He Sent a Card but Left Before Getting His Gift

You have to admit that Aaron Schoolfield had the holiday spirit. In late December, he dropped off a Christmas card for Municipal Judge Debra W. Yang, Deputy City Atty. Mitchell Fox and other court personnel. Unfortunately, Schoolfield did not stick around himself, although he was scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Yang that day. He faced up to two years in jail on misdemeanor charges for loitering in a drug area in the Oakwood section of Venice.

In the card, Schoolfield explained that he was going to spend the holidays with his family.

I checked with the prosecutor Thursday and learned that no one has heard from Schoolfield since.

The fugitive didn’t skimp, by the way. The card was a Hallmark.

IT’S A DIFFERENT WORLD: It was mentioned here that former Simpson prosecutor Christopher Darden was described only as a “non-pro” in a Daily Variety squib about his marriage to a motion picture industry executive.

Irwin Rosten of L.A. recalls that Variety ran a tongue-in-cheek blurb in 1960, the day after John Kennedy was elected President. Kennedy was identified simply as the son of Joseph P. Kennedy, one of the founders of RKO Studios.

HEAVY HITTER OF THE ART WORLD: Bob Heathcock of San Pedro came across an apparent listing in the phone book for a dealer in the sporting arts (see accompanying). Could be a mistake. Then again if you’re in the market for something like Claes Oldenburg’s 100-foot-long baseball bat sculpture (see photo) . . . .

WELL, THIS IS THE GOLDEN STATE: “It would sound like a leaf out of the Arabian Nights if someone were to tell you that once upon a time it rained gold, but that’s what happened in Los Angeles during the winter of 1933,” begins an item in the 1958 book, “Strange and Amazing Facts.”

The book goes on to say that one winter day “the city was hit by a terrific wind and sandstorm which blew in from the desert. Next morning, the householders swept the dust off their porches--gold dust!” Supposedly, 1 1/2 tons of gold settled throughout the city.

Grandfather Harvey lived in L.A. during that period and I’ve never heard any family tales of him striking gold in his frontyard, so I can’t personally vouch for that tale. But I do know that in 1982 about $7,000 in quarters fell out of an armored truck on the Hollywood Freeway. Motorists scooped up an estimated 10% of that day’s silvery rain.

IT EVEN HAS LIGHTS: The Wall Street Journal said Thursday that there’s a movement to name Washington’s National Airport, or perhaps LAX, after former President Ronald Reagan. Columnist Al Hunt said numerous other airports have been named after notables and cited, as an example, “John Wayne Field” in Orange County.

Hey, Al, it’s paved! John Wayne Airport is paved! It has big planes, too! Some of them fly to other cities, even other states! I guess some Easterners still look upon the Far West as one giant cow county.

THIS JUST IN: A resident in Paramount complained about a noisy animal next door, according to the city’s newsletter. Authorities investigated and found living there . . . a cow.

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San Gabriel Valley resident Don Doolittle saw an ad in a weekly newspaper in the 29 Palms area that said, “I can place your ad in 16 locations, including the Colorado River.”

Steve Harvey can be reached by phone at (213) 237-7083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com and by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, Times Mirror Square, L.A. 90053.