SERIOUS SURFING: Some surf the Internet for...

SERIOUS SURFING: Some surf the Internet for fun and games. Tim Pinkus, an Anaheim ticket broker, has something more serious in mind--his daughter’s health. Five-month-old Brittany Pinkus, now at the UCLA Medical Center, needs a liver transplant, and acceptable donors for her age are almost nonexistent. Pinkus’ computer plea for help through America Online is bringing a huge response. . . . Says Pinkus: “Most people just let us know that they care. But we have one possibility. We’ll try anything.”

BO KNOWS BAD GUYS: When two thieves recently crashed a stolen car and took off on foot, they were unaware they didn’t have a prayer against the Huntington Beach cop giving chase. Gaute (Bo) Svendsbo, 26, is the fastest runner on the department’s Baker-to-Vegas relay team. He had no trouble overtaking the two, a man and a woman. . . . Says Svendsbo: “In car pursuits, 90% of the time, we end up chasing them. They don’t give up. My running has definitely helped out.”

NO MORE SECRETS: Historian Irwin Gellman of Corona del Mar says he began his digging in Washington archives about 20 years ago for his new book, “Secret Affairs.” It chronicles the failing health of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his secretary of state, Cordell Hull, and the bisexuality of Hull’s undersecretary, Sumner Wells. . . . Gellman, 52, says the period fascinated him because “it forever ended American isolationism. What’s extraordinary is that these men performed so remarkably while fighting their own private demons.”

STICKY SITUATION: Dianne Easterling of Huntington Beach is fed up with the rash of stickers plastered by businesses all over downtown--on stop signs, street signs--just about anywhere. Many seem to be from local surf or other beachfront shops. . . . Her recent complaint about it to the City Council is producing results: City officials the past week have been going street by street removing the stickers. . . . Says Easterling: “It’s an embarrassing thing for all of us who live here.”