<i> Snapshots of life in the Golden State.</i> : Sartorial Showdown in Assembly Just a Formality

If clothes make the man . . . campaign expenditure reports show that Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) went to the Armani Boutique for a tuxedo last year and ponied $2,192 of campaign funds for it, while Assemblyman Ross Johnson (R-Placentia) headed for Gingiss Formalwear for a tuxedo and shelled out $136. This was a no-tie black tie sartorial showdown: The Speaker is probably the best-dressed man in California.

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To be or to not be: Dorothy Kreiss Robbins, the American Independent Party’s candidate for secretary of state, promises in her statement that as an instructor in grammar, she will guarantee “clear, precise, understandable” election material. Perhaps she could apply her red pen to help the man on the opposite page from her in the voter pamphlet, Republican Senate candidate Bill Dannemeyer. His campaign phone number splits the infinitive with “1-800-2 NOT TAX.”

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Stir, gently: From his prison cell in San Jose, Costa Rica, where fugitive former state Sen. Paul Carpenter was caught after he fled his sentence here for political corruption, Carpenter and his fellow inmates can--according to his lawyer, Charles Bloodgood--order pizza from the takeout joint down the street .

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Who Buys Pepper Spray?

Since pepper spray tear gas went on sale legally in March, the largest California distributor, Aardvark Tactical Inc. of Arcadia, distributed 15,500 canisters to retailers and individual customers in the first six weeks. The company markets an estimated 50% of all pepper spray canisters sold in the state.

Here is information on the first 500 people who purchased the spray directly from the distributor:

SEX

Women: 269

Men: 231

AGE

18-25: 43

26-35: 117

36-55: 216

55+: 124

ETHNIC BREAKDOWN

White: 320

Asian: 108

Latino: 53

Black: 19

Note: No others specified

Average canisters purchased per person: 1.26

Source: Aardvark Tactical Inc., Arcadia

Compiled by Times researcher TRACY THOMAS

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Ten lives: One place in California where the death penalty is unpopular: San Francisco’s animal shelters. As of this spring, no dog or cat turned into the shelters will be put to death unless it is beyond rehabilitation. The city and county that bear the name of the saintly four-leggers’ friend are the nation’s first to guarantee that homeless pets will not be euthanized. Under the shelters’ pact with the SPCA, even cats and dogs with health or behavioral problems will be treated or trained for suitable homes. Only those who are beyond even that help will face the needle.

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Dad news blues: Insurance commissioner and guv aspirant John Garamendi was introduced at a recent Century City Chamber of Commerce event as the progenitor of seven children. Garamendi stood up--remember, this was before he broke his leg falling out of an oak tree--and remarked that his wife “will be surprised to hear that there is a seventh child” because the Garamendis have an even half-dozen offspring.

If only votes were so easily acquired.

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Drive time: Since the state began keeping records sometime in the 1940s, 1993 was blessed with the lowest-ever number of deaths per 100 million miles driven--1.56. In this second year of mandatory helmets, motorcyclists’ deaths and injuries dropped markedly. So did drunk driving-related deaths and injuries. More bicyclists and pedestrians, though, were hurt or killed. No bills are pending in the Legislature to require pedestrians to wear helmets.

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Face the state: Ignore the position papers. Dump the debates. Forget the bus tours. Norma Desmond is right: it’s about faces.

In the first four lines of its profile of Kathleen Brown, this month’s GQ magazine praises her “chiseled cheekbones” and “dark intelligent gaze.”

Then, the San Francisco Examiner detailed a UC Irvine professor’s ratings of California’s guv-lorn candidates by looks. Professor Shawn Rosenberg rated thick eyebrows as a negative (Brown, Hayden, Wilson), awarded good eye shape points to all three and Garamendi, found Wilson’s older looks a plus and Brown’s younger looks a minus (one advance for the mature woman).

All three men rated high for that great campaign asset--head tilt. It seems not to matter whether Republicans tilt to the left, or Democrats to the right.

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Change of life: By Father’s Day, 39-year-old San Francisco Police Sgt. Stephanie Thorne will have wrapped up months of treatment and counseling, and undergone surgery to make her Stephan Thorne, the SFPD’s first transsexual officer.

The 10-year veteran declared her intentions at a news conference in the office of San Francisco Police Chief Tony Ribera, who praised her as an outstanding supervisor.

“It’s my way of being honest about it and letting the world know that I am not ashamed and my department is not ashamed,” Thorne said.

Who can blame her, with a woman’s earnings still averaging less than 80 cents to a man’s dollar?

EXIT LINE

“That sounds like the new math.”

--State Sen. Leroy Greene (D-Carmichael), as the august body unanimously approved--on May 2--a resolution declaring April to be Mathematics Education Month.