Holy Halloween, Batman

“Batman,” the movie, will soon be followed by a real-life sequel, Halloween, the holiday, as main characters from the film pop up at ghoulish gatherings.

“Batman is the No. 1 costume for little boys, the Joker is the No. 1 costume for teen-age boys, and with adult men it’s half Batman, half Joker. The guys who want to get the women are Batman, and the guys who want to go out and drink beer with their buddies are the Joker,” said Paula Kincheloe of Magic Emporium in Northridge.

At California Costume in North Hollywood, general manager Wayne Thornton said, “we started getting some calls right after the movie opened months ago from guys who wanted to reserve a Batman costume for Halloween.” Each of the four full costumes rents for $100 or can be purchased for $350 “if they want to be Batman forever.”

Another creature of the night, the “Phantom of the Opera” is the second-most-popular costume requested by men at California Costume.

Women have not found inspiration from theater or film this year and are turning to the usual standbys--Elvira, Scarlett O’Hara, Egyptian dancers or dance hall girls, retailers say.

Among the kids, those boys who dismiss Batman may go for the gross by dressing up as Freddie Krueger (his third year as a Halloween favorite) and the girls (mimicking the women with no clear trend) choose to dress up as rock stars or fairy-tale characters.

Graffiti to Go

Tired of the graffiti in your community? You can get rid of it by making a phone call. The city of Los Angeles has instituted a six-month pilot program that amounts to a graffiti hot line.

“Our first priority is public property, and our second priority is private property,” said Delphia Jones, director of Operation Clean Sweep, which runs the hot line. A graffiti complaint is turned over to one of the 12 community-based graffiti cleanup organizations that are under contract with the city.

“The maximum time we give the contractors to get rid of the graffiti is seven days,” Jones said.

To bust graffiti, call (818) SPARKLE.

Numb Over Numbers

Those of you who are fastidious enough to write the appropriate account number on your check for a bill you are paying may often skip the practice with your Department of Water and Power bill. Personal account numbers on DWP bills are 22 digits long. With its 1.4 million customers, you would think we could each have a 7-digit account number--or to be generous, a 10-digit account number.

So why all the extra numbers?

“OK, here goes,” begins Dorothy Jensen, DWP spokesperson. “The bills aren’t all sent out at the same time--they’re sent in cycles so there are bills going out every day.

“The first number represents your district. The next two numbers are your cycle numbers, and the next five are your street code name. The next five are your house number, and then two more digits are modifiers of your house number--like if your address included ‘Building A.’

“The next four numbers are the apartment number or if there is no apartment, there are pseudo numbers in that position. The last 3 numbers are the occupant code, which indicates where the person is an owner or tenant.”

The DWP is aware of its excesses. “Many times they have given consideration to how to reduce that number, but no one can come up with a simpler way to do it,” Jensen said.

Optical Illusions

Just about everybody seems to be into designing eyeglasses these days. The explosion in new styles and new materials has turned eye wear into a fashion accessory.

“We get a lot of people who want non-prescription glasses--just a clear lens,” observed Robert Edelberg, manager of You and Eye Optical in Studio City. “They say they need to look older or more serious in their jobs. Or they want the glasses as a prop.”

Frequently these people buy a tortoise-shell or dark-colored frame for a business look, according to Robert Grossman, owner of Eyegear in Sherman Oaks.

Stella Zilberman, optician at The Wizard of Eyes in Encino, has noticed that more men than women buy pseudo-glasses. “In the last week I sold three pairs to men,” she said.

Men and women who wear prescription glasses are more likely to own two or three pairs nowadays. “People are buying glasses for more than one purpose now. They might have a pair for work, a pair for sports, one for dressy occasions and one to slip into when they come home from work,” said Philip Solomon, district manager of For Eyes Optical Co., which has a store in Tarzana. “Just as people don’t wear the same outfit every day, they don’t want to wear the same glasses every day.”

The only problem with owning five or six pairs of glasses is where to safely store them. “I’ve had to ask my suppliers for extra stands so I could give them to people, because a lot of customers want one,” Edelberg said.

Overheard at. ...

“Everybody’s relating back to the ‘60s now, so in the ‘90s we’re going to be relating back to the ‘70s. Oh no! Disco!”

--Teen-age boy at Love ‘N Kisses in Sherman Oaks