Even the tabloids would pass on this...

Even the tabloids would pass on this one: In the “O.J. Letter of the Week” display on The Times’ Metro bulletin board, there’s a letter from a Toronto reader who sent along a startling observation. While watching some testimony on television, she noticed that one attorney in the background had “five fingers spread out space-wise and held over nose and eyes.”

She wants The Times to investigate. She says the gesture “could be perceived” as the offer of “a $5,000 bribe.”

*

Go ahead--make our day: Nick’s Cafe, owned by two L.A. police officers, is trying a bit of reverse psychology on a gang that is suspected of defacing the building with graffiti (see photo).

“We put that sign up three weeks ago,” said Lois Fuentes, a waitress at the North Spring Street eatery. “And we haven’t gotten any graffiti since then.”

*

The poet of POSSLQ: Our thanks to Alan Oda, Gordon Cohn, John Heard and others for identifying CBS radio’s Charles Osgood (of “The Osgood File”) as the author of the poem mentioned in this column. It was Osgood who spun the tender tale of a tax-oriented gent asking a lover to be his POSSLQ (Person of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters).

*

A film that went down in flames: Fans of bad movies may suffer because Orange County congressman Robert Dornan is running for President.

In states where Dornan is on the primary ballot, his opponents will be able to demand equal time if any TV stations broadcast “The Starfighters,” a 1964 movie in which Dornan starred. Thus, “Starfighters,” the story of a young man “trying to prove himself a worthy pilot” in the Air Force, probably will be shelved.

The authors of “The Motion Picture Guide” term “Starfighters” a “silly war yarn.” Preceding a silly presidential candidate.

*

Does he have a TV up there?Patricia Marroquin says that after a certain prosecutor revealed a new hairstyle this week, she saw a plane fly over her house in Lakewood with a banner that read: “Marcia, You Look Great! Join Me For Lunch? Pilot Bob.”

*

It’s an honor but . . . Paul Shefrin, who runs an L.A. public relations agency, received a letter saying that he had been approved for membership in the National Assn. for Female Executives. Even though he had never applied. “I guess,” he said, “this is the ultimate example of a non-discriminatory organization.”

Shefrin adds that his wife was not crazy about the organization’s promise to “introduce” her husband “to women who are moving ahead.”

miscelLAny A press release from the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action is headed: “ADA--Now More Than Ever.” Does the slogan “Now More Than Ever” sound familiar? Yes, it was once used by backers of the late Richard Nixon, who was accused of many things--but never of being a card-carrying ADA member.