More Zoom to the Gallon

Motorists with money to burn, Unocal Corp. has your number.

It’s 100, as in the octane of its racing-formula unleaded gasoline making a California debut this summer at three stations in Orange, Riverside and San Diego.

The high-performance fuel, designed for muscle cars from Alfas to turbo Zs, is made in Illinois and sold in about 450 stations in the East for a high-powered $2.50 a gallon. The price here is undetermined.

C. O. Thompson Petroleum Inc. of Orange, which operates the three fuel stations, will be the first California distributor of the specialty gasoline. But Unocal does not plan to distribute the gas widely, even in car-crazy California.

“Obviously, not every Joe who drives in the street will buy this; people who race will,” said Unocal spokesman Barry Lane.

A Job for Romantics

Are you a hopeless romantic and out of work? Well, does Korbel Champagne Cellars have a job for you: director of romance.

The Guerneville, Calif.-based winery already has received numerous calls and a dozen roses from individuals responding to a help-wanted ad placed in the Wall Street Journal last week. The preferred candidate, it said, will have authored books or articles on romance, hold a degree in psychology, or “personify romance in some highly visible or glamorous way.”

The new director will replace astrologer Joyce Jillson, who left to further her publishing and writing career--and will be responsible for such reports as “The State of Romance in the Nation” and the most romantic people of the year.

The pay? “There is no salary established,” said a Korbel spokeswoman. “It would depend on their background and experience.” Kiss and tell.

Don’t Try to Burn This Flag

When Supreme Court justices called flag-burning a legal form of protest, they prompted a venture to go with the controversy. While other Americans did a slow burn, Skipp Porteous established an operation that produces fireproof flags.

“I’m glad we have the freedom to burn the flag, but I wouldn’t do it,” said Porteous, who supports the court ruling.

He’s selling the 12-inch-by-18-inch flags--treated with a flame retardant called Cease Fire--from his Great Barrington, Mass., mail order company for $10 each; a Sacramento man was among the first to order.

The former writer said he’ll use the proceeds to help finance a celebration of the 200th anniversary of the drafting of the Bill of Rights, a commemoration that begins in September.

Said Porteous: “You can burn the flag. But you can’t burn my flag.”

Be Yourself--My Way

Lots of would-be professional-school students are qualified in all ways but one: they freeze when asked to write a few words about themselves. That, anyway, is the theory behind a new book called “How to Write a Winning Personal Statement.”

Penned by West Los Angeles consultant Richard J. Steltzer, the 112-page book includes such suggestions as “review your life very carefully” and “be sure to answer the question.” It also contains interviews with law, medical and business school admissions officers and examples of “successful” personal essays.

How does the very existence of the book square with the notion that one should tell a truly personal story and not try to “psych out” the admissions committee by guessing what they’re looking for?

“It’s advice to calm people’s anxiety about where to begin,” said Steltzer. “I ran into some very bright, successful people who had been staring at a blank sheet of paper for weeks.”