A Brief in Favor of Virtually Anything That Will Keep Lawyers Off the Streets

Over the years, L.A. has been credited (if that’s the right word) with originating innumerable concepts: piped-in coffin music, the drive-in church, the nude blood drive and the bra museum, to name a few. Now you can chalk up another: the first entirely virtual law school.

The L.A. Daily Journal reports that students at the Concord Law School read and study traditional hardcover lawbooks but watch lectures on streaming video over the Internet, attend class in a chat room setting and take tests online. (Concord is not accredited by the California Bar.)

So infectious is the online spirit that only eight of the 10 students in the first class attended graduation ceremonies in person the other day.

And, please, no jokes about lawyers chasing ambulances from the comfort of their homes.

A surprise in the refrigerator? Charlotte Nolte of Van Nuys shared an ad for an apartment that was furnished with an unusual item (see accompanying).

More food for thought: Lambert Moonen of Hawthorne passed along a shot of a fast-food place that appeared to have a special for infants (see photo).

Let’s not go postal yet: I’m not sure what to think about this headlined scientific discovery, but Tom Murray of San Luis Obispo wonders if it means postal rates will be going up (see accompanying).

Memorable marquee matchups: Joan Kahaleuahi wrote that Santa Monica High’s championship football team had its first playoff game last year on the day after a holiday (see photo). Was the marquee writer implying that Santa Monica was playing some turkeys? Well, the home team did win.

Touting California’s attractions: I saw this JetBlue ad for an L.A.-to-Oakland flight: “From smog to fog.”

The accused probably laughed even harder afterward: The police log in the Canyon Life newspaper in Rancho Santa Margarita said “a Ladera Ranch resident signed a complaint against a neighbor for talking and laughing too loudly at an apartment.”

Entertainment of another sort: In Santa Monica, writer David Allen spotted a panhandler sitting near some street performers with a sign that proclaimed, “No Talent.”

Another nonmusical street person held a sign that said: “Will Work for Marijuana.”

Me of little faith ... : My lament about the Lakers’ apparent fall after their three-peat (three straight titles) brought this note from “Sister Mary”: “My response to you is: Four-Peat sake! Why are you giving up so soon?!”

MiscelLAny: I think I’m ready for the Thanksgiving holiday. The other night, I had a dream in which I was using an Internet search engine. I think you’d agree that anyone who starts dreaming about Google needs a rest. Unless, perhaps, it’s a virtual law school student.

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LA-TIMES, 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.