YOU CAN STILL VOTE: With Election Day...

YOU CAN STILL VOTE: With Election Day just weeks away, have you registered? Or have you moved but forgotten to re-register? You’ve got until the end of the day Tuesday to make this election. To accommodate you, most city clerks here will extend their hours till 8 p.m. that day. The county’s registrar of voters office will remain open until midnight Tuesday to help you out.

PHONING OUT: Tuesday is also national Coming Out Day, when many people nationwide will tell their families for the first time that they’re gay. . . . To ease the trauma, the Gay and Lesbian Services Center of Orange County has set up a talk line--(714) 534-3261. Parents and gays who have been through “coming out” will be on the line to talk with callers. . . . The center’s Kimberly Syre says a wide variety should be coming out: “For some reason, we’ve gotten this stereotype that we’re all drag queens or drive diesel trucks, but 90% of us are in mainstream society.”

NEW NEIGHBOR: For public television, he’s bigger than Roseanne, and he’s got the most popular neighborhood on the tube. He’s Fred Rogers, and his “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood”--seen here on KCET (Channel 28)--is going strong after 26 years. . . . You can meet the star of children’s TV in person: Rogers will be at the grand opening of the KCET Store of Knowledge--educational merchandise--at Newport Beach’s Fashion Island, noon to 2 p.m. Tuesday.

WEALTH OF FRIENDS: If the late Richard Nixon stirred emotion among his enemies, he also evoked strong loyalties from friends. Peter and Mary Muth of Santa Ana, longtime Nixon friends, have pledged $1 million toward the Center for Peace and Freedom the former President created at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda shortly before his death in April. . . . Total gifts toward the center are now at $15.5 million, well along toward its $25-million goal. Peter Muth is chairman of the Orco Block Co.