S’not a joke:Adult visitors to the Marine...

S’not a joke:

Adult visitors to the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro realize the animals are behind a double fence to discourage people from reaching in. But, says the rehab facility’s Hugh Ryono, “kids still ask if they can pet them even though I tell them that these are wild animals and will bite.”

The kids don’t really get the point until Ryono adds that “the double fence is also used to keep people just out of sneeze range of a sick sea lion.”

The youthful visitors, Ryono says, “then take a nervous step back away from the fence. To kids, it seems, a sea lion’s sneeze, and what comes out of their noses, is a lot more menacing than their teeth.”

SIGHT-SEEING SEA LIONS: Ryono shared a couple of his favorite wayward sea lion stories with us:

* A sea lion pup sauntered into the outdoor seating area of a seaside restaurant on the Westside “and then climbed up on a dining table, seemingly waiting to be served. Since it didn’t have a reservation, animal control officers had to take the vagrant pup away” to the mammal care center, which is located at Fort MacArthur.

The critter was treated “for malnourishment and then released off one of the Channel Islands.”

* A sea lion “made a personal appearance on a whale watching cruise. Leaping out of the water while fleeing a predator [possibly an orca], it landed on the railing of the Redondo Beach boat, Voyager. What amazed the deckhands and passengers on board was the ability of the animal to balance itself on a narrow 10-inch rail, even while attempts were made to push it gently back into the sea with a broom.”

The sea lion “finally dove back into the water only after it was a safe distance from its aquatic pursuer.”

HOW ABOUT FECKLESS DRIVERS? Doc Johnson of Northridge, who sent along a flier from an insurance company, wonders what is so unusual about offering a bargain to drivers who’ve had no wrecks.

LIST OF THE DAY: Answering the famous-alumni challenge of a Manual Arts grad, Peter Lee issues this list of Belmont High products:

* Mort Sahl, comic

* Jack Webb, actor

* Sid Thompson, superintendent, L.A. Unified School District

* Dr. Jacquelin Perry, pioneer in the field of neuro-trauma and polio patient care

* Jack Smith, Times’ columnist

* Richard Crenna, actor

* Robert Takasugi, U.S. District Court judge

* John Beradino, major league baseball player and TV actor (“General Hospital”)

* James Corman, U.S. congressman

* Mike Frankovich, UCLA football star and movie producer

And, the founder of a nearby landmark on Beverly Boulevard:

* Tom Koulax, of Tommy’s Original World Hamburgers

miscelLAny:

In “Everything You Know Is Wrong,” published in Santa Monica by Rhino Records, author Paul Kirchner delivers this stunner: In the “Star Trek” TV shows, Captain Kirk never said, “Beam me up, Scotty.” Usually, Kirchner says, it was “Beam us up, Mr. Scott” or “Enterprise, beam us up.” Funny, we always thought Kirk said, “Play it again, Scotty.”