All Would-Be Robber Gets From His Cell Phone Grab Is Hot Cuppa Joe, to Go

In the never-ending stupid criminal tricks competition, a robber accosted a man on a Norwalk sidewalk and demanded his cellular phone, the Long Beach Press Telegram’s police log reported.

The assailant “then ran away yelping when the victim poured hot coffee on his head.”

Too bad the victim couldn’t have given the assailant a couple of lumps with that coffee.

Guide to Adventurous Dining: Today’s selections (see accompanying) include:

* A drink recipe that includes some really thick chili sauce (submitted by Marcia de la Vega).

* Some chicken possibly accompanied by the annoying guy in the next booth (from Jennifer McIntosh).

* And a salad offer that was certified by Arthur Andersen (from Ed Schander).

The Ape Man would be proud: You wouldn’t associate the new movie “Queen of the Damned,” which is about a vampire rock star, with “The Graduate” (1967), which is about an uptight college grad. But in “Queen,” a groupie tells the toothy singer, “I came all the way from Tarzana.” And in “The Graduate,” the parents of Ben (Dustin Hoffman) lure him out of the bedroom to attend a party at their Pasadena home by pointing out, “The Carlsons are here.... They came all the way from Tarzana.”

Yes, the two movies don’t have much in common, but they’ll always have Tarzana.

My still unpublished book, “Great--and Not-So-Great--Movie Dialogue About the Valley,” contains two other references to Reseda’s neighbor (don’t think Reseda isn’t jealous, too):

* In “Get Shorty,” Danny DeVito’s character says: “I’m Italian, but I was born in Tarzana.”

* And in “2 Days in the Valley,” a 60ish apartment dweller hears a brawl on the floor above in the middle of the night and tells his wife: “Maybe that’s how they make love in Tarzana.”

Tom, Dick and “Squeaky”: Celebrating its 25th anniversary, the Beach Reporter compiled a list of 25 famous Southland beachites, including:

* Redondo Beach High alumni Charles Lindbergh, porn-star-turned-actress Traci Lords, actress Demi Moore, jazz trumpeter Chet Baker, onetime Manson girl Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme and the Smothers Brothers (Tom and Dick).

* Losing Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan, who settled in Hermosa Beach after quitting as Woodrow Wilson’s secretary of State.

* Poet Robinson Jeffers, who “often rented a room at 431 24th St.” in Hermosa Beach.

* Reclusive novelist Thomas Pynchon (“Gravity’s Rainbow”), who “reclused” for a time in Manhattan Beach.

* And Hermosa Beach novelist Leonard Wibberley, who should not be confused with “Squeaky,” though he wrote “The Mouse That Roared.”

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miscelLAny: Charles Lindbergh spent one semester at Redondo High while his mother tended to a sick relative. He was no stranger to long trips even back then, biographer A. Scott Berg points out. When Lindy and his mother moved here from Little Falls, Minn., he drove the entire way--at the age of 15.

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LA-TIMES, 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 [email protected].