The Library Tower Under Your Roof

Now, you can have your personal skyline--in your dining room, if you wish. CIT Design of Glendale has created a line of maple chairs with backs resembling such landmarks as the Chrysler Building and the Transamerica Building, not to mention Notre Dame Cathedral (see photo).

CIT’s Phil Spinelli says that corporations sometimes buy half a dozen mixed architectural icons (in the manner of someone ordering doughnuts) for their conference or dining rooms.

L.A., by the way, is represented by the Library Tower, the 73-floor giant formerly known as the First Interstate World Center. Designer Steven Kokinis even omitted the controversial I’s in the crown of the Library Tower; in real life, they have also been removed since the bank was bought out by Wells Fargo.

The chairs, by the way, are also high in a cost sense--about $2,100 apiece.

And how do they feel? How comfortable is it, for instance, to settle into the Notre Dame chair with its 5-foot-tall back?

“The chairs’ seats are very wide so you can move around and change positions,� Spinelli said. “They’re surprisingly comfortable, though I wouldn’t want to sit in one all day.�

Also, the occupant of the Notre Dame chair doesn’t have to worry about being poked because there are no protruding gargoyles.

DISORDER IN THE COURT! Here’s a wacky trial excerpt from Charles Sevilla’s “Great Moments in Courtroom History� column in the L.A. magazine CACJ Forum, published by California Attorneys for Criminal Justice:

During courtroom testimony, a witness was asked to pick out an individual.

WITNESS: “He is at the end of the, the end of the row right there, the first row [pointing].�

JUDGE: “The first row?�

Witness: “Yeah. Yeah, that’s Michael. I’ll never forget that face as long as I live.�

COUNSEL: “Your Honor, may the record reflect he’s identified a member of the jury.�

JUDGE: “Yes, that’s what he’s done, he’s identified Juror No. 12.�

NO SURPRISES HERE: In the movie “Men in Black,� rookie agent Will Smith is shown images of several notables who are registered as space aliens unbeknown to the public. The images show, among others, Sylvester Stallone and Newt Gingrich.

HOW ABOUT A RENDITION OF THE THOMAS GUIDE? The long commutes that Southern Californians must endure have spawned numerous commercial products, from coffee cup holders and eat-as-you-drive breakfasts to books on how to exercise behind the wheel.

Then there are book tapes. Long Beach-based Audio Books keeps truckers’ hours (6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays) and the store now has a “Commuter Special�--20 prepaid days for $20 (a 16% discount).

What next? The Evelyn Wood School of Speed Listening?

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“When I fly I don’t like to be reminded that something may go wrong and I’ll end up praying,� a colleague writes. “So I found it most peculiar that Alaska Airlines hands out little ‘prayer cards’ in their snacks--actually containing a psalm� (see photo). What’s that old line about a wing and a prayer?

Steve Harvey can be reached by phone at (213) 237-7083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by e-mail at [email protected] and by mail at Metro, Times Mirror Square, L.A. 90053.