Dogged Newspaper Reader Gets the Scoop on Pilfered Wrapper

In affluent Pacific Palisades, where crime is not exactly a problem, a recent letter to the Palisadian-Post growled:

“I would like to send a warning to the person who took my newspaper out of its plastic wrapping on Wednesday.... Please keep off my property and keep your hands off my paper!”

A week later, another letter writer said of the dastardly act: “Your precious plastic was not the object of thieves. I witnessed the culprit, who simply was without a baggie to clean up a rather large mound left by her dog. Your paper was still there, the plastic was not.

“Believe me, you got the better end of that bargain!”

Holy smokes: Mary Christensen noticed an announcement indicating that one church had taken a free-wheeling attitude this summer (see accompanying).

Open bar? “Hope the construction workers don’t take them up on it,” Yorba Linda’s Susan Falbo said of a marquee she saw in a strip mall (see photo).

Such a deal: Betty Purdy of Placentia spotted an offer that involved a rebate -- one that the buyer evidently has to give the company (see accompanying).

It was a good fit: Have you seen that television ad for K-Swiss shoes that includes a shot of the Walt Disney Concert Hall? An appropriate image since the hall has been compared to a shoebox left out in the rain (see photo).

Beggars can’t be listeners: San Diego Magazine’s Tom Blair wrote about a panhandler who approached then-City Clerk Chuck Abdelnour and asked for a quarter.

Abdelnour, just back from Washington, D.C., launched into a description of the nation’s capital.

“What a beautiful city,” he said. “Incredible number of panhandlers in Washington. Way more than San Diego. They’re particularly thick out in front of the FBI and IRS offices.”

At which point the panhandler snapped: “Listen, I can’t afford to stand here and talk to you for a quarter. I’m gonna need a dollar for this.”

miscelLAny: After adult filmmaker Jill Kelly Productions Inc. of North Hollywood filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Ronald Carpenter of L.A. wrote: “It seems to me that this company has gone ‘belly up.’ ”