Benefit Spaghetti Cook-Off at Marine Base Offers $1,000 Prize and a Pasta-Eating Contest

A spaghetti cook-off? Paul Chavira of Garden Grove and Robert Fuess of Costa Mesa figure it is a delicious way to raise money for the Orange County American Red Cross.

Their plan is to round up 100 teams who would pay $50 each to compete for the $1,000 grand prize, and at the same time attract 10,000 people, at $5 each, to watch, taste the sauce and visit other attractions such as 20 wine booths.

They would also witness an attempt to break the world’s record for spaghetti eating.

“A representative of ‘The Guinness Book of Records’ will see if the record of consuming 100 yards of wet spaghetti in less than 21.7 seconds can be broken,” said Chavira, who owns an Italian restaurant and somehow convinced the Marine Corps to have the cook-off at the El Toro base.

Fuess, who also promotes an annual chili cook-off in Orange County, figures 400 Red Cross volunteers will work at the spaghetti cook-off, which he hopes will raise $100,000. The event is set for Sept. 15.

What’s the proper way to invite Los Angeles Archbishop Roger M. Mahony to dinner?

Well, if you’re Loretta Mahony of Orange, you call up and say, “Roger, how would you like to come to dinner?”

It’s a simple fact, she said: “I’m his mother and he’s the same Roger to me.” As mothers are prone to do, she is quick to point out she has two other sons, Neil, 54, and Louis, 49, the archbishop’s twin brother. The former bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Stockton was recently named to his new post by Pope John Paul II.

Jim Hodgson, an Irvine computer school president, listened intently while Parrish Munsell, 17, of Capistrano Beach explained the workings of an electronic bulletin board he built. His invention allows people with computers to “talk” with it even when the school is closed.

That is one of the reasons Parrish, a senior at Anaheim’s Servite High School, has found success at such an early age.

In addition to being selected from 25 candidates for Accelerated Computer Training’s scholarship program, he was hired part time and asked to sit in and contribute planning ideas at meetings of the board of directors.

“It’s like a dream come true,” Parrish said. Besides his ability to program in three computer languages--PASCAL, FORTRAN and BASIC--Parrish has knowledge of four computer operating systems.

Even without knowing him, you just have to like Ken Slosberg, photography professor of Costa Mesa who is planning the October conference for the western region of the Society for Photographic Education, which he heads.

Wrote Slosberg: “It’ll be a wonderful opportunity to see a lot of interesting work, meet a lot of interesting people and dance your socks off.”