Try the Drink That Made L.A. Famous

Lee Harris of Burbank saw an alcoholic holiday beverage that was obviously tailored for Southern California imbibers. Its name: Smogg Nog. (Smogg Nog Alert: Don’t drink too much or everything will look hazy. Well, hazier.)

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MARTHA’S NOT GOING TO LIKE THIS! Betty Laslo of Palm Springs notes that the ever-fastidious Martha Stewart would be horrified to see a typo in her cookie recipe that lists “flower” as one of the ingredients (see accompanying). Then again, Martha does recommend using edibles from the garden.

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SPEAKING OF TYPOS: Jay Berger, Mike Peck and more than two dozen other readers burned my phone and computer lines after this column published an invitation to a country club that had “received Golf Digest’s ‘Best New Curses’ Award in 1990.” They pointed out that the cursing might be traced to the fact that the invite also said the course has 28 holes. “Tiger Woods would have trouble breaking 100,” said Roland Gregg.”Talk about a seven-hour round of golf.”

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ONLY IN L.A. TRADITIONAL: One of our most beloved Christmas shots, taken by Laura Garfield, celebrates Santa’s waistline--and one of the products that helped it expand (see photo).

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TOO MANY STRINGS ATTACHED: As Harry Macy of West L.A. edged into a left-turn lane, a driver came hurtling across two lanes and attempted to cut in front of him. There being no room, Macy tooted his horn. “He immediately saluted me as No. 1,” Macy said. The driver kept trying to squeeze in, so Macy honked again. This time, the other guy reached for something inside the car.

“I started to duck,” Macy said. But the driver produced a can of silly string and, Macy said, “in the next couple of moments, my car was covered--hood, roof line, windshield. Then he took off up Sepulveda Boulevard, saluting me as No. 1 again. I was upset at first, but then I saw the humor in it and figured it’s a new kind of road rage.”

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NO WHINNY SITUATION: Beverly Park was a 1950s-era playground recalled in “Things That Aren’t Here Anymore,” Ralph Story’s KCET documentary. The little patch of grass boasted, among other attractions, a pony ride around a track. Some children from that era probably still go to the same area, at the corner of Beverly and La Cienega boulevards. Only now it’s to shop at the Beverly Center. Coincidentally, two horses recently took up residence there. But the Ming-style creatures at P.F. Chang’s China Bistro are 7 feet tall and made of stone. At least they’re housebroken.

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EX-ANGELENOS IN THE NEWS: Writer Kathleen Wiegner, who now lives in Jemez Springs, N.M., was walking with her dog Pobo when the hound dragged her over to something protruding from an open water meter pipe. “At first I thought it was a pair of jeans stuffed with straw that someone had made as a Halloween decoration,” she told the Jemez Thunder newspaper. In fact, it was a man who had fallen in and hung upside-down, shirtless, in sub-freezing weather, for about 24 hours. The victim was rescued, apparently without serious injury. Good dog, Pobo!

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UNOFFICIAL ECONOMIC INDICATORS? Terry Kirker noticed that a “hobo bag” offered by Gucci is priced at $600.

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SPEAKING OF HIP PANHANDLERS: Driving in West L.A., Bernie Golvin spotted “a youngish man in work clothes holding up a placard with a message that spoke worlds.”

The sign said: “Homeless, Etc.”

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Jeff Bliss of Newbury Park says he never heard of a company that “turned OUT lights to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.” Never, that is, until he noticed Novell Inc.’s building the other night off the San Diego Freeway. The “V” and one “L” were darkened in the NOVELL sign. (Those are the only clues I’m going to give you.)