Barber

George Contreras is not trying to bring back the Sex Pistols, has not joined an extremist religious cult and was not in his barber's chair when the recent earthquake hit. The Westlake coach's recent coiffure does register a 7.1 on the grisly scale, however. The atrocity occurred Oct. 2, minutes after Westlake had defeated Marmonte League rival Newbury Park, 25-21. Contreras was greeted in the locker room by a scene right out of Halloween IX.

The U.S. Olympic Festival this week at Oklahoma City will provide different opportunities for the 75 or so Orange County athletes who will participate. For athletes such as 1988 Olympic shotputters Jim Doehring and Bonnie Dasse and Peter Campbell, a two-time Olympic water polo player, the Olympic Festival represents a chance to get together with friends--and rivals--while competing largely free of high stakes and pressure.

Blind Barber Where: 10797 Washington Blvd, Culver City When: Barbershop: noon-9 p.m., Monday-Saturday, noon-6 p.m. Sunday. Bar: Tuesday-Saturday, 6 p.m.-2 a.m. Price: No cover, drinks $7 to $18 Info: blindbarber.com

This is the centenary year of the coining and first appearance in print of the word "homosexual," according to the Oxford English Dictionary, in which, in my 1965 edition, the word "heterosexual" can be found only in the addenda of new words. In a world where centennials are routinely and arousingly celebrated, why was this centenary ignored (though our Postal Service, perhaps unwittingly, did issue a postage stamp commemorating Thornton Wilder)?

(Sunday's episode of "The Pacific" — the eighth of the 10-part HBO miniseries — depicted the death of Congressional Medal of Honor recipient John Basilone during the first day of fighting on Iwo Jima. William Lansford, a Marine and Angeleno, also fought that day in Iwo Jima and recalls his friendship with the famous Marine gunnery sergeant and his last day.) In late 1944, after two years in the Pacific as a Marine with Carlson's Raiders, I rotated stateside and received a 30-day furlough.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Peyton Manning has had dozens of signature moments in his football career that the outside world didn't witness. Since childhood, Manning has jotted handwritten thank-you notes, and for years he has maintained a tradition of sending them to various NFL players retiring from the game. "I don't know who qualifies for a letter, necessarily," Manning said. "It's probably just somebody I played against for a long time. I don't have to know you real well. The other guys on my list now, I've got [Baltimore center]

Former winner Dave Barber of Bakersfield will meet Tom Barber of Griffith Park today in the final of the Southern California PGA Match Play championship at Wood Ranch Golf Club in Simi Valley. The Barbers, not related, defeated last year's finalists in Wednesday's semifinal round. Dave Barber, beat Jerry Wisz of Alhambra, 2 and 1. Tom Barber, son of 1959 champion Jerry Barber, beat Jim Woodward of Wood Ranch, 2 and 1.

Southern California is miserably accustomed to serial killers - the Manson Family, the Hillside Strangler, the Freeway Killer, the Skid Row Slasher. But there had never been one quite like Richard Ramirez, who deserved the flashy, fearsome tabloid nickname "The Night Stalker. " In the spring of 1984, Los Angeles was about to hoist its flags to welcome the world to the Summer Olympics. Richard Ramirez, as slapdash car thief, a weed and junk-food fancier, a dabbler in satanism, began the slow, bloody trek of murders that would build to a gory frenzy by the following summer.

A grateful customer left his London barber 1,500 pounds, or about $2,100, for 38 years of haircuts and pleasant chitchat. The will of Otto Keller, who died in June leaving an estate of about $328,000, stipulated that a portion go to barber Charles Landsman "in remembrance of his cutting my hair for 38 years and in special memory of all the nice talks and jokes we had together."

As hard as it was to spend 35 years in prison for stealing a black-and-white television, Junior Allen has found freedom frustrating too. Despite extensive prison records in North Carolina, where he spent more than half his life as inmate No. 0004604, Allen has been unable to establish his identity in rural Georgia, where he now lives with his sister, or in Alabama, where he was born 65 years ago to sharecropper parents.