People and Events

The nearly 200 patients at the Astoria Convalescent Home in Sylmar were “thrilled,” according to activities director Lita Joy Parker, when a 5-year-old mixed sheltie mascot was acquired from the pound.

Everyone except Nancy Merritt, a woman in her 40s, who said she was afraid of dogs and was going to leave if Tori (short for Astoria) stayed.

Eight days later, on Feb. 7, Merritt changed her mind. She suffered a seizure and passed out in a hallway while other patients were in the dining room and staff nurses were busy.

“We had picked the dog because she was quiet,” Parker said. “But she started barking loud and wouldn’t stop. She was so insistent. Everybody went to see what happened.”

Parker said that before they got there, Merritt began to regain consciousness and tried to sit up, but the sheltie put a paw on her and gently kept her down. “Not until the registered nurse arrived, did the dog back off.”

On Thursday, actor and animal activist Earl Holliman went to the convalescent home to present a no-doubt appreciative Tori with a medal of honor as well as certificates from Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and City Councilman Ernani Bernardi.

Seeing “God Bless the Child” on television last week was almost too much for Lisa Fremer, a business manager for entertainment figures. The ABC show was about a homeless mother who finally gave away her little daughter so the child would have a chance in life.

“I was hysterical,” recalled Fremer. “It was just gnawing at me.” The next day, she telephoned the Union Rescue Mission, which put her in touch with its Bethel Haven Shelter for single women and homeless mothers with children.

She found out they needed everything from dishes and mattresses to child care. She also contacted the Center for Improvement of Child Caring, which trains and educates parents in an effort to cut down on child abuse.

“I called just two of my clients,” Fremer said. “One name you would recognize. The other you wouldn’t.” Together, they gave her more than $30,000. On Thursday, she split it between the two organizations.

“I feel like a Jewish Mother Teresa,” she said, adding that she plans to stage a big benefit one of these days.

“Totally inappropriate,” was the way an unhappy Los Angeles Urban League President John Mack referred to the performance of a fill-in comedian at last Thursday evening’s annual Whitney M. Young Jr. Dinner, which the organization put on at the Century Plaza.

A comedian named Paul Mooney, who once wrote for Richard Pryor, was thrown in at the last minute after the Four Tops failed to arrive as scheduled.

“He made inappropriate racial remarks against almost every ethnic group,” Mack said in recalling the unpleasantness. “He was a complete surprise to me. I had no knowledge he was going on. . . . The Urban League and I totally repudiate everything he said.”

Mooney, say those who were among the 1,600-member, $300-a-plate audience, addressed Mayor Tom Bradley, one of the honored guests, as “Uncle Tom.”

Mack finally stepped up and politely cut him off.

Mooney was unavailable for comment.

Archie Martinez, in his early 20s, was taken to the prison ward of County-USC Medical Center with a bullet wound in his buttock, reports Santa Monica Police Lt. Richard Johncola, after he broke into the house of Salvador and Mildred Rizzo, only to have the Rizzos come home.

Martinez allegedly picked up a pistol belonging to Rizzo, 79, took $20 and the car keys, threatened to kill both of them, then ran out the door. Rizzo grabbed another gun and fired at the fleeing suspect.

When the cops got there, says Johncola, Martinez threatened that he was going to “sue the old man for everything he’s got.” That did not dissuade police from arresting him on suspicion of robbery.

“Actually, the left front headlight’s OK.”

That was about all Police Sgt. Pat McDermott could say for the Datsun 260Z that spun out of control in Sun Valley, tore out 60 feet of chain-link fence and plummeted 30 feet down a cliff into a dry wash, where it exploded into flames. A girl and boy, both 17, were treated for minor injuries.