Purple haze: As Elaine Davis passed beneath...

Purple haze: As Elaine Davis passed beneath an underpass on Glendale Boulevard, she felt a sudden, sharp pain in one eye. Something had dropped through her sun roof.

“I thought it was a rock and when I felt my eye and it was all wet. I thought I was bleeding,” she said. “But it wasn’t blood.”

She looked over on the passenger side and saw one splattered grape.

“I’m sure it was just some kids who thought it’d be fun to drop fruit through a sun roof,” said Davis, who suffered a contusion and an abrasion. “But, as my doctor said, even something as soft as one grape traveling at that speed can damage an eyeball.”

In the future, she says, she’s only going to take advantage of the sun roof on the open highway.

“It’s too crazy in the city,” she said. “If it’s not drive-by shootings, you’re getting attacked by produce.”

October surprise: Arturo’s Flowers in Hollywood has put a Halloween spin on the presidential campaign. Funny, but we’ve never seen Perot in a hat before.

And wait till they try to fire him: It should come as no surprise that KFI-AM radio hired Daryl Gates as a talk-show host. After all, he has show biz experience. Gates, who appeared in “Hunter” and several other TV shows, was the first police chief in L.A.--possibly in the nation--to possess a Screen Actors Guild card.

Daryl, we have to give you a warning. You were accused of making controversial statements when you were police chief. But now you’re replacing the outrageous Tom Leykis. You’re going to have to come up with more radical stuff than suggesting that casual drug users be shot. You’re Daryl Gates, shock jock, now.

Barbie, the things you say!The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics has given Mattel Inc. a failing grade for a Teen Talk Barbie doll that says, among other things: “Math class is tough.”

Donna Gibbs, a spokeswoman for the El Segundo company, denied that Mattel was reinforcing a stereotype that boys are better with numbers than girls. She pointed out that the curvaceous Barbies are programmed to say several other positive things, including, “I love school, don’t you?” and “I’m going to be a veterinarian.”

But, Gibbs acknowledged, future Barbies will take a different line when it comes to math.

Here’s our suggestion. Teen Talk Barbie should chirp, “My idol is Albert Einstein . . . I just love his hair!”

miscelLAny:

People magazine reports that among the items that will be auctioned off by the estate of the late author Alex Haley to pay off debts is a key to the city of Burbank. Value unknown.