Odds & Ends Around the Valley

Couturier Count Dracula

If you can’t stand putting little Bif and Missy in store-bought Halloween costumes, don’t despair. Without having to slave over a hot sewing machine--perish the thought--you can provide designer duds for your darling duo.

You can get a specially created fairy princess gown or a couturierish Count Dracula, an old-fashioned lady design or one of several hand-crafted clown costumes.

The designer, CarLynn Clarke, says she spends most of the year making things ranging from wedding dresses to personally designed doll clothes, but her favorite time of year is Halloween.

“Even when my husband and I had a bridal shop in Reseda, where I created one-of-a-kind wedding dresses or could copy them from a magazine picture, I still took time to do the Halloween things,” she said. “I used to take the costumes out to a Simi swap meet. They were so popular, people would come back year after year for them.”

But after her husband died last year, Clarke said, she left the bridal business and moved from the Burbank house she had shared with him and in which she had raised 11 children.

“The children were his, mine, ours and theirs . . . the theirs because we raised two children who were orphaned,” Clarke said.

She is now selling her custom-made costumes from the front yard of her home at 20802 Devonshire St., Chatsworth.

“I love Halloween because it’s so much fun seeing the kids so excited and expectant,” Clarke said.

This year, she is looking forward to seeing some of her one-of-a-kind creations come trick or treating at her front door.

No Tricks, Dubious Treats

Thinking about decking yourself out for Halloween as an exotic snake charmer?

We know where you can get the snake.

The Sherman Oaks Casa de Pets, 13323 Ventura Blvd., has a large assortment of coiled cuties, although there are those who would think that these little darlings are neither cute, little or darling.

And they don’t do tricks.

How would you feel about taking home a $149.99 baby reticulated python, or a $69.99 speckled king snake? There are other pythons that cost between $300 and $1,000, depending on size. Some are about 16 feet long.

Those guys look fairly formidable coiled up in their cages.

They also have a Tokay gecko, a Russian tortoise or any number of different kinds of tarantulas.

When asked who on earth would want these things, manager Renee Borin said the shop’s customers include Michael Jackson, Erik Estrada and Shelley Duvall.

Granted, there are some fuzzy little chinchillas for sale for between $90 and $200, and some nice-looking birds like parakeets and parrots, and a medium sulfur-crested cockatoo named Reggie that sells for $2,500.

There are also some sweet-looking little white mice and some pretty white rats, but we are not sure if they are there to be sold as pets or dinner.

Mindful that a lot of pets, like snakes, end up at the Wildlife Waystation, we wondered what requirements the store makes for allowing people to buy these exotics.

“We can’t ask people what they are going to do with the animals or if they know what they are doing,” store manager Renee Borin said. “We do offer them information about care and feeding, but you can’t ask people if they are qualified to own the pets any more than you can ask someone if they will take care of a puppy or a cat or a baby, for that matter.”

Eschewing the Fat

They’re still chewing it over at the Canoga Park Ralphs across from the Fallbrook Mall.

“If we ever doubted that people care about labeling food to make healthy decisions about buying, this has made us believers,” said Jose Montes, the store’s manager of operations.

“This” was the turnout for the recent weekend cholesterol screening co-sponsored by Ralphs and the HMO Health Net. Montes estimated that 1,200 people showed up for the two-day event, “which was pretty amazing since we are a relatively small store.”

People were queued up across the front of the store, and the line wrapped around the side, but once the people got inside, it took less than 15 minutes to get the results.

Along with the free testing, people got some free literature, including a 48-page booklet called Nutri Guide that gives tips on healthy eating and explains the store’s coding system for foods low in calories, fat, cholesterol and salt.

Nancy Gray, a Woodland Hills housewife whose hair matches her name, said she had never been tested although her husband, a business executive, had been tested several times. She wanted to see if her count was within healthy limits.

Ray and Bonnie Smithson from West Hills had both been tested before and knew what to expect. She said she watches her diet and has a healthy cholesterol level. He doesn’t and doesn’t. When asked why he was being tested again if he wasn’t going to give up his evil eating ways, he rolled his eyes and pointed at his wife.

A young man in his mid-20s, who wished to be known only as Smitty, waited patiently in the 20-minute line Sunday for his first test.

When asked why he, at a somewhat youthful age, was so concerned about his cholesterol, he stared blankly at his questioner. “My what?” he asked, looking a little nervous. “I thought I was in a line to register to vote.”

Told the purpose of the line, he shook his head, trying to sort it all out.

“Well, I just think I’ll do this cholesterol thing,” Smitty finally decided. “It doesn’t hurt and it’s free.”

Silver Foxes

If you are male, between the age of 70 and 80, and have been watching your cholesterol and everything else, you might want to get into Theo Hasapes’ contest for the best physique on an older man.

That’s not the name of the contest.

Hasapes hasn’t decided what to call it exactly.

But he told some press people about his contest a few weeks ago and the entrants’ pictures are pouring in.

Four or five at last count.

Hasapes is not discouraged by the slow start to the contest.

“I didn’t take out ads or anything, so it’s a little hard getting started,” said the contest organizer, who says he is more than 70 and in pretty good shape himself.

Hasapes, who says he was athletic coach at Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles for many years, decided to have the contest because more and more men are keeping in shape and they need something to look forward to.

“You don’t want to have these people just sitting around at the senior citizens centers doing nothing,” Hasapes said. “I want to get them competing in something.”

Building on this idea, he said that if his contest gets really big, maybe people all over the country will keep in shape so they can enter.

Hasapes said he set the age of the contestants between 70 and 80 because “over 80 you either look terrible or are dead.”

Hasapes got his sisters, who own Encino Flowers With Charisma, to donate trophies for the winners. He thinks that if there are enough entrants, they should all have a banquet.

“We could use my back yard and have a picnic,” said Hasapes, who admits that he is not overcapitalized in this endeavor.

Those wishing to enter the contest may send a picture and a letter explaining the health regimen they have followed to Hasapes at 23258 Burbank Blvd., Woodland Hills 91367.

Judging will begin when there are enough entries, Hasapes said.

Overheard

“I’m not saying this guy has the intelligence of a Winnebago, but his plan of action, once the big one hits, is to drive to Los Angeles Airport from the Valley and fly to Hawaii.” --Two women talking at a North Hollywood party