BOB’S OTHER BOOKS: Excerpts from the new...

BOB’S OTHER BOOKS: Excerpts from the new H.R. (Bob) Haldeman book, based on his diaries, present a dark side to Richard Nixon that contrasts sharply to tributes at his funeral in Yorba Linda last month. Yet Haldeman--fired as White House chief of staff during Watergate--had kept close ties to Nixon. . . . He was a visitor and guest speaker at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda several times. Also, a few months before his death last year, Haldeman donated his personal library collection to the Nixon library.

NIXON’S SMILE: Nixon’s last visit to his presidential library was in January. But New York magazine this month ran a picture of Nixon taken at the time his staff had not expected. . . . He’d been strolling alone at the beach near the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Dana Point, in gray flannel slacks, when he came across children modeling for Child magazine. Nixon suggested they have their picture taken together. Says the magazine’s fashion editor, Gay Empson: “He didn’t seem like he wanted to leave.”

WORK LEFT: Dorothy Mummert of Newport Beach has been styling hair at Fashion Island for nine years. But she’s leaving it all--and her grown daughter--next month to teach English for the Peace Corps in Poland. “Before you leave this planet, you’d like to think you contributed,” she says. “I don’t feel I’ve done that yet.” . . . She earned her teaching certificate in spare time. Mummert says she’ll stay in touch with her barber customers. More than 100 have signed up to get her newsletter from Poland.

BOX DANCING: Can boxing be fun if you never get to see your opponent crumble to the canvas? Boxercising is the latest exercise craze at some local health clubs. You make all the boxing moves--with the gloves--against your opponent without striking him--or usually her. Says Krys Golanski, who teaches the new class at the Sports Club/Irvine: “It’s a great cardiovascular workout. But we only hit hands, not faces. That would be an ugly class.”