L.A. slaw: Attorneys in California are required...

L.A. slaw: Attorneys in California are required to take 12 hours of continuing education each year. You might therefore assume that they’d want to catch up on changes in the civil code, recent Supreme Court decisions, etc.

Actually, they can complete half of their requirement by taking six hours of a locally offered seminar called, “Mood, Mind and Appetite: Enhanced Performance Through Diet.” Its courses include:

* “Compulsive Overeating: A ‘Sweet Tooth or Fat Tooth’ ”

* “Feeding the Brain: For Appetite, Energy and Mood Control”

* “Carbohydrate Cravings and Sugar Addictions: Physiological vs. Psychological”

* “Endorphins, Exercise and Chocolate as Natural Tranquilizers”

* “Appetite Theories: Biochemical, Hormonal and Seasonal”

Apparently, attorneys aren’t only hungry for justice.

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Alternate List of the Day: We may ask the State Bar to certify Only in L.A.’s rival Enhanced Performance Through Diet seminar. It would require an attorney to pause before setting out for that favorite Westside restaurant after he or she has collected a fat fee from a client. The barrister would then recite these two phrases:

* Don’t overeat!

* Don’t over-drink!

Time of seminar: five seconds.

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Especially goldfish: The hot tub at the Long Beach Airport Marriott hotel has a sign warning that pets are not allowed.

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Municipal bathtub: Liberal as it is, Santa Monica prohibits pets, as well as humans, from frolicking in the fountains on the Third Street Promenade. But resident Guy Marshall snapped a picture of a street person who couldn’t resist taking a dip on a sunny day. A real Polaroid moment.

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Deja view: We’ve mentioned how a dim bloke in Nathanael West’s “The Day of the Locust” (1933) resembles a current cartoon character of the same name--Homer Simpson. A colleague points out that there’s a similar link between the 1946 Jimmy Stewart movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and the kids’ TV show, “Sesame Street.”

In the movie, there’s a scene where a guardian angel shows a dejected George Bailey (Stewart) what would have happened had he never been born. On a tour of his hometown, Bailey sees two friends, the local cop and the local cabbie, and shouts, “Bert! Ernie!”

When they don’t recognize him, Bailey momentarily turns into a sort of Oscar the Grouch.

miscelLAny Don Fawcett of Brentwood points out that Pavilions is running specials on “New Year’s Sandwiches,” “New Year’s Champagne Cake,” “New Year’s Decorated Cakes,” and “Cinco de Mayo Party Trays.” Fawcett wonders whether the tray is dated Cinco de Mayo, 1995, or 1994?