Angels on our freeway shoulders: As the...

Angels on our freeway shoulders: As the week progressed, we became more nervous about the widespread urban folk tale that back-seat poltergeists were warning L.A. drivers of a disastrous earthquake on the way.

“We’re looking into the story,” said a rep of the ABC show “Good Morning America,” who phoned Only in L.A. for more information. If “Good Morning America” is interested. . . .

As far away as New York and Detroit, friends and relatives of Angelenos said they had heard the rumor.

By coincidence (maybe), Farmers Insurance announced it wouldn’t write any more quake insurance, and Hollywood Park put up billboards that said, “More earth-shaking than, well, you know.”

Then a Norwalk woman told us Thursday: “I heard another version. A woman was driving down a street and saw a bright light in front of her. An angel appeared and warned her there would be a ‘large’ earthquake ‘Thursday at 4.’ . . . The angel didn’t say a.m. or p.m.” The name of the Norwalk woman: Marla L’Angelle. (Spooky!)

We didn’t want to alarm our readers, but the quake date we had heard in most versions was also June 16--Thursday. Fortunately, nothing happened. Unless you count that little 5.0 shaker that struck at 9 a.m. in Yucca Valley.

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Lacking feelings of self-worth?David Cary of Northridge found a nearby location where you can refuel your ego.

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What a McInsult!McDonald’s Corp. has shut down its colorful 40-year-old Downey stand, the last one to display the original chef mascot, Speedee. Financial reasons, the burger folks say, ignoring pleas from such fans as President Clinton and Gov. Pete Wilson.

Not only that, but McDonald’s has no hesitation about exploiting Speedee’s image on a new line of hamburger wrappers as well as on souvenir milk bottle caps, or POGs.

“It’s incongruous,” said Downey City Councilwoman Joyce Lawrence, “to market the look of the mascot of the ‘50s and then turn your back on the oldest existing original example of the ‘50s.”

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Doggie day afternoon: That’s the thanks we get. Here we have a worldwide exclusive, the revelation that Striker, the World Cup canine mascot, appears to be a copy of the TV cartoon hero, Auggie Doggie, and what happens? We were hit by a series of aftershocks from a dozen readers, who contacted us only to say that we misidentified Auggie as the sidekick of Quick Draw McGraw.

That sidekick “was a little mule named Baba-Louie,” hissed Steve Alpert.

“Auggie Doggie is the son of Doggie Daddy, who spoke with a Jimmy Durante accent,” hissed William Saffer.

“Shame on you,” hissed E.M. Harper, “for such an error right before Father’s Day.”

miscelLAny:

The Daily Variety’s Andy Marx notes that author Seth Godin has put together “E-Mail Addresses of the Rich and Famous,” a book with the on-line whereabouts of more than a thousand personalities. Godin had to weed out several e-mail impostors, including “Howard Stern,” “Johnny Carson” and “Jedd Clampett.” Obviously, the Jedd Clampett sign-on was a phony. It’s Jethro who’s the hacker.