He’ll settle for a little pub:Shelley Blumenfeld’s...

He’ll settle for a little pub:

Shelley Blumenfeld’s 8-year-old son helped rescue a pal who nearly hanged himself by accident in an outdoor swing set in Beverly Hills. The parents of the rescued child offered to give Blumenfeld’s son a reward. But the hero turned them down. He said he’d rather have “his name in the paper.”

Consider it done, Jered Blumenfeld.

STAKEOUT? Ken Brock of Moreno Valley found a mall where one could almost get the mistaken impression that the local police are conducting a surveillance of a suspicious-sounding enterprise (see photo).

FAMOUS M.A.’S: Our mention of painter Jackson Pollock attending Manual Arts High School prompted alumnus Jerry Clark to write: “Do you think any other Only in L.A. high schools can match our list of alumni?”

Clark cited, besides Pollock, some other Toilers:

* World War II hero Gen. James Doolittle.

* Former Gov. Goodwin Knight.

* L.A. County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke.

* Film director Frank Capra.

* Actress Kathryn Grayson.

* Actor Paul Winfield.

* Author Erle Stanley Gardner.

* Football star Jon Arnett.

* Sports columnist John Hall.

* Opera singer Lawrence Tibbett.

JITTERY DIRECTIONS: Mike Owen of Hermosa Beach came upon a dueling sign in the caffeine division (see photo).

TROPIC OF PING-PONG: One of the biggest donors to the recently opened Henry Miller Museum of Art in Omachi, Japan, was Hoki Tokuda, a former jazz singer at the Imperial Gardens restaurant on Sunset Boulevard.

Tokuda, who was married to Miller for 11 years, gave the museum numerous letters from the author of “Tropic of Cancer” as well as several paintings.

Miller and Tokuda met in L.A. in 1966 because of the novelist’s passion for Ping-Pong.

Tokuda recalled that she was asked one night if she’d play Miller, a Pacific Palisades resident. “So I said, ‘Why not?’ ” she told Reuters. “He had very bad legs, eyes and ears, but was still a good Ping-Pong player. But his style was very bad. He would put his body on the table and wouldn’t move.”

She was 28; Miller, who lived until 1980, was 75.

Tokuda, now a Tokyo bar owner, said the marriage was platonic but fun, except when Miller’s former wives appeared. “He failed to divorce a couple of them,” she explained.

SURPRISE ENDING: Paula Van Gelder saw this job-opening announcement in a Beverly Hills newspaper:

“Resident Manager of Prime Beverly Hills Luxurious 16 Unit Apartment Building. Free Rent, Water and Electricity. Experience a Plus. Please Fax Resume to:

“POSITION FILLED.”

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The grand marshal of the Nov. 7 Doo Dah Parade in Pasadena will be none other than Dr. Demento, the radio personality. Let’s hope that the Doo Dah band plays some of Demento’s favorite ballads, including: “I’d Rather Have a Bottle in Front of Me (Than a Frontal Lobotomy),” “A Bowl of Chop Suey and You-ey,” and “Jesus Loves Me (But He Can’t Stand You).”

Steve Harvey can be reached by phone at (213) 237-7083, by fax at (213) 237-4712 and on the Internet at steve.harvey@latimes.com