There goes our Pulitzer: We revealed the...

There goes our Pulitzer: We revealed the other day that although Mayor Riordan had pledged to draw an annual salary of $1, records show he makes 4 cents per pay period, or $1.04 a year.

We thought this undisclosed 4% pay raise qualified as one of the scoops of the year until Roger Davidson of L.A. pointed out that Riordan’s entire salary was gobbled up by the federal government (see illustration).

“The IRS has finally achieved its goal of a 100% tax rate,” Davidson commented.

Stan Kelton of Paramount speculated that Riordan’s tax contributions might have persuaded President Clinton to award $8.6 billion in quake relief to this area. Suddenly, we sympathize with Riordan--especially because his paycheck seems to indicate he has an unforeseen problem:

Isn’t he in arrears on his state income taxes?

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Postcards from the edge of the century: One of the period postcards embedded in cement in artsy Pershing Square bears a message sent by William Darnell to his brother Allen in Indianola, Iowa, on Jan. 19, 1912.

Of wintertime L.A., Darnell says simply:

“Ocean bathing . . . no ice . . . no overcoats . . . spring suits on the ladies . . . picnics . . . flowers galore . . . beautiful lawns . . . houses covered with green vines. . . .”

He concludes: “That doesn’t sound like Iowa, does it.”

Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound much like L.A. these days, either.

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Solved mysteries: No one had to ask Kennedy High teacher Sondra Levi Zeldin why the clock at the Granada Hills school stopped at just after 4:30 a.m. on Jan. 17.

But Zeldin says she has been “deluged with queries from my family and friends” who have seen photographs of the clock in the newspapers and wonder why it has only two numbers on the face (see photo).

OK, here’s why.

Almost two decades ago, Zeldin explained, she was the sponsor of a graduating class.

“The principal, Bill Albers, wanted a clock in the quadrangle/lunch area,” she said. “As the class gift to the school, we paid for the clock and the only numbers on the face are 6 and 7--for the Centurion class of ’76.”

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No one had a cow: We feared there might have been an aftershock in the household of Jay Olins, caused by the prize we awarded him in our latest contest--a Frederick’s of Hollywood calendar. A pictorial calendar.

Olins, you might recall, had come closest to guessing the meaning of a license plate that said 10 COWS (it’s a reference to a husband’s measure of his wife’s worth in an old folk tale.) After dispatching the lingerie-filled daybook, we were informed by a reader that Olins is not only married but that his wife is a rabbi.

We checked with Olins to see if we had done any damage.

“Yes, my wife, Sally, is indeed a rabbi--one of less than a dozen Conservative female rabbis,” he said. “Fortunately, Sally is a 20-cow spouse. She is very understanding and allowed me to give my prize to an associate at my office.”

miscelLAny:

Ellen Straw wonders if anyone else experienced a post-quake “flashback” to the 1989 song “Free Fallin’ ” by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, which contains the suddenly eerie lyrics: And it’s a long day/ livin’ in Reseda/ There’s a freeway/ runnin’ through the yard .