Circus Stars, Media Appreciate View, X-Rated Performance at Hotel

Caught in the act.

* Party animals.

Tub-thumpers for the Moscow Circus, which opens tonight at the Sports Arena, threw a party Monday night at the Grosvenor Inn so reporters could meet some of the performers.

So why were the reporters and circus stars not watching the country-Western band hired for the party?

Because they were outside peering up at a second-floor bedroom, where the floor-to-ceiling window curtains were flimsy and two unsuspecting (but very amorous) hotel guests were providing a performance of their own.

Heavy applause at the grand finale.

* The stork returneth. Or: It doesn’t take much to upset San Diegans.

For an agonizing week the huge plastic stork that is the symbol of Sharp Memorial Hospital has been missing from its perch atop the six-story parking garage. (The maternity ward is called the Stork Club).

A hospital spokeswoman reports hundreds of distraught callers inquiring about the disappearance.

Now it can be told: The stork was “liberated” one night by students from the Bishops School in La Jolla, as part of their annual “100 days until finals” hijinks.

The school’s headmaster spotted the big bird on the quad and ordered it returned, forthwith.

After some sprucing up, the stork should resume its position by today, sporting an oversized yellow ribbon, all visible from California 163.

* Nobody knows why, but tips to Crime Stoppers, the law-and-order group supported by the San Diego Police Department, are down nearly 50% in recent months.

To prime the pump, Crime Stoppers plans 29 billboards in the next year: A picture of a telephone with the pitch: The Most Powerful Weapon Against Crime, 235-TIPS.

The first board just went up in East San Diego.

Also being considered: Putting Crime Stoppers flyers in county jails, so inmates can provide information (anonymously) on their unapprehended acquaintances.

It’s a Tough Job, but . . .

A flood of information.

* Drought perks.

Four staffers and four board members of the Metropolitan Water District just got back from a six-day visit to the Virgin Islands to study desalination. MWD paid, of course.

* Double blessing.

Marquee outside Community Baptist Church in Fallbrook: “Thank you God for the beginning of rain and the ending of war.”

* If the story on the Broderick case in Ladies Home Journal has a pro-Betty tone maybe it’s because the writer, a free-lancer from Los Angeles, shares a similar background: Ex-wife of a high-powered attorney, a bitter divorce.

* How bored were Camp Pendleton Marines in Saudi Arabia in the months before the ground war?

To pass the time, they played an Arab version of hacky sack. Instead of small bean bags, they kicked around clumps of dried camel dung.

* San Diego Councilman Linda Bernhardt on Monday sent a check for $101.92 to the Recall Linda Bernhardt Committee, belated payment for publishing her official anti-recall statement.

Helps her avoid appearing in Small Claims Court on April 9, the day of the recall election.

* More on Bernhardt: Don’t look for the district attorney’s office to finish its investigation of her tangled political finances before the election. It won’t happen.

* Class warfare.

Sign being flashed at commuters by a down-and-outer standing next to an on-ramp to Interstate 5 in Solana Beach: “Yuppie (expletive).”

A Sour Taste

Food for thought.

Announcement headlined “Sorry” in the Iliad, the Poway High School student newspaper:

“In the last issue of The Iliad, there was an article in the feature section that inadvertently hurt many people. The article, entitled ‘PHS Chow: Food or Fatal?,’ was a lighthearted spoof of a cafeteria review.

“Unfortunately it was not viewed as such, and the feature editor would like to apologize to the PHS cafeteria staff for this misunderstanding. We are truly sorry.”