Dear Santa.Com: I’ve Been Good

Amy Balfour was shopping when she overheard a little girl ask her father to buy her a Godzilla doll. Dad said nope--it was too close to Christmas. The girl pleaded. Dad said no again but held out hope for the future.

“Did you put that in your e-mail to Santa?” he asked.

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IS NOTHING SACRED? The beloved Zamboni, cheered in hockey arenas and a frequent guest star in Peanuts cartoons, is under fire. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health said that propane-fueled resurfacing machines such as the Zamboni pollute the air inside arenas.

And I always thought it was the inept play of the L.A. Kings that made fans so queasy.

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ONLY IN L.A. TRADITION: Incidentally, the Kings’ miserable won-lost record reminds me of the timelessness of the 1987 “Dragnet” movie, mainly the comment by Joe Friday (Dan Aykroyd) about the qualify of life in L.A.: “Sure, this city isn’t perfect. We need a smut-free life for all our citizens, cleaner streets, better schools, a good hockey team. . . .”

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SPEAKING OF TAKING THE FUMES: Ed Schlossman of Thousand Oaks found a service station that, at first glance, seems to serve smog (see photo).

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IT’S NOT THE TAJ MAHAL, BUT . . . The parking structure at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific, with such flourishes as a brilliantly lit, 65-foot-tall sculpture of a breaking wave, was praised in an article on aesthetically pleasing lots in the Wall Street Journal.

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IN A RELATED ITEM: Tom Leventhal of Long Beach found another parking lot with a different innovation--booths where people can park their bodies (see photo).

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NOT SUCH A BAD VIEW, AFTER ALL: One of the rules of cross-examination for lawyers is never ask a question unless you know the answer yourself. This was underscored by a story an LAPD officer told me:

A motorist was arrested for drunk driving after a cop spotted the suspect through his rear-view mirror. During the trial, the defendant’s attorney asked the cop how far behind him the allegedly weaving motorist was. About 100 yards, the cop said. The defense attorney asked the cop how big his rear view mirror was. About 2 inches by 9 inches, the cop said. Then the attorney smiled and asked the cop how far he could see through the mirror.

The cop cocked his head, seemingly lost in thought. The courtroom was silent. Finally, the officer said, “One time, I saw the moon.”

Everyone in the courtroom laughed, except the attorney and his client. Verdict: Guilty.

miscelLAny:

Outsiders sometimes say Southern California has no weather, which isn’t true. But, points out Pomona College senior Amy Hoffman, the weather here can make it difficult to remember what month it is.

Her school held a Snow Day last week, spreading out 15 tons of fake white stuff. “Today,” she added, “I was walking across our campus, and I noticed all the nice autumn leaves falling on the patch of leftover snow, as well as sunbathers enjoying the 75-degree sunny day.”

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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.