A Job Seeker Who Knows All the Dirty Laundry

A young woman responding to a notice advertising openings for a television commercial began the “Special Skills” section of her resume this way: “Magician’s assistant, diaper changing . . .

Who knows? Maybe she heard that a lot of performers in Hollywood were babies.

DEAR MOTORIST: Ken Brock of Moreno Valley sent along a flier from a car dealership that forgot to substitute its name and phone number in the generic ad composed by its corporate folks (see accompanying). The snafu added a bit of irony to the dealer’s warm, sensitive slogan: “We treat you like family at Anytown Motors!”

LIST OF THE DAY: While perusing Angels Walk LA, a pedestrian’s guide to downtown, I found several sites whose contradictory and offbeat elements help make Angeltown such an intriguing place. They include:

* Citicorp Plaza, with Terry Allen’s statue of a corporate type who seems to have lost his head (see photo). The guide says that local workers, “though at first resentful,” have grown fond of the torso and now “tend to pat it for good luck.”

* Pershing Square, which was named for Gen. John J. Pershing but has no statue of him. It does, however, have a statue of composer Ludwig van Beethoven.

* The Subway Terminal Building, the headquarters of L.A.’s first subway, a mile-long corridor that emerges near 1st Street and Glendale Boulevard. The tunnel, shut down in the 1950s after 30 years of use, was never utilized by the MTA in its Metro Rail project. The subway sits vacant.

* A 100-foot mural of actor Anthony Quinn, which occupies one wall of Victor Clothing, a store with a large Latino clientele. The mural shows Quinn portraying a Greek in the movie “Zorba the Greek.”

* The Ronald Reagan Building, which the guide notes “originally . . . was to be called the Reagan State Office Building until it was realized that it might be referred to as the ‘Reagan S.O.B.’ ”

FROM UNDER THE RUG . . . : An item here about a chimney sweep company that mysteriously advertised it did weddings drew an explanatory note from Katie Shiban of Pasadena. It was, she said, a reference “to a British tradition/superstition that shaking hands with a chimney sweep is good luck.”

Researching further, I found that the tradition may even date to ancient Rome, where ashes were used in seasonal rituals to increase the fertility of fields and animals. As it evolved, good luck and fertility were believed assured for a couple if the bride kissed a chimney sweep or touched his top hat. (I’m not sure if touching a headless businessman would also help newlyweds.)

Shiban, by the way, cited the song “Chim Chim Cheree” from the movie “Mary Poppins” with its lyrics: “Good luck will rub off when I shakes hands with you.”

And that’s the news from Southern Califragilisticexpialidocious.

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In a humanitarian gesture, the Coffee Gallery in Altadena is offering a free cup of coffee (and anonymity) to anyone who drops off an unopened fruitcake. Employee Andrew Dart said the gallery has received “less than 10” so far. Even the small numbers, however, would seem to disprove the theory of comic Johnny Carson that there is actually just a single fruitcake in the country--one that has been passed from one unwilling recipient to another through the years.

Steve Harvey, Anytown Columnist, 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.