For Sacramento Kings Fans, Loss Is Tempered by Some Relief

The Sacramento Kings didn’t qualify for a playoff rematch against the Lakers this year, and perhaps it’s just as well. I’d hate to see their fans’ blood pressure rise again if Southwest Airlines repeated its prank of spelling the name of the state capital Shaq-ramento on monitors at LAX.

School daze: With classes getting ready to adjourn for the summer, this column offers some of the more colorful farewells and welcome backs that have graced school marquees (see photos).

Department of Miscommunication (cont.): “I am in a writer’s group where we critique each other’s manuscripts,” wrote Juanita Cirelli of Whittier. “I am writing a book about my teaching experiences; it is entitled, ‘Hey, Teach. Yes, Pupe?’ (pupe is short for pupil). A lady in my writing group thought my title was ‘Hey, Teach, You Puke.’ ”

Teed off in more ways than one: “A caller from the Tijeras Creek Golf Course reported seeing a physical fight at the 12th hole,” the Rancho Santa Margarita News said.

“The men involved apparently continued golfing after the altercation.”

Another South L.A.: On the subject of abbreviating the City of Angels’ name, Dan Fink wrote: “Thirty years ago, in Cincinnati, I had a colleague who had a VERY thick Southern accent.

“ ‘Where are you from, Jim?’ I asked.

“He replied: ‘L.A. -- Lower Alabama.’ ”

More initial responses: Sean Johnson of San Clemente suspects the use of “L.A.” -- in California, not Alabama -- really took off when the Bobby Troup song, “Route 66,” became a hit half a century ago (all together now: “It winds from Chicago to L.A. / More than 2,000 miles all the way.”)

Opined Johnson: “For lazy people and for those who enjoyed putting Los Angeles down, the abbreviation became preferred. It is a smooth, easy pronunciation.”

Interestingly, on a trip to Europe, Johnson ran into some folks who thought one of L.A.’s rivals was in the vicinity of Route 66.

“When I was in Paris in 1998,” Johnson said, “a couple finding out I was from the Los Angeles area asked, ‘Isn’t San Francisco there, south of Long Beach?’ And in Rome, a saleslady asked me, ‘Oh, isn’t San Francisco a suburb of Los Angeles?’ ”

Johnson, no fan of “Frisco,” added: “I assured her it was.”

miscelLAny: The late singer Jan Berry, of Jan and Dean, recorded several songs about wild drivers, including “Dead Man’s Curve” and “The Little Old Lady from Pasadena.” But Lee Harris points out that a lesser-known motoring song Berry recorded with Arnie Ginsburg is more relevant today than it was in the 1950s. Its title: “Gas Money.”

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.