And, now, for the Tale of the...

And, now, for the Tale of the Polaroid Scofflaw. It’s a new Urban Folk Tale, sent along by Richard Sinclair of West L.A.

UFTs, as they’ve become known, are grass-roots stories that seem to acquire credibility through many retellings, even though their source can never be pinned down. A popular one a few years ago was the Tale of the $50 Porsche, which involves a man who runs off to Las Vegas with his secretary. He then phones his wife and asks her to sell his late-model Porsche and to send him half the money. She dutifully obeys--selling it for $50.

The latest UFT, printed in the monthly bulletin of the L.A. chapter of the California Society of Certified Public Accountants, involves a motorist ticketed by a photo-radar system. Officials in Pasadena, which has such an apparatus, said they hadn’t heard the story.

Anyway, the motorist receives a snapshot of his license plate, along with the ticket, in the mail.

“Mr. Wiseguy,� goes the bulletin’s version, “sends back a picture of a $40 check.�

In return, Mr. Wiseguy receives a photo of a pair of handcuffs.

This time, he pays with real money.

It’s not enough that USC’s football team is in its worst tailspin since 1959. Or that its equine mascot, Traveler, was ordered by the school to slow his sideline romps after bumping into a Stanford song girl. Or that a grounds keeper spelled out the school’s initials as “UCS� in the end zone at its last home game before someone noticed the error.

Even the Trojan rooters have been performing below expectations.

A school ban on card stunts was lifted in time for that Washington game.

“But,� reports Daily Trojan City Editor Glen Justice, “the turnout in the rooting section was so thin that the card stunts were called off.�

The ban, in case you were wondering, had been imposed because some students converted the cards into projectiles last year (reportedly hitting the wife of one USC official).

Another USC card-stunt comeback is planned for Saturday’s game against UCLA in the Coliseum.

All together now:

Give me a U, give me a C, give me an S!

During a round-the-world jaunt in 1929, the Graf Zeppelin landed in L.A., where its crew and passengers banqueted at the Biltmore Hotel. For old time’s sake, the hotel recreated the float-over the other day, using the official bird of Redondo Beach, the Goodyear Blimp, as a stand-in.

The accompanying photos emphasize how, in the intervening 62 years, the city has grown up, up, up.

The good news: A billboard on the Westside proclaims: “Finally, Something of Beauty and Substance in Los Angeles.�

The not-quite-so-good news: It’s a new apartment building.

miscelLAny:

The color scheme of the Beverly Center mall at Beverly and La Cienega boulevards on the Westside was changed from blue to brown because retail experts reportedly believed that women wouldn’t shop in a blue building.