Superior Court Judge Barnet Cooperman’s injunction preventing...

Superior Court Judge Barnet Cooperman’s injunction preventing the county from shutting down county mental health facilities has County Supervisor Pete Schabarum talking about his own psychic state.

The exasperated Schabarum suggested Tuesday that the county consider paying for the facilities by withholding money budgeted for the Superior Court.

“At what point are you going to (stop) sitting there and letting judges like Cooperman, with that obtuse thinking of his, continue to do that number?” Schabarum asked his colleagues.

When fellow Supervisor Ed Edelman calmly suggested waiting for an expected state Supreme Court ruling on the injunction, Schabarum responded:

“If we let the system work itself out we’d go nuts around here. I’m already semi-nuts.”

The Long Beach Opera wants its “Barber of Seville” production to start “off with a bang--or bangs,” in the words of general director Michael Milenski.

So, anyone purchasing two tickets for the May 6 opening may also obtain a coupon admitting his or her barber to the performance.

Obviously, if the opera had been composed today, it might have been titled, “The Hair Stylist of Seville,” so specialized has the industry become. For that reason, hair stylists, hair designers and hair replacers qualify, along with those few souls who still call themselves, simply, barbers.

Inglewood and Pomona are among 30 finalists in the 40th annual All-America City competition, which is understandable, since their drug- and crime-prevention programs fall into the contest categories of methods of dealing with “local problems . . . through cooperation by citizens, business and government.”

But another California finalist, the Yuba City/Marysville region, is cited, in part, for this accomplishment:

“California Prune Festival.”

Showing that people don’t only roller-skate in Venice, the community is holding its 10th annual Art Walk on May 21.

The $45 self-guided tour, offering a chance to meet 40 artists and view 14 exhibitions, raises money for the Venice Family Clinic, which serves impoverished children and adults in the area.

One exhibition will include a dozen small sculptures titled, “Lifeguard Towers.”

Early indications are that this could be a big year for lifeguards, with NBC airing a movie about the beach patrolmen Sunday night: “Baywatch: Panic At Malibu Pier.”

Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden, who offered during his unsuccessful mayoral campaign to buy back assault rifles from their owners, has turned his attention to a different kind of weapon--aerosol paint containers.

He proposed Tuesday that stores be required to keep such cans off open shelves, where they can be shoplifted and subsequently used to dispense graffiti.

A state law currently prohibits sale of such containers to minors, but Holden said the cans must also be hidden away to keep them from falling “into the wrong hands.”

So far, he hasn’t offered to buy any back.

A catering firm with 8-year-olds as chefs? That was the scene at Someone’s in the Kitchen in Tarzana on Tuesday, where 35 school kids assembled 2,500 matzo balls.

“It’s a celebration of Passover,” said restaurant spokeswoman Bonnie Gutman, referring to the start tonight of the Jewish festival that marks the flight of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

The junior chefs, who attend the Country School of North Hollywood, fashioned such objects as snowmen, bowling balls and boulders out of the matzo meal.

“I guess,” added Gutman, “you should add that these won’t be delivered to the customers.”

Southern California cultural contribution No. 6,712:

Heidi’s, a shop in Long Beach’s Shoreline Village, makes yogurt home deliveries.