Los Alamitos Is Going to the Dogs

Even in the residential areas of Southern California, confrontations with wild beasts can occur. Take this harrowing incident, recounted in the police log of the Los Alamitos News-Enterprise: “A woman reported a small puppy dog jumped on her but didn’t attack her.”

Soon to be featured in the reality TV special: “When Animals Don’t Attack!”

Nothing new under the smog? Classical music personality Rich Capparela wisecracks: “For shame, Frank Gehry. Just when everyone in L.A. is all abuzz over your ‘new’ Walt Disney Concert Hall, what do I see on a rerun of ‘The Simpsons’ but a brief shot of the Springfield Knowledgeum. The episode, ‘This Little Wiggy,’ first ran in 1998 -- a full five years before the opening of our now-obvious knock-off” (see photos).

D’oh! As Homer Simpson would say. I thought I had a Pulitzer Prize expose until I checked and was reminded how long ago the Disney Hall was proposed.

As early as 1994, in the pre-Knowledgeum years, Gehry’s plan was prompting controversy. One critic likened it to a shoebox that someone had stepped on. And in May of that year, Gehry told a convention here: “A few hours after the [Northridge] earthquake, a New Yorker magazine reporter asked me if I was happy now that the rest of Los Angeles looked like my work.”

Gehry added: “Luckily, I had a reply. I said I’m very honored that God now is copying me.”

Summer’s not quite over ... : So let’s get away from it all in this item.

In recent months, readers have spoken of such romantic towns as Orgy and Condom (both in France), Chaos (Portugal), and Angri (Italy), not to mention Intercourse, Pa.

Now Marna Geisler of Santa Monica sends along a shot of a sign for an interesting destination in Mongolia (see photo). “I couldn’t persuade the ticket agent to pose,” she adds.

That’s Hollywood! The Los Angeles Independent reported that a “woman disrobed on a sidewalk, in full view of the public, at the 4800 block of West Sunset Boulevard, while another woman photographed her, in what police are classifying as an indecent exposure.”

The understandably limited description of the stripper said she was “5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighing 130 to 140 pounds with black hair and a black trench coat.”

It was not known whether she is a gubernatorial candidate.

miscelLAny: The Malibu Times advised readers not to keep rattlesnakes as pets, adding that most bites occur when people “tease or play with their ‘pet’ rattlesnake.” Such folks, the newspaper said, are “usually intoxicated young men in their 20s.” And not likely to be Knowledgeum patrons.

Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LA-TIMES, Ext. 77083, and by e-mail at steve .harvey@latimes.com.