Eau de B.O.Photographer Henk Friezer, who passes...

Eau de B.O.

Photographer Henk Friezer, who passes out food from markets and cafeterias to the homeless downtown, says he was chatting with a street person on Temple Street when a perky young woman with a clipboard walked up. She represented a cosmetics company.

“I wonder if you gentlemen could tell me what scent you use?” she asked.

The street person didn’t miss a beat. “Sweat,” he responded.

THE CITY OVER THE HILL: Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills), as you may have heard, has introduced legislation aimed at allowing the San Fernando Valley to secede from Los Angeles.

But what would the new city be called? As a public service, Only in L.A. is reprising the suggestions that were submitted by Times readers in a Name the Valley contest a few years ago.

* Absolutely Not Sepulveda (submitted by Gary Bolen, Studio City)

* Beige-Air (Rick Sarabia, Burbank)

* Homes R Us (Joseph Feinstein, Sherman Oaks)

* Minimallia (Ken Drucker, Topanga)

* McValley (Michael Silverstein, Sylmar)

* Rancho de los Ranchos (Elizabeth Bates, Mt. Washington)

* Suburbank (Mark Maxwell-Smith, North Hollywood)

* Valle de Nada (Ann Kenney, North Hollywood)

* West Emphysema (Matthew Brown, Woodland Hills).

And the winner was Thomas Rezzo of Canoga Park, who submitted:

* Twenty-nine Malls.

SPEAKING OF CITY NAMES: It was once believed that L.A. was originally called El Pueblo de la Nuestra Senora la Reyna de Los Angeles (The Town of Our Lady of the Queen of the Angels), as author John Weaver wrote in the 1974 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Subsequent historical research indicated that “la Nuestra Senora” was not in the original, and Weaver omitted those words in his article on L.A. in the encyclopedia’s 1984 edition. He also used the corrected version (“El Pueblo de la Reyna de Los Angeles”) in an article for Travel and Leisure magazine--but was surprised to see the outdated version in the piece when it appeared in print.

“I got a letter from the editors [at Travel and Leisure],” Weaver recalls. “They said their fact-checkers had saved me from making a serious mistake regarding the name of the city.”

The fact-checkers’ source for their editing change: Weaver’s article in the old edition.

WE CAN JUST HEAR RANDY NEWMAN SINGING “I LOVE A., I LOVE A.”: In fact, L.A.’s name seems to be getting shorter all the time. We were shocked to see the “Los” missing in some signs on 4th Street. Maybe the new city in the Valley can use the lost Los.

miscelLAny The company that manages the West L.A. building where O.J. Simpson is being deposed has made a list of requests for media types, including: Stay out of flower beds and planters.