NEWPORT BEACH Packing in the holiday spirit...

NEWPORT BEACH

Packing in the holiday spirit

Newport Beach Rat Packer Joey Bishop helped set the holiday spirit

by lighting a giant chocolate menorah at Fashion Island, the site of

the Chabad Jewish Center’s annual menorah lighting ceremony, which

was attended by more than 1,200 people.

“I came here because I heard it would be the first time in the

history of religion that you’re going to have a rabbi and a bishop,”

Bishop said.

The semi-sweet chocolate menorah was 7-1/2 feet tall and weighed

200 pounds, said Rabbi Reuven Mintz of the Chabad Jewish Center. It

would be in the Guinness Book of Work Records, he said.

* Members of Camp Pendleton’s 1st Battalion 1st Marines -- the

“1/1” in military lingo -- will be getting a little Newport cheer. In

one of his last acts as Newport Beach mayor, Councilman Steve

Bromberg “adopted” the infantry unit for Newport Beach residents to

send morale-boosting letters and other items and, in return, get some

military representation at community events.

The unit of about 1,100 has been stationed on a ship in the Middle

East for about the past eight months. Letters, cards and small items,

even from people they’ve never met, help them feel more connected to

home, said Tim Sloat, a former Marine who approached Bromberg with

the idea.

* A Newport Beach resident suspects he found a meteorite behind

his Eastbluff condominium.

He found the 16-pound rock after seeing a streak in the sky nearby

the night before.

So far, he hasn’t been able to get confirmation that it is,

indeed, a space rock because many local experts are out for the

holidays.