Clan Hits Beach for Mutter’s Day

If holidays strike you as sometimes getting out of control, you might have checked in at Dog Beach on Sunday to watch a few San Diegans take Mother’s Day a step further.

The mother at this Mother’s Day picnic wasn’t even human, though she had done her bit for maternity by producing nine Dalmatians. Humans from Ocean Beach orchestrated the event, down to the cards, gifts, balloons, kibble, and Dalmatian costumes for themselves and a lone beagle.

“We had the mother, father, two grandmothers, cousins, an aunt and uncle,” said Charlotte Kneller, recalling the canine guest list.

The guest of honor, owned by an Ocean Beach jeweler, cavorted with her pups while the humans looked on in admiration. There was a family spat, provoked by a feisty “aunt.” Gifts were opened, a Frisbee tossed. A television station even turned up to record the event.

“We did have one visitor, which was a big, black shaggy dog,” said Kneller, an executive and medical courier. “He became very bored, and he thought we were crazy, so he just went off.”

How could she tell? Kneller was queried.

“By the look in his eyes. And his nonchalant manner.”

Just Sing No

Not long ago, Louie Stevens was composing jingles for such establishments as the Friendly Beast toy store in Athens, Ohio; Mr. Sub’s in Parkersburg, W.Va., and McDonald’s franchises of southern Ohio, to name a few.

(His reggae-influenced jingle went well in Appalachian Ohio: Family night sales at McDonald’s stores rose 40%.)

Now, Stevens is a San Diego-based producer and author of a theme song for Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No to Drugs” campaign. Today, Stevens heads for Los Angeles with the St. Paul’s Cathedral children’s choir to perform at an anti-drug extravaganza attended by the First Lady.

On Wednesday, honoring national Just Say No Week, the group will sing at the Universal Amphitheater before an audience of 5,000, L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley and Punky Brewster. On Friday, the choir performs again at the Rose Bowl before 25,000 children.

The song, mixing pep rally and Motown, was recorded last year by two San Diego County children accompanied by the 36-year-old Stevens on synthesizers and digital drum machines. It is distributed by the Just Say No Foundation to Just Say No clubs nationwide.

“I’m giving power to the children,” Stevens said. “To me, everyone has power in their life. The problem is that people think they don’t have power. They assign it to the media and TV commercials and other influences. People grow up thinking they don’t have choices.”

A Week at Its Best

Still reeling from the wild revelry of Animals Are Not Toys Week (April 12-18), San Diego recently embarked gamely on Bike to Work Week (April 27-May 3), which then merged incongruously into Better Hearing and Speech Month (May 1-31).

May 13 is Cytotechnology Day, apparently celebrating the beloved science of preparing smears of exfoliated cells. Medical Assistants’ Week passed, uneventfully, in late February. Still on the horizon is International Military Sports Council Day, set for June 9.

“There is screening,” said Paul Downey, spokesman for Mayor Maureen O’Connor, who indulged our curiosity by dredging up the results of a lot of recent mayoral and councilary proclaiming.

“I mean, we’re not going to proclaim it to be Nazi Day in San Diego,” Downey said. “But if a group is a reputable group, a charity or civic organization, then if they would request it, we would of course give them a proclamation.”

The county supervisors, by the way, are toasting Toddler Immunization Month.