Trial Fails to Boost Sales of ‘Canned Juice’ T-Shirts

Can public interest in the “case of the century” be flagging? One key indicator--the T-shirt index--has taken a dive, at least in Santa Monica.

Spotted on the Third Street Promenade, a “Canned Juice” T-shirt, complete with jailhouse photo, was going for $6, down 40%.

“It was really hot stuff when it started,” said Kevin Cressey, manager of the Chaos store. “We couldn’t keep them in the store. Now we’ve got to get rid of them.”

So what’s hot?

Charles Manson, believe it or not. Demand for wearable cotton depictions of the ‘60s mass murderer has been strong since rocker Axl Rose wore one in a video a couple of years ago.

*

SPEED: Time was that speed traps and radar guns were part of the ticket-giving tools employed by police officers on the highways.

Now appropriating the speeder-tracking tools are state Department of Parks and Recreation rangers, who are using the radar gun to tag and ticket bicyclists barreling down trails at speeds in excess of the posted 15 m.p.h. The move, park officials hope, will lower the number of serious accidents and create safer trails for hikers and equestrians.

But opposition is expected from bicycling enthusiasts. The issue of speeding is one that has dogged bicyclists for several years as the sport has grown in popularity.

“Why don’t they go regulate somebody else,” said Todd Osborne, manager of Helen’s Bicycles in Santa Monica, the mountain biker’s equivalent of a Mercedes-Benz repair shop. “Who’s to say one person’s access is more important than another’s?”

The decision to use radar guns results in part from an April, 1994, study by a parks department traffic engineer, who monitored a popular multiuse trail, Sycamore Canyon Road, which extends from the National Park Service’s Satwiwa site in Newbury Park to the Danielson Ranch site in Point Mugu State Park.

The study found that the vast majority of park users--roughly 75%--were bicyclists and that most traveled at about 33 m.p.h. Park officials also cited accident reports for Point Mugu State Park, which has recorded 20 to 25 accidents a year involving bicyclists.

Park Ranger Tony Hoffman, the only ranger currently trained to use the radar gun, said that those figures only represent the most serious accidents, in which people had to be taken by ambulance or helicopter to a hospital.

*

ZIP-IDDYDOODAH: That UCLA is wired for e-mail goes without saying, but the university also hopes to improve its “snail-mail” service with the introduction of a new ZIP Code.

Until recently, the campus would get up to 5,000 pieces of misdirected mail a day, said Edward Myers, director of mail services.

The problem was that the campus shared 90024 with residence halls, UCLA Extension and other nearby institutions.

Now, after he appealed--by mail--to U.S. Postmaster General Marvin T. Runyon Jr., the campus will get its own ZIP code, 90095, and mail will be speeded by the assignment of individual box numbers.

A letter to Myers would be addressed to him at:

UCLA Mail Services

Box 951361

Los Angeles, CA 90095-1361.

The new code was introduced in January, but university departments are being told not to throw out existing stationery. Instead, they should make the change when existing stocks run out.

“Our total volume of mail is 55 million pieces a year in and out, which makes us the largest university mail operation in the nation,” Myers said.

“We had a choice of 98, 92 or 95 for our ZIP Code,” he said. “I chose 95 so I can say, ‘90095 in ’95.’ ”

The 90024 zip code will remain in effect for surrounding areas.