Greek Language

Jim Bibby Pitched in '79 Series Jim Bibby, 65, who pitched the first no-hitter in Texas Rangers history in 1973 and started two games for the victorious Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1979 World Series, died Tuesday at Lynchburg (Va.) General Hospital. The cause was not disclosed. Bibby, a 6-foot-5, 235-pound right-hander, also played for the St. Louis Cardinals and Cleveland Indians from 1972 to 1984 in the major leagues. His best season was 1980, when he went 19-6 with a 3.33 earned-run average for the Pirates, made the All-Star team and finished third in the National League Cy Young Award voting.

"Orchesis" translated from Greek means "dance." It is also the name of the dance program at Corona del Mar High School. And, this year, the Orchesis Dance Co., which survives during the fall semester, was almost as dead as the Greek language in the spring. Sharon Trager, a physical education teacher at the high school, decided last fall that, because of the extensive time commitment, she would not continue as the dance program adviser, a position she had held for the past five years.

William Sheffield, the offbeat, sometimes irascible, always colorful former Orange County Superior Court judge, will be returning to the bench as a temporary judge for three months this summer after completing his first year at Yale Divinity School. Sheffield, who resigned last September after 20 months on the bench, will return May 20 and will work without pay to help the court with its backlog of civil cases. "It's a good deal for us," said Presiding Judge Everett W.

The Greek Orthodox Church, locked in a bitter dispute with the Socialist government, has pledged to defy a recent law that allows laymen to control church administration and finances. Archbishop Seraphim of Athens, the white-bearded primate of Greece, says the church will contest the legislation as unconstitutional in Greek courts and, if necessary, in the European Court and the World Court at The Hague, in the Netherlands.

Members of the Long Beach Greek Orthodox congregation are becoming accustomed to attending church in a former clothing store. "They used to buy their jeans here," Father Michael Kouremetis said of his congregants, "but now they respect it as a church. Church is where the people are." And indeed, they come, sometimes by the hundreds, on Sunday mornings. Until recently, the building was a Miller's Outpost filled with clothing racks and changing booths.

"Best Greek Restaurant in L.A.--L.A. TIMES" proclaims the banner over the door at The Great Greek. Might I quibble just a bit, particularly since its menu doesn't promise anything out of the ordinary? Restaurateur Ernie Criezis, who began his restaurant empire with The Great Greek (he has since opened the nearby Moonlight Tango Cafe and the very good Cafe Athens in Santa Monica), features pretty much the same food you find at any other L.A. Greek place.

Theodore F. Brunner, a UC Irvine classics professor and self-admitted innocent when it came to computer technology 13 years ago, has completed what many classicists said couldn't be done. He has compiled a massive computerized data bank of everything in the ancient Greek language available in the world, from a word or two by Sophocles on a fragment of papyrus to full texts by the physician and writer Galen of 2 1/2 million words.

Looking out over the pink-and-white Crystal Room on Saturday and smiling at the women gathered for a springtime luncheon, Gloria Steinem remarked, "This is probably the most healthy thing that has ever happened in the Beverly Hills Hotel." The delighted, amused audience could not have agreed more. It was the 1986 Bread and Roses Awards of the L.A. Westside caucus of the National Women's Political Caucus.

Amateurism is dead. This is news? When U.S. Olympic Committee officials recently announced their performance-related, financial incentive plan for athletes, the "i's" and "t's" of which will be dotted and crossed during meetings this weekend at Salt Lake City, they anticipated an outcry from the public but not from the media, which were supposed to know better. The reaction has been the opposite.

Tucked away amid the faded splendor of Boyle Heights, you'll find Casa 0101. Inside that new pocket-size theatrical venue, something very special is going on. That special something is "Confessions of Women From Boyle Heights," a funny, moving evening of monologues written and directed by Josefina Lopez. A dynamo author, actor and activist, Lopez is also the screenwriter of "Real Women Have Curves," a critically acclaimed independent film based on her play of the same name.