Odds & Ends Around the Valley

Washington Ho!

North Hollywood High School student Patrick Updegraff of Studio City is in the nation’s capital cavorting with the high and mighty.

Patrick, 17, who will be a senior this fall, is one of 350 young people from around the country selected to participate in the weeklong 1991 National Young Leaders Conference sponsored by the Washington-based Congressional Youth Leadership Council.

The council is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization committed to recognizing outstanding youths and providing them with a summer civic learning experience. If the crowded agenda is a criterion, the kids are learning a lot.

On Monday, Patrick and his fellows were welcomed by members of Congress on the floor of the House, after which the young people attended a lobbying seminar and a panel discussion at the National Press Club.

The rest of the week has been a jumble of high-level events that included invitations to the embassies of Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Jordan, Sweden, Austria and Costa Rica, and meetings with Sens. Alan Cranston and John Seymour and Rep. Henry A. Waxman of California.

The culmination of the conference will be the mock congress on gun control during which scholars assume the roles of U. S. representatives in debating, lobbying and voting on proposed legislation.

Before leaving for the conference, Patrick said he wasn’t exactly sure why he was chosen to go. “I got a letter asking me if I would like to attend, but I didn’t have a clue,” he said.

He went to his school counselor, who said it was a big honor to be chosen. She said she had nominated him because of his interest in U. S. history and his excellent grades.

What also puzzled Patrick was that the conference is supposed to inspire budding politicians and statesmen, yet he would not run if nominated nor serve if elected.

To anything.

“I was never an officer in high school or any clubs or anything like that,” he said. “And I have no interest in politics at all.”

He spends a lot of time working as a child-care assistant at the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, but mostly he tries to ace his courses so he can get into medical school and become a pediatrician.

In 10 years, he says, he wants to be healing babies, not kissing them.

En Garde

J. D. Marsh of Encino recently took son Sean, 10, and three of his friends to see “Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves.”

The young foursome had wanted to see “Backdraft,” but Marsh figured that they got precious few opportunities to acquaint themselves with classics, and that Robin Hood was one they shouldn’t miss.

Look out.

Not only did the kids love the picture, they have turned the house into Sherwood Forest. Armed with mop handles, ski poles and candlesticks, they whack away up and down the staircase, in Sean’s room and the living room.

The coffee table was overturned, killing a large plant. A lamp was overturned, nearly killing a large dog. And two tropical fish were also casualties of the constant turmoil.

Marsh says they committed suicide.

Silly Season

You know the silly season is here when you start hearing about surveys like this.

According to an informal poll of bartenders, bouncers, waiters and waitresses at Tickets Lounge in the Warner Center Marriott Hotel in Woodland Hills, single women who are asked to dance most often sport hairstyles like Kim Basinger’s (44%) and Demi Moore’s (31%), and are asked to dance most often by guys who wear hair like Bart Simpson’s (33%).

Blonde women are asked to dance far more often than brunettes, redheads or others, and men with dark hair tend to do most of the asking.

You were probably desperate to know.

Being Careful

Private investigator Ed Ryan of Windham Associates in Van Nuys says there is a new specialty in the snooping business.

He still spends most of his time gathering evidence for court cases--including industrial crimes or insurance fraud, and tracking down the odd lost person. But a significant number of new clients, he says, are women who want him to find out more about the men they are seeing or living with.

“Now that women have become big moneymakers, they have more to worry about than simply losing their hearts,” he said.

Those with healthy bank accounts and a hefty stock portfolio are concerned about who might get access to it.

“If a woman meets a guy through a dating service or at some bar or social event, chances are she doesn’t know much about him, and probably neither do her friends,” Ryan said.

A busy working woman doesn’t have the time to do a thorough check on someone, Ryan said. The $500 to $10,000 it takes to find out what she thinks she needs to know often is considered money well spent.

Ryan, who says other investigators in Southern California are also taking on more such cases, says typical information that they check out includes the boyfriend’s age, residence, marital history and status, the number of children, financial status, work history, educational history, and driving and criminal records.

This new “better safe than sorry” attitude on the part of women is a healthy thing, Ryan believes, showing that women are no longer willing to be a party to some kind of soap opera.

“If they take the time and spend the money to check out a man who wants to have a close relationship, they probably won’t become involved with some guy who is a bigamist four times over, or some con man who’s out to bilk them of their savings,” said Ryan, who adds that all reputable private investigator firms operate with strictest confidentiality.

Overheard

“My husband’s about as exciting as a book you’ve read 1,000 times.”

--Woman to her companions walking around Calabasas Lake