People and Events

You may recall how paramedics expressed wonderment over the devotion of John Baxter’s pet duck.

Baxter, a 49-year-old transient, was run down by a hit-and-run driver in Sylmar as he crossed the street three weeks ago. And Angel, the duck, wouldn’t let anyone else near without a fight.

“The paramedics told us that the duck kept jumping on Baxter’s chest as they tried to treat him, and they had to keep shooing it away,” recalled Los Angeles Police Officer Pat Ramsey.

Baxter suffered two broken arms and two broken legs, but when he reached the hospital, he seemed more worried about the welfare of Angel, authorities said.

Fortunately, Jeri Bowser, a Sylmar nurse who saw the accident, agreed to take Angel into her household. She said Thursday that the quacker is getting along very well with the rest of her menagerie, which includes two geese, a duck, a parrot, two cats and two dogs.

“Lately, she (Angel) has been laying an egg every day,” Bowser added.

Baxter, now in a convalescent home, won’t be back on his feet for several weeks.

But the tedium and pain of recovery will be broken a bit today when he and Angel meet for the first time since the accident. The rest home has given Bowser permission to drop by with the quacker.

“She’s a very nice lady,” Baxter said. “I’m very thankful.”

A helicopter, with a roaming spotlight, hovered over a San Fernando Valley tennis club the other night. A linesman in the sky?

Actually, it was a Los Angeles Police chopper, responding to a report that one of the members had become embroiled in a brouhaha with some teen-agers loitering in the parking lot.

Squad cars arrived, a report was made and one piece of evidence--a tennis racket--was taken.

Ailing Dodger slugger Kirk Gibson may or may not be in the lineup when baseball season opens next week. But his manager’s South Pasadena restaurant, Tommy Lasorda’s Ribs and Pasta, will definitely be out of action.

The eatery has been shut down for several weeks, with a “Closed for Remodeling” sign outside. One worker said the restaurant could come off the disabled list in six weeks.

Meanwhile, Lasorda is suing a pest control company for $500,000 for alleged shoddy work that he says was responsible for the closure of the restaurant in October for sanitation violations.

Speaking of “junk bond” salesmen . . .

Believe it or not, the Greed Club of America has no branch in Southern California.

Founders Bob Bates and Frank Corwin say that a charter is available--for a fee, of course ($20). For a one-year membership, which they claim includes a newsletter “once or twice a year,” they’ll gouge you for $10.

The Akron, Ohio, entrepreneurs describe the Greed Club as “a prestigious organization that symbolizes the American dream.” It was inspired by the movie, “Wall Street,” in which avaricious arbitrageur Gordon Gekko utters the immortal line, “Greed is good.”

A real-life sequel of a Mel Gibson movie here? Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs fears it might be plausible.

In making a motion for the city to purchase 300 more hand-held radar units for traffic enforcement officers, Wachs said, “Many of our neighborhoods are beginning to look like scenes from a ‘Road Warrior’ movie.”

Privy to the Oscars . . .

In one respect, the press agreed that the Academy Awards show was a great improvement over last year’s edition, when the sanitation facilities were of the portable, construction-site variety, situated in the parking lot of the Shrine Auditorium .

Inasmuch as reporters are required to don formal wear for the ceremonies, the arrangement yielded such strange spectacles as newswomen in formal gowns daintily climbing into outhouses. (Needless to say, members of the press aren’t allowed anywhere near the stars’ facilities.)

This year, the scribes were supplied with trailers, giving their encampment more of the look (and feel) of a Hollywood movie location.