‘King’s’ Gift Figures Large in White House Screening Process

In case you didn’t notice, one of the gifts that President Clinton carried out of the White House was from the king of La Habra.

That would be Paul Goldenberg, the owner of Paul’s TVs, whose ubiquitous radio commercials end with the declaration “I am the king!” His Highness, a donor to Democratic Party causes, gave Clinton about $3,000 worth of TV equipment. It’s one of the gifts that Clinton has said he will either pay for or donate to the White House.

I phoned Goldenberg on Monday and left a message but didn’t hear back. That’s the thanks I get when I was trying to give the king something--my idea of enlisting Clinton to narrate a Paul’s radio spot (“I was the prez!”).

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SCARY ROAD SIGHTS: Bill Ruddiman of Laguna Niguel was stopped at a red light when he noticed a 70ish driver “who had taken a pair of binoculars from her purse and was focusing them on the street signs. Needless to say, I skedaddled out of her way as soon as the light changed.”

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ON THE ROAD: At a tour bus stop in New Zealand, Marcia Hensel Miller spotted a hair-raising sign (see photo).

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SAY IT AIN’T SO, PAT! In “The End of the Age,” a novel by televangelist Pat Robertson, a meteor crash off the coast of California submerges the Southland under 5,000 feet of water.

A Laguna Niguel woman becomes one of the few survivors because she grabs a plane out just before the big splash. On her flight, she meets a member of the Lakers and feels sadness “that the Lakers and basketball and Los Angeles would soon be things of the past.”

Robertson’s 1995 potboiler has the disaster occurring in the year 2000, so it seems silly now. Or does it?

Recent events have me wondering if the clever Robertson was speaking in symbolic terms. Was he actually prophesying that the disaster befalling the Lakers would be . . . the feud between teammates Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant?

Hope this thought doesn’t ruin the rest of your week.

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Steve Harvey can be reached at steve.harvey@latimes.com.