Burial at sea?The Queen Mary has been...

Burial at sea?The Queen Mary has been awash in red ink for so long that there has been speculation over the years that Long Beach might have to sell it or even deep-six it.

So perhaps it should come as no surprise that invitations for the June 23 grand opening of the Queen Mary Seaport mistakenly gave the phone number of Robin Hinch of the Long Beach Press-Telegram for the RSVPs. She writes the newspaper’s obituaries.

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Traffic ham: A creature named Caruso the Pig appeared on radio station KFI’s “TNT in the Morning” show as part of what was billed as the first-ever commuter sing-along. Motorists were invited to call in on their car phones and release their aggressions by singing with the oinking Caruso and the in-studio crew.

A PR Newswire release noted, by the way, that the pig was named after “opera grate” Enrico Caruso. Funny, we always heard he had a pretty good voice.

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List of the Day: Another piece of old L.A. died with the announcement that Vickman’s, the 74-year-old eatery on East 8th Street, has closed. Here are some of the industry old-timers that survive:

1. Cole’s, downtown, 1908

2. Philippe’s, downtown, 1908

3. Musso and Frank, Hollywood, 1919

4. Pacific Dining Car, west of downtown, 1921

5. Tam O’Shanter, Los Feliz, 1922

6. Original Pantry, downtown, 1924

7. La Golondrina, Olvera Street, 1924

8. Les Freres Taix, Echo Park, 1927

9. El Cholo, mid-town, 1927

10. El Coyote, Park La Brea, 1931

Others: 11. Canter’s, Fairfax, 1931; 12. Little Joe’s, Chinatown, 1932; 13. Clifton’s Cafeteria, downtown (Broadway), 1935; 14. Lawry’s, La Cienega Boulevard, 1938; 15. Du-par’s , Farmer’s Market, 1938.

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Cone-dominium: It’s been almost 40 years since Daniel Van Meter constructed his Tower of Wooden Pallets, a 25-foot-tall, cone-shaped building in his back yard in Sherman Oaks. The tower, made out of platforms discarded by a brewery, was declared a historic-cultural monument by the city in 1978. But it’s just now receiving attention from one national publication: the National Enquirer.

The Enquirer’s June 15 issue carries a photo of the tower with the headline: “No kidding! This pile of junk is a historic monument.”

We didn’t know the Enquirer had such high standards.

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Europe’s most famous madame: L.A. Times travel writer Christopher Reynolds found himself among a group of youngsters touring Amsterdam, which has a famous red-light district. A Southern California girl stopped in front of a Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum and exclaimed: “Look! It’s a whorehouse!”

miscelLAny:

Downtown L.A. may have the Epicentre, the earthquake-themed restaurant. But the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, a minor-league baseball team, has the Epicenter. That’s the name of the team’s home stadium.