Ripley couldn’t believe it:Our recent discussion of...

Ripley couldn’t believe it:

Our recent discussion of people rendered anonymous by computers--i.e. letters addressed to NO NAME--brought a note from H. E. (Guy) McCutcheon of Hemet.

He recalled that when he and his wife were planning a 25th anniversary trip to Jamaica, “we needed our birth certificates to show proof of our U.S. citizenship.”

McCutcheon’s wife, a Long Beach native, didn’t have one. McCutcheon searched through the Hall of Records for Melba Adele Ripley with no luck. Finally, a resourceful clerk said: “There is one more possibility--let me check our DORMANT file.”

Sure enough, she was there--as “No Name Shown Ripley.” McCutcheon says: “It developed that her parents were counting on their first-born child to be a boy and just never got around” to recording her name.

So he filed the proper papers with the county, thereby giving her a heckuva anniversary present: a name.

GRAFFITI, COURTESY OF CITY HALL: Pat Jinks of Playa del Rey writes, “We don’t have graffiti on my street.” At least, not until a city street maintenance truck that was covered with spray-paint moved into the neighborhood for a paving project.

“No matter how many calls I make to street maintenance, City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter’s office or the cops, it stays there,” Jinks says. “It’s been there for well over two weeks.”

He acknowledged that graffiti is a problem, but added: “Why does the city of L.A. have to export it to us?”

ATTENTION HORSE WHISPERERS: Donald Mann of Malibu found a for rent ad placed by a landlord who is particular about the critters he’ll put up.

LIST OF THE DAY: Don Barrett, author of the book “Los Angeles Radio People,” a survey of local disc jockeys (1957-1994), asked his readers to vote for their favorite deejays.

The top five so far:

1. The Real Don Steele

2. Gary Owens

3. B. Mitch Reed

4. Robert W. Morgan

5. Bryan Simmons

Others include:

6. Rick Dees

7. Charlie Tuna

8. Bill Ballance

9. Dave Hull

10. Humble Harv

Just to be contrary, Only in L.A. would like to hear readers nominate the deejays they found most annoying over the years. (And, remember, neither Howard Stern nor Rush Limbaugh is a deejay.)

We’ll award some truly tacky prizes for readers who come closest to guessing the Bottom Five (mail entries to Only in L.A., Metro Section, L.A. Times, Times Mirror Square, L.A., 90053; no faxes or phone calls, please).

Offer not valid in Nebraska.

(We don’t know why--we’ve just always wanted to say that.)

miscelLAny The announcement that Kermit the Frog is the grand marshal of the 1996 Tournament of Roses Parade reminds us of a funny press release that the organizers sent out several years ago. It mentioned that ventriloquist Edgar Bergen’s “Charlie McCarthy is the only dummy to have been honored by the Tournament of Roses (1940)--though it can be argued that he was not the ‘dumbest’ grand marshal.” Several actors have also served in that capacity.