This jury thing seems to be spreading:...

This jury thing seems to be spreading: At a meeting of his fraternal lodge, Richard Moore of Los Angeles heard one of his brothers speaking of the pressure of being a juror on the same floor as the Simpson trial.

“He said he really started to feel the strain--passing by all those TV cameras each day and so on,” Moore said. “So he told the judge he needed to get off the jury. And the judge let him go.”

But what was really remarkable about the incident was the way the juror met with the judge.

“He actually asked the judge for a sidebar,” Moore said. “The judge told him that normally jurors don’t get sidebars but allowed him to come up.”

Moore concluded: “Everyone’s a lawyer these days.”

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Like a duck takes to air: The Unknown Reader sent us an ad for an air conditioner that contains some unusual moving parts.

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Stupid pet types: Sue and Pre Garrington of Chino Hills, meanwhile, found an exterminator who seems to equate roaches with Rottweilers.

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Zapped: In “Being Frank,” author/musician Nigey Lennon’s account of her personal relationship with the late Frank Zappa, she writes that she first became intrigued with the musical iconoclast when she saw his name on a record album at a Unimart department store in the South Bay.

It was “Freak Out” by the Mothers of Invention and it contained these liner notes:

“Frank Zappa is the leader and musical director of the Mothers of Invention. His performances in person with the group are rare. His personality is so repellent that it’s best he stay away . . . for the sake of impressionable young minds who might not be prepared to cope with him. When he does show up he performs on the guitar. Sometimes he sings. Sometimes he talks to the audience. . . . Sometimes there is trouble.”

Added Lennon: “Yeah!”

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Another reason to live in Southern California: We received a press release offering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity on Tuesday--”a tour of Fabio’s Beverly Hills mansion to demonstrate his $1-million hi-fi system.”

Alas, we couldn’t attend because we had another commitment (we had to pick up a shirt from the laundry).

miscelLAny “Miniature Golf,” written by Nina Garfinkel and Maria Reidelbach, notes that the game was invented by a Pinehurst, N.C., man in 1916. It became so popular in the 1930s that it was considered partly responsible for the decline in movie attendance. Several studios forbade their stars to make appearances at miniature golf courses. When you think about it, that must be why Hollywood has never made a really good miniature golf movie.