At Leuzinger High, the drop-in luncheon guests are for the birds

HITCHCOCK HIGH: Students at Lawndale’s Leuzinger High have to watch their BLTs, not to mention their heads, when the bell rings signaling the end of lunch on a typical school day.

Like Pavlov’s well-trained pups, the school’s contingent of dozens of sea gulls gathers silently around the schoolyard, then collectively dive-bombs the area at the bell. Students sometimes even open their umbrellas to shield themselves from the incoming blitz of birds in search of food.

Janitors at the school don’t mind, though: The flock often completes a thorough sweep of the area, making their jobs a little easier.

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PIRATES OF THE SOUTH BAY? A Redondo Beach history buff believes he stumbled upon new information about how the city got its name: from a drunk and rowdy pirate.

Jim Hall, executive director of the Pier Assn. and the man behind the pier’s Treasure Island Days event last weekend, is researching a theory that the city got its name from Juan Rodriguez Redondo.

In the late 1700s, Redondo docked his 100-foot-long ship at a small fishing village near what is now the Southern California Edison plant, Hall says. As Spanish treasure ships sailed past the Channel Islands, Redondo and his raiders would be waiting. Redondo was eventually chased away by residents of the nearby pueblo of Los Angeles.

Hall says his information comes from a diary found by Jose Marcelo, a part-time treasure hunter and resort owner who lives in Manila. Marcelo, who went to Chadwick School on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, collects maps and manuscripts and got the Redondo story from the translated fragments of a diary kept by a shipwrecked sailor.

Hall is the first to admit that more evidence is needed before the story can be confirmed. One problem: The diary was translated first from Spanish to Tagalog and then back to Spanish and English.

“There is a daunting problem in translating Tagalog back into English and Spanish,” Hall said. “We’re kind of filling in the blanks with this.”

An example: Redondo’s ship, the Embuste Grande, means “big hoax” or “big liar.” Something could have been lost in the translation and the ship actually could have a name closer to “great scoundrel.”

But Hall also is skeptical of a commonly accepted theory of the city moniker: that it means “round beach.”

“There isn’t anything round about it,” he said. “The other reason that is given is that the original streets were made in a circular manner. If that were the case, then Seattle ought to be called Confusing.”

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CITY BANK: You can’t get most banks to sweep your streets or pick up your trash, but you might be able to persuade the city of Manhattan Beach to float you a home loan.

If you’re city manager, that is. The City Council did just that for new City Manager Geoff Dolan, lending him $430,000 so he could afford to live in the city.

Dolan, who moved from Colorado to accept the job, says the loan is the only way he could afford a home in the pricey beach community. He negotiated a $400,000 loan, then asked for more when the home he and his family found was more expensive.

“The council wanted me to live in the community, and the community is a very expensive place to live,” Dolan said. The council’s innovative approach allowed Dolan and his family to do just that: They recently closed the deal and moved into their Manhattan Beach home of choice.

Compiled by DAVE GRIMM