Lotto Loser No. 76,345,687: “Ask Californians what...

Lotto Loser No. 76,345,687: “Ask Californians what fears they have and you’ll get responses like earthquakes, mudslides or fires,” writes Paul Kaschalk of Avon Lake, Ohio.

Since visiting L.A., Kaschalk has his own response.

While staying with his daughter, he related, “I felt lucky and took a walk to a nearby store to buy a lottery ticket. In North Hollywood, I was shocked by a sudden jolt to my thigh.”

The pain prompted the same reaction any Angeleno would have.

“Had I been shot?” he continued. “I grabbed my leg and turned, only to find out that I had been bitten by a dog. Unbelievable!”

Especially since Kaschalk was seeking a respite from this type of occupational hazard. Back in Avon Lake, he’s a mailman.

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Wrong notable: Following the death of Pepperdine University benefactor Blanche Seaver, the flags were flown at half-mast at the Malibu school. Senior Geoff Shackelford overheard another student remark: “It must be for Kurt Cobain.”

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Standing eyeball to eyeball with Cucamonga: The Cal State Northridge Quakes, they ain’t. Students at the school, as you may have heard, have voted overwhelmingly against substituting that nickname for their current, blissfully irrelevant one--the Matadors.

We suspect the students had several motives--dare we suggest good taste?--and probably the least likely was the threat of legal action by the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes baseball team. But now we find out from Irene Machuca of Manhattan Beach that, on a street outside its stadium, the Cucamonga team is crying foul about something else.

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But did they have no-smoking sections?Coinciding with an exhibit in its American History Museum in Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian’s magazine recalls a somewhat forgotten form of Cold War architecture--the fallout shelter.

Naturally, innovative Southern California was in the forefront of the, uh, craze in the late 1950s and early 1960s when some Americans feared being on the receiving end of an A-bomb attack.

“In spanking new suburban back yards, the nutty and the merely nervous were taking survival into their own hands,” the magazine says. “Shelters costing from $13.50 for a covered cave up to $5,500 for an underground suite with phone and toilet became the latest fad, especially in Southern California.”

There was even a line of fallout-shelter clothing, including, of course, lead-lined pajamas.

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Select group: After Los Angeles magazine ran an article entitled, “300 Reasons Not to Leave L.A.,” a public relations agency sent us a press release pointing out that its client--a local hotel--was ranked No. 178.

What more can we say but congratulations!

miscelLAny:

KCOP(Channel 13) recently announced that it was going to cut back its news programming. How much more is there to cut? Management has already taken away the chairs from its anchors, forcing them to deliver the news while standing.