These have been stormy times for his...

These have been stormy times for his department of late, but Beverly Hills Police Chief Marvin Iannone pointed out that there was nothing controversial about the breakfast ceremony honoring the city’s outstanding police officers and firefighters Thursday morning.

“I’m very proud of all these people,� Iannone said.

“And I’m sure even Zsa Zsa would agree if she were here,� he added.

Zsa Zsa apparently hadn’t received an invitation.

Los Angeles has its Little Tokyo, and, now, perhaps Nagoya, Japan, will have its Little L.A.

Among the topics on the agenda for Mayor Tom Bradley during his visit to sister city Nagoya is the creation of a Los Angeles Square, not to mention a mini-Hollywood Walk of Fame.

No word yet on whether Johnny Grant will also preside over Nagoya’s sidewalk-star ceremonies.

If motorists on the Pasadena Freeway didn’t realize they were in a construction zone, they might find the accompanying sign on the Forest Lawn Drive off-ramp a bit unsettling.

Southern Californians are accustomed to hearing jibes about smog, congested freeways and hedonistic life styles. But now our palm trees are being attacked?

In her short story, “Falling in October,� Kate Braverman refers to our fond fronds as “horrid, dull, sun-poisoned palms where anemic black rats lived.�

Not long ago, East Coast novelist John Updike described the palms out here as “isolate, like psychopaths.�

But at least no one can call them plastic anymore. It was 13 years ago this week that the county Road Department tore up 900 artificial palms and other plants that had lined Jefferson Boulevard in Marina del Rey.

The county had said there wasn’t enough earth along the road to house real plants when the “Great Plastic Plant� experiment first began.

It quickly sprouted all sorts of critics, from garden clubs who said it would jeopardize the city’s reputation as a garden spot to schoolchildren who worried that real birds would have no place to nest.

Environmental terrorists relieved some of the county’s burden by tearing out 50 of the ersatz shrubs themselves.

Amid reports of people becoming ill after swimming in Santa Monica Bay, the city Bureau of Sanitation is inviting reporters to take a special boat trip around Will Rogers State Beach and the Santa Monica Pier this morning “to see the water for yourself.�

Notice the sanitation people didn’t say anything about touching the water.

These days, everything has its price:

A shop in the Los Angeles City Mall advertises a “20% discount on men’s soles.�

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, while chiding House members for protesting the $500-million-plus price tag for the embattled B-2 stealth bomber, admitted:

“I recognize the sticker shock.�

And, don’t forget what Johnny Carson said of the still-grounded plane, which practiced taxiing on a Palmdale runway earlier this week:

“As soon as they take it off the lot, it’ll only be worth half that.�

L.A. claimed another world first at the Hispanic Cartoon Festival in the Million Dollar Theater downtown--the world’s tallest Bozo as guest star. Nine feet of clown.

While Southern California’s Spanish roots are well known, our great French tradition is sometimes forgotten.

And, so, a Happy Bastille Day to all you citoyens of Los Angeles County from picturesque Bel-Air to the quaint eastern villages of Claremont, Montclair and--on the left bank Puddingstone Reservoir-- La Verne.