SECURITY: Jews everywhere are pretty nervous these...

SECURITY: Jews everywhere are pretty nervous these days, and with good cause--the recent bombings in Argentina, Panama and England. So, on Thursday, Jewish groups attended a security seminar in Encino (B1). . . . Valley Jewish institutions, says Tzivia Schwartz, the Anti-Defamation League’s counsel in Los Angeles, have been hit hard in recent years by vandalism.

NIGHT FEVER: Everyone poked fun at disco, and why not? Still, now it’s nostalgia, and some Valley clubs have brought it back (Valley Life! Page 3). . . . John Dunn, owner of Insomnia Cafe in Sherman Oaks and an ex-DJ, says the Valley was hot for disco. The Sugar Shack in North Hollywood, he said, “was real important. It was the place for the younger crowd that lived the ‘70s.”

EXPLOSION: Northridge’s Jonah Weiland, 22, (above) reads comic books--lots of them. And he is hardly alone. The Valley offers more than two dozen shops selling comics and related items (Valley Life! Page 10). . . . Although comics began nearly 100 years ago as reprints of newspaper strips, the first--”Comic Monthly”--that resembled today’s modern style appeared in 1922.

TRASH ELSEWHERE: Actor Ed Begley Jr. is a man of many causes, but his latest is a bunch of garbage. Household trash, to be more exact. Begley, arguing against new landfills, boasted this week to county supervisors that because of recycling, “I throw away one glove compartment’s worth of garbage every week.” . . . Well, could he prove it? The Times went to his Studio City home to find out (B1).

GHOST TOWN: What’s in a name? A lot, apparently. The term ghost towns , used to describe blocks of quake-damaged Valley buildings, was the brainchild of Gary Squier, head of housing for the city of Los Angeles (B1). . . . At first, one of his bosses, City Councilman Richard Alarcon, thought that it was “too negative.” But he now agrees that it’s helped get government attention.