And you thought the insurance business didn’t...

And you thought the insurance business didn’t have a poetic side. . . .

A Newbury Park insurance agent is sending out fliers that say:

Love has many faces . . .

* Your child’s smile when you tuck them in.

* Your spouse’s response to a surprise gift.

* The memories of lost loved ones.

* Your State Farm agent helping your family piece their lives back together after a tragedy.

We’ll pause a moment here in case that little ditty choked you up. Or simply made you choke.

IMPORTED FROM SEATTLE? Louis Mraz noticed a machine at L.A. City College with a sign that said:

FRESH-AIR

FLAVORED

POPCORN

But where’d the manufacturer find the fresh air?

THE HOLE-IN-THE-MIDDLE GANG: Quebec City police brass caused an uproar recently by issuing a directive forbidding officers from patronizing doughnut shops, the Wall Street Journal reports. The ban, instituted because Quebec cops increasingly were known by the slang phrase mangeux de beignes (doughnut eaters), has since been dropped.

Well, Quebec City’s chief wouldn’t have stirred up such a mess in the first place if he’d taken a more moderate stand, as Downey’s chief did in 1990. That directive prohibited more than two Downey cops gathering at the same doughnut shop at the same time. Team dunking.

LIST OF THE DAY: Some well-known entertainers whose original names also sound familiar:

* Actor Michael Keaton (born Michael Douglas)

* Actor Stewart Granger (James Stewart)

* Singer Ray Charles (Ray Robinson)

* Actor Albert Brooks (Albert Einstein)

* Singer David Bowie (David Jones) (could Bowie be one of the Monkees?)

* Actor Walter Matthau (Walter Matuschanskayasky). OK, maybe it doesn’t ring a bell with you. It’s just that we seem to recall going to school with a Walter Matuschanskayasky.

WITH PALS LIKE THIS. . . . The L.A. County district attorney’s office filed felony charges against an MTA employee and a former MTA employee for their alleged involvement in a pyramid scheme that cost several other MTA employees sums ranging from $125 to $2,500. The name of the scheme: “Friends Helping Friends.”

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK: Ironic isn’t it--hundreds of thousands of dollars are wasted each year on cell phone calls made by chatty city employees. Yet the city can’t upgrade its overloaded 911 dispatch system for the benefit of citizens who have to make incoming emergency phone calls.

miscelLAny “Dogs must be on a leash,” say the signs around Lake Balboa in Encino. So Cliff Dektar figures that the visitor he saw was perfectly within his rights by letting a different kind of pet run loose--a potbellied pig.