The Red Cross Honors a Blood Brother

Ever since 1950 when he took part in an ROTC blood drive while a student at UCLA, Ulysses Griggs has been giving blood regularly. This week, the Red Cross decided to honor him on the occasion of the donation of his 100th pint of blood. The organization gave him a “12-gallon” pin, even though by then Griggs had donated 12 1/2 gallons.

A retired Army Reserve colonel, Griggs noted that in the 1950s, people were only permitted to donate twice a year. He didn’t quite maintain that schedule when he served a hitch in the Army, but when he got out he resumed giving as often as allowed.

Griggs couldn’t recall when donors were permitted to give blood more often than every six months, but he estimated that he’s been making a contribution every 56 days (the minimum wait) for the last 10 years.

Why?

One reason is that there’s clearly a need for blood, particularly in these days when there’s so much fear surrounding blood transfusions.

“People are so afraid now. They think you can get AIDS by giving blood. That’s ridiculous,” Griggs said.

Then there’s a more personal reason. “I feel everyone should give something back,” offered the former manager of UCLA’s mail and messenger service, a job from which Griggs is currently on leave. “Love is the strongest force in the world and this is my way of demonstrating that and giving something back.”

It’s nice to further report that having deposited so much in blood banks, Griggs has never once needed to make a withdrawal.

Laugh Track

Ness Carroll thought people were taking their lives far too seriously and needed more laughter. So for those who have trouble laughing or anybody who could use some more chuckles, Carroll (and six of her friends) produced an instant antidote: a tape of seven people laughing their heads off for about an hour.

“We did it in one take and were high for a week,” Carroll said by telephone from Australia, where she’s currently introducing the audiocassette tape.

The tape, which sells for $9.98 through Carroll’s Santa Barbara-based Funny Business, has sold more than 3,000 copies since it was produced a year and a half ago, said the management consultant.

“It’s had universal appeal. We’ve not had one bounced check or one tape returned to us by a dissatisfied customer,” she added. “We get orders from therapists, doctors, hospitals and a lot of orders from libraries.”

To hear a brief sample of the tape, call (805) 969-7002.

Everything’s Ducky

Have some Peking duck and help the U.S. farm crisis?

That’s the offer of Donald Cheng, owner of Miriwa restaurant in Los Angeles’ Chinatown. For every special Peking duck dinner ordered during October and November, Cheng is donating $1 to U.S. Farm Aid.

The restaurateur says he wants to honor the American spirit and simultaneously celebrate the Return of the Prodigal Duck.

Up until mid-1983, Cheng was cited many times by the Los Angeles County Health Department for violating restaurant codes in his preparation of Peking duck. “The duck must hang and dry for six hours after seasoning and the county wanted us to refrigerate it,” Cheng recalls. “That would make it Los Angeles duck, not Peking duck; it would taste very different.”

It wasn’t long before a local TV news commentator learned of Cheng’s plight and aired a favorable commentary. State Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) saw the news and sponsored legislation in Sacramento exempting Peking duck from the rules.

So now the duck is back on the menu--legitimately this time--and to celebrate its return Cheng is helping American farmers.

Tree Harvest

The TreePeople will be out en masse again Saturday--but this time they won’t be just planting trees. They’ll be harvesting them.

Saturday morning, about 70 TreePeople volunteers will be harvesting 1,000 eucalyptus trees and planting an additional 150 trees at the Sepulveda Garden Center in Encino. There are about 3,000 trees at the center’s eucalyptus forest, a joint project between the TreePeople and the Los Angeles Zoo.

The eucalyptus harvest will be used to feed koalas at the L.A. Zoo, where it’s estimated that an adult koala daily eats up to three pounds of eucalyptus leaves.

There are plans for more eucalyptus trees to be planted at the Sepulveda Garden Center and for a $10 donation, an individual can sponsor a eucalyptus tree there; the TreePeople will send the donor a certificate of thanks from the zoo’s koala family.

Checks for tree donations can be sent to TreePeople/Koalas, 12601 Mulholland Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. A call to (818) 769-2663 will bring more information.

Hail to Halley

The 329th birthday of Edmond Halley will be celebrated beneath the stars and above the city lights on the roof of the Griffith Observatory tonight at 9 p.m.

After the conclusion of the observatory’s 8 p.m. Planetarium show, “Comet Halley’s 1985-86 World Tour,” the public is invited to the rooftop celebration. Comet-shaped birthday cake will be served to the accompaniment of a string quartet playing chamber music of Halley’s era.

“If we have good weather, there will be a very good chance of seeing the comet” through the observatory’s 12-inch rooftop Zeiss refracting telescope, said E. C. Krupp, director of the observatory. He said that the famous comet was first spotted through the telescope approximately 10 days ago.

The event also marks the reopening of the observatory roof to the public. It has been closed since spring because of the restoration of the facility’s three copper domes.

In deference to comet watchers, the rooftop telescope and a reflecting telescope set up on the observatory’s front lawn will be open from 7 p.m. to midnight throughout November. For a taped message regarding the comet’s progress, call the Observatory Sky Report at (213) 663-8171.

Halley did far more than correctly predict the return of the comet that bears his name. He prepared the first star charts of the southern sky, tested the first underwater diving bell, developed the first annuity tables, discovered the distance between the Earth and the Sun and invented weather charts.