Encouraging news: Attorney Thomas Wall of the...

Encouraging news: Attorney Thomas Wall of the Central City Optimists Club, which works with children in the Chinatown area, reports that the group will reschedule an event originally set for May 6--”Respect for Law Night.”

Under the sidewalk: “I am walking down Ventura Boulevard at 8:30 a.m.,” writes Buzz Williams in his best Damon Runyon present tense. “Ahead of me is an open manhole and a Pacific Bell truck alongside. Coming from the manhole are shrieks, explosions, blasts, roars. I figure the crew is working on some major power uproar.”

Bravely, Williams peers into the hole. He sees the Pac Bell crew.

“The guys have a large blast box with them and they are catching up with the Top 40,” he says. “The radio announcer is saying something to the effect: ‘Here’s Prince with his latest.’ And the deafening ear assault resumes.”

Williams has a theory: “Maybe they are not music lovers. Maybe that is Pac Bell’s way of punishing miscreant workers.”

Over the sea: The Santa Monica City Council recently voted to establish a Santa Monica Pier fun zone, which would include an over-the-water attraction absent from here for a quarter-century: a roller coaster.

Some previous pier scare rides:

* Blue Streak Roller Coaster, Santa Monica, which was lit up like a “giant glowworm” at night, one historian said.

* Giant Dipper (“World’s Fastest and Safest Ride!”), Venice.

* Race Thru the Clouds, Venice, which another historian described as “steep rises and breathtaking descents, towering over the waters.”

* Chute the Chutes, Ocean Park, which was personally tested (and endorsed) by a Superior Court judge in 1938 after a woman passenger complained that it was dangerous.

* Cyclone Racer (“The World’s Greatest Ride”), Long Beach, which replaced the smaller Jack Rabbit Racer in 1930 and carried 25 million passengers before it was shut down in 1968. In its time, it was called “the world’s largest, fastest, steepest, double-track roller coaster in the world,” no matter what the Giant Dipper claimed.

miscelLAny:

T Tim Osburn of Hesperia is one of the few people who has appeared in both soccer and football games in the Coliseum. How did he manage this feat? He’s a National Guardsman whose unit has enjoyed recreation on the legendary turf while bivouacked at the stadium.