For really serious hunger pains:Adjacent to County-USC...

For really serious hunger pains:

Adjacent to County-USC Medical Center is a new restaurant called . . . ER Bar and Grill, of course.

The waitresses wear scrub-uniform tops and the ER logo features a wavy EKG monitor line.

“We serve both American food and ethnic dishes,” said Wayne Turnipseed, executive chef of the Marengo Street eatery.

But what about people who don’t like hospital settings?

“Oh, it doesn’t have a hospital theme,” said Turnipseed, “except for the scrub tops.”

NO CONFIDENCE-BUILDER: A City News Service advisory reported that “a scheduled 1 p.m. event in Santa Monica, in which aviation psychologist Glen Arnold was to provide flight simulator training for nervous airline travelers, has been canceled due to a mechanical problem with the simulator.”

Let’s hope they have a simulated black box.

MAN MEETS DOG, MAN LOSES DOG . . . : One annoying cliche of disaster movies is the pooch that narrowly escapes death. Thousands of humans may expire but as long as one hound survives, viewers can leave the theater happy.

There’s the dog in “Independence Day” that barely eludes the murderous space aliens in downtown L.A.’s 2nd Street tunnel. And there’s the hound in “Volcano” that leaps clear of the flowing pizza topping--excuse us--flowing lava on Wilshire Boulevard.

Get ready for a change in Steven Spielberg’s “Lost World.” In that movie, a pooch is gobbled by a Tyrannosaurus rex. If it results in protests by dog lovers, we hope there will be a counterdemonstration by dinosaur lovers.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: It’s merely a coincidence that on the day we discussed doggy dinners, Leona Martinez and Harry Hultine each sent along ads they spotted for a starchy dish (see accompanying).

L.A.’S CULTURAL LOSS: Sunday is International Museum Day but we hope you’ll also observe a moment of silence for some of the glorious shrines that have passed from the scene in Southern California: the Hopalong Cassidy Museum in Downey, the Foot and Toe Museum in Long Beach and the elusive Bigfoot Museum in Malibu (there have been reported sightings of the Bigfoot Museum in Venice but we won’t believe them until someone produces some photos).

And there was the Junk Mail Museum, planned for Van Nuys by a mass-mail magnate who sadly never delivered on his promise.

Finally, let’s not forget the Southwestern Road Kill Museum at 14th and Alameda streets in downtown Los Angeles (see photo) with its inspiring slogan, “Mementos from Local Highways.” Actually, it was just a prop for a Bill Murray movie at a truck-stop cafe--as we learned to our embarrassment when we dropped by to donate a couple of specimens.

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“Here’s an example of the increasing depersonalization of our city,” writes Lori Levy of Pasadena, who sent us a market receipt that listed the cashier’s name as “Scan Audit.” (see excerpt) Levy could be correct. On the other hand, some parents do seem to give their children strange names these days.