Sinking feeling: Tax preparers Kenneth and Laura...

Sinking feeling: Tax preparers Kenneth and Laura Ellison of Lakewood display a model of the Titanic in their office.

“We think it’s a humorous symbol,” said Kenneth Ellison, pointing out that the Titanic went down the same day that many taxpayers do: April 15.

Lawyers in love: Some objections have been raised to a recent article in “California Lawyer” that compared the real-life sexual antics of local barristers to those in the overheated “L.A. Law” TV show. (Our favorite anecdote involved a lawyer who purportedly “consummated an affair with a senior partner in the office library sink.”)

Two lawyers wrote the magazine to object. A third lawyer, however, concurred with the article, writing of “powerful partners” he has known who have insisted “on such coveted things as . . . corner offices . . . for their love interests.”

Kids, don’t let your parents do this: Michael Gorfain found a bizarre warning label “on one of those continuous loop, cloth towel dispensers in a restaurant’s men’s room (see enclosed).” He adds: “Next, I suppose, the attorneys will be warning us not to drink the liquid soap or stick our heads in the toilet because it ‘can be harmful or injurious.’ ”

The French have a word for it: As we noted, a speed bump is called a “judder bar” in New Zealand. Jonathan Dobrer phoned to say that in France the curb-to-curb barrier is known as flic alonge . “It translates as sleeping or reclining cop,” Dobrer said.

So do Sacramentans: In our state capital, meanwhile, motorists approaching a speed bump are warned by signs that say: “Undulation Ahead.” Sounds like typical Sacramento bureaucratese.

Mayor of the world: All this talk of foreign cities inevitably reminds us of Mayor Tom Bradley.

Mike Chutuk wrote to point out that Bradley’s predecessor, Sam Yorty, also had a case of wanderlust. During one visit to Southeast Asia, Travelin’ Sam misplaced $430 in traveler’s checks when, as he later explained it, he traded shirts with an Air Force general at a party.

Bradley used Yorty’s jaunts as a campaign issue and unseated the incumbent. And Chutuk recalls an editorial cartoon that showed Bradley pledging: “If elected, I will go to City Hall,” while Yorty, holding his head in anguish, says: “Why didn’t I think of that!”

Historic intersections (cont.): We’ve mentioned the corners of Gregory and Peck on the Westside and Rodney and Kingswell in Hollywood. Don Way adds a mid-L.A. intersection that brings to mind a campaign issue in the last presidential race: Clinton and Oxford.

Postal humor: A fan letter from Atco, N.J., addressed to “Lana Turner, c/o Metro Meyer (sic) Studios,” was delivered to . . . the Metro section of the L.A. Times.

miscelLAny:

After seeing our references to L.A. Platz in Berlin, L.A. Square in Nagoya, Japan, and the L.A. Bar and Grill at France’s EuroDisney, Terri Barker forwarded a photo to show that there’s an L.A. Cafe in Agios Nikolaos on the island of Crete.

Barker wasn’t 100% sure that “L.A.” stands for Los Angeles. But she noted that the place does serve pizza and hamburgers.