REAL FANS ONLY: If you plan to...

REAL FANS ONLY: If you plan to watch the two upcoming surfing events in Huntington Beach the next two weeks, you won’t have to sit on the sand to get a free seat. Surfing officials have dropped the $5-$7 fees for the grandstands for the Op Pro Surfing Championship and the U.S. Open of Surfing, after complaints last year. One exception: There will a grandstand fee for U.S. Open finals on Aug. 6. Explains spokesman Mike Kingsbury: “That’s to ensure that the stands are filled with fans who are truly there to watch the competition.”

GOLDEN READERS: The county library system’s latest pitch for much-needed dollars: The library gold card. It doesn’t put you to the head of the line on getting the branches’ bestsellers. But you can use it for discounts at a few Orange County stores. The library staff has a double promotion going: Find more businesses to participate, and more cardholders. About 100 people have paid the $25 card fee. Says County Librarian John M. Adams: “If just 1% of our active library users purchased it, it would mean $175,000 raised toward books.”

DIGGING DEEP: One of the first to buy a library gold card: Orange County mystery writer Maxine O’Callaghan. . . . “I am not a college graduate, so I learned to write mostly from reading books,” she says. “Libraries should be a budget priority, but unfortunately they aren’t. . . . O’Callaghan’s next work: She’s doing a mystery series for Berkeley Press with a new heroine--child psychologist Anne Menlo. O’Callaghan is researching at the library.

FINAL SHOT: If you’ve been meaning to go to the Orange County Fair but haven’t gotten around to it: Today is the final day. The entertainment tonight is Vikki Carr. The contests you can enter: goat milking, potato pushing and the limbo--no age limit. There’s also hypnotist Mark Yuzuik and plenty of bluegrass music. Final numbers aren’t in, but it could be a record-setting year. The first Saturday, July 8, was a record for that day: 51,093.