People and Events

This is shaping up as the week of the Great Boomout, as well as the Great Smokeout, in Bellflower.

The City Council there has appealed to Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies to warn drivers to turn down their “boom boxes,” which are amplified stereo systems.

“Some of these guys sound like a 50-piece drum band, waking up everyone at night,” Councilman Joe Cvetko said. Bill Pendleton, another councilman, termed boom boxes a threat to public safety, explaining: “You (the driver) destroy your hearing, which is your business, but also you can’t hear sirens.”

Bellflower City Atty. Maurice O’Shea said the city can declare public nuisances but noted that there might be an enforcement problem with boom boxes because subjects of complaints must be caught in the act. However, he noted that at least people might be deterred from booming away while parked--as, for example, when washing their cars.

But back to the Great Smokeout. Wednesday, Mr. Potato Head celebrated one year since he kicked his smoking habit. Or at least, his manufacturer kicked the habit by no longer including a pipe in the kit of Mr. Potato.

The ceremony was a prelude to today’s annual smokeout when smokers across the nation are urged by the American Cancer Society to quit for at least a day.

To mark the occasion, a man by the name of Jim Mouth will insert 143 cigarettes at once into his mouth in a Hollywood pipe shop. Mouth says he’s trying to show the ugly side of smoking, if not publicity stunts.

In the movie, “Network,” crazed anchorman Howard Beale brands television a hoax and exhorts his viewers to “turn off your sets, turn them off now.”

Now comes the real-life Fox Broadcasting System with a similar suggestion, though it adds that this is no reflection on its programming. Fox’s affiliates, including KTTV (Channel 11), are airing exercise-oriented, public-service ads that say: “Stand up, walk over, turn off the television and go for a walk outside.”

The Reappearing Rabbit is one of those urban folk tales that can never quite be verified. Many were collected recently in “The Vanishing Hitchhiker” by Jan Brunvand.

Arcadia resident Norma Stewart says the Reappearing Rabbit is making the rounds of her town.

A family owned a big dog that was constantly leaping into the neighbor’s back yard and digging holes, so the story goes. The neighbors bought a rabbit and warned the dog family that if anything ever happened to the bunny, they would sue.

A few weeks later, the rabbit family went on vacation, leaving their pet in a cage. No sooner had they left, than the the dog family was shocked to see their mongrel walking through the backyard with the dead rabbit in its mouth. Panicky, they brushed, washed and blow-dried the rabbit and placed it back in its cage to keep the owners off the trail.

The rabbit family returned. Days went by. No lawsuit, not even a word. Finally, the dog family asked about the rabbit.

The rabbit’s owners replied: “It’s the strangest thing. Our bunny got sick and died before we left and we buried it. But when we came home, we found it back in its cage.”