A New Chapter in Blood Drives

When blood supplies ran low at the UCLA Medical Center, author Anne Rice donated autographed copies of her book, “The Vampire Chronicles,” to the first 100 donors who called the hospital for an appointment.

MYSTERY FOODS: Today’s specialties include a sauteed physician as well as an unidentified chicken part (see accompanying).

STUPID CRIMINAL TRICKS: A police officer encountered a man loitering near a bank who told the officer to “read him his rights because he was going to jail,” a Gardena newspaper reported. The officer asked how he knew. The suspect explained “that he was concealing a gun in his pants and that it was falling down the pants leg.”

HAIRY COUNCIL MEETING: Some 75 beauticians and barbers were invited to meet with the Santa Clarita City Council, which asked them what people in town were talking about.

“Everyone talks to their hairdresser,” one city official explained.

Among the disclosures at the unusual session: The city needs more recreational facilities. Said one manicurist: “You can only bowl so much.”

L.A.--IN SELECT COMPANY: Frank Redmon of Twentynine Palms came upon a brochure for a 1995 U.S. Naval Institute Conference in San Diego, which included a seminar titled: “The Perils of Peacekeeping: Bosnia, Los Angeles, Rwanda, Somalia . . . “

LIST OF THE DAY: You know you’re in Beverly Hills when:

* A specialty store stocks several models of gas-powered miniature cars for children, including a 6-foot-long Jaguar ($3,495) and a 9-foot-long Ferrari Testarossa ($15,000).

* More licenses are issued for gardening than for any other business.

* One trendy store stages a Thanksgiving food drive for the homeless and collects sauerkraut, pickles, jalapeno jelly and sliced button mushrooms, among other items.

* The post office offers valet parking.

* Parking tickets are put inside protective coverings on rainy days.

* A water bar opens with 51 chilled varieties at $1 to $2, ice not included because it would “void out the subtleties.” (The bar closed after business chilled).

P.C. (POOH CORRECTNESS): A theater group’s program proclaimed: “The stereotypes portrayed in ‘Winnie the Pooh’ are in no way condoned by the Young Artists Ensemble, and we have left them intact to preserve the author’s original message. All bears do not like honey, not all donkeys are slow, not all piglets are easily frightened, and not all boys think that Winnie the Pooh can talk to them.”

DERELICTION OF DONUT DUTY? A prospective juror being questioned by Superior Court Judge J. Stephen Czuleger a couple of years ago mentioned that he had been inside a Winchell’s doughnut shop when it was robbed. Asked if he was satisfied with the police response, the man paused before saying, “Yes.” When the judge asked him to explain his hesitation, he replied, “Usually, there’s an officer in the doughnut shop and there was none at this time.”

JUST ANOTHER DAY IN L.A.: A man who jumped off the Santa Monica Pier was saved because help was summoned by three passersby--Heidi Fleiss, a TV newsman and Michael Jackson’s plastic surgeon. That is, one of Michael Jackson’s plastic surgeons.

miscelLAny:

If you’re a resident of Paramount, city law permits you to hold just one garage sale per lot per year, unless you die. Then your family is allowed to hold an extra sale to get rid of your things. Sort of a going-away sale.