Take this job and punch it: When...

Take this job and punch it: When employees of the Chiat Day ad agency in Venice take a break, they can watch television, shoot pool or pound away on punching bags in the recreation room. “We thought this would say to everyone that we’re all in this together,” said spokeswoman Adelaide Horton.

To emphasize the point, the punching bags are decorated with caricatures of the agency’s bosses.

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The spy who surfed in from the cold: During a recent fund-raising dinner, Pepperdine University President David Davenport quipped that the school is becoming internationally known. He was referring to a charge by a former KGB colonel that Pepperdine collected Russian defense industry secrets under cover of a U.S. government-funded program.

Davenport added that the school has also gained renown in another area. The hero of “The Chamber,” John Grisham’s latest thriller, is a Pepperdine grad.

Nothing like an impressive Fictional Alumni Assn. to aid recruiting.

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The first Angeleno to move to Seattle?When

William Wallace, the owner of the Los Angeles Star, sold the newspaper in 1856, he wrote that he was getting out of town because “the flush times of the pueblo, the day of large . . . pocketbooks, are past.”

L.A., he predicted, would be characterized by “picayunes, bad liquor, rags and universal dullness, when neither pistol shots nor dying groans” would have any effect and “when earthquakes would hardly turn men in their beds!” We think Wallace was way off base--at least about the earthquakes.

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Look what else has departed L.A.: The 73-story First Interstate World Center, among other smog-scrapers.

At least that’s the impression you would get from the scenic cover photo in MidrangeExpo, the guide for a Sept. 26-29 computer convention in Anaheim.

“Could be the photo’s just a screw-up,” writes Jeff Curtis of Glendale. “But, hey, this is a computer show. Those computer guys would never screw up never screw up never screw up never screw up never. . . .”

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Always on thin ice: With the L.A. Kings’ preseason beginning, it’s time for Angelenos to receive a pep talk from Police Sgt. Joe Friday (Dan Aykroyd), who had this to say in the 1987 version of “Dragnet”:

“Sure, this city isn’t perfect. We need a smut-free life for all our citizens, cleaner streets, better schools, a good hockey team. . . .”

Maybe the Kings won’t have so many picayunes on the roster this year.

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Actually, that’s the last year we enjoyed a TV film: The press release announcing that entries are being taken for the Humanitas Prize “for humanizing achievement in writing for television and feature films,” adds:

“Deadline for submission is April 15, 1955.”

miscelLAny Bank of America is holding a “Stair Climb to the Top” race Oct. 1 at First Interstate World Center. The event will be in Los Angeles. Anaheim has agreed to give the building back after the computer convention is over.