X-rated candidate: The campaign committee of Redondo...

X-rated candidate: The campaign committee of Redondo Beach’s Chris Boyle may have the longest name in politics. There’s a reason--a bad reason, says the city of Redondo Beach.

Boyle is a bitter opponent of Mayor Brad Parton and the 15-word seemingly nonsensical committee name is an acronym for an obscene version of “I DON’T LIKE YOU, BRAD.” It begins, “For Understanding. . . .” We better not go any further.

Boyle told reporters that when he filed his papers with the state he was unaware of the obscene message spelled out by the initials. A friend suggested the name, he insisted. Boyle told City Clerk John Oliver he wouldn’t change it unless ordered to do so by the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

Oliver appealed to the FPPC, which said it was the first complaint the agency had ever received about an obscene campaign committee name.

But action against Boyle seems unlikely because of the coded nature of the insult and the absence of legal restrictions in that area.

The whole episode brings to memory the acronym spelled out by Richard Nixon’s old campaign committee: CREEP.

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Lawyers and other actors: Some opportunities for continuing legal education for attorneys, as listed in California Lawyer magazine:

* A North Hollywood company that calls itself The Lawyer Act offers to train an attorney to dramatize “physical and vocal expression,” bringing the “style of advocacy to life in the courtroom.” Cost: $375, including a free videotape of one’s own “onstage performance”

* Another company, whose phone number is 800-4-ACTING, sells “theater-based” videotapes, including “How to Make a Closing Argument” and “What Every Female Litigator Should Know.” Cost: $199-$275 per tape.

* For attorneys who have a tendency to lose their composure while performing, one company sells “relaxation techniques developed from the Tibetan medical and meditative traditions to restore our natural balance and ease.” Cost: $175 per class.

* Then there’s the opportunity to “exchange views with Superior Court judges at Club Med, Sonora Bay, Mexico.” Cost: $1,499.

Of that last program, California Lawyer adds: “Don’t forget: No tipping!”

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Mars, phone home (collect, even): The other day, David Letterman issued a Top 10 list of NASA excuses for misplacing the Mars Observer spacecraft, including: “Remember Watergate? Well, Nixon’s up to his old tricks again.”

NASA, meanwhile, is trying to cope with the disappointment by breaking out into a bit of comedy itself. Scientists at JPL headquarters in Pasadena affixed a drawing of the MIA spacecraft on the side of a milk carton, underneath the words: “Have You Seen Me?”

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Moonwalking: We didn’t get around to attending this week’s press conference of Ernesto Moshe Montgomery, who styles himself a “Jamaican Jewish clairvoyant.” Montgomery said he had “revelations” to make about the Michael Jackson case.

The problem was we’re still pretty shook up over a 1991 press conference in Hollywood at which Montgomery revealed that the Big One would destroy L.A. on Oct. 17, 1992.

Montgomery, by the way, explained at the time: “I have an antenna behind each ear and they throb when an earthquake is coming.”

Funny, but that’s the way our antennae act when Michael Jackson sings.

miscelLAny:

Bird-watcher Robert Flippin will lead Soka University’s first public Owl Watch under a full moon on Oct. 1 from 6:30 to 8:30 at the Calabasas campus. Participants wishing to hunt for the nocturnal creatures are asked to wear long-sleeved clothing because they will likely be hunted by mosquitoes.