Odds & Ends Around the Valley

It’s Dick Tracy Time

As the 1980s come to a close, the standard pager may become a thing of the past. A 1990s version will hit the market in December: It’s a wristwatch pager, reminiscent of a Dick Tracy cartoon gadget.

Combining a digital-display watch and a numeric display pager, the new gadget was developed by Motorola and Timex Corp. Motorola has first dibs on the product and will make it available through pager companies, priced at just under $300. An initial release of 1,000 will be shipped in December, and a Motorola spokesperson said that the Los Angeles area will probably be included in that distribution.

Otherwise you have to wait until spring, when the watch will be more widely available through pager companies. Within two years, Timex will be selling the unit at retail stores.

Designed to be compatible with current Radio Common Carrier paging systems, the wristwatch pager stores messages even when the unit is turned off. Another feature displays the time when a message is received.

All you need now is a clenched square jaw and a fedora.

Mr. Checkers

It’s lonely at the top, as champion checkers player Leo Levitt of Northridge has discovered. He was a member of the U.S. checkers team that recently went to Great Britain for the Fifth International Checkers Match between the United States and the combined team of Great Britain and Ireland.

The Americans beat the Brits handily with 51 wins, 11 losses and 138 draws. And Levitt, a 57-year-old nuclear reactor physicist at the Ralph M. Parsons Co. in Pasadena, ended up tying for first place on the U.S. team.

“I almost have to play on the national scene to get any practice. I’m sorely lacking for opponents in this area,” he sighed. He plays occasionally with a fellow enthusiast in San Bernardino, and sometimes he goes to the beach in Santa Monica to look for challengers.

Last July, Levitt played blindfolded against veterans at the Sepulveda VA Medical Center. “We couldn’t believe it,” recalled Carrie Brandlin, a recreation therapist. “He’d play the whole game in his head.”

There have been only five international checkers competitions with Great Britain--and the first was held in 1905. The second was in 1927, the third in 1973, the fourth in 1983 and the fifth one this year. Levitt has participated in three of the five and has been the top scorer on the American team each time. This year, however, he tied for first with Ed Bruch, a retired police lieutenant in New York.

Home, Sweet (Smelling) Home

Forget about sex appeal--what about nose appeal? Now that we’ve slathered ourselves in scented bath and body products--topped off with a celebrity perfume--we’re turning our nose toward home.

“People are paying more attention to how their homes smell as well as how they look. They want a sensual experience,” said Mary Warrings, general manager of Bayberry Co., with gift stores in Woodland Hills and Northridge.

“The first thing you notice when you walk into someone’s house is how it smells,” said Louann Leone, owner of Country Flair, a card and gift shop in Canoga Park. Retailers agree that people tend to buy more home fragrance products in the fall and winter months, when they spend more time indoors.

To help us achieve nose nirvana, manufacturers have come up with a bevy of products. Room sprays and scented drawer liners are just the beginning. There are fragrant granules to put in your vacuum-cleaner bag that, over time, are supposed to improve the smell of your carpet. And you have a choice between electric or candle-operated simmering pots to heat up potpourri.

Cloth trivets with spices inside release a sweet aroma when a hot pot is placed on top of them. You can even buy scented plastic garbage bags.

Equally noteworthy is the clientele for these products. It’s not just June Cleaver buying them. “We’ve even had teen-age boys buy home fragrance products for their girlfriends,” noted Ellyn White, owner of Pure Romance, a gift shop in Sherman Oaks. “And people buy room sprays to give as hostess gifts or even to give to newlyweds to take with them on their honeymoon.”

Whitefly Respite

The fall Santa Ana winds will stir them up for a last hurrah, but eventually ash whiteflies will chill out for the winter. Ironic as it seems, ash whiteflies--which are frequently compared to swirling snowflakes--settle down in cool weather. “Last year it was late November, maybe mid-December, before they became less active,” reports Bob Atkins, deputy agricultural commissioner in charge of pest prevention, who oversees the San Fernando Valley as part of his territory.

An early freeze would also help keep them at bay, because the trees they feed on would lose their leaves. (When the ash whitefly feeds on the leaves of ash and various citrus trees, it causes leaf drop. They secrete a sticky honeydew, which attracts ants, flies and bees and promotes black, sooty mold.)

Nonetheless, they’re out there multiplying. “They continue to breed during the winter months, but it takes them longer in cooler weather,” explained Tom Bellows, associate professor of entomology at UC Riverside. “In warmer months it takes them a little under a month to grow from an egg into an adult.”

So unless it’s a hot day, don’t count on the ash whitefly to make it a white Christmas this year.

Overheard at...

“They sure are expensive for a pet rock.”

--Man looking at a display of Rockin’ Flowers in a Northridge novelty store