L.A.--It’s everywhere!Two months ago, The Times’ Bob...

L.A.--It’s everywhere!

Two months ago, The Times’ Bob Pool wrote an article about Ariel Steele, a 26-year-old attorney who left a prestigious but high-pressure job here to become a prosecutor on the tiny Pacific island nation of Palau.

You can just imagine the differences in lifestyles. The commute, for instance.

“I was first struck by the fact our two- to three-mile drive to work took almost 15 minutes,” she wrote to friends. “You guessed it--traffic worse than L.A. I thought it was some kind of mean joke. . . . Since there is no public transportation, and only one main road, it’s packed from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day.”

And the drivers in this laid-back land?

“I don’t think there are any driving rules other than ‘Try not to hit anyone,’ ” she added. “No one has car insurance so you know you’re on your own if your car is hit.”

ESCAPE FROM L.A., PART II: Steele enjoys the fresh air, the friendly people and, especially, the snorkeling in Palau, which is 800 miles south of Guam. But her job is by no means idyllic.

“The cops brought a defendant into the office who had been fired from his job . . . and got upset and started threatening to kill people and started smashing things with an ax,” she wrote. “The cops sat him in my colleague’s office and set the ax down next to the defendant while he introduced him to [my colleague]. She almost had a heart attack!”

Almost makes the L.A. County Courthouse seem dull.

WAY TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE: Margaret Romani of L.A. writes that Nigerian con artists, discussed in a story in The Times last year, are still trying scams here via the mail. She enclosed a note from “the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp.,” which said it had a surplus of $38 million that it wanted to place in a “trusted person’s” bank account. If Romani revealed her bank account number, she was promised, she would get $10 million.

After talking to U.S. authorities, Romani learned that the crooks seem to prey on female senior citizens. “I understand . . . that about 1% of the seniors fall for this scam and lose their nest egg,” she said. “Only 1% do what I did--make copies and send them to Atty. Gen. Janet Reno.”

ICH BIN EIN ANGELENO: Continuing this, our special International Edition of Only in L.A., we relay news from world traveler Jay Berman that there’s a Hotel California in Berlin (see photo).

It’s on our must-see list of European spots, including the L.A. Cafe (island of Crete), the Allee de Los Angeles (Bordeaux) and the L.A. Bar & Grill (EuroDisney park, outside Paris).

Berman adds, by the way, that this Hotel California is not on a dark, desert strasse. And, hotel regulations do not contain the warning that “you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”

SACRE BROWN! The French government is embarrassed over a study showing that Paris has a problem not unknown to L.A: Le smog.

Authorities are promising new anti-pollution measures, especially during the summer, when some Parisians wear masks and the city’s newspapers print daily ozone level charts.

In case you’re wondering, Paris does not allege--as San Diego and Denver have--that its smog blew in from L.A.

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And, finally, we leave you with an ad that Tom Dawson found for a company that sells screens and doors that have really been exposed to the elements (see excerpt). What’s the international angle? Well, Dawson works in Pacific Palisades, near its border with the People’s Republic of Santa Monica.