Ronald Smith recently sent us an email:

The fleet oiler USS Mispillion made the 76 ball a welcome sight to ships of the US 7th fleet during the Viet Nam war. Thanks Union Oil for providing one of your rotating 76 balls, which we mounted on the second deck over looking the stern of our ship. The 76 ball became a familiar sight to aircraft carriers, destroyers, even the hospital ship "Repose" and the battleship "New Jersey" as they approached the floating "76 Station" on station with the 7th Fleet. The USS Mispillion broke every existing record for supplying fuel and supplies during that deployment! The 76 ball was our symbol, and we took great pride in it!

And thanks to the kind folks at the USS Mispillion website, we can share a view of that brave 76 Ball with you!

Save the 76 Ball! It's a veteran! 

For weeks, I'd heard the rumors: somewhere down in Malibu there was a 76 ball at a closed gas station, trussed up in black plastic like some ultrakinky egg. Nathan even claimed to have seen it, though naturally he didn't have his camera that day.

Then Christopher and Claudia Nygard passed through town on their way to Oregon, and darned if they didn't snap a cameraphone pic while passing the strange black orb. Behold, the oddest 76 Ball in all L.A.!

Hurrah for Bill Griffith, whose daily Zippy the Pinhead strip (running in about 200 newspapers today) "Unleaded Moment" features the titular hero communing with a 76 Ball that has some very reasonable concerns about its mortality.

Thanks to the miracles of the internet, you can enjoy the strip in color (with the surrealistic choice of a navy blue backdrop for the sphere) or classic black and white. 

Bill reports that Zippy will be revisiting the 76 Ball campaign in at least one future strip. Zippy's attention was instrumental in helping to save the endangered Doggie Diner restaurant heads in the Bay Area, and we hope he can do the same for 76. Thanks, Zippy!

David Palmer of Pacific Grove, CA spotted a rare and hideous sight last week: a native Californian 76 Ball on its pole, flattened and riding to its grave on a misty coastal highway. Bearing all its heavy spherical weight on its face, the poor, disgarded ball was actually caving in on its underside.

THIS is how little ConocoPhillips thinks of the beloved 76 Ball brand.

In Pacific Grove, the local ball still spins... but for how long? And here are some more handsome spheres from along the Monterey Coast. Below: so clean it sparkles! (not like the grubby balls in L.A.) Below: even in thick fog, the blue and orange shine brightly.

Thank you, David, for your invaluable documentation and devotion to the cause.

Visit David's Lighthouse Avenue blog.