At Least One Fan Goes to Bat for the Chicken

The Times surveyed San Diegans on athletic matters, including what the Padres should do to win a pennant. Lots of responses concerned pitching, hitting and baserunning.

My favorite response? “Need to bring back the Chicken.”

The Chicken has not appeared at a Padres game this season. Rumor in the clubhouse is that Manager Jack McKeon thinks the fowl antics damage the serious tone of the game.

Ted Giannoulas, the Chicken’s alter ego, doesn’t see it that way.

“I’m a good cluck charm,” he said.

There may be a thaw in Chicken-Padre relations, however. The team’s marketing department has begun to inquire about his schedule for next year.

Taped Interviews

Enter now the Video Employment Agency in Mission Valley, where job-seekers can have an employment video filmed for free.

Employers can browse through the tapes. They pay a fee only if they hire someone.

Victoria Parker, the new firm’s veep, is sure it’s an idea whose prime time has come. She figures it’s cheaper than a full-service employment agency and less time-consuming than placing an ad in the help-wanted section.

She already owns the San Diego and Dallas outlets of the Great Expectations video-dating service. The same principles apply to finding a date as finding an employee, she says.

“In both cases, you know what qualifications you want, you know what you want done and you don’t want to waste time with unqualified candidates,” Parker says.

Is there overtime pay?

Who Was That New Guy?

Take it from me.

- The essence of sales is good promotion. Or: Hi ho, mobile home!

Warner Springs Mobile Home Estates in North County sent out a two-page announcement that retired actor John Hart (“better known as the Lone Ranger”) and his wife, Beryl, are moving down from Los Angeles.

Hart played the masked man on television for 52 episodes in 1951 while Clayton Moore was feuding with the producer. Hart’s new neighbors might want to refrain from asking him about his Lone Ranger days.

“It was a miserable job,” he once told an interviewer. Long hours and crummy pay.

- A memo has gone out to all San Diego public school principals asking them to have teachers “check the placement of the U.S. Flag in their classrooms.”

Federal law requires placement of the flag in front of the audience and to the speaker’s right, the memo notes. It concludes: “In non-typical classroom arrangements, please place the flag in front of the classroom.”

The memo was the idea of schools Supt. Tom Payzant. It was prompted by complaints from some parents about the flag being at the rear of some classrooms.

First Impressions

Inside San Diego, the morning talk show on KGTV (Channel 10), invited David Rice to analyze various public figures in San Diego by looking at photos of them.

He’s a New Orleans “character analyst” who makes a living telling celebrities and corporate types how to adjust their public demeanor. He’s in town working for a hotel chain.

Without knowing their names or histories, here’s what Rice said about:

Sheriff John Duffy: “I would say he has a rather lethal tongue. In his opinion, he’s always right, he’s never wrong. . . . He just does what he damn well pleases because he likes to agitate and aggravate people.”

Mayor Maureen O’Connor: “She’s listening to what is being left unsaid as opposed to what is being said. She literally is not looking a person in the eye directly, which is concealing her innermost feelings and emotions. She, in turn, is in control.”

Convicted killer David Lucas: “He looks like a very unpleasant man.”

Steve Garvey: “He’s sort of holding on to his youth, and he doesn’t realize that age can creep up on a person. I would say he carries a mirror in front of himself and keeps saying: ‘How great I am. Look me over.’ ”

So far, the station has had no reaction from Duffy, Lucas or Garvey. O’Connor is curious. She asked for a tape.