People and Events

“We were sitting around one day,” explained Bob Loomis, publisher of L.A. West magazine, “and we said, ‘I wonder how all the neighbors feel about him moving back in.’ ”

“Him” is former Pacific Palisades resident Ronald Reagan, who with wife Nancy plans to live in Bel-Air once his big government job has run out.

Loomis’ magazine, which is mailed monthly to homeowners in several Westside communities, decided to see how they feel about the return of the Reagans.

The current issue includes such questions as:

--Are you happy the Reagans are retiring to the Westside?

--Do you feel the President has a short attention span?

--Before recent publicity, were you aware that Nancy Reagan consulted astrologers?

Readers are also being asked whether they feel that recent publicity about the Reagans is warranted. And to indicate whether they know the Reagans personally--and how well.

There are scales of 0 to 10 (“can’t stand” to “wonderful”) on how much one likes both him and her.

Of the several hundred questionnaires returned to the magazine so far, Loomis said, “We’re getting a lot of 0s and a lot of 10s. I’ll tell you one thing: People feel very strongly about Ronald Reagan. They’re either for him or against him.”

A bit of Los Angeles history got a little smoky when a grease duct above the french fry machine in Canter’s restaurant caught fire shortly after 5 a.m. Tuesday, forcing about 35 early morning breakfasters out onto the Fairfax Avenue sidewalk.

“The unit was broken on Saturday,” said Gary Canter, son of owner Alan Canter. “The man came to fix it Monday night and we had the fire this morning, but thank God the fire department came and put it out pretty quickly. Thank God nobody got hurt.”

Although the estimated $35,000 worth of damage was confined to the walls and ceiling around the french fry cooker in the kitchen, Canter said the 14,000-square-foot restaurant, deli and bakery probably will be closed for two or three days.

The restaurant has been open for 60 years.

It was about 10 years after the Canter’s opening that Lawry’s got going over on La Cienega Boulevard. The place celebrated its 50th anniversary Tuesday by selling prime rib dinners for $1.25 apiece--the 1938 price.

The management said that only 1,000 customers would be so lucky. Number 1,001 in line was going to have to pay $17.95 for the same dinner.

Beverly Hills police were alerted that there might be a few people on hand. A 1930s-style swing band was hired to keep those waiting to be seated from becoming impatient.

Octavio Gaitan, of Echo Park, was asked by Los Angeles City Councilwoman Gloria Molina Tuesday to help bring about world peace and understanding when he goes to the Soviet Union later this month.

Quite a burden for a 12-year-old boy.

Young Octavio, Molina noted, is the only Mexican-American among more than 130 American children scheduled to spend a month at the U.S.S.R.’s Camp Artek on a cultural exchange trip. (Another of the seven going from Los Angeles County is Salvadoran.)

Octavio’s mother, Maria Elena Gaitan, said Artek is the camp visited by Samantha Smith after the 11-year-old American girl appealed to the late Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov for peace in 1983. She was killed in a plane crash two years later.

“He’s pretty excited,” said his mother. “He knows who Samantha Smith was. He told people (at the council meeting) that he’s really happy--and a little bit scared, because he will have to wash his own clothes. Basically, he’s going to camp.”

It took awhile, but the Los Angeles City Council finally voted 12 to 0 Tuesday to start a six-month experiment allowing dogs to run leash-free in Laurel Canyon Park, just off Mulholland Drive in the Hollywood Hills.

That might come as news to a lot of dog owners who thought the leashes were legally off a long time ago. They’ve been bringing their pets from many miles around to run free.

Jane Purse, head of Park Watch, a group of dog owners who sought the leashes-off hours but have been trying to keep owners from jumping the gun during the past few months, noted that it “takes forever sometimes for the City Council to get its act together.”

She said she hopes the experiment will lead to the opening up of two or three other parks because “it’s quite evident they’re needed.”