The stars aren’t usually up at this...

The stars aren’t usually up at this hour:

Speaking to the San Marino City Club, Ed Krupp of the Griffith Observatory recalled how puzzled his staff was by the phone calls it received after the 1994 Northridge quake.

“People kept asking us whether there was a connection between the quake and that strange sky they saw,” said Krupp, the director. “Finally it dawned on us that when the quake hit [4:31 a.m.], it was still dark. And the lights went out all over the city because of the power outages. So the people in Southern California saw something they had never seen before--the stars.”

Krupp added that residents don’t realize “how bad light pollution is these days. They’ve forgotten what the sky is like”--unless they’ve seen the observatory’s planetarium show.

The director said the light-pollution problem was summed up well by the otherwise unscientific comedy “Dragnet,” in the scene where Joe Friday and his girl are on a hilltop overlooking the city.

“She says, ‘Oh, Joe, look at the stars,’ ” Krupp related. “And Joe answers, ‘There must be dozens of them.’ ”

AUTOPSY RESULTS ARE FINALLY IN: The cause of death of the title characters of several monster movies are revealed in “The Book of Lists for Kids” by Sandra and Harry Choron, including those in:

* “The Blob” (1958): Frozen by carbon dioxide squirted from a fire extinguisher by Steve McQueen.

* “The Beast of Hollow Mountain” (1956): Drowns in quicksand.

* “The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms” (1953): Shot in throat with radioactive isotope.

* “The Creeping Unknown” (1955): Electrocuted by high-power wires.

* “The Deadly Mantis” (1957): Gassed with cyanide bombs.

* “Frankenstein” (1931): Trapped in a windmill, burns to death.

* “Invasion of the Saucermen” (1957): Dissolved by high-intensity automobile headlight beams (what a Sig-Alert).

* “The Mole People” (1956): Killed in an earthquake.

* “Rodan” (1957): Zapped by volcano.

* “Tarantula” (1955): Scorched by napalm bomb.

* “Them!” (1954): Burned to death by flame-throwers!

And then there was “War of the Worlds” (1953), in which the invading Martians were eventually overcome by Earth’s air. Especially L.A.’s.

LIP-SMACKING: A news release promoting the March 18 Whole Life Expo in Pasadena says that there will be free delicacies to sample, “including Kombucha mushroom tea from Americanos Inc., super blue-green algae from Cell Tech and colodial silver from R. Pure Aloe.”

THE COLD TRUTH: Linda Abbott of Pasadena found a sign that summed up the weather the last few days (see photo).

TORT RADIO: So KBIG has sued FM competitor KOST, alleging that KOST stole KBIG’s slogan, “Today’s Hits . . . Yesterday’s Favorites.”

This promises to be the biggest case in radio since KABC-AM sued KFI-AM in 1989 because the latter was using the phrase “Talk Radio.” KABC claimed it invented the phrase in 1972 and had in fact uttered it more than 560,000 times in the previous 17 years.

One is tempted to say that we’d all be better off if we talked a bit less and gazed at the stars more.

miscelLAny

The Nestle candy company is auditioning students, ages 12 to 17, around the nation in its search “for the ultimate class clown.” Ten semifinalists will yuk it up March 30 at the Comedy Store in Hollywood. It must come as a relief for the teachers just to get the clowns out of the classrooms for a while.