Who Will Offer Gullible Students Protection Against Such Skulduggery?

It seemed like a natural tie-in for the school with the famous Tommy Trojan statue. USC males were invited to audition on campus to become “Trojan Man,” a spokesman for Trojan condoms.

Alas, it was just the annual campus prank of the Skull and Dagger Society, whose victims are usually freshmen or other new students.

Previous hoaxes included an audition in which gullible students gulped goldfish for the (nonexistent) reality TV show “College Fear Factor.”

After the “Trojan Man” contest was revealed to be a joke, one participant, P.T. Winter, a senior majoring in aerospace engineering, told the Daily Trojan:

“I was all excited. I thought I was going to have some job security after graduation, but no.”

Questionable opportunities (cont.): Neither Allen Johnson of Torrance nor Stephen Ayers of Carson was impressed with the numbers being thrown around on one ticket by the Lotto folks (see accompanying).

“I hope it’s an April Fools’ joke,” said Ayers.

The latest citizen revolt? Ken Kopec of Yucaipa found what could be a new movement to slice taxes (see photo).

I beg your pardon!: After seeing the receipt at a gas station, Dale and Sheila Balok of Valencia had this comment: “I think we’ll just get gas, thank you.”

Pop quiz time: OK, Angelenos, as you know, L.A. Mayor James K. Hahn assigned you to read “Seabiscuit,” the racehorse biography by Laura Hillenbrand, for this year’s “One Book, One City L.A.” reading initiative.

Let’s see if you’ve been doing your homework.

A one-eyed colt named Pollard’s Vision recently captured the Illinois Derby. Who was Pollard?

Language! After he asked for directions in a hospital, Bob McMeekin of Newhall almost wondered if the receptionist had told him to go to the devil.

Then he realized she was referring to a room when she said, “Go to L.”

Pop quiz answer: Red Pollard, who was blind in one eye, was Seabiscuit’s jockey.

Mondegreen of the Day: “An old hymn we sang a lot in church had a chorus that goes, ‘Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land, a weary land, a weary land,’ ” wrote Beverly Booher.

“When my daughter Debby was about 3, she thought we were singing, ‘Oh, Jesus is a rock in a Disneyland.’ ”

miscelLAny: Here’s a fashion police note: In the crime log of the Huntington Beach Independent, Rosemary LeForte read that a street person “sitting in front of a store” had been cited “for taking off his pants to adjust his nylons.”

Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES, Ext. 77083, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A. 90012, and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.