And you thought he’dtuned out for good:A...

And you thought he’d

tuned out for good:

A colleague checked the Timothy Leary web site on the Internet and discovered that although Leary died more than two weeks ago in Beverly Hills, there was an updated report on his health. It read, “Pulse 0, Blood Pressure 0. But Tim says he’s feeling great.”

A GALLERIA OF CANDIDATES: We were shocked to read that the L.A. Weekly is running a contest to name the would-be secessionist city of the San Fernando Valley. Its readers have been asked to vote on several candidates, including:

* Minivan Nuys

* Fencino

* 29 Malls

* City of Bob Hope

* Resceda

We were shocked because The Times’ Valley edition ran a similar contest a few years ago. And 29 Malls was declared the winner. (We prefer the more formal spelling of Twenty Nine Malls.) So, we thought the subject was closed.

The winning Times entry, by the way, came from a Canoga Park resident, proving that Valleyites--like other Angelenos--do have a sense of humor about El Ay.

SYNAPSE LAPSE: Hank Rosenfeld of Santa Monica sent a script to an agent and noticed that the rejection letter used the word “synapses” instead of “synopses.” Which leads Rosenfeld to ask: “When writing in L.A., one should leave one’s mind behind, huh? . . . Don’t even think about using your brain, fella.”

Well, that certainly seems to be the case with TV sitcoms.

HISTORIC FREEWAY MOMENTS: Monday was the second anniversary of the cops’ low-speed chase of O.J. Simpson and Al Cowlings--an event that apparently inspired two license plates on other white Ford Broncos: ILVAJRY (a jury-lover?) and NOT OJS.

LADIES’ DAYS: The Bulls are back on top as champions of pro basketball for the fourth time in six years. But some things are changing in the sport--even on the outdoor courts at Venice Beach, famed as one locale of the trash-talking guys in the movie, “White Men Can’t Jump.” Hoopster Diana Meier of Santa Monica points out that a sign on the playground says that on Court No. 3 “youth teams and ladies teams have priority over adult male teams” on weekdays.

“Actually,” she adds, “the guys are so nice to the ladies’ teams down there that there doesn’t even need to be a sign.”

LO-TEKKIE: We received a typewritten note from veteran newspaperman Conrad Casler of Claremont, whose letterhead included the following:

Fax: None.

Interest in Having One: None.

E-Mail Address: None.

Interest in Having One: None.

Hope he doesn’t mind us giving out such confidential information.

miscelLAny

So Boris Yeltsin has been forced into a runoff against Gennady Zyuganov, the Communist candidate. Thus, it seems too early to tell if Frank Sinatra will still be considered an architect of political change in Russia. It was six years ago that Gennady Gerasimov, then spokesman for the Soviet Foreign Ministry, declared that Moscow was discarding the Brezhnev Doctrine in favor of “the Sinatra Doctrine . . . you know the Frank Sinatra song, ‘I Did It My Way?’ Hungary and Poland are doing it their way.”