Managing the Merciful Death of Health Care

Political expression.

* Have you encountered the brave new world of group medical plans--higher premiums and less service?

Where insurance companies use euphemisms like “managed care,” which means you wait longer (and longer) to get approval to see a doctor?

If so, you may be interested in a (sarcasm-tinged) petition being passed at the Pulmonary Medicine & Physiology Medical Group in San Diego and designed to be sent to politicians:

“We, the undersigned health professionals and patients, urge a NO vote on Proposition 161, ‘Physician Assisted Euthanasia.’ It is not necessary. We already have ‘managed care.’ ”

So far, 31 doctors, nurses, technicians and patients have signed.

* Greg Hummel, whose Los Angeles firm is supplying outdoor signs for 200 political candidates in Southern California (including both mayoral candidates in San Diego), suspects anti-sign vigilantes are at work.

At many locations, every sign for every candidate has been snatched. Hummel will sue if anyone is caught.

* Has AIDS become a political metaphor?

Opponents of a plan to build a big Home Depot in Encinitas have a bumper sticker: “Practice Safe Development.”

* Leighton Worthey, 19, the would-be mayoral candidate-turned-songwriter-turned historian, is 11 personages short of the desired number of lunch partners for his book on San Diego, “Out to Lunch.”

He had his 31st lunch last week, this one with Councilman John Hartley at La Fresqueria (“the place with the fruit painted on the windows”).

Worthey needs 42 lunches to make the book complete, and he’s open to volunteers. Why 42?

Because Worthey’s favorite science-fiction novel, “The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” says 42 is the answer to all life’s mysteries.

If you don’t understand that, Worthey and his project are probably not for you.

* Steve Baker, the San Diego police officer whose son was murdered by Robert Alton Harris, is in a television commercial blasting U.S. Senate candidate Dianne Feinstein as soft on crime.

Football and the Arts

Football, art, fish, etc.

* The Chargers and the San Diego Museum of Art are teaming up for a promotion (buy a Charger ticket and get a freebie to the museum) and television commercial.

Edgar S. Spizel, who runs a marketing firm in La Jolla, will do the commercial. He did a similar one for the Cleveland Browns and the Cleveland Symphony.

The script calls for film of a dramatic touchdown, with the (studio) voice of the quarterback, “Rembrandt, Renoir, Matisee, hut, hut, hut . . . “

Of course, Charger highlights are slim this season. “Have you seen them play recently?” Spizel asks.

The NFL has promised tape of a big play. Really.

* Times photographer Don Bartletti has a one-man show at Northern California’s Oakland Museum: 83 photographs depicting the plight of immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, “Between Two Worlds: The People of the Border.”

* Meredith Baxter, whose second portrayal of Betty Broderick in a TV movie airs Sunday, says she no longer has sympathy for Betty after reading the trial transcripts.

* Let’s eat sushi and not pay.

Yes, two trays of fresh sushi worth $9.40 were reported stolen from Ralphs market in Mira Mesa.

Politics and the Arts

It says here.

* Mayoral candidate Susan Golding had to talk and run Thursday night at a candidates forum at the Silver Gate Masonic Lodge in North Park.

She stayed to make an opening statement but not to take questions. Grumble, grumble. Golding said she had to leave for another (unspecified) engagement.

That she did: the Luciano Pavarotti concert.

* It pays to have friends.

Silver Star, the magazine of the Deputy Sheriffs Assn., says donors have provided a $22,000 desk for Undersheriff Jay LaSeur and a marble bathroom for Sheriff Jim Roache at their Kearny Mesa offices.

* Your government at work (for a price).

The only way to get information about your traffic court case in San Diego County over the telephone is to call a 900 number at 50 cents per minute.