Let’s make a deal:Two theatrical agents were...

Let’s make a deal:

Two theatrical agents were held up by a young gunman on a Hollywood street the other day. One of the agents, Jonathan Westover, handed over his wallet.

His colleague, Wanda Moore, decided to negotiate. “I didn’t want to give up my purse or wallet,” she explained later. Instead, she persuaded the gunman to “stay calm”--and take just the cash she was carrying: $6.

The assailant ran off, stopping to fire two shots into the air, apparently to dissuade the victims from following him.

“I wanted to renegotiate,” Westover said, “but I guess it was too late.”

WHICH REMINDS US: There was a classic Jack Benny routine in which a cheapskate comedian is confronted by a gunman.

“Your money or your life,” the bad guy says.

Benny is silent.

Finally the gunman growls, “Well?”

And Benny sputters, “I’m thinking, I’m thinking.”

NO PREGNANT PAUSE HERE: The motorcyclists in this photo were actually taking part in a fund-raiser for Glendale Memorial Hospital, although you could draw another conclusion from the dueling marquees.

CRUELLA DE VIL’S RECIPE? A reader sent along a wrapper from a package of fruit buns that seemed to contain a meat ingredient (see excerpt).

WHO NEEDS TO HOLD THE STEERING WHEEL? To our list of things that motorists do while driving on the freeway, Ronald Enyeart of Hacienda Heights adds that he’s seen drivers on the 57 Freeway who were:

* Knitting (using both hands).

* Blowing up balloons and depositing them in the back seat.

* Eating a bowl of cereal.

And, Enyeart’s “choice for the accident-waiting-to-happen award--a driver who was getting prepared. He was reading the Bible.”

A CONVERSATION YOU WOULDN’T HEAR IN DUBUQUE: Hilary Merina, age 15, showed up at school in Manhattan Beach with her face bandaged, the result of a soccer injury. A classmate asked her: “Did you get a nose job?”

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In the clouded crystal ball category, Lincoln Haynes of Rancho Palos Verdes sent along a 1964 clipping from The Times that began: “A passenger rocket that could whisk travelers from here [L.A.] to Honolulu in 18 minutes or to Tokyo in a half-hour was described by Douglas engineers.” And how soon would the service be established? “In the 1980s,” the engineers estimated. Actually, we think the time spent in the air isn’t the problem. How about a rocket that can get you from your house to the airport in 18 minutes?