San Diego State Students Gamble on Their Exams

At San Diego State University, you can hit the books -- or hit the tables.

The school’s College of Extended Studies offers a professional certificate in casino gaming.

Five courses, costing from $150 to $240, are offered, including “Introduction to Indian Gaming, Past and Present” and “Table Management, Slot Management, Casino Customer Service and Casino Marketing.”

To get the certificate, you must pass all five classes. It’s your gamble.

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Security really is tightening up: My colleague Kimi Yoshino was in Chicago when she spotted a frank warning on a pay phone (see photo).

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Then, again: The phone sticker could have been a joke, like the stickers that appeared in Stuff Magazine a few years ago and were subsequently pasted in innumerable restrooms by readers. The stickers said: “Toilet Camera is for Research Only.”

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Bathroom discomfort (cont.): Jacques DuLong of Manhattan Beach sent along a shot he took at the Tower of London Museum (see photo), which might lead visitors to wonder just how old the facilities were. Actually, the bottom sign referred to a display of medieval prison hardware.

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It’s tamale turmoil: In Pacific Palisades, no less, where a teenager wrote to the Palisadian-Post:

“To the grown-ups who cut into the tamale line at last Sunday’s Farmers Market, then screeched profanities at us when we complained: My teenage friends and I sure hope you’re not an example of how most grown-ups behave.”

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Mixed signals: Steve Stillman of Redondo Beach saw a sign that could give pause to job-seekers (see photo).

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Initial responses: Matt Little of Los Altos begs to differ with my contention that San Francisco’s name, unlike that of Los Angeles, is rarely abbreviated.

“Actually, we here in the S.F. Bay Area not only refer to San Francisco as ‘The City’ but also as ‘S.F.,’ ” he said.

Little, who grew up in Santa Monica and Northridge, added: “Probably got started by all the Southern Cal folks who moved up here.”

Seymour S. Segal, meanwhile, recalled an occasion when his use of “L.A.” caused some confusion.

“In 1944, I was stationed in the South doing dentistry on new Army trainees,” he said. “One morning, my patient asked me where I was from.

“Having lived in L.A. for five years, I replied, ‘L.A.’ Then he asked me, ‘What part of Louisiana?’ ”

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miscelLAny: And, finally, the L.A. Insult of the Week. Sportscaster Bret Lewis of KFWB-AM (980) noted that rumors that injured star Carlos Delgado of the Toronto Blue Jays might be traded to the L.A. Dodgers prompted this headline in the Toronto Star:

“Jay Slugger’s Season From Hell Just Got Worse.” A commentary on our freeways?

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATimes, Ext. 77083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A. 90012, and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.