Cat got your tax? The daring city...

Cat got your tax? The daring city of L.A. is pondering a proposal to license cats, as you may have read in Monday’s Times.

This is an idea that emerges every few decades when bureaucrats are thrashing about for ways to generate revenue. In 1960, the L.A. City Council staged what was called “The Great Cat Tax Debate” before rejecting a flat tax of $2 per pussycat. Two decades later, the state Assembly turned down another motion that would have required the purchase of identity tags for felines that “run at large.”

In both instances, the legislators realized the social disruption that could result from a cat-licensing scheme.

A neighbor of ours summed up the danger this way: “I had a cat that slept in my house but ate many of its meals elsewhere,” she said. “One day I attached an identity tag to it, and two different families came to my door claiming I was trying to steal their cat. One woman’s two little boys were crying.”

She added: “That was the last cat I tagged.”

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You can’t avoid it: Turn off the TV set, turn off the radio, makes no difference. You still come upon Simpson trial reminders.

It might be a product in a drug store for vicarious jurors.

It might be a license plate like the one spotted on a white Ford Bronco by a colleague of ours. The plate says: ILVAJRY.

Or it might be that old soul group coming to the Greek Theatre. You know--the O’Jays.

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Bailiff, clear the arena: Perhaps that’s the order that should be given each time Robert Shapiro is about to arrive at a sporting event. Not only was the peripatetic defense attorney booed at a Lakers game in Inglewood last week, as we mentioned, but he got more raspberries from the spectators at the Oscar De La Hoya-Rafael Ruelas fight in Las Vegas Saturday night. Makes you wonder how he’ll be treated at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

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Bailed out! We’re happy to say we weren’t one of the unfortunate TV viewers who wasted $34 to receive the telecast of the De La Hoya fight, which lasted all of 4 3/4 minutes. OK--we confess, we did sign up for the fight. But our cable company botched the transmission and had to cancel our order at the last second.

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The jokers in Washington: Louis White of Claremont sent along a sales receipt that shows how cheaply you can buy Congress these days. Actually, the purchase involved a couple of decks of cards.

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Sounds like a conspiracy to us: As KABC (Channel 7) news was introducing a story about a speech by a militia activist in Palm Springs the other night, it inadvertently flashed about 10 seconds of footage of rats feeding inside cages.

miscelLAny:

Phil Proctor of Beverly Hills writes: “Did you know that Los Angeles is an anagram for LEGS ON SALE?