BUCK STOPS: When South Coast Area Transit...

BUCK STOPS: When South Coast Area Transit raised its fare to $1 last week, passengers were told to fold up their dollars and attach a paper clip to make sure they fell into fare boxes properly. “It turned out there were many different ways to fold dollar bills,” sighed SCAT Director Peter Drake. Some variations jammed fare boxes. A poster on the do’s and don’ts of bill-folding didn’t help. And unfolding a week’s worth of bills took five employees five hours. . . . “The great paper clip experiment is over,” Drake said. Slots for bills have been cut into fare boxes.

REFRIGERATOR RAID: They want peanut butter and tuna--not necessarily together--at every meal. And since they fill 85 rooms during their 40-day camp at the Radisson Suite Hotel in Oxnard (C4), the Los Angeles Raiders get whatever they want, said Bob Burk, the hotel’s marketing director. “They go through a ton of fruit. We put out about 50 pounds of pasta a day.” . . . The Raiders, who arrived this week, are quiet guests, he said. “I’ll take them over a Shriners convention any day.” The public can meet the Raiders July 24 at Oxnard High School.

MORE MAGIC: Last year’s theme was “A Seaside Fantasy.” The year before, it was “Camelot.” So the theme of the 1993 Ventura County Fair, “Makin’ Magic,” continues the fair board’s preference for supernatural motifs. . . . In addition to a magician’s hat, gloves and wand, poster designer Devlin Raley worked in the outline of a Ferris wheel, in observance of its 100th anniversary. The fair runs Aug. 18-29.

JUNKER FEE: People who register their cars may have to pay $1 more to clean up after people who abandon their vehicles (B1). It would be one of a string of special-purpose fees tacked onto the cost of license tags. Ventura County drivers pay $4 for air pollution control, $1 for roadside call boxes and $1 to prosecute car thieves. . . . Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald D. Coleman said auto theft “would be very much less a priority” without the fees.