MOVING ON: What was the busiest freeway...

MOVING ON: What was the busiest freeway in California in 1994? There’s a tie for this dubious honor: the San Diego Freeway in Orange County and the Santa Monica Freeway in Los Angeles--usually the runaway winner but closed for three months last year due to earthquake damage. . . . Each averaged about 328,000 cars and trucks per day. . . . Busiest interchange: This one’s in East Los Angeles--where the Golden State, Santa Monica, Pomona and Hollywood freeways form a spaghetti pattern.

SPEAKING UP: UC Irvine gets a good scolding over its fertility clinic scandal in the latest issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education: “a textbook example of the wrong way to deal with a crisis.” . . . The author? Jon Wiener, a UC Irvine history professor for 22 years. You can bet he’s tenured. . . . “If I were an assistant professor, I might not have written it,” Wiener says. What prompted him? Says Wiener: “Everywhere I go across the country, all anyone says about UC Irvine is: ‘Oh yes, the place with that fertility scandal.’ ”

NO MAGIC WORDS? Why are the California Angels hitting so well? ABC-TV’s Tim McCarver credits batting coach and Hall of Famer Rod Carew. “Make that guru, not Carew,” McCarver gushes. . . . But Carew credits the players: “Maturity is the key. A lot of the kids have learned that over the past couple of months; they now know how to go about doing it.” Carew’s efforts go beyond coaching: On Wednesday he’ll help out at a child abuse prevention fund-raiser in Laguna Hills.

FAMILY REUNION: While the Angels are delighted to see pitcher Jim Abbott’s return, they couldn’t be happier than Jan and Peter Douty of Fountain Valley. Abbott, traded Thursday from the Chicago White Sox, is their son-in-law; he married their daughter Dana five years ago. Says Dana’s younger sister, D.J.: “We’re very surprised, but excited. She’s a California girl, so she’s thrilled to be coming back.”