Irvine Ranch has Aqua Duck and Santa...

Irvine Ranch has Aqua Duck and Santa Cruz has Captain Hydro, but neither quite compares to the 280-pound, 4-foot-8 water mascot unveiled Monday by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

The splashy public relations item kicking off Water Awareness Week was a larger-than-life faucet complete with running water.

However, when the $4,500 faucet’s big moment came--during what was dubbed the “Great California Tap Off”--a mechanical failure prevented the water from gushing out.

In a sense, the failure was the most effective way of getting across the conservationists’ message: Keep tap water off as much as possible.

DWP officials said a leaky faucet’s trickle can waste thousands of gallons of water per month. Leak or no leak, the City Council has called for all households to reduce their water use by 10% over the next five years. Already, the effort seems to be paying off. DWP’s assistant general manager, Duane Georgeson, said water consumption in February and March was 5% below last year’s usage during the same period.

Also on hand--or feet, as it were--for Monday’s ceremony was a group of young tap dancers from the Los Angeles County High School of the Arts who performed to the lyrics, “Cutting out the drips,” sung to the tune of “Putting on the Ritz.”

The sociology lesson at Cal State Los Angeles was written on a restroom wall.

Sociology Professor Francesca Alexander said she was pleasantly surprised to discover that a racist graffiti comment in a campus bathroom provoked an outpouring of angry response. The offending item said Chinese immigrants “are taking jobs from Americans and they don’t speak English.”

Retorts that followed: “Neither did the English speak American Indian, nor the Dutch, Irish, Polish, Germans, Italians, French, Iranians, Russians or Norwegians when they got here. Open your mind instead of your mouth.” Another read, “I wonder why persons like you are even attending college, the purpose behind education is understanding of other cultures.”

Alexander noted that the college is among the most racially diverse in the nation. “We are attempting to do much more than confer degrees. We are trying to strengthen racial sensitivity, and the response shows that it is working.”

The presentation of eight “courageous citizens” awards Monday by Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner included a reminder that some heroes in today’s world may be reluctant ones.

At the ceremony in Pasadena, Reiner honored people such as Alan Eberhart, the 32-year-old La Crescenta junior high school teacher who wrestled a .357 Magnum pistol away from a student, and Diana Jean LaFrenierre, 40, of Azusa, who chased two men who had just committed a murder until they were stopped by Baldwin Park police.

But only seven of the recipients were identified. The eighth person, who apprehended a defendant who was fleeing a court hearing, asked to remain anonymous.