Living Out a Fantasy, If Only on the Weekends

The kingdom and the fantasy. Or: Surely we joust.

Meet now Christina Hanson, 20, of Fallbrook, whose idea of a smashing good time is to don her mock armor and spend the afternoon slashing/slaying/routing assorted knights, warriors, rogues, scouts, novices, ogres, fiends, shadows, munchkins, elves and dwarfs.

She’s “co-ambassador” of the Medieval Fantasy Combat Organization, a loosely wrapped collection of (150 or so) like-minded enthusiasts who spend their weekends at Morley Field or Tecolote Park.

“Our events are usually a weird version of capture-the-flag,” Hanson explains. She’s an artist (comic strips/painting/drawing) and a student at MiraCosta College.

Her sword is made of plastic pipe, duct tape and foam rubber. Her breastplate is aircraft aluminum. Her enthusiasm is real.

It’s not unusual to find members also heavy into “Dungeons & Dragons” and other high-IQ games: “A lot of members do role-playing on the side,” Hanson says.

Hanson and her cohorts, still in costume, love to retreat to a Round Table restaurant after some heavy slogging; the freaked-out look of the pizza parlor employees is a hoot.

Still, it’s the joie de combat that is the kick.

“It’s an adrenaline rush to kill someone: ‘I’m a novice and I actually killed a knight. I’m cool. I’m important.’ ”

Points are given for blows struck. (Head and groin shots are discouraged.) There are no horses but there are assigned roles, fake boulders, shamans, spell powders and a penalty box called Valhalla.

Hanson’s group is not to be confused with the better-known Society of Creative Anachronism. The latter is more into authenticity and knightly protocol, worrying endlessly over whether Sir Gawain would have done it this way or that.

“We’re more into the fantasy aspect than the hard-core re-enactment,” Hanson said. “We’re not re-creating anything, we’re creating .”

Right now the group is recruiting. Just show up at Morley the second Sunday of the month, or Tecolote the fourth Sunday.

If you’re looking for Hanson, just ask for Lady Quillmaster, Dame Kallie New Moon of New Moon Dale.

On Top of Things

Things worth mentioning.

* Ex-Councilman Bill Mitchell, now running for Congress, may be jumping the gun a bit.

He’s got a campaign mailer with a quote from “ Mayo r Susan Golding” about Mitchell being “one of San Diego’s greatest soldiers” in the fight against crime.

(For the record: Mayoral candidate Golding has not endorsed Mitchell or anyone else in the 49th District.)

* The San Francisco Police Department, where the chief was just fired after 44 days on the job, may be heading for an even larger organizational shake-up.

The department brass is interested in the command structure of the San Diego P.D.

* Congressional hopeful Bill Winston has taken a full-page ad in the Gay & Lesbian Times:

“On June 2nd your best protection isn’t just a condom. It’s a voice in Congress.”

* Jan Percival noticed a sign in the waiting room when she went for her annual mammogram: “We Compress Because We Care.”

* Three neighborhood volunteers who extinguished a fire that threatened a house in Linda Vista were commended Tuesday by the Police Department: Brian Kent, Wes Koons and Conrad Whittaker.

The three used garden hoses to put out an 8-foot-tall-and-rising blaze before firefighters arrived.

* Spotted on Interstate 805: A Mazda with the vanity plate IN2ATIV.

With the left turn signal left on for miles and miles.

* The Grill on the Park restaurant in downtown San Diego is doing its own presidential polling this week, with dishes named for each candidate.

Like Pat Buchanan’s Halibut Filet: “This floundering candidate is determined in his swim upstream . . . .”

* Bob Davidson of La Jolla has his own list of Dan Quayle’s biggest complaints about television.

Like: “Even though you scream the answer, Pat and Vanna ignore you.” And: “Driving a chuck wagon through kitchen cabinets looks a lot easier on TV.”

Pearly Words

Yes, Kurt Bevacqua did explain on KFMB radio that the Padres failed to “materialize” on the Cubs’ errors.