John Carl Brogdon

DAN RESIN Actor portrayed Ty-D-Bol Man Dan Resin, 79, who portrayed the dapper Ty-D-Bol man in television commercials for the toilet bowl cleaner, died Saturday in Wayne, N.J., of complications from Parkinson's disease. Resin also played Dr. Beeper, a snobbish physician and country club member in the 1980 comedy " Caddyshack." Resin was born Daniel Wrzesien in South Bend, Ind., and studied music and theater at Indiana University. After a stint in the Army, he headed to New York to pursue an acting career.

DAN RESIN Actor portrayed Ty-D-Bol Man Dan Resin, 79, who portrayed the dapper Ty-D-Bol man in television commercials for the toilet bowl cleaner, died Saturday in Wayne, N.J., of complications from Parkinson's disease. Resin also played Dr. Beeper, a snobbish physician and country club member in the 1980 comedy " Caddyshack." Resin was born Daniel Wrzesien in South Bend, Ind., and studied music and theater at Indiana University. After a stint in the Army, he headed to New York to pursue an acting career.

"Running With a Younger Crowd" [Feb. 4], an account of Buick's plan to burnish its image among the "younger, hipper" crowd, defies belief. Why? Wholly omitted is Buick's attempt to do just that with its beautiful Reatta, built 1987-91 as a handcrafted hardtop (1987-89) and a handcrafted and handsome convertible (1990-91). Less than 2,500 of the hardtops were made annually and only 325 of the immaculately sculptured '91 convertible--"It's not a car; it's an aphrodisiac." Very appealing to the hip. Why discontinued?

"Running With a Younger Crowd" [Feb. 4], an account of Buick's plan to burnish its image among the "younger, hipper" crowd, defies belief. Why? Wholly omitted is Buick's attempt to do just that with its beautiful Reatta, built 1987-91 as a handcrafted hardtop (1987-89) and a handcrafted and handsome convertible (1990-91). Less than 2,500 of the hardtops were made annually and only 325 of the immaculately sculptured '91 convertible--"It's not a car; it's an aphrodisiac." Very appealing to the hip. Why discontinued?

"Supervisors Take a Step Toward Expanding Board" (July 6)--again. Never mind that the voters have said "no, thanks" thrice--and as recently as 1992. Who believes that going from five to nine supervisors could be effected without affecting costs astronomically? As the number of cities has grown (to 88 now, with more likely), the unincorporated county areas have decreased, with more and more governmental decisions made by city council members, fewer and fewer by the Board of Supervisors, arguing more for a reduction than an expansion of the number of supervisors.

Re "Study Uncovers Irregularities in Regional Panel," Oct. 20: Based on my own governmental experience (mayor pro-tem, Culver City, 1970s) as council delegate to the Southern California Assn. of Governments, neither its ineptitude nor its favoritism surprises me. If you want to move up its organizational ladder, never criticize its proposed regional solutions, no matter how impractical. Its enabling legislation is long overdue for a rigorous revamping, with recognition that a paper blizzard is a paper blizzard is a paper blizzard.

"Bringing Back the Glory Days" (Jan. 15), about Culver City, the "Heart of Screenland" since 1917, is at once incorrect in its premise and ironic in its solution. The article "puts down" a town whose location and innovation have combined to make it one of the most desirable among Westside towns. It's ironic that the "Heart of Screenland," where so many movies have been made, should have to pin its hopes for its downtown (awkwardly angled because of the old street-car line) on the coming of the movie houses and the high pedestrian count that they generate.

"Consolidate California Sprawl by Regional, Responsible Government" (by Ray Remy and Dan Garcia, Opinion, March 25) not only assumes regional and responsible are synonymous, but is a rewrite of the SCAG (Southern California Assn. of Governments) elitist theology that the people's preference for "a detached single family home . . . a private automobile . . . and strong local governments" is to be dismissed by bigger-is-better regionalists as "an anachronistic collective image of the ideal metropolitan area."

"The family home sits on an unfair tax base" with widely varying assessments up and down the block, the result of a taxpayer revolt against being taxed on paper profits by tax-omnivorous public agencies. The proposed solution? Since the stay-putters (Stall's term) aren't willing to give up the benefits of Proposition 13, knowing that to do so would move much of the middle-class slowly but surely into the "homeless" category, why not sneak up on them by letting "stay-putters' homes to grow at a slightly faster rate than the present maximum 2%, but keep them capped at a reasonable rate.

The July 21 story, "Car Makers Can't Seem to Reverse U.S. Sales Slump," overlooks the obvious. The primary reason unsold cars are backing up so badly, whether domestic or foreign, is the Tax Reform Act of 1986's phase-out of the deductibility of interest payments for consumer purchases. This is another instance of how this allegedly tax-neutral "reform" has ravaged the middle class. Why not get the money by taking out a home equity loan? Well, given the egregious escalation in home prices, many can't afford to buy a home.

"Bringing Back the Glory Days" (Jan. 15), about Culver City, the "Heart of Screenland" since 1917, is at once incorrect in its premise and ironic in its solution. The article "puts down" a town whose location and innovation have combined to make it one of the most desirable among Westside towns. It's ironic that the "Heart of Screenland," where so many movies have been made, should have to pin its hopes for its downtown (awkwardly angled because of the old street-car line) on the coming of the movie houses and the high pedestrian count that they generate.

"Supervisors Take a Step Toward Expanding Board" (July 6)--again. Never mind that the voters have said "no, thanks" thrice--and as recently as 1992. Who believes that going from five to nine supervisors could be effected without affecting costs astronomically? As the number of cities has grown (to 88 now, with more likely), the unincorporated county areas have decreased, with more and more governmental decisions made by city council members, fewer and fewer by the Board of Supervisors, arguing more for a reduction than an expansion of the number of supervisors.

Re "Study Uncovers Irregularities in Regional Panel," Oct. 20: Based on my own governmental experience (mayor pro-tem, Culver City, 1970s) as council delegate to the Southern California Assn. of Governments, neither its ineptitude nor its favoritism surprises me. If you want to move up its organizational ladder, never criticize its proposed regional solutions, no matter how impractical. Its enabling legislation is long overdue for a rigorous revamping, with recognition that a paper blizzard is a paper blizzard is a paper blizzard.

Re "2 House Votes Point to Lack of Support for Balkan Action," April 29: Are the Republicans so blinded by hatred of President Clinton that they can't see that the reason for being in Kosovo is to stop genocide, finally to live up to the promise of "Never again"? Apparently, for Republicans, if there's no way for their rich friends to make money in Kosovo, why bother, let them die! Michael Ledeen (Commentary, April 29) has been reading too many potboilers. If he thinks that the Kosovo situation could be solved by the Special Forces taking out Serb "mobile killing units," then he's off in cloud-cuckoo-land.

Re "Documents Raise Questions on Gingrich's House Ethics," March 20: For years, Speaker Newt Gingrich has been throwing allegations of ethics violations against Democratic congressmen in the hopes that some of them will stick. Indeed, some stuck, including former Speaker Jim Wright of Texas. Now that he's the target of the Democratic attacks on his questionable dealings for either personal or political gains, he hides behind some ambiguities of the ethics rules and excuses. As the leader of the House of Representatives and self-claimed "champion" of ethics, he should come out clean and face any ethics investigations.

Many, maybe most of us, do not perceive "The Wilson Gambit" (by Daniel M. Weintraub, Sept. 25) as a change but rather as a continuation of concepts and policies espoused by Gov. Pete Wilson during an illustrious career. Perhaps that's why he won seven elections out of eight, soon to become eight out of nine, a damn fine batting average in any league. John Carl Brogdon Long Beach One of Wilson's first gubernatorial acts betrayed his gay constituency. He vetoed SB 101, intended to protect gays from economic discrimination, a bill he had pledged to support.

Re "Documents Raise Questions on Gingrich's House Ethics," March 20: For years, Speaker Newt Gingrich has been throwing allegations of ethics violations against Democratic congressmen in the hopes that some of them will stick. Indeed, some stuck, including former Speaker Jim Wright of Texas. Now that he's the target of the Democratic attacks on his questionable dealings for either personal or political gains, he hides behind some ambiguities of the ethics rules and excuses. As the leader of the House of Representatives and self-claimed "champion" of ethics, he should come out clean and face any ethics investigations.

Your article on the influence of special interests in Long Beach (Southeast / Long Beach sections, March 27) was at once timely and scary, showing anew how democracy can be manipulated by self-seeking power interests. The candidates you enumerated have all "sold-out" to these special interests because pressure groups are paying attention to their own interests, Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Voter is not. But every once in a while the system of "power brokering" breaks down, given a good candidate and an outraged voter populace.

Proposition 13, passed in 1978, has made most decisions on taxing real property virtually automatic, with reappraisals limited to new construction and changes of ownership. One result has been to place even more emphasis than before on skilled and efficient administration in the field of tax assessment. The Los Angeles County assessor's office oversees the nation's biggest single property-taxing jurisdiction, annually determining the tax bill for 2.

Los Angeles County assessor candidate Jay Curtis last week stood on a lonely Hollywood street corner preparing to announce a plan to rewrite a section of Proposition 13 that allows different taxes to be levied on similar properties. Curtis carefully chose a site only a few blocks from TV stations, with a good visual backdrop of similar houses that have different tax rates. But no one showed up. Even a dog running loose in the neighborhood ignored the event.