There wasn’t even any mistletoe over their...

There wasn’t even any mistletoe over their heads: The management at a McDonald’s in the San Fernando Valley brought out a video cassette recorder to play “Dances With Wolves,” the Kevin Costner Western that it’s trying to peddle. Several small children were watching when a lovemaking scene came on the screen. “What’s going on here?” yelled one parent. Others echoed her complaint. “The place went crazy,” a witness said. The assistant manager looked at the screen and screamed, “Oh, my God!” and ran over to unplug it.

What, L.A. worry? Those who believe that this city’s literary role is taken too lightly will rejoice in a discovery by Owen Rand Searles of Monrovia. He found evidence that a fictional character usually associated with New York may have originated in L.A.

None other than Alfred E. Neuman.

Searles came across Alfred’s grinning mug on an old postcard that also bore an L.A. man’s copyright dating back almost two decades before the founding of Mad Magazine.

Contacted in New York, an unconcerned spokesman for Mad acknowledged that the big-eared lad and his “What Me Worry?” motto were around long before the magazine, adding that his origin is unknown.

Searles, by the way, bought the postcard in a little thrift shop near Carson City. And how much did he pay for this major literary find?

“Ten cents,” he responded.

We bet the Getty will offer at least five times that much.

Alfred E. Neuman wouldn’t have cared, either: The County Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday to pay $1.2 million to an architectural firm to settle a contract dispute over the construction of an East L.A. courthouse.

But that’s not all, taxpayers.

The supes also had an item on the agenda to consider giving the same firm a contract to build another courthouse in West Los Angeles. Fortunately, Gloria Molina noticed it. After scolding the Internal Services Department, which was overseeing the new contract, Molina persuaded the other supes to postpone action.

What if you can’t stop after eating one?An apparently sadistic downtown deli advertised: “Any sandwich and one chip: $2.99.”

Double protection: A Club anti-theft device was locked across the steering wheel of a car parked on Griffith Park Boulevard in Silver Lake, but it really wasn’t needed. Attached to the vehicle’s front wheel was the Ultimate Club: a Denver Boot.

miscelLAny:

One of the selections on the new Branford Marsalis album, “I Told You Twice the First Time,” is “Simi Valley Blues,” which features a saxophone wailing like a siren and children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. The last word they say is: “Not!”