‘Fugitive’ Writer Is Still Going Strong

Can I trust you with a secret?

I’m hooked on reruns of “The Fugitive,” the classic television series (1963-67) starring David Janssen as Dr. Richard Kimble, “unjustly convicted . . . “ Weekdays, 7 a.m., Arts & Entertainment channel.

My son Michael and I watch while having breakfast. I explain to Michael the symbolic use of light and dark, the moral ambiguity, the analogues to the pessimism of Kafka and Gide.

Michael nods. Did I tell you that he’s 7 months old?

Imagine our surprise Friday morning when the opening credits showed that the episode (“A Clean and Quiet Town”) was written by Howard Browne.

Browne, 83, a retired movie and television screenwriter, lives in La Costa. He used to teach screen writing at UC San Diego; now he writes novels.

In fact, I had just spoken to Browne on Thursday night about his latest book, “Scotch on the Rocks,” (St. Martin’s Press, 181 pages, $14.95).

It’s the story of a Dust Bowl farmer and his wife who lose their farm to foreclosure, find a highjacked load of Edinburgh whiskey, and then run a gauntlet of crooked cops, bootleggers and gangsters.

A Browne work, screen or novel, is spare, with hard-bitten women, guys with guilty secrets and dialogue that crackles like your hair during a Santa Ana windstorm.

A mob enforcer warns Kimble: “You’re staring at the gas chamber. But that’s nothing compared to the trouble you’ll get if you don’t leave this town.”

I called Browne to ask about “The Fugitive.” He said he had written four episodes.

He said writing for television and the movies taught him the value of compression. He said he could have “sprawled out” his new novel, “Scotch,” to 280 pages but it would have lost snap.

“I go for pace,” Browne said. “If you don’t have pace, you don’t have anything. It’s harder to write short than to write long.”

I told him I understood.

Come on Up and See Me Some Time

Words, words, words.

* Proof that Mae West is alive and living in North County.

Ad in the Affection Connection column in the Oceanside Blade-Citizen:

“ACTRESS, new to Oceanside from Honolulu wants to meet Military, athletes, bodybuilders, men in uniform for lively soirees. Man must be assertive, aggressive, open-minded . . . “

* There’s a bit of cross-border friction at Brown Field, the airstrip on Otay Mesa. Plus a lot of private pilots who are annoyed at the Federal Aviation Administration.

Maybe that explains the graffiti on the gizmo that dispenses toilet-seat covers in the men’s room:

“Free Mexican Diplomas.” And above that, in different handwriting: “Free Gringo Bibs.”

And above that, in yet different handwriting: “Free FAA Dinner Jackets.”

* Marquee on downtown Holiday Inn: “Killer Bread.”

It’s a reference to the band playing the lounge, not the food in the coffee shop.

* Fund-raising letter from Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad): “This coming decade will offer you and I both exciting and challenging opportunities . . . “

Maybe the opportunity to learn proper grammar will be among them.

When the Choices Get Tough

Is turnabout fair play?

The cliche is that government will have to learn to make “hard choices” in these tight-money times.

County Supervisor Brian Bilbray thinks it’s time that public advocacy groups be forced to do the same.

Case in point: the judge’s ruling expected today in the suit brought by the Legal Aid Society to force the nearly bankrupt county government to continue paying for medical care for 25,000 poor people.

If the judge sides with Legal Aid, Bilbray will recommend that the money be taken from another set of Legal Aid clients: recipients of General Relief. In 1987, a Legal Aid suit forced the county to loosen eligibility.

Bilbray complains that too many on General Relief are “able-bodied young men.”

Both programs are required (but not paid for) by the state. But Bilbray says he’s willing to risk judicial wrath by killing General Relief to save medical care:

“That’s something I’m willing to go to jail for.”