Tony Dodero -- From the Newsroom

So the other day, I’m sitting in the newsroom with one of our newer

editors, discussing something important I’m sure, when I noticed he was

glancing up at the TV that sits in the corner of our newsroom.

The TV was tuned to the Orange County Newschannel, proving of course,

to those readers who thought we just watched soap operas or Laker games

all day, that we stay on top of the news.

Anyway, the editor mentions that the two people who are taking part in

some talk-show type discussion on the TV sure look to him like a couple

of George W. and Laura Bush impersonators.

I took a good look at the screen and had to laugh because the George

Bush look-alike was none other than longtime Orange County Democratic

leader and attorney and sometime Democratic sacrificial lamb candidate

Jim Toledano.

The farthest thing from George Bush I can think of around here.

“That’s an awful thing to say about somebody,” Toledano joked when I

recounted the story to him last week.

All kidding aside, I wanted to catch up with Toledano because I had

heard he was taking part in a 575-mile AIDS fund-raiser bike ride from

San Francisco to Los Angeles and I always wonder just what possesses

people do things like that.

Especially someone like Toledano, an attorney who probably spends much

more time filing legal briefs than watching the Tour de France.

Toledano said he got interested in the race after former wife Peggy

Toledano did the ride last year.

He said “If she could do it, I can do it.”

Since then, though, he has wondered about that bold statement.

“I have never in my life done anything remotely resembling this,” said

Toledano, who last rode a bicycle 25 years ago before he began training

for the race. “It’s half physical and half mental because your mind says

‘what in blazes are you doing?’ It says ‘stop, this is hard work.”’

Still, he said he’s really excited about the race, called AIDSRide,

which begins next Sunday in San Francisco, where the riders will cruise

down parts of the historic Highway 1 to Santa Cruz and then meander

inland a bit, finishing six days later on June 9 in Exposition Park in

Los Angeles.

Toledano, who has been training since February, has raised more than

$3,000 so far for the race, but he notes that he’s just one of 3,000

riders who will take part in the event and that the top money raiser this

year is a 17-year-old cyclist who has taken in more than $10,000.

“I’m just one little guy in a huge enterprise,” he said.

The money goes toward research for AIDS and HIV and for support of

those afflicted and for prevention of the disease.

To train for the grueling race that has daily treks of 88, 102 and the

shortest at 50 plus miles, Toledano has been riding the trails and bike

paths around Newport Beach and Irvine.

And he wanted to give a plug to Sea Schwinn on 17th Street in Costa

Mesa, where he said he bought his bike and has gotten great support and

riding advice.

Speaking as someone who, in slow motion, finished the Rosarito Beach

to Ensenada bike ride,but not before keeling over from exhaustion and

delirium, I can attest that riding a long distance race without

preparation is no fun.

So I hope Jim is getting the best of training. I wish him luck.

***

Former Newport-Mesa school board member and longtime Pilot columnist

Jim de Boom told me a funny story the other day.

He arrived at a local restaurant a couple minutes late for a recent

meeting with six fellow members of the Orange County Coast Assn. De Boom

glanced around the eatery looking for his party and, not finding them, he

got a table himself.

He was soon joined by Marian Bergeson and Newport Dunes honcho Tim

Quinn. The trio waited quite a while for the rest of the gang to show,

but when it looked like they were being stood up, they just had the

meeting without them.

Later on, with the meeting and the eating done, de Boom got up to

leave and, lo and behold, when he took a look at the very next booth,

there sat the rest of the coast association contingency, Art Gronsky,

former Costa Mesa Mayor Arlene Scheafer, and local business people Jack

Mullan and Sandra Rabus.

Apparently those four had also thought they were stood up and held

their own meeting as well.

No word yet on whether both groups made different decisions.

* TONY DODERO is the editor. His column appears on Mondays. If you

have story ideas or concerns about news coverage, please send messages

either via e-mail to tony.dodero@latimes.com or by phone at 949-574-4258.