Dial-a-disaster: If you phone Allstate Insurance’s 800...

Dial-a-disaster: If you phone Allstate Insurance’s 800 line, a recorded voice says:

“Please press 1 if you are calling regarding the California rainstorms.

“Please press 2 if you are calling regarding the Texas floods.

“Please press 3 if you are calling regarding the California earthquake.”

Luckily they don’t have a number for Armageddon.

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The month that the rains came: If you think this storm was heavy, consider the downpour that began here Dec. 21, 1861. It raged for 30 (thirty) straight days, with just two slight interruptions. The flooding was so bad that the outlet of the L.A. River, formerly near Venice, shifted 30 miles south.

During one brief break in the deluge, the L.A. Star published this item:

“A phenomenon--on Tuesday last the sun made its appearance. The phenomenon lasted several minutes and was witnessed by a great number of persons.”

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Home away from home: The sequestering of the O.J. Simpson jury will be an interesting drama in itself. Downtown L.A., after all, can be a small world. The jurors in the federal Rodney G. King case, for instance, were assigned to the L.A. Hilton. The day the verdicts were announced, the Hilton was hosting an L.A. Trial Lawyers Assn. seminar--”Police Misconduct Litigation.”

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Ham on the run: When two large pigs were reported on the Pomona Freeway after a truck spill, KFI radio traffic reporter Mark Denis couldn’t resist. It was, he said, an official “Pig-Alert.”

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What you’d always suspected about postal rates: Leslie Shields walked into a Downtown magazine shop and spotted a stamp machine with a sign that said, “Out of control.”

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Someone better tell 20th Century Fox: When he went shopping in a Fairfax-area market, Scott Rose was ready to usher in a new year. But a new millennium? (see accompanying receipt) A terrifying thought. For one thing, what will the price of stamps be?

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Who says it’s the Devil’s brew: St. Vibiana’s Cathedral, as you may have read, is going to be rebuilt, and we’re confident that Cardinal Mahony will come up with the financing. Fund-raising was more of a problem in 1818 when the church fathers decided to rebuild the pueblo’s Plaza Church. In fact, construction was suspended for a year at one point when the money ran out. Fortunately, the Plaza Church was able to auction 500 cattle donated by townsfolk as well as seven barrels of whiskey contributed by the Mission San Gabriel.

As historian Hubert Howe Bancroft observed, altruistic Angelenos drank “immense quantities” of the hooch “in their zeal for the spiritual welfare of the town.”

miscelLAny After surveying more than 200,000 dog license records, L.A. County animal control officials report the most popular name is Lady, the choice of almost 2,500 pet owners. Another 1,829 hounds have been christened Bear--and we doubt that any of them are good enough for “Lady.”