Act at Ceremony Honoring Scully Drove People Nuts

Ex-newsman Cliff Dektar reports that when broadcaster Vin Scully was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences the other night, one of Dodger Stadium’s most famous performers attended.

It was vendor Roger (the Peanut Man) Owens, decked out in his striped uniform.

Employing his famed behind-the-back delivery, Owens tossed bags to the sellout crowd in the Beverly Hills theater.

But the bags were blanks, weighted down with cardboard. Theater rules prohibit any food indoors.

No one left feeling cheated, though. When the ceremony was over, the Peanut Man met the departing spectators outside and threw them bags of the real stuff.

MYSTERY CALLER: Scully also received a video message that night from former Yale first baseman George Bush. The latter recalled playing against Scully’s Fordham team in the late 1940s. Bush said both he and Scully, an outfielder, were hitless in three at-bats. Bush quipped that his lack of hitting skills made him realize he’d have to go out and find a job in the real world. Sorry, I didn’t catch the name of the profession that Bush entered.

FURTHER PROOF THAT TIME IS RELATIVE: Companies love to brag about offering 24-hour service, but sometimes you have to read the small (or large) print. Craig Ehlers came upon a 24-hour automated teller machine in Santa Monica that’s open 12 hours a day. Ed Schlossman spotted a Newbury Park doughnut shop that is open “almost” 24 hours (is that more or less than 12 hours?). And Gary Bolen discovered an eatery in Valencia that is open “late” 24 hours. “At what point does it stop being late and start being early?” Bolen asks.

ANGELENOS ABROAD: Earle Bunker of Alhambra writes: “In one of your columns about a German student perplexed about a gaggle of no-parking signs, you mentioned that it was all Greek to you. When we were in Athens, I asked our Greek tour guide about that. I said, ‘In America, when we don’t understand something, we say, “It’s all Greek to us.” ’What do the Greeks say?’ ”

The guide told Bunker, “We say, ‘It’s all Russian to us.’ ”

LIST OF THE DAY: Here’s the latest report of odd findings by Only in L.A.’s guerrilla proofreaders:

* A farmhouse that has a “spring-fed barn” (sent by Judy Silk).

* A sign for a restaurant drawing that asks customers to drop their business cards in the “bowel” on the counter (Curt Bormann).

* A country club that boasts a personal spa to allow “mourning and afternoon sunning” (John and Rhoda Lou Laubacher).

* A handyman who will convert “your toilet into a bidet. I also do full body massage for women” (Susi Waddilove).

* A company that performs exterior “tainting” of houses (Greg White).

* A special on Pacific Supreme Smoked Salmon, which are “farm-raised Atlantic salmon” (Joe Quasarano.

Needless to say, the language in the last item is all Russian to me.

miscelLAny:

USC’s Daily Trojan newspaper published a correction the other day that said: “In the article titled ‘College Republicans hold trial for Bruin’ in the Thursday, Nov. 20, issue . . . it was stated that a 2-foot tall stuffed Bruin was decapitated by the CRs with a toy samurai sword. The sword was real and the Bruin was 4 feet tall. The Daily Trojan regrets the errors.” Guess the headless Bruin was avenged by the UCLA football team two days later.