The Very Model of a Modern Boy

Twelve-year-old Brett Reznichek of Escondido may be headed for a career in advertising; the only question is, will he be producing the ads or starring in them.

Brett, an easy-going, unpretentious kid, already has established himself as a budding model-actor. He’s appeared nine times as a non-speaking extra on the Simon & Simon television series, has appeared on TV commercials for the San Diego Wild Animal Park, and has appeared in print advertisements for Jeep and several clothing manufacturers.

His career is limited to those activities that can be photographed in San Diego County; his parents, Nancy and Bob Reznichek, aren’t eager for the youngster to go on the road just yet and, besides, he’d miss out on after-school sports.

Brett’s most recent accomplishment was in winning a poster-design contest sponsored by a company that supplies inexpensive gifts for “Santa’s Secret Workshops,” which are held at many schools around Christmas time, to allow youngsters to discreetly buy gifts for their families.

Brett drew a poster showing a zany Santa barreling down the road in an express bus heading for Santa’s workshop; the reindeer were hanging out the windows in different color ski hats and mittens.

The poster was judged the best at Miller Elementary School, where he is a sixth-grader, then won first place in the countywide competition, and the other day in Washington it was selected as the best in the country for grades five through eight.

Brett received a $2,000 scholarship for his artwork, and while he’s excited, it hasn’t exactly gone to his head. “There was a girl’s poster at school that I liked better than mine,” he confides. But, hey, that’s just between us.

Time Off for Cops

Speaking of Christmas, what do Super Bowl Sunday and Christmas morning have in common?

Answer: a chance for police dispatchers to sit back and enjoy a few hours of quiet.

Indeed, those seem to be the two times in the year when criminals lay lowest. On Christmas morning, we don’t know if they’re at church or opening gifts, but we assume that last Sunday, they were watching a nationally televised mugging.

“Right up until game time, it was the normal amount of Sunday activity for us,” said San Diego Police Department dispatch supervisor Herb Kelsey. “Then, as soon as the Super Bowl began, it got super quiet. We didn’t have hardly any calls at all. And as soon as the festivities were over, everything started picking up again. Robberies, domestic problems, the usual.”

Lasting Romances

San Diego County’s annual barometer of marital romance will be measured Feb. 9, when local married couples gather in Mission Valley to celebrate World Marriage Day.

World what?

“Society celebrates Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and even Mother-in-Law Day, but there’s no single day in the year when husbands and wives are collectively honored,” said Frank Riedel who, with his wife, Kathy, is coordinating World Marriage Day in San Diego.

The Riedels, active in the Worldwide Marriage Encounter movement that sponsors World Marriage Day, are trying to change that attitude by inviting all married couples in San Diego County to come together under one roof to declare that the institution of marriage is not only healthy but flourishing, thank you.

The local affair will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Scottish Rite Temple on Camino del Rio South. The event is free, open to the public, and will feature a huge wedding cake, refreshments, dancing to music by popular organist Danny Topaz of Padres’ fame, and the honoring of San Diego County’s longest-married couples--including some who have been married more than 70 years.

Highlight of the day will be a mass renewal of wedding vows in a ceremony to be conducted by Rabbi Aaron Gold, the Rev. Gary Harms, a Lutheran minister; the Rev. Wayne Sanders, an Episcopal minister, the Rev. Steve Gorman, a Presbyterian minister, and the Rev. Pat Grace, a Catholic priest.

“This is an opportunity for husbands and wives to inject some romance in their relationship by re-tying the knot and saying they’d do it all over again, even given all that they know about each other,” Kathy Riedel said. “Then we’ll turn the room into a giant wedding reception, and everyone is the couple-of-honor.”

KFMB radio personality Joe Bauer and his wife, Cindy, will be “couple of ceremonies,” as they’ve been the previous two years.

Bauer and his radio show partner, Mac Hudson, helped in the search for the longest married couple in San Diego.

“We think we found them, too,” Bauer deadpanned. “A lady called in to say that she and her husband, end to end, are 13 feet, 7 inches. So we think they’re probably the longest married couple.”

Tax Dodger?

The driver of a 500 SEL Mercedes, parked at the Rancho Bernardo Inn, may be a successful accountant or tax attorney, or maybe he just wants to egg on the IRS.

The car’s vanity license plates read: 4UNOTAX.