Beanie Babies

* The Kids & U children's store is raffling two Easter baskets filled with Beanie Babies through noon April 2 at 2420 E. Los Posas Road, Camarillo. Proceeds from the purchase of tickets will benefit the Ventura County Autism Society. Information: 312-8227. Benefit for Domestic Violence Program * Soroptimist International of Camarillo is hosting an enchilada sale to benefit the Interface Children Family Services Domestic Violence Program.

A woman whose home was burglarized was shocked to spot her belongings offered at a neighbor's yard sale. Police in Anne Arundel County, Md., said the woman recognized items -- including Christmas decorations, Beanie Babies, a dresser and a fur coat -- being sold by a man who was wearing one of her T-shirts. Authorities said they found $25,000 worth of her clothes, furnishings and other possessions on the property. The woman, who had been living with her daughter while her home was in foreclosure, discovered last week that her house had been burglarized.

Re "Another '90s Bad Dream," Aug. 26: Readers who would like to unload their collections of Beanie Babies should log on to www.anysoldier.us. There they can find out how to send their Beanie Babies to our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, who are taking these donated Beanie Babies on their trips to villages to "win the hearts and minds" of the locals. Readers just might want to send our troops a treat or two while they're at it. Chantal Schlicter Upland

It took four phone calls to get her through the stir-fried chicken -- the first dinner my 19-year-old daughter tried to cook in her new apartment this week. How much oil? How big do you cut the pieces? How many breasts will it take to feed four people? How do you know when the meat is finished cooking? By the time I finished answering her questions, I had a question of my own: What kind of mother have I been if my nearly-grown child can't figure out how to use a wok, knife and wooden spoon to prepare a simple chicken dinner?

Those sweet and fuzzy Beanie Babies seem to bring out the opposite traits in prospective buyers. People trying to buy the popular stuffed animals from one store Friday got downright dirty. "It was pathetic. Adults were pushing children down," said Treasure Baskets spokesman David Weiser. Some adults were miffed that children got priority in buying the 180 toys. Employees had T-shirts made that said: "I survived the Beanie Baby craze." Ty Inc. of Oak Brook, Mass.

Ty Inc., maker of the popular Beanie Babies stuffed toys, filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday to stop another company from mocking the product by printing "Beanie Ford Clinic" on T-shirts and mugs. Westmont, Ill.-based Ty wants Laid Back Enterprises Inc. to stop making novelty gifts that depict several Beanie Babies with the slogan "Beanie Ford Clinic" and a 12-step list to help a fan kick the Beanie buying habit.

Forget E-Trade and e.Schwab. Traders in the potentially lucrative Beanie Babies market can take stock of the newly opened Electronic Worldwide Beanie Baby Exchange (http://www.ewbe.com). The site opened for business last week by accepting orders to buy or sell the coveted stuffed animals, made by Ty Inc. Beanie Baby owners can also type in their portfolios of the cuddly creatures and get daily updates on their net worth.

Police are hoping that somebody spills the beans in this crime. A masked man walked into a Sherman Oaks gift shop, ordered customers and employees to the floor at gunpoint and stole more than 40 Beanie Babies worth $5,000--ignoring the cash register, police said. "He pointed the gun at the clerk and told her to get down," said Det. Keith Hunter of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Robbers beat a woman in her warehouse Thursday and fled with $1,000 in cash and a box of Beanie Babies, a toy that commands high prices on the collectors' market, police said. The victim, whose name was withheld by police, was struck in the head with a pipe and her husband suffered minor injuries during the scuffle at Sergio's Accessories in an industrial complex on MacArthur Boulevard, police said. Sgt. Steve Despenas said two men entered the business about 2:15 p.m. and demanded cash.

Ty Warner, the creator of Beanie Babies, has sold enough of the faddish bean bag animals to buy New York's Four Seasons Hotel--the 370-room landmark on East 57th Street where bathrooms are equipped with televisions and average room rates exceed $600 a night--for $275 million. The Four Seasons has been on the block for nearly a year by a group of investors, led by Lai Sun Group of Hong Kong, which is trying to pare its debts.

TAKE a deep, deep breath. Smell that? It's a combination of ocean breeze, rose petals and money -- lots and lots of money. Here at the freshly enhanced Four Seasons Resort the Biltmore Santa Barbara, billionaire owner Ty Warner has spent $240 million -- and counting -- to refine and restore the 80-year-old oceanfront property. You can't help but wonder where all that money went.

Two years after buying a landmark Montecito hotel that had fallen into disrepair, Beanie Baby tycoon Ty Warner has announced that the Miramar is for sale -- a turnabout that surprised area residents who said they had welcomed the billionaire's help in restoring the dilapidated seaside property.

Re "Senators are blowing smoke on gas," Opinion, Nov. 22 Joel Stein is correct when he states that companies should be able to charge as much as they can get away with. It's the American way. However, unlike Beanie Babies, real estate and drinks at the Bar Marmont, examples cited by Stein, gasoline is not an option we can do without. We live in an environment, largely created by monopolistic oil companies, that is totally dependent on gasoline. Competing and alternative technologies were bought up, dismantled and otherwise put out of business by these same companies, which have always had us over a barrel, so to speak.

By all accounts, folks at the Coral Casino Beach and Cabana Club used to get along famously. For decades, they held charity galas and debutante balls. On lounge chairs arrayed around a super-size swimming pool, members tranquilly took the sun as young people posed atop an impossibly high diving platform. But now -- well, what could be more appropriate for a beach club than a line in the sand?

The company that makes Beanie Baby toys must forfeit more than $700,000 after a federal judge found that owner H. Ty Warner tampered with a witness in a trademark case. U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow ordered Westmont, Ill.-based Ty Inc. to pay back $716,046 it had won in its trademark-infringement lawsuit against Softbelly's Inc., another toy maker. Ty Inc.'s Beanie Babies, plush-covered, pellet-stuffed animals, sparked a collector craze in the 1990s, making creator Warner a billionaire.

Re "Another '90s Bad Dream," Aug. 26: Readers who would like to unload their collections of Beanie Babies should log on to www.anysoldier.us. There they can find out how to send their Beanie Babies to our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, who are taking these donated Beanie Babies on their trips to villages to "win the hearts and minds" of the locals. Readers just might want to send our troops a treat or two while they're at it. Chantal Schlicter Upland

The mail has been piling up lately, and though I'd love to be out there walking the Valley boulevards in this triple-digit heat, duty requires me to sit inside this air-conditioned office. Your correspondence just cries out to be shared. Most of the mail lately came as reaction to two columns, one about the Beanie Baby Bandit who struck a Sherman Oaks novelty shop, the other about the ex-boyfriend of a former Beverly Hills High student.

Those squishy, cuddly Teenie Beanie Babies are back at McDonald's, and this time the fast-food chain assures that there are plenty to go around. The tiny versions of the popular beanbag toy line will be available for four weeks starting Friday, coinciding with the high-traffic Memorial Day weekend.

It was just an online classified ad, under Collectibles for Sale, but it sounded like a cry from the heart: "I'm tired of these things now. Please save me from them." Kelly Cabral of Tracy, Calif., placed the ad recently after coming across a box in her garage crammed with dozens and dozens of Beanie Babies, the floppy little stuffed animals that sparked an international trading frenzy in the late 1990s.

Basket passion ran high at the party hosted by Mary Bradley, a dues-paying member of the Longaberger Collectors Club. Ten women gathered in Bradley's Aliso Viejo home to hear sales associate Edie Greenia-Brennan--who was wearing wooden basket earrings--discuss the merits of the hand-woven maple baskets. Especially this month's offering. The Longaberger sales strategy combines the in-home party techniques used by companies such as Tupperware with limited-edition selling tactics.