And Behind Door No. 3, We Have . . . the Verdict!

Mrs. Only in L.A. served on a jury that was truly representative of L.A.--composed of six men, six women, four blacks and one Asian. Plus the clincher: two of the 12 jurors had appeared on TV game shows.

BET HE HATED MAKING THE CALL: UCLA’s remarkable streak of seven straight football victories over cross-Tinseltown rival USC seems to be transcending the world of sports.

Chris Koreivo of Long Beach heard a new Sprint radio commercial in which a guy calls up a buddy and haltingly begins a conversation. The caller seems tongue-tied until his buddy finally asks if “there’s something you want to tell me?”

The caller reluctantly mutters, “Bruins rule.”

USC fans can only wonder how many years that commercial will remain timely.

THE WONDERS OF SCIENCE: Like the rest of us, Deb Thiele of Santa Barbara has heard numerous extravagant claims about medical advances. She sent us one eye-opening claim about a so-called “gentle” procedure (see accompanying).

IT’S ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU GO POSTAL: After a mention here of the old “my dog ate my homework” excuse, Bob Green phoned to say: “What about the old ‘my check was in the mail but it burned up in a fire’ excuse?”

I hadn’t heard that one.

Green explained: “A flier from the Postal Service was posted on our mailbox, asking us to please forgive the condition of the mail. It said a mail truck was in an accident and burned up.” The post office said it “salvaged what we could.”

SURE, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA IS FREE-SPIRITED, BUT . . . : Rick Weiner was nonetheless surprised when he checked his mother into a retirement home and saw a notice inviting the residents to shed their clothes, apparently along with the staff (see accompanying).

EVERYTHING BUT A SOUVENIR STAND: “Why spend $30 to visit Sea World when you can just drive up to Point Vicente during the winter?” asks writer Hugh Ryono.

“A gray whale and its supporting cast of four bottlenose dolphins and three sea lions put on quite a show” for the whale census volunteers and visitors on shore at the Point Vicente Interpretive Center in Rancho Palos Verdes, he said.

“The dolphins and sea lions leaped over the migrating gray whale’s back and rode in its bow wake as it swam on its way to Baja,” Ryono said. At one point, “the whale turned belly-up and swam upside-down. That didn’t stop the playful bottlenoses. One dolphin even rode on the belly of the gray for a short while! The upside-down gray brought its head and pectoral fins out of the water several times at this unusual angle, looking for all the world like it was part of a Sea World show.”

Ryono noticed that “at the end of all these antics, the young gray blew bubbles underwater as if signifying the end of the show.”

WHAT ABOUT THE LADS? The final exam schedule posted at Long Beach City College listed a test time for “all lasses that meet before 8 a.m.”

OLD MAN CEMENT-BOTTOM: A friend was flying back to L.A. when he found himself “sitting next to a Japanese woman who was looking out the window and making a lot of notes in her diary (in Japanese.) As we entered the LAX approach, I pointed out some landmarks, including the Los Angeles River. After we passed it, she looked puzzled and asked, ‘No boats?’ ”

miscel LA ny:

Joseph Feinstein of Studio City noticed the other night that the sign in a medical facility had several letters dark. Instead of saying ENCINO HOSPITAL, it proclaimed NO HOSPITAL. Could be time for an extremely delicate operation--a sign transplant.

Steve Harvey can be reached by phone at (213) 237-7083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com and by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, Times Mirror Square, L.A. 90053.