Presidential Race vs. the Rose Bowl

The folks at the Tournament of Roses must be a bit nervous about their selection of NBC’s Tom Brokaw as grand marshal of the Jan. 1 parade in Pasadena. After all, what if Brokaw has to anchor coverage of the presidential vote count that day?

BODIES 101: “College Night Every Sunday,” trumpet the ads of a strip joint that frequently appear in the Daily Sundial, Cal State Northridge’s newspaper. The club is offering free admission on that day “to any college student with current college I.D. 2 Drink Minimum Required.”

It’s nice to know the club has made itself available for anatomy students who have to make field trips.

SOMEONE’S GOTTA DO THE BOOK WORK UP THERE: Brooke Fix of Covina says he “received a nicely boxed gift and then noticed what kind of angel it was. Maybe the angel of accounting” (see photo).

I DON’T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HIS BRAND LOOKS LIKE: Not far from Wrightwood, Sandra Hawes of Van Nuys spotted a ranch with a name that might not have appealed to many cowhands in the Old West (see photo).

DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT GEOGRAPHY: Travelers wishing to fly out of local airports probably weren’t too worried about a fog report in the “Southern California” forecast of one New York newspaper (see accompanying). You know how those Easterners have trouble with the place names out here. I hate to think what folks in Fresno think about being classified as part of “Southern California.”

EL SOMETHING: I mentioned how an El Segundan accused me of making fun of his city when I pointed out that the name translates as “the Second” (in honor of its status as Standard Oil’s second oil refinery). This resident said that city folk proudly consider the name short for “El Segundo a Nada,” which he translated as “Second to None.”

Just to show how fond I am of the city, I’ll pass on what I learned from Manuel Gutierrez of Studio City and J.V. Cruz of Houston.

Gutierrez pointed out that the correct way to say “second to none” would be “no ser inferior a nadie.”

And “El Segundo a Nada”?

That “translates as ‘second to nothingness, zero, zilch,’ ” Gutierrez said.

No need to thank me, El Segundans. It was nothing.

PLACES TO GO: The report here of L.A. pit stops on the Web site https://besttoilets.com prompted David Macaray of Rowland Heights to recall the restroom in Harrod’s high-scale department store in London.

Macaray’s son-in-law described it as the nicest he’d ever seen. Good thing. He had to pay an attendant the equivalent of $1.75 to use it. Reason: Only people who could show store receipts of $175 or more were allowed in for free.

HAS RUSH LIMBAUGH HEARD? I guess KABC radio won’t know for a while whether Vice President Al Gore will be accepting that offer from program director Erik Braverman to sign on as a talk show host. Gore’s slot would be 10 a.m. to 1 p.m, which makes sense. You wouldn’t want to give the vice president the morning drive shift, what with the danger of him causing freeway commuters to fall asleep at the wheel.

miscelLAny:

Phil Proctor saw these dueling bumper stickers on the back of the same car in L.A.:

“Common Sense Will Save Our Nation” and “I Believe in Angels.”

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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.