Hyperbole

If the Orange County Tourism Council has its way, vacationers will soon refer to the home of Disneyland and Surf City by the new slogan, "The Perfect California." That phrase, along with an aqua logo featuring a wave, a palm tree and the sun, was unveiled last month as part of the council's latest campaign to lure more tourists.

Words such as "iconic," "renowned" and "legendary" are bandied about far too easily these days. But on Thursday at the Jazz Bakery, each of those hyperbolic adjectives was applicable to the performance by the -- yes -- iconic, renowned and legendary singer-lyricist Jon Hendricks. His performance, with a four-piece band, offered an affirmation that, at 84, he still has plenty of energy, desire and creative capability.

Bob Ryan in the Boston Globe: "Who knew golf would be like this? Golf. The 'Good Walk Spoiled.' Golf. The alleged sport of the privileged and the elite. Golf. The sport for fat people, skinny people, uncoordinated people, and just plain unathletic people. "Those who believe those things will always believe them. The rest of us know better.

Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News writes that the Lakers are not merely eliminating teams in the playoffs, they are destroying reputations: "They are humiliating great players. They are devouring hope. They are hitting people so hard, their ancestors are feeling it. They are hitting people so hard, the wooziness is bound to last for years, not months. . . . "The avalanche has started. And it will be a long time before anyone else will be allowed to come up for air." Wait a minute!

Nature is excessive: extremely mysterious, frighteningly still, unexpectedly malevolent. April Gornik's six, large-scale landscape paintings, currently at Pepperdine University's Frederick R. Weisman Museum, follow suit. Here, everything works on the level of hyperbole. Every expanse of water trembles; every thread of light is moon-kissed; every cloud formation looms, threatening to explode.

Occasionally, years will pass between the inspired moment Saul Kahan composes a headline and the moment that headline finally finds the perfect movie to which to attach itself. "I was doing publicity for an ad agency," the 60-year-old writer recalls, "and the boss told me about the movie and I came up with something off the top of my head."

The death of Crystal Spencer has evolved into a bizarre mystery--a tangled web of rumors and botched evidence, lawsuits and personal obsession. Nearly four years ago, the 29-year-old topless dancer was found dead in her disheveled Burbank apartment. She was half-nude, her body decomposed beyond recognition. Her telephone was off the hook. Whether she was murdered, or merely died of a sudden illness, is a lingering question.

Hollywood released two studies Monday showing that it is a bigger contributor to the state's economy than anyone realized--generating 534,000 jobs directly and indirectly and spending $16.3 billion on payroll, goods and services in 1992.

For our primer on municipal moniker mania, we have come to Bellflower, "The Friendly City." But wait. There are hundreds of other U.S. cities that claim to be "The Friendly City." What gives, Bellflower? What makes you The Friendly City? "Hmmm, that's a good question," said Jennifer Snow of Bellflower's Chamber of Commerce. Actually, Snow admitted, Bellflower has an older, informal slogan she likes even better: "21 Churches and No Jails."

In late spring of 1944, the Long Beach Press-Telegram sports section ran the headline: "Compton Grids Plan Tilt with St. Mary's." The story began: "Plans near completion for next fall's Compton J.C. football eleven include battles with big-name coast service teams and four-year colleges as far east as Kansas, it was learned this week.