Dueling pyramids:One of the Nine Modern Wonders...

Dueling pyramids:

One of the Nine Modern Wonders of Southern California (ranking just below the hot dog-shaped Tail O’ the Pup) is the Pyramid of Cal State Long Beach.

The three-sided sports arena hasn’t lured much tourism away from Egypt yet. But give it time. As the Long Beach Pyramid is being readied for its second basketball season, here’s how it shapes up against the so-called Great Pyramid of Giza.

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Great Long Beach Pyramid Pyramid Completed Circa 2600 B.C. A.D. 1994 Height 481 feet 178 feet Construction 30 years 1 year Cost Not announced $22 million Capacity 1 5,000 Bolts 0 160,000 Leaks No Yes Ruler Khufu Greenberg* Admission Death $1.75 Deity Sun Sun Objective Immortality NCAA title

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*Men’s basketball coach is Seth Greenberg.

THERE’S NO ESCAPING THE TRIAL: David Story of Santa Monica writes: “Last week my wife Tracy and I visited the ancient Roman baths in Bath, England, and found an exhibit featuring Roman curses carved into the stones surrounding the baths. One curse (about 1,800 years old) written by Delocimidis could have been written by O.J. regarding Mark Fuhrman. It read as follows:

Delocimidis has lost two gloves. He asks that the person who has stolen them should lose his minds [sic] and his eyes in the temple where she [Minerva, the Goddess of Wisdom] appoints.

“Judging from Fuhrman’s taped comments revealed last week, it sounds as if the curse worked,” story concludes. “The Goddess of Wisdom has certainly not been kind to him.”

REAL--NOT REEL--HEROES: “The hell with Hollywood--we have our own Walk of Fame,” says Val Rodriguez, referring to a sidewalk display in his boyhood neighborhood in East L.A.

Scrawled into some wet cement on East 6th Street are the names of the local kids who went away to fight in World War II, including Rodriguez.

“There is a Pelon (Baldy) and a Porky,” Rodriguez writes. “There is Veto (Albert) and Tuti (Arthur). There is Federico (Kiko). You know, with some exceptions, we didn’t know the names of most of our playmates. Only their nicknames.”

There was a happy ending for these heroes. “As far as I know,” Rodriguez says, “all those on the walk returned safely.”

miscelLAny Times reporter Bettina Boxall received a note from a company, Infocom Group, which began: “Are you tired of misdirected mail?” The letter spelled her last name as “Voxall.”