People and Events

Return with Ralph Rubschlager to those thrilling days of yesteryear. . . .

It’s been 2 1/2 years since Rubschlager last wrote up a motorist for running a red light or rolling past a stop sign.

But the Los Angeles police detective’s grey Nissan still bears his customized license plate frame. Across the top it reads, “Better 2 Give Than 2 Receive,” and on the bottom: Traffic Tickets.”

It earns him “a few stares. . . . you can tell when you look behind you in the rear-view mirror.”

Calling all dreamers:

No, not all 10 million of you. Just about 50.

USC psychology Prof. Albert Marston is looking for “lucid dreamers,” people who are aware while they’re dreaming that it is a dream, and who remember it all when they wake up.

“We know they’re out there, but we haven’t had a lot of luck finding them,” said Marston, who will direct volunteers to keep dream diaries for up to six weeks for a research project.

Lucid dreamers are able “to shape the dream, to fly if they want to fly, to confront some fearful person or animal in the dream, to have a sexual experience.” That means they enjoy “being able to have both the imaginary aspect, the fantasy aspect, as well as a sense of control of knowing it’s not real.”

The Senoi people of East Asia, early in life, use dreams as a source of learning and growth, says Marston. Eventually, he says, the USC research might help others use dreams as “an important learning source.”

Lucky dog.

Even before she went on the Big Spin, Wanda Ennis of Arcadia pledged to her Australian shepherd that she would buy him a “wife” with her winnings.

Her pet is now one step closer to the altar ( certainly not the alter; puppies are planned). Ennis won $25,000 last weekend and has already started shopping for a spouse for her pet.

The dog’s name is Popeye. His bride (price range $300 to $400) will be Olive Oyl, natch.

But that’s the extent of the Ennis family luck. Two days after the Big Spin, she bought five tickets, “and I struck out. . . . when I said all my luck was gone, I was right.”

Henceforth, 102-year-old Karen Carter can spell it “centen air ian.”

The lady who would have been nearly old enough to vote--if women had been allowed to vote--when the Wright Brothers first took to the air, went for a whirl herself Tuesday--in a 45-minute helicopter ride over city landmarks.

When the 102-year-old Sylmar woman, honored for her past volunteer work with the homeless and hungry, climbed out of the KNX radio news helicopter, she made a deal with the pilot: same ride next year. And she has no doubt she’ll make it. She swears by her favorite tonic: a bit of Jim Beam in her tea or coffee first thing in the morning, and right before bedtime. Circulates the blood, she says.

An editing error made it sound Tuesday like King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden plans to attend a technology symposium at Disneyland when he arrives in April. Not so--in spite of all the technology at Disneyland, the symposium is being held at the California Museum of Science and Industry. Disneyland is hosting the king and queen at a “Salute to Sweden.”