People and Events

The lunch hour and nutrition breaks have not always been terrific for students at Narbonne High School in Harbor City because sea gulls swoop down for sandwich scraps or raid the cafeteria garbage. But the messy birds haven’t been around for about three weeks.

Not since Administrative Dean Cardriner Bowden and Assistant Principal Mary Fennessey started carrying a couple of inflatable owls around the campus at feeding time. The idea came from Avalee Horn, the school’s head counselor, who read that sea gulls are afraid of owls.

By Monday morning, with spring break over, Fennessey had sort of retired from owl duty, apparently relying on plans to mount the phony predators in stationary locations. Bowden, however, was still on patrol, braving “the ridicule of the kids.” She admitted she “sort of enjoys it.”

Told that sea gulls elsewhere apparently catch wise and soon ignore such tricks, Bowden said Narbonne’s gulls “are not onto it yet.”

Some of the conversation available on those 976 telephone lines, one gathers, would not be suitable for the kiddies--but Tylina the Tooth Fairy is now reachable on 976-2233 in the 213, 818, 415 and 408 code areas, stirring her own sort of excitement with stories about Decay Dragon, Tooth Devil and the Cavity Cavemen.

She’ll be going on about them throughout April, advising callers to visit the dentist regularly, eat the right kind of food, and floss. Hardly X-rated stuff.

The number was set up by a company called Teleline, which has organized such phone projects to benefit science museums around the country and on behalf of Special Olympics International. The firm plans to give part of the $2-per-call phone charge to the California Museum of Science and Industry. It also says it will send a $1 check from the Tooth Fairy to each caller who sends in a phone bill with the call marked. (Presumably, the bank will cash them.)

Teleline spokeswoman Barbara Harris said the outfit was careful to keep the conversation clean. “We’ve been very scrupulous about that,” she said.

Another educational program for the youngsters was launched as the City of Los Angeles began its eighth annual Earthquake Preparedness Week at the Children’s Museum in Civic Center Plaza. An audience of teachers and students from the Third Street Elementary School was introduced to a new booklet, “Afterquake,” featuring Yogi Bear.

The pamphlet deals with post-temblor fears. City Councilman Hal Bernson noted that the Whittier quake of last Oct. 1 caused a lot of psychological damage simply because many children didn’t know what an earthquake was.

Karen Hardy, president of the Whittier Parent-Teacher Assn., said many students failed to return to class when their schools reopened a week after the quake. Copies of the Yogi Bear pamphlet have helped, she said.

Other Earthquake Preparedness Week activities will include a mock quake at City Hall on Thursday.

There are, if a couple of USC psychology professors are to be credited, a lot of people out there having “lucid dreams.”

Associate Prof. Milton Wolpin and Prof. Albert Marston have had more than 400 responses since they put out the call a couple of months ago for volunteers who have vivid dreams frequently, remember them clearly or who can control them.

Consequently, says Wolpin, he and his colleague are sort of swamped in their efforts to organize the study they intend to make to determine whether lucid dreamers can use those dreams to vanquish fears, get along better with people and even become better athletes or whatever.

“We’re in the very early stages,” says Wolpin. “We’re examining the possibilities with a small number of people. What we’re asking them to do is intervene in their dreams and try to change them in certain kinds of ways.”

He says they plan to get around to all the volunteers sooner or later.

The city of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $56,000 to a downtown jeweler who was arrested on suspicion of receiving stolen property but who was never charged because of insufficient evidence. According to Deputy City Atty. Stan Snyder, the settlement was in connection with 15 pieces of jewelry that had been among several hundred items seized when Berc Calgicioglu was arrested.

Snyder said police somehow lost track of the 15 pieces, as well as the photographs of them that had been kept in a different box for identification purposes. When the case was dropped, Calgicioglu wanted his jewelry returned. He claimed the missing pieces were worth $62,000.

“Official records say they were destroyed,” Snyder said. “I won’t comment further.”

Police spokesmen could shed no light on the missing gems.