Learning About Howlers From an Old Cowhand

Lend me your ears.

Assemblyman Peter Frusetta, the cowboy-hat-wearing Republican from Hollister, shocked fellow members of the Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee last week during discussion about a $1.5-billion bond act to save the state’s dwindling open space.

In mid-rhapsody about the disappearing landscape, the rancher-turned-politician remembered the youthful fun he and his fellow cowboys had chasing coyotes, roping them, cutting off their ears and then releasing them. Ah, those were the days, said Frusetta, 66.

In the silence that followed, a pin dropping would have sounded as loud as a yelping coyote. Lucky for Frusetta, no animal rights types were present.

A spokesman for Frusetta explains that he is a “citizen legislator” who speaks plainly and does not worry about offending the P.C. crowd.

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The media and their messages: California journalism must look pretty tame to our brethren in Nevada.

Here’s the lead to a column by Las Vegas Sun Editor Brian Greenspun scolding his rivals at the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

“I know it is frustrating trying to read the other newspaper without getting nauseated and otherwise sick to one’s stomach, but last week’s embarrassment under the byline of Editor Thomas Mitchell was just too much for even me to accept.”

After that Greenspun gets downright insulting. . . .

* Rep. Brian P. Bilbray (R-San Diego) tied with two colleagues for an honor never dreamed of by the Founding Fathers: best congressional Web site. Of 551 sites, those of Bilbray, Bob Barr (R-Ga.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) were judged tops by American University.

Bilbray’s use of surfing pictures was singled out for praise.

* The Espresso, San Diego’s coffeehouse newspaper, on the cost of the NATO offensive in Yugoslavia: “Some F-117A’s here, some Apache helicopters there--maybe some Humvees, and pretty soon you’re talking about some real money.”

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Jump, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty: Miss Kitty O’Neil, an import from Sweet Home, Ore., won the Calaveras County frog jumping contest this weekend by besting 2,000 amphibian rivals with a leap of 19 feet, 10 inches.

The record for the Calaveras County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee, held annually in Angels Camp, is 21 feet, 5 inches, set in 1986 by Rosie the Ribeter.

One of the competitors this year was named Tastes Like Chicken. But that was only a joke.

Tradition holds that the frogs are released into the wild after their leaping day is over. And no, not a single restaurant in the county serves frogs’ legs.

“We don’t bite the leg that feeds us,” said the county fair manager.

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One-offs: A federal appeals court says a San Diego man can sue over alleged civil rights violations because a doctor inserted a catheter into his penis while he was sedated after being arrested. The exam found evidence of drug use and the man served two years in prison. However, the court ruled, he can move forward with his $120-million suit, because the catheter could be compared to an illegal listening device. . . . Eat a fern, go to jail. Rangers are cracking down on illicit fern picking at Palomar Mountain State Park. The ferns are a delicacy to some ethnic groups but protected by law. . . . A French teacher at Valley Center High School north of San Diego was put on paid leave after her students were shown the 1988 film “Le Grand Chemin,” which was not on the approved list. The film has some sexual suggestiveness and a rabbit-skinning scene. A parent complained. . . . This buddy’s for you. A retiree from Maryland is researching which state has the most discarded beer cans and bottles per year per mile of freeway. At 900, California is tied with Colorado but behind Massachusetts, at 1,200. . . . Bumper sticker on a BMW seen on Interstate 5: “Can’t We All Just Get It On?”.

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EXIT LINE

“It’s more bull art than bullfight.”

--Bullfighter Raquel Martinez Robinson explaining how Portuguese-style bullfighting, which is permitted in California, differs from traditional bullfighting. In the former, intricate cape working by the matador is stressed and the bull is not injured. Martinez, Mexico’s first female bullfighter, has already starred in one Portuguese-style fight in Madera and hopes to do more soon.

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Female Farmers

More women across the country are running farms and, among states with the greatest number of farms overall, California placed first with 13.6% of all of its farms operated by women. The national average is 8.6%. Here are the 10 states with the most farms nationwide, ranked by the percentage of those farms operated* by women:

Rank: 1. California

Total farms: 74,126

% Run by Women: 13.6

Rank: 2. Texas

Total farms: 194,301

% Run by Women: 10.5

Rank: 3. Kentucky

Total farms: 82,273

% Run by Women: 9.0

Rank: 4. Tennessee

Total farms: 76,818

% Run by Women: 8.9

Rank: 5. Oklahoma

Total farms: 74,214

% Run by Women: 8.5

Rank: 6. Missouri

Total farms: 98,860

% Run by Women: 8.1

Rank: 7. Ohio

Total farms: 68,591

% Run by Women: 6.9

Rank: 8. Illinois

Total farms: 73,051

% Run by Women: 5.5

Rank: 9. Iowa

Total farms: 90,792

% Run by Women: 5.0

Rank: 10. Minnesota

Total farms: 73,367

% Run by Women: 4.9

* The operator may be the owner, a member of the owner’s household, a hired manager, a tenant, a renter or a sharecropper.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 1997 census.

Researched by TRACY THOMAS / Los Angeles Times

California Dateline appears every other Tuesday.