As if the post-Labor Day blues weren’t...

As if the post-Labor Day blues weren’t enough . . . Southland commuters who felt a touch of gloominess Tuesday morning probably weren’t cheered up by the five SigAlerts they had to navigate around.

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Proof that every story doesn’t have an O.J. Simpson angle: Bill Brooks was watching a TV report on the Los Angeles Police Department’s property storage area when the station’s reporter saw some boxes labeled ‘SIMPSON.”

Must be related to the O.J. case, the reporter said--incorrectly.

“I guess,” Brooks said, “she didn’t know that Simpson Paper is a large commercial paper company.”

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Today’s special: Eric Rose found this delicacy at a Downtown restaurant. A fowl’s breath, we suspect, would be spicy enough. But augmented with garlic and onions?

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Come clean, now: The marquee at Crown Car Wash in West L.A. says, ‘Give us your latest dirt.”

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The streak resumes: Don’t know if you heard but, a 21-year-old UCLA student was arrested for streaking Saturday evening during the Bruins’ football game with Tennessee in usually staid Pasadena. The nudenik, identified as Gabor Fabian, said he was paying homage to the ‘70s.

Indeed, young readers may be shocked to find out that many of the oldsters and middle-agesters of today were caught up in an epidemic of streaking in the early months of 1974 as a sort of spontaneous revolt against winter.

On March 6 of that year, for instance, a wire service reported that ‘thousands of nude students romped across the nation’s campuses. . . .” A man streaked the California Angels opener in 37-degree weather in Chicago. A reader wrote to The Times that he had been streaking every morning for years because his newspaper delivery man rarely threw the paper near his door.

Three students who gamboled in their birthday suits at Ambassador College were sentenced to probation by a judge who recited an old English saying: “Do anything you want but don’t do it in the streets or you’ll frighten the horses.”

The fad reached its peak during the 1974 Academy Award ceremonies, when an artist named Robert Opel appeared briefly on stage in the nude, violating the black-tie dress standard. After Opel vanished, Academy Award presenter David Niven got in the last word. Niven said the streaker had revealed nothing but “his shortcomings.”

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Bumper stickers that give us hope: A car in Pasadena was observed carrying this encouraging thought for those of us who date back to the Streaking Generation: “Age and Treachery Always Beat Youth and Skill.”

miscelLAny:

The United States Shooting Team’s 1994 media guide--whose cover is decorated with five bullet holes--lists California as the state with the most team members--22. All but three of them are from Southern California. Somehow, we’re not surprised.