Trojangate (cont’d.): It’s no shock that just-resigned...

Trojangate (cont’d.): It’s no shock that just-resigned Assemblyman Pat Nolan, who struck a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to a political corruption charge, attended USC. After all, the school has a long history of what euphemistically might be called hard-nosed politics, producing such famous names as Watergate figures H.R. Haldeman, Dwight L. Chapin, Ronald Ziegler and Donald H. Segretti.

Over the years, USC politics has been marked by such dirty tricks as the secret taping of opponents’ conversations, the sprinkling of manure around polling places, the theft of school newspapers containing election endorsements and ballot box stuffing that caused one election to be invalidated.

Even the Student Supreme Court has entered into the spirit of the high jinks, once convening secret sessions in the middle of the night.

Lest you think that no white hats practiced politics at USC we should point out that another grad is county Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti.

Somehow we find it reassuring that Garcetti was defeated when he ran for student body president.

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Memories of a tarnished diamond: Caltrans’ announcement that it may implement a permanent diamond lane when Santa Monica Freeway II opens may stir nightmarish memories for natives of L.A. (By natives, we mean anyone who has lived here 20 years or seen the movie “To Live and Die in L.A.”)

Caltrans tried it once before in the mid-1970s and the result was huge traffic jams, many caused by drivers entering the freeway and trying to move over to the car-pool lane.

And then there were disputes over whether it was fair to count kids as passengers. (Everyone agreed that the guy transporting mannequins was in the wrong.)

But a high school classmate of ours has pleasant memories of that brief experiment. He would stand near an off-ramp in West L.A. each morning and offer to ride with solo motorists for $20.

When people asked him what he did for a living, he would respond: “I’m in the diamond business.”

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But enough about driving: Let’s talk about parking. It’s tough enough to find a spot these days. But Wanda Estes sent us a photo of a lot in Whittier that seems to require customers to take an IQ test.

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We Kind of Love L.A.: Winifred Meiser of Thousand Oaks isn’t about to give up on L.A., as she illustrated with the bumper sticker she sent us.

That got us to thinking that perhaps it’s time for songwriter Randy Newman to adjust the lyrics to his ode to the City of Angels.

All together now:

From the South Bay to the Valley

From the Westside to the Eastside

Everybody’s very nervous

‘ Cause the earth is shiftin’ all the time

Looks like another typical day

We love L.A. (but please stop shakin’)

We love L.A. (but please stop shakin’) *

This one floored us: Maurice Lebovitz of Redondo Beach saw a sign in a lot behind a linoleum store that said: “No Parqueting.”

miscelLAny:

In case you were wondering, today’s photo was taken in the lot of the Bright Medical Group lot.