Drink of the ‘90s: Fun-loving joints along...

Drink of the ‘90s: Fun-loving joints along the beach are known for concoctions that hint at wild and crazy times in the sand. But, taking note of this perilous era, the Cheesecake Factory in Marina del Rey has added a sobering adjective to one drink on its menu. It’s now: Safe Sex on the Beach.

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Yes, we asked the bartender: Safe Sex on the Beach is an alcoholic drink.

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List of the Day: V. Ruth Entwistle writes in Burbank-based Parenting magazine that the new book, “Almanac of the Gross, Disgusting and Totally Repulsive” (Random House), should fascinate “even the most demure of children.”

After all, author Eric Elfman, who conducted much of his research at UCLA’s biomedical library, included these chapter headings:

* “Gross Guts”--A “compendium of bodily functions and physical afflictions from tapeworm to maggots in the nose.”

* “The Gagging Gourmet,” which features “a dissertation on the world’s foulest foods and a detailed description of digestion.”

* “Offensive Entertainment”--A search for the grossest cartoon, among such entries as “Ren and Stimpy,” “Beavis and Butt-head” and “The Simpsons’ ‘Itchy and Scratchy.’ ” (They’re rated in terms of barf bags--three bags being the nastiest.)

Kingfish of the NFL?Dialog Information Services data base misfired by several decades when it coughed up the accompanying description of a recent article in People magazine.

Actually, the piece is about football star-turned-broadcaster Howie Long, not the fiery late governor and U.S. senator from Louisiana. Come to think of it, though, Huey had a Raiders-type personality.

Such humility is touching: Radio station KLOS (FM-95.5), as you may have heard, has changed its format and fired several of its disc jockeys. Two holdovers are the deejays known as Mark & Brian. Perhaps their survival is explained by the duo’s new billboard ads--the ones that say WE SUCK LESS.

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That’s, uh, entertainment: It was a bit exhausting to watch the “Rockford Files” movie Sunday night, inasmuch as it encompassed so many L.A. disasters, from the ’92 riots to the ’93 fires and the ’94 earthquake.

Then there was the composite L.A. court case--a Beverly Hills woman is murdered, her children are arrested and they hire a prominent female lawyer. Another suspect is a famous sports idol (whose innocence may be proven by evidence in a mysterious sealed envelope). A few allegations of child molestation and Satanism are thrown in, too.

But why no mention of a madam to the stars?

miscelLAny The proposal by Mayor Richard Riordan and City Councilman Richard Alatorre that L.A. adopt Ho Chi Minh City as a sister city is understandable in one sense. L.A. wants a bigger family since it’s no longer on speaking terms with another one of its municipal sisters--Tehran.