Passing This Class Is a Slam Dunk

The jokes are still bouncing back and forth over the revelation that Pepperdine alumnus Jim Harrick Jr. taught a full-credit class for basketball players at the University of Georgia with such examination questions as: “How many points does a 3-point shot account for?” Said Jay Leno: “I don’t know who’s more embarrassed -- the university, the coach or the six players who got the answer wrong.”

Another question posed by Harrick was: “Diagram the half-court line on a basketball court.”

Chicago Tribune columnist Mike Downey was surprised that one question was left off the test: “Spell ESPN.” I guess if Harrick had been teaching a history class, he would have resurrected the consolation question asked of contestants on Groucho Marx’s old TV quiz show: “Who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb?”

Flying off the handle: You may have read that the city of El Segundo has condemned L.A. Mayor Jim Hahn’s airport expansion plan and threatened to shoot it down with a regional coalition. El Segundo doesn’t like LAX traffic over its city (none of its inhabitants apparently use LAX).

Anyway, I just hope the city doesn’t start another vicious billboard campaign against L.A. like the one it used a few years ago (see photo).

Speaking of flying: David Chan of L.A. learned of the existence of an airborne vegetable in one restaurant (see accompanying).

More food for thought: Sheila Winston found a North Hollywood eatery with an unusual combination of foods -- and spellings (see photo).

Getting the point: Ginger Durgin says she’d much rather be waited on by a “live butcher” than the other variety.

Pink slip parade: The Donald Trump TV series “The Apprentice” “has taken each of us to that uncomfortable time when we were fired,” notes author Don Barrett on his laradio.com website. So Barrett asked broadcasting folks to share their own stories of being axed.

Wrote syndicated talk show host Laura Schlessinger: “KMPC brought in ‘consultants’ to help the station.... They wanted to change me to an interview show. I refused. They left me right then and there at Musso & Frank in Hollywood without even buying me the dinner they brought me there for. I was fired.” Schlessinger added that when the ratings came out, she was No. 1 on her (former) station.

But she forgot to say whether she dined at Musso & Frank, anyway.

miscelLAny: I came across a subscription-cancellation letter the Harvey family received from one magazine a while back. The envelope inscription has something of a double meaning due to a recent jury verdict in New York (see accompanying).

Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATimes, Ext. 77083, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A. 90012, and by e-mail at [email protected].