Of course, there’s more to L.A. than...

Of course, there’s more to L.A. than quakes: California’s Chief Deputy Secretary of State Tony Miller came to L.A. on Friday for the signing of emergency legislation dealing with criminal suspects. The bill, taking note of the seismic damage to some courts, extended the time a defendant can be held for arraignment from 72 hours to 7 days.

After the signing, Miller was robbed at gunpoint.

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We can’t wait for Part II: John Chavez of L.A. notes that a photo of a freeway graces the cover of January’s Smithsonian magazine, along with the headline: “Concrete . . . It’s the core of our infrastructure; so how’s it holding up?” (see photo). The freeway on the cover is the Century, one that did hold up.

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A middle-of-the-night house call: Phillip Frazier of Cerritos had an aching back for 10 years. “It hurt him every morning he woke up,” said his wife, Shirley. Every morning, that is, until a week ago Monday. He’s been awakening with a smile every since. “He thinks maybe the shaking of the bed shook something into place in his back,” his wife said.

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One old TV program that still has a real feel for L.A.: We’re tired of hearing people say that “Dragnet” is an old-fashioned, irrelevant show. Bill Cohen of West Covina was watching the opening sequence on Nick at Night when the quake struck. The screen went blank just after Joe Friday intoned: “This is the city . . . Los Angeles, California.”

Joe had a way with words.

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A different Big One: Joe Nathanson saw a sign on a boarded-up house on Moorpark Street in Sherman Oaks that declared: “The Fat Lady Has Sung.”

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Off key: Among the quake casualties was an inexpensive violin belonging to Frank Javorsek, music teacher and owner of the Blue Ridge Pickin’ Parlor store in Canoga Park. It was destroyed when two large hardback books fell off the shelf above his desk and onto the instrument--volumes about the history of the far more renowned Italian Guarnerius and Stradivarius violins. . . . Almost as if they’d been waiting for the right moment to pounce on the mere fiddle.

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L.A. has the neighbors talking:

“Life has changed since the quake,” says a man in the first panel of a cartoon in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Panel No. 2: “Now you have to keep non-perishable food on hand.”

Panel No. 3: “Plenty of drinking water . . . a sleeping bag.”

Panel 4: “And that’s just for the morning commute.”

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miscelLAny:

Visitors to the ruins of the Santa Monica Freeway have been observed walking off with chunks as souvenirs. Well, why not have Caltrans sell off pieces of the rubble to pay for the new section of roadway? True, the Berlin Wall may have been more marketable than the Santa Monica Fall. But perhaps Caltrans could throw in an orange vest with every purchase of 10 or more chunks.