Hyphens, Pies and Other Oddities of Campaign ’98

Now there are only the scrapbook moments of Campaign ‘98:

Attorney general candidate Dave Stirling wanted his full job title--chief deputy attorney general--as his ballot designation, but state law limits candidates to three words. Stirling sued, and the state Court of Appeal in Sacramento agreed that attorney-general can be hyphenated, and therefore one word. The court sided with Stirling, relying in part on the 1933 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.

The court, in a 2-1 decision, ruled, “Probably nine out of 10 spelling questions that arise in writing or editing concern compound words. Should it be selfseeking or self-seeking?” The dissenter noted that the most recent hyphenated compound in a U.S. dictionary is Funk & Wagnalls New Standard Dictionary of the English Language, Encyclopedic Edition (1959) copyright 1962.

In practice, “attorney general” isn’t hyphenated much of anywhere, not even on the sign on the office Stirling hoped to occupy. He appeared on the ballot as chief deputy attorney-general--and lost anyway.

* At a Chinese restaurant in San Jose where GOP Senate candidate Matt Fong was speaking at a fund-raiser, there hung two signs: Dim Sum for Lunch . . . Matt Fong for Senate.

* And Gov.-elect Gray Davis, at his final debate against Dan Lungren, ringingly quoted a phrase by Sam Walter Foss that was often invoked by a former governor named Reagan. It’s chiseled over the entrance to a state office building across from the Capitol, and it reads: “Bring me men to match my mountains.” Except, in a spirit of inclusion, Davis altered it to, “Bring me people to match my mountains.”

Where do we file a misquote complaint--to the state’s poet laureate?

*

Pie-eyed: Attorney general may or may not be hyphenated, but how about a new verb for the political lexicon? Pie: verb, infinitive to pie. To hurl said pastry at public figure as form of protest; gesture derived from silent film and slapstick comedy routines using same.

The mysterious Biotic Baking Brigade has expressed displeasure about environmental and social issues by pieing Nobel laureate Milton Friedman, the CEO of Monsanto Corp. and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, whose four-figure duds got slathered with cherry and tofu pie filling. Three Biotic Bakers have pleaded not guilty to misdemeanors.

And now it’s the young new executive director of the Sierra Club, Carl Pope, who got a faceful of cappuccino cream pie in San Francisco on Saturday for--so alleges the Brigade--turning against the ideals of John Muir, who founded the Sierra Club.

Pope’s colleague, Sierra Club past President Adam Werbach, wrote a book about activism. Its title: “Act Now, Apologize Later.”

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Ups, Downs in Alzheimer’s Research

Voluntary state income tax check-off contributions to the California Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Research Fund have decreased during the past eight years even as 100,000 more Californians are estimated to have the devastating disease. Just this year, tax check-off money has begun to increase again:

Tax Check-Off Contributions

1989: $473,948

1990: $536,162

1991: $489,091

1992: $453,034

1993: $401,707

1994: $293,957

1995: $311,228

1996: $294,242

1997: $293,479

1998: $329,754*

* Through Oct. 31

Source: Alzheimer’s Disease Program, state Department of Health Services.

Researched by TRACY THOMAS / Los Angeles Times

*

Daniel Boonedoggle?: Weeks after it enacted a good Samaritan law requiring drivers to report wildlife road accidents, Pacific Grove is trapping and killing dozens of raccoons--because a year-old local boy contracted an extremely rare disease that can only be acquired by eating raccoon feces.

According to the Monterey Herald, fewer than 10 cases of raccoon roundworm have ever been detected. But officials say the area may have a raccoon surplus, and police have cited residents for feeding them illegally. The matter is to be taken up at Wednesday’s City Council meeting.

SPCA Executive Director Priscilla Stockner told the newspaper: “I’m not one to play the lottery, but I bet you I win the Lotto before we have another case [of raccoon roundworm] in Pacific Grove.”

*

One-offs: Details of this week’s tobacco settlement were posted on the National Assn. of Attorneys General Web site, naag.org, but not before erroneous word got out that details could be found at naag.com, for National Assn. of Amateur Gynecologists--a pornography site. . . . A Burlingame woman convicted in Ohio of a credit card scam is suing a judge and other officials, accusing them of violating her constitutional right to get an abortion by sentencing her to jail until past Ohio’s 22-week abortion deadline. . . . A Silicon Valley man who once tried to run his dog for Congress is gathering signatures for a ballot initiative to make “none of the above” an option on the state ballot.

EXIT LINE

“My vest is having a more successful tour than I did.”

--Night Ranger guitarist Jeff Watson, whose yellow-checked vest was stolen from his dressing room at a Wyoming concert. Since then, the Mill Valley musician has been getting photos and chatty letters from “the Vest” mailed from Seattle, Boston, New York and London.

California Dateline appears every other Tuesday.