Only in L.A.

The Seal of Los Angeles County can be seen in Steve Harvey's column in the LATimes. He puts oddball stuff in his column that's funnier'n shit. I wouldn't miss it.

The L.A. County seal scandal grows: Yes, the powers that be were so busy excising the religious cross, the oil derricks and the goddess Pomona from the design (see accompanying) that they overlooked two other symbols with shaky origins.

As I've pointed out, they retained Pearlette, a '50s-era cow that was based at Adohr Farms in Ventura County. L.A. County didn't have any noteworthy bovines?

And reader Larry Steidle informs me that the fish in the design is an albacore, more prevalent in San Diego County waters than in L.A. County.

It lacks personality, too — doesn't even have a name. I say replace it with L.A.'s most famous sea creature — Universal Studios' Bruce of "Jaws" fame.

An anonymous poet sums up the county seal controversy this way:

Holy cross!

Holy cow!

Holy mackerel!

For a cool take on this silly shit and the ACLU, also read Al Martinez' article in the same paper:

She demanded that the symbol be removed by moonset or she would smite the Grand Board with a holy condemnation, whose validity would be considered by the Ultra Grand Court, a body of scary old men with the power to determine piety, remove symbols, cash checks and turn otherwise comely El Layians into goats and manatees

I'm 500 miles from L.A. and I still get a kick out of it.