Talking to the Big Guy about the...

Talking to the Big Guy about the Big One: Sara Meric saw this sign “on the plywood covering the (former) window at Al’s Tire Supply” in Santa Monica:

“Hey God . . . Do It Again and Al Won’t Go to Church Again Anymore.”

It was in the shape of a cross.

So far, Al has received no reply, which we definitely consider a case of no news being good news.

*

But you can keep your weather: Bay Area columnist Herb Caen writes that the P.A. system for San Francisco’s version of Metrolink apologized recently that a train was “one car short because we have eight cars on loan to Los Angeles . . . to help with extra riders.”

You know, helping out with our little quake down here.

A San Franciscan shouted back at the P.A.: “First our water, now our trains!”

*

Listen up, ‘Frisco: As a Valentine’s Day gesture, the workers in the Bannockburn Lake Office Plaza in more warm-hearted Chicago collected $160 and sent it to the Red Cross quake disaster fund here, along with a sympathy card to Mayor Riordan.

*

Can ruins be damaged?No sooner did Curtiss Briggs finally package chunks of Santa Monica Freeway I (1965-1994) than the seismologists went and changed the magnitude on him. It’s now 6.7 or 6.8, depending on which experts you believe. Briggs, you’ll notice in the accompanying illustration, also thinks his hometown of Santa Monica deserves co-billing for the quake, a view not endorsed by the city’s Chamber of Commerce.

*

It’s a jungle in there: L.A. Zoo curator Bob Barnes reports that one of the gorillas was so stressed after the earthquake that she was put on Valium.

*

Honest junk: Bennett Mintz of Chatsworth found one junk-mail promotion that was a scam but adds, “at least these guys admit it.”

*

Her defense is going to be that her parents beat her: Mike Luckovich of the Atlanta Constitution drew a cartoon that depicted Mother Nature under arrest for the L.A. earthquake--with the trial being moved out of the San Fernando Valley because of extensive pretrial publicity.

*

Someone get this Wienermobile off our tail!OK, let’s try to clean our plate here once and for all. In our most recent correction regarding Oscar Mayer’s coupe de veal, we misspelled the name as Weinermobile . Our thanks to Rob Weiner for setting us straight.

Of his own name, Weiner wrote, “Wei-ner (pronounced ‘Why-ner’). . . . After 55 years of being called everything, including ‘wino’. . . .

Oh, don’t be such a whine-r.

miscelLAny:

Jamal Ali of West L.A. found it odd that a Daily Bruin ad announcing Eating Disorders Awareness Week and a Health and Fitness Faire invites visitors to “stop by for cookies and refreshments. . . . “