Now, this REALLY would be a New...

Now, this REALLY would be a New Nixon: More than three months after Richard Nixon died, a T-shirt proclaiming him a “rested” 1996 candidate is a hot seller at the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace.

“I’m sure he (Nixon) wouldn’t want us to stop our normal operation,” said Eva Hedger, a library administrator, when asked why it was still on sale. “And it is very popular,” she said of the shirt, which went on sale before his death.

Hedger said the library would probably let the current stock run out, then “redesign” the item, keeping the same photo with a new caption.

Another popular piece of clothing at the library, by the way, is a T-shirt showing Nixon shaking hands with a second never-say-die luminary--Elvis.

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Revenge of the. . . . Occidental College students scrawled an extra letter in front of the nameplate on the dorm that is housing delegates to the school’s Computing and Philosophy Conference.

Somehow NERDMAN HALL does seem more appropriate.

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Credit where credit’s due: When actress Cameron Diaz (“Mask”) appeared on the David Letterman show, she revealed that she is a native of Long Beach, which she described as the “home of the Queen Mary, Spruce Goose and Spur Posse.”

Well, the Goose’s shell is still there, though the wooden bird has migrated north to McMinnville, Ore.

But we hate to see Long Beach-ites try to hog the spotlight from neighboring Lakewood, the true home of the sexual score card-keeping Spurs.

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What next--an arm and a leg?Leonard Martinez of Canoga Park notes that the Department of Motor Vehicles is really getting tough--and he’s not talking about the new policy of making applicants take to the freeways on the driving test. Martinez faxed us his renewal application, which contained this provision:

3. We will give you a vision test and also take a finger and a photograph.

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Obviously he didn’t know the lyric, “26 miles across the sea. . . .”A suspected car thief, pursued by officers, crashed his vehicle near Will Rogers State Beach Tuesday--then tried to escape by swimming out to sea, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department said.

Lifeguards watched the suspect while deputies notified boat patrols. But the latter weren’t needed because the swimmer turned around and headed for shore after less than 10 minutes.

“I think he finally got tired,” said Sgt. Richard Gurr. “I don’t know if Catalina was his destination or not.”

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Traditional student favorite: Henk Friezer was photographing a telephone company promotion, which involved a conference call between elementary school students in El Monte and Mexico City. One of the kids in the latter school asked his counterparts to the north what their favorite subject was.

Friezer reports: “Several shouted back in unison, ‘Recess!’ ”

miscelLAny:

Speaking of “Mask,” the setting for the movie is Los Angeles, which is called Edge City. It’s the home of such attractions as Landfill Park. When you think about it, Edge describes L.A. in a couple of ways--psychologically and geologically.