Los Angeles.”