Drive-by humor: Two automobile drivers involved in...

Drive-by humor: Two automobile drivers involved in a wreck at 2nd and Spring streets weren’t exactly cheered by an MTA bus that passed by. Speaking into his microphone, the bus driver blared at them: “You should have taken the b-u-u-s-s-s! You should have taken the b-u-u-u-s-s!”

As a public relations coup for the local transit system, it was every bit as endearing as those short-lived signs on RTD buses that said: “Sorry. If I don’t cut in front, I’ll fall behind. Thanks.”

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A burger and . . . what?All great institutions must change with the times or risk withering away. So it is that Tommy’s Original World Famous Burgers on Beverly Boulevard has started serving french fries, 46 years after it opened.

Tommy Koulax, the late founder, once said: “French fries would really slow us down. Besides, I got no room for a fryer.” But there’s a recession on now. So, a fryer has been installed in a back kitchen.

“We cart french fries up to the front kitchen,” said granddaughter Dawna Fyke, one of the owners. “We have bins up there that can hold fries for nine minutes.”

Tommy wasn’t the only landmark holdout. The

Original Pantry Cafe on Figueroa Street refused to serve soft drinks for its first 48 years--until 1972, when the health-minded founder died.

And Philippe, near Union Station, banned ketchup for its first 83 years, contending that the red stuff had no place on French dip sandwiches. (Sacre rouge!)

Then one day, in 1991, ketchup appeared during the breakfast hour.

“Richard did it,” part-owner John Binder said later, referring to his brother, who had staged a mini-coup. “My grandfather would be turning over in his grave.”

“Some people like it on scrambled eggs,” explained Richard Binder. “Besides, it disappears at 10:30 (a.m.).”

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Celebrities everywhere: Also in the stands at the Rolling Stones concert attended by Simpson defense attorney Robert Shapiro were ex-Simpson defense attorney Howard Weitzman and Simpson friend Al Cowlings. None of them were sitting together.

Could have been anyone’s family outing: Actor Tim Allen, with a group of youngsters and adults, was observed at a pumpkin patch in Sherman Oaks, loading up his vehicle. He had plenty of room.

It was a stretch limo.

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Away from it all: You may have heard that William Hodgman, the co-prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson trial, has raised the possibility of sequestering the jurors at a college.

Why--because no one reads there?

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In the spirit of ghosts-and-goblins night, an L.A. company called Skeleteens/2nd Generation is marketing a spooky nonalcoholic beverage that depicts a radically slimmed-down version of a famous singer saying: “It ain’t easy being King.” The beverage contains a warning: “Careful whom you idolize.” Happy Halloelvis!