Hint: It’s Not the Jack in Box Guy

Just to get your brain in gear this morning, I offer you a mystery of the day.

Bill Moore sent along a copy of a color printer cartridge box and wondered about the meaning of the warning symbol at the lower left (see accompanying).

“I understand the ‘Don’t expose to direct sunlight,’ ‘This side up,’ and ‘Store within this temperature range’ symbols,” he said. “But I must admit, I’m stumped by the fourth one. No putting caps on snowmen? No happy faces?”

OK, readers, what do you think? Only in L.A. representatives are standing by, waiting for your phone calls.

“Duh!” Award winner: If you were thinking of using Wrigley’s sugar-free gum in a recipe, you better read the warning (see accompanying).

Those two magic words: Dan Fink of L.A. saw a package of Valentine chocolates, each bearing a different inscription, including one obviously directed toward husbands. That chocolate said, “Yes, Dear.”

Hearts of asphalt: Speaking of Valentine’s Day, what could be more romantic than one L.A. parking sign? (see photo).

On their high horses: A publication called Southern California Super Lawyers has an article on the L.A.-based Cowboy Lawyers Assn. Yup, it’s a gang of attorneys who get out there and yippie-kay-yay it up on the wild prairie.

Makes sense when you think about it. Both cowboys and lawyers are, after all, familiar with bull manure.

Student bodies: A reference here to the movie “Dead Man on Campus” reminded a former Pepperdine University staffer of a bizarre incident there two decades ago:

“One of the frats was in an ongoing war with the president of the Student Government Assn. Tensions were building, insults were being tossed about, threats were made.

“So, one morning, the SGA president strolls into his office and there, sitting in his chair behind his desk, is a cadaver from the anatomy lab.

“It had been dressed to look like him. He had a certain sartorial style that made him stand out among his sweats- and shorts-wearing peers -- crisp button-down shirts, khakis, a certain kind of eyewear, a baseball hat from his favorite team.

“The cadaver had been set in his chair and posed to look like it was talking on his telephone.”

Needless to say, relations did not improve between the two groups.

Now it can be told: So how did Theodor Geisel, author of the “Dr. Seuss” children’s books, feel about those little folks?

“Well, he was a little frightened by children,” his widow, Audrey Geisel, told San Diego Magazine. “He always said, ‘You have ‘em, I’ll amuse ‘em.’ ”

She recalled the time Geisel was given a tour of Springfield, Mass., his birthplace, on an antique bus. It parked outside a school just as classes ended.

“And when he saw these hordes of children just tearing in his direction, he turned to get back in the bus,” she said. “And I was there. And his expression was ‘Oh, my God!’ He was scared.”

I like it, I do.

miscelLAny: Could it be that San Diego is feeling more kindly toward L.A. these days? A few years ago, San Diego Magazine, in its annual readers poll, included the category: “What you hate most about L.A.” But there are no references to the City of Angels in the magazine’s list of topics for the 2004 poll, except perhaps: “Best Place to Take Visitors.”

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATimes, 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.