Museum Sheds Some New Light on Kato

Carroll Lachnit of Orange Coast magazine came across a startling line in a news release about the Carole & Barry Kaye Museum of Miniatures on Wilshire Boulevard.

It said the museum’s scaled-down depictions include “the courtroom where O.J. Simpson was tried, with Kato the dog on the witness stand.”

Hmmm.

Kato on the witness stand.

Yes, I remember the shaggy mane. . . .

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GNAWING ON THE LEGAL PROFESSION: One of the sharpest critics of lawyers is an L.A. writer (and lawyer) who identifies himself as the Rodent.

He won’t tell me his real name, the rat.

Anyway, the Rodent, whose writings appear on the World Wide Web at https://www.emplawyernet.com, reprised this exchange from a court transcript:

* Defense attorney: “How do you feel about defense attorneys?”

* Juror candidate: “I think they should all be drowned at birth.”

* Defense attorney: “Well, you are obviously biased for the prosecution.”

* Juror candidate: “That’s not true. I think prosecutors should be drowned at birth too.”

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ATTENTION, SHOPPERS: In our Angelenos on the Road series, Joe Nevarez of Monterey Park noticed a kind of truth in advertising example in Ensenada. Nancy Stewart of Whittier, meanwhile, found a shop on this side of the border that seems to be closed a lot (see photos).

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CAN YOU FEEL THE PAIN YET? Lance Parr of Vista saw the perfect buy for the overachieving exercise nut (see accompanying).

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IT’S GREAT TO BE No. 1 AT SOMETHING: Local performers and performances enshrined in the Guinness Book of World Records:

* Charles Servizio performed 46,001 push-ups in 24 hours (April 24-25, 1993) in Fontana. (Please, no jokes about that being all there is to do in Fontana.)

* Don Roberts of Diamond Bar “panned eight planted gold nuggets in a 10-inch diameter pan” in 7.55 seconds on April 16, 1989.

* Gary Stewart performed 177,737 pogo stick jumps in Huntington Beach without ever falling into the ocean (May 25-26, 1990).

* John Lees walked 2,876 miles from L.A.’s City Hall to New York’s City Hall “in 53 days, 12 hours and 15 minutes (averaging 53.75 miles a day) between April 11 and June 3, 1972.” No word on how many panhandlers he ran into along the way.

* Jo Cahow and Amy Berard tossed a flying disc back and forth a total of 115.65 miles from Dec. 30 to 31, 1979, in Pasadena, luckily not striking anyone walking from L.A. to New York.

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MEATY ARGUMENT: Lisalee Anne Wells happened to be in the Original Pantry Cafe when Mayor Richard Riordan, the owner, “was holding forth to a local television reporter, on camera, on school finance. As he wrapped up, a breakfast patron sitting nearby accosted the mayor on the issue he thought the mayor had neglected: the quality of the Pantry’s sausage patties.”

Wells observed: “It just proves the adage about how much politics is like sausage-making.”

miscelLAny:

Let’s close with one more courtroom quote collected by the Rodent. A man who had filed a personal injury claim was on the witness stand, being questioned by his own attorney. The plaintiff was asked what kind of doctor he had.

“Well, I’m not sure,” he responded, “but I remember you said he was a good plaintiff’s doctor.”

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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.