Only 9% of Americans can identify William...

Only 9% of Americans can identify William Rehnquist as chief justice of the United States. But 54% know that Joseph Wapner is the presiding judge on the “People’s Court” television show, a Washington Post poll found.

Best known of the U.S. Supreme Court justices, at 23%, was Sandra Day O’Connor. Only 29% of those questioned could name even one member of the court.

Luckily for the justices, their jobs don’t depend on name recognition, the way Judge Wapner’s does.

Great Moments in L.A. History: Twenty-four years ago today, the Los Angeles City Council, angered by Venice’s beatniks, outlawed the nighttime playing of bongo drums at the beach.

It’s not as if there aren’t enough real-life natural disasters here. Now come the fictional ones. And you have to pay to experience them. In addition to “Earthquake: The Big One” at Universal Studios, two newer catastrophes are striking daily: “Tidal Wave Hits Southern California” at Magic Mountain in Valencia and “Bermuda Triangle” at Raging Waters in San Dimas.

Raging Waters’ press release points out that the “Bermuda Triangle” off the coast of Florida is “the place where hundreds of ships and airplanes have vanished without a trace.” Sounds like great fun.

Is there a ZIP code for the Twilight Zone?

Looking through her mail the other day, Carey Anderson of Manhattan Beach found a picture postcard that had her correct street address. But everything else on the card was unfamiliar.

It was mailed to a “Mrs. Cy Welch” from Mammoth Lakes and it bore a canceled 1-cent stamp as well as a “Sept. 11, 1939” postmark

Anderson, a vice president for Security Pacific National Bank, said: “All I can figure is that she (Mrs. Welch) was a former resident here and the card just turned up at the post office the other day.”

In fact, it could have turned up during the postal headquarters recent move from the Terminal Annex downtown to South-Central L.A.

Whatever, postal spokesman Larry Dozier pointed out: “When we find something, we do deliver it. It would have been just as easy to trash it.”

Is there a doctor in the house?

Yessir. The International League of Teddy Bear Clubs made sure to ask Dave Goldberg of Beverly Hills to be on hand for its convention in Orange today--just in case there were any emergencies. Like a coffee spill. Or a chocolate-cake smudge.

Goldberg ministers to the coats of teddy bears.

“You have to be careful what you put on them,” warned Goldberg, “or you can rob the plush of its original sheen.”

A Vons market on Melrose Avenue will offer, at noon today, free samples of what is described as the world’s first nutritious doggy ice cream. It’s BYOB (Bring Your Own Bowl).