Coming soon: The Umbrellas of Tejon.About 1,700...

Coming soon: The Umbrellas of Tejon.

About 1,700 yellow umbrellas, each 20 feet tall and weighing 485 pounds, standing along Interstate 5 near Gorman.

Yes, Christo’s at it again.

The Belgian-born artist, whose previous pieces include a 24-mile fabric fence in California and pink fabric rings around 11 Florida islands, dropped in at USC the other night to talk about his latest creation. Simultaneous to the October, 1991, opening of the 18-mile line of umbrellas in Tejon, Christo also plans to unveil 1,300 umbrellas in a rice field in Ibaraki, Japan.

Naturally, he needs a bit of help. He’s looking for 1,500 volunteers to participate in the 2 1/2-hour opening in Tejon.

Christo told his USC audience that the project is “monumental only because it’s irrational and totally irresponsible.”

Perfect for Southern California.

Speaking of USC, college authorities everywhere are trying to keep students off drugs. Now comes a new habit-forming peril. Cast members of the soap opera, “The Young & the Restless,” will visit the Trojan campus today, seeking new viewers for their show. They’ll offer free autographed photos and calendars. They’ll invite students to perform a scene from the show and videotape them.

Remember, young people: Just say no!

“Single? Call Fax-A-Date,” said the ad in L.A.’s Downtown News.

We were confused, wondering whether fax machines had become so sophisticated that they could deliver human beings in the flesh. Alas, a call by us to Fax-A-Date--for journalistic reasons, mind you--produced nothing but a recording saying that “voice mail (or was it male?) service” was no longer available at that number.

Perhaps Fax-A-Date has gone into Fax-A-Therapy.

The adventures of Humphrey in San Francisco Bay and the unnamed megamouth off Dana Point caused writer/photographer Bill Murphy to recall a whale story of his own.

“Years ago, I ran into the general manager of (now defunct) Marineland at Palm Springs,” Murphy said. “He was nervous as hell because he’d gotten a call that Bubbles the whale was very sick. Bubbles was their star attraction. People were afraid the animal might die. Then the GM got a phone call. Afterward he said, ‘Well, everything came out OK.’ I asked him what he meant. He said:

“Bubbles burped--and he burped up an inner tube.”

miscelLAny:

The last demographic census of Marina del Rey, reported in the “L.A. Book of Lists” in 1987, showed that the beach community had a population of slightly more than 8,000 people, 47 of whom were children.