Who Knew O.J. Was So Safety Conscious?

Now we know why O.J. Simpson was involved in a slow-speed pursuit by police. Among the vehicles involved in the current Firestone tire recall are 1994 Ford Broncos.

MR. SUBSTITUTION MAN: A last-minute change in the cast for a live performance can be bad news for the audience. But that wasn’t the case outside Bunker Hill’s California Plaza, where a bluegrass band called the Laurel Canyon Ramblers was supposed to give a free noontime concert.

Due to an illness in the band, group leader Herb Pedersen called on Chris Hillman, one of the founding members of the Byrds.

The problem was, at least one spectator didn’t realize that Hillman had had a hand in several No. 1 pop and country songs.

The well dressed woman, after hearing lively renditions of such classics as “Turn, Turn, Turn” and “Mr. Tambourine Man,” walked up to Hillman, complimented him and offered him a $1 bill.

Hillman tried several times to turn it down but the woman wouldn’t go away. So he took the handout, looked out at the audience and commented that the music biz wasn’t “all limousines.”

Pedersen, who once performed with Hillman in the Desert Rose band, added, “What a reality check.”

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GUIDE TO OFFBEAT DINING: For today’s offerings (see accompanying) we start with a sort of “never on Sunday” weekend “bruch” special, spotted by Ellen Moore of Temple City.

Connie Carlton of San Clemente, meanwhile, noticed a Minnesota cafe/bait shop with an eye-catching, as well as fish-catching, slogan.

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DOGGED BY HER REPUTATION: Nancy Smith of Orange came across an ad for a pup that not only misspelled the father’s breed but cast what seems like unnecessary aspersions on the mother’s morality (see accompanying).

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UNSOLICITED JOB EVALUATIONS: Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush, thinking his microphone was off, recently described one reporter thusly: “There’s Adam Clymer, major league a------ from the New York Times.”

Clymer no doubt took more satisfaction from that remark than an L.A. newsman took from a different kind of mention by Richard Nixon in 1962.

The day after he lost the California gubernatorial race, Nixon accused the press of bias but made a point of singling out Carl Greenberg, the L.A. Times’ veteran reporter, for praise. Greenberg was so distraught that he offered his resignation, which was rejected.

Nixon was also taking an implied swipe at crusty Richard Bergholz, another Times political reporter. Bergholz, of course, was pleased that he received no praise from the defeated candidate.

miscelLAny:

Sunday marks the 80th anniversary of the debut of L.A. radio station 6ADZ. As the laradio.com Web site points out, founder Fred Christian was the city’s first disc jockey, playing records that he borrowed from music stores “in return for plugs on the air.” His studio was a back bedroom in his home on Harold Way off Normandie Avenue in L.A. You know 6ADZ better by its current call letters, KNX-AM (1070).

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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.