No one ever said that artist Michael...

No one ever said that artist Michael Davis’ MAN HAT TAN sign was to Manhattan Beach what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris. Or what the Empire State Building is to New York.

The three-piece spell-out was in place just two years, hardly long enough to qualify as a landmark. But Howard Spector, the city’s public arts administrator, is not happy about its recent removal from its perches along Manhattan Beach Boulevard.

The city, which had an option to buy the symbolic work for permanent display after its lease ran out, declined.

“The Man Hat Tan has been fairly controversial,” Spector said. “Some people thought it was a just a one-line joke. But it did what public art is supposed to do--interact with the community and engage the residents in a discourse. Whether they like it or not is not really the point.”

It remains to be seen, too, whether the city undergoes an identity crisis.

The maker of a more recent sign (see photo) at the Inglewood off-ramp of the San Diego Freeway has already forgotten how to spell the city’s name.

Then, too, what will happen to MAN HAT TAN?

Here, Only in L.A. swings into action.

Through the magic of technology, we switch you to Manhattan, Kan., where we have just told a Chamber of Commerce official about the sign.

Even though Manhattan is happy with its slogan, “The Little Apple,” she says the city is contemplating a new sign campaign and would like to see photos of Davis’ work.

She asks for a clarification on one point:

“How does it say ‘Tan’ again?”

Today’s Quiz:

Identify the politician who once told a group of students at Caltech: “Here in Pasadena, scientists can now use the world’s fastest computer. I hear that the computer is so advanced it can actually calculate the number of Tommy’s burgers that you all eat.”

Time magazine’s “California: The Endangered Dream” issue in November consisted of segments on crime, traffic congestion, smog, gang problems--and, oddly enough, “Spicy Blend of East and West . . . Pacific Rim cooking.”

Two months later, in its “Best of 1991” roundup, Time ranked “Cal-Asian Cuisine, a.k.a. Pacific Rim cookery” as No. 1 in its food category.

OK, let’s try to get this straight. Pacific Rim cooking is part of “the endangered dream,” but tasty nevertheless? A combination that’s sort of hard to swallow.

A couple in a downtown post office were observed trying to buy Elvis stamps on Friday.

The clerk, who evidently hadn’t read the announcement that the King will be honored by the Postal Service in 1993, said that no such stamp existed.

“But it was in the PAPER!” the man insisted.

You can just hear the King crooning, “It’s now or never. . . .”

Answer to today’s quiz:

President Bush, June 14, 1991.

miscleLAny:

“Birth of a Nation,” which opened at Clune’s Auditorium in L.A. on Feb. 8, 1915, was such an expensive production ($100,000) that L.A. moviegoers were asked, for the first time, to pay the exorbitant price of $2 per ticket.