A different type of Super Bore:The big...

A different type of Super Bore:

The big game is less than three weeks away, which means it’s time for one of the most sophisticated events of the year, the “What Would You Do for Super Bowl Tickets?” competition held by KLOS-FM’s Mark and Brian.

Entrants, who must notify the station by telephone, should be prepared to do a lot--a lot of suffering--to qualify for the Jan. 26 finals, and a chance to win two tickets to the Jan. 28 game in Phoenix plus air fare and accommodations.

For instance, Keith Hibbs of Garden Grove, who was last year’s winner, paid a painful tribute to Super Bowl XXIX by dropping his pants and having a friend throw darts into his rear end. How many darts? Why, XXIX, of course.

ACTUALLY, WE WERE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING IN A BEIGE: John Parmer of L.A. writes that while shopping in Little Tokyo, “I came across some exotic cuisine with some rather questionable ingredients.”

SPECIALS OF THE CENTURY: We recently excerpted some of the 90 California eating and drinking milestones published by the California Restaurant Assn. on its 90th anniversary. Here are a few others we’ve compiled ourselves:

* Potato chips: Laura Scudder (yes, that was the name of a real person), Monterey Park, mid-1920s.

* Pizza traffic school: Free Pizza Traffic School, various Southland locations, 1990.

* Turtle racing: Zack’s Bar, Sausalito, 1970s (the sport was later adopted by Brennan’s Pub in Venice and others).

* Safe Sex on the Beach cocktail: While Sex on the Beach is a common (cliche) menu item at beach-city bars, the Cheesecake Factory in Marina del Rey added the word “safe”--making it a true drink for the 1990s.

* Kosher pizza: Kosher Nostra, owned by Posh Nosh, International, 1975. (Posh Nosh also offered the first kosher Chinese restaurant, Peking Tam, and the first kosher Mexican eatery, Pepe Tam, in the area; Tam is Hebrew for “tasty.”)

AND FINALLY: In the old Scotch & Sirloin restaurant in West L.A., we discovered a margarita in the 1970s that wasn’t so much a drink as a religious experience. You positioned yourself for it by bending over backward, resting your head on the bar. The bartender would pour a shot of tequila into your mouth, which you were instructed not to swallow. A waitress would squirt a shot of lemon-lime mixer into the same orifice. A second waitress would shake salt into the mixture. Then you could swallow.

It was called a Reverse Margarita.

It was not served at tables.

miscelLAny The story goes that in the early 1950s, a reader complained because The Times was covering a Hollywood scandal. The reader said the paper was evidently so ashamed it wouldn’t even allow its reporter to use his real name. The byline on the scandal stories was Jack Smith. Jack often joked about how common his name was. But as Times readers know, there was nothing else common about Jack.