To Live and Dine in Los Angeles

Dear Convention Visitors:

As you’re no doubt discovering, Southern California has a wealth of unusual dining attractions.

Submissions from this column’s readers show that you can find everything from a vegetarian restaurant where NO ONE wants to eat (spotted by Yvonne Callahan of Torrance) to edible jewelry (Dorothy Brenot, Palm Desert).

Needless to say restrooms in restaurants here possess only the most high-tech equipment (see photo by Philip Arnold of Costa Mesa).

But, a word of warning: Pay attention to parking restrictions. Penalties can be severe, says Jim Armstrong of Torrance (see photo).

MORE FOOD FOR THOUGHT: The July/August edition of National Geographic Traveler contains a guide to L.A., including a “Mayor’s Choice” category for the top breakfast spot here. Richard Riordan naturally chose his own Original Pantry, the Figueroa Street monument to bacon, eggs and hash browns, if not EKG exams. “It’s big portions of old-fashioned food,” Riordan told the magazine, quipping, “We believe cholesterol is good for you.”

HEY! WATCH WHAT YOU SAY ABOUT OUR RESTAURATEURS! The New York Times wrote of Riordan the other day:

“He is no speechmaker and is terrible on television. Even some of his allies refer to him with a mix of affection and exasperation as ‘Mayor Magoo.’ ”

HOW TO DEAL WITH A STREET DEMONSTRATION: It happened, not near Staples Center, but near a park in the city of Paramount. A family of ducks was attempting to cross the street. L.A. County sheriff’s deputies tried and failed several times to take the web-footed jaywalkers into temporary custody. Finally the cops gave in. They blocked traffic on both sides until the stubborn creatures had crossed the street.

HONEST ABE: Alas, the MTA failed to upgrade its ticket outlets so they would accept the new $5 bills in time for the Democratic convention. The machines still carry warnings against trying to foist this U.S. currency on the MTA--signs with red, diagonal lines slashing through the noble visage of Abraham Lincoln. Then, again, Abe was a Republican.

HE STAYED IN POLITICS ANYWAY: Lincoln would not be surprised by any disrespect shown toward him out here. In the 1860 presidential election, he gained fewer than 25% of the votes cast in L.A., finishing third in the city balloting behind rivals John Breckinridge and Ross Perot. Excuse me, not Perot, but Stephen Douglas.

miscelLAny:

Joanne Gamlin of Santa Monica came upon a gizmo at the recent California Gift Show that made a snoring sound and purported to be a cure for insomnia.

It pictured the vice president and was called, “Snore to Gore.”

Of course, no need to use that product tonight.

The real Gore can put you to sleep himself.

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES, Ext. 77083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A., 90012 and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.