Group of Prospective Attorneys at USC Has a Real Stinker of an Acronym

Fliers posted around USC announced a meeting of a law school group called the Sports, Music and Entertainment Law Society. That’s SMELS, for short. Remember, these are prospective lawyers.

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Odors (cont.): After Don Cook’s shot of a White House unit appeared here (see photo), several readers pointed out that the symbol displayed was the Capitol dome. Bill Spencer of Dana Point and J.D. Kuhn of Long Beach each asked if the White House intended to clean up Congress. I certainly hope so, but that information must be classified. I called the company to find out and still haven’t heard back from the White House Sanitation press secretary.

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Mopping up, locally: I’m guessing it was just a slip in a campaign letter. But Kevin Buck of Upland noticed one candidate seemed to be running for several seats on the City Council (see accompanying).

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International sanitation effort needed: Media Webmaster Ron Fineman writes that “like many of you, I’ve received lots of those bogus e-mails offering me a chance to collect millions of dollars in some Swiss bank account controlled by someone in Nigeria or other far-away country.”

(Geez, and I thought I was the only one. I’ve been mulling over one offer for several months.)

Fineman continues: “One time, when the e-mail involved some guy supposedly writing to me on behalf of his wealthy father, I wrote back telling him that his father had already contacted me, and told me not to trust him.”

Good line. Any other readers have recommended responses for the get-rich-quicksters? (Responses that can be printed in a family newspaper.)

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Nothing suspicious about this: A man walked into a Culver City bank and told the teller he wanted to cash his payroll check, also handing over his driver’s license as his ID.

“The teller could tell that both the check and the license were forgeries and called the police,” the Los Angeles Independent’s police log said. When the teller asked the man to wait, he said:

“Oh, I’ll just cash it at my branch” and walked out--leaving behind both the payroll check and driver’s license.

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So, anything interesting happen on your vacation? A tourist called police from a motel lobby at 2:42 a.m. “after he lost his keys and pants,” the Laguna News-Post said. “He told police he thought they might have been taken from him by an unknown suspect.”

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Special delivery item: Did you hear that San Fernando Valley Congressman Brad Sherman has introduced a bill to name an Encino post office after Chick Hearn? Maybe that’ll inspire postal folks to fast-break the mail.

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miscelLAny: In this rush-rush-rush society of ours, it was refreshing to receive a snapshot from John Welch of North Hollywood, proving that there’s one elevator that won’t slam-dunk you, as Chick Hearn might have said (see photo).

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