Pressure Is on County Workers to Take Days Off Without Pay

Things that are going around.

* Your time is my time.

The Board of Supervisors is pushing ahead with its plan to save money by asking/cajoling/pressuring county employees to take unpaid days off.

The plan goes by the acronym BE TOPS, which stands for Budget Emergency: Time Off for Public Services.

Employees feeling the heat to take time off say BE TOPS really stands for Board Enjoys Torturing Outstanding Public Servants.

* Reps. Bill Lowery (R-San Diego) and Duncan Hunter (R-Coronado) and state Sen. Wadie P. Deddeh (D-Bonita) have answered an appeal from the San Diego City Council.

They’ve agreed to sponsor bills to block the partial sale of McDonnell Douglas Corp. to a Taiwan consortium.

(McDonnell has no San Diego plants, but locals are worried about a job-loss ripple hitting Convair.)

* Linell Fromm, former executive director of the San Diego AIDS Foundation, is doing a doctoral dissertation at USD on the political uproar that led to Linda Bernhardt being booted from the City Council:

“Redistricting and Recall: A Case Study of the 5th District in San Diego, 1988-91.”

* Peter Navarro denies a report here that he said he will not run for mayor if Roger Hedgecock runs. Navarro’s spokeswoman says he’ll have no public comment on what he’ll do if Hedgecock decides to run, until Hedgecock makes that decision, if he ever does.

* Sad news: Gerard Sbordone, the pride of North Park, was a loser in Wednesday’s Finger Flick Football championship in Minneapolis.

He won his semi-final match but was beaten in the flick-off final 149-119 by a laborer from Niagara Falls, N.Y., who used a controversial technique that combined flicking and pushing the miniature cardboard football.

Sbordone protested the technique but referee Kenny Stabler, the former Oakland Raiders quarterback, ruled that it was legal.

Generous quantities of Southern Comfort, which sponsored the event, were said to have been consumed by one and all.

Hedging on the Ratings

Roger redux or Roger ratings?

The common political wisdom is that Roger Hedgecock will not run for mayor and is only teasing about a possible comeback attempt in an effort to boost the ratings on his radio and television shows.

Whether that scenario proves to be true or not, the fact remains that Hedgecock’s TV numbers are modest (a decision could be made this spring on whether to drop the show) and his once high-flying radio numbers are sagging.

For the radio show, the Arbitron ratings for the final three months of 1991 gave KSDO a 4.9 share of the market for the 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. slot that includes Hedgecock’s 9 a.m. to noon talk show.

This compares to previous quarterly ratings of 6.3, 7.4, 6.7 and, for the fall of 1990, a whopping 8.4.

Does the 4.9 mean that Hedgecock has lost more than half his audience in the past year and thus needs to stir up some will-he-or-won’t controversy?

Absolutely not, says KSDO President and General Manager Mike Shields.

He insists Hedgecock is as strong as ever and that the 4.9 is an inaccurate “aberration” caused by flaws in the much-criticized Arbitron system.

He predicts that the next set of numbers, due in April, will again show his star in the 6-7-8 range.

Reading the Signs

More words.

* The Greek American restaurant in Encinitas is open but six days a week.

Which explains the sign in the window: “Never on Sundays.”

* Wordplay on the freeway.

Stuart Glassman of Rancho Bernardo reports a sign on a small car being pulled by an RV down Interstate 15: “I Go Where I’m Towed To.”

* Peter James MacCracken spotted side-by-side bumper stickers on a Mazda in Kearny Mesa:

“Live for the Moment,” and “Sky Diving San Diego.”

* Local graduates of Albion College, a liberal arts college in Michigan, were interested to see their alma mater twice referred to in a story in the (El Cajon) Californian as Albino College.

* Yes, there is a store in Chula Vista that promises: “English Spoken Here.”