Millennium’s First Baby-Tooth Loss?

Tom Graner of Hermosa Beach wonders if his 6-year-old daughter, Rose, achieved one of the first milestones of the 2000s.

She “lost a front tooth that had been bothering her for some time at 12:02 a.m. on 1/1/2000,” he wrote. “The first tooth loss of the millennium?”

Could be, though there’s always a chance that some loudmouth lost one in a bar fight at 12:01.

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UNHAPPY FACES: I heard from the owner of the Hancock Park mansion with the smiling, if toothless, faces (see photo).

“When we bought this house it was so serious we couldn’t look at it,” he explained. “We wanted to loosen up the stuffy Hancock Park people.”

The owner said local kids love the adornments. He estimated that 25% of the neighbors frown over them. Good news for them: The smiles have been wiped off the mansion’s face for now.

“We’ve been undergoing renovation,” the owner said, “and we have our painter paint the faces on the cement circles for special occasions, like Halloween.”

Some neighbors might also be relieved that the owner decided against another alternative: “We had considered Mickey Mouse ears.”

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HEADING IN: On Newport Pier, resident Valerie Larenne found a pigeon that had temporarily lost its head while trying to get a drink. (see photo).

Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES, Ext. 77083, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, Times Mirror Square, L.A. 90053 and by e-mail at [email protected].