Plumbers

The caverns go on for miles--dim, forbidding passageways, dungeon-like rooms crammed with equipment: mazes of wires, grotesque water pumps and compressors, steam pipes and pneumatic tubes. There is no good reason to descend into these concrete catacombs beneath Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center without having some job to do, although now and then an intruder shows up anyway.

Actress Lynn Redgrave was on the witness stand in Los Angeles, hating every minute of it. She was being questioned by her ex-husband in one of the nastiest Hollywood divorce trials in years. John Clark, acting as his own attorney, drew close to show her a document. Redgrave flinched. "Please, I would rather he didn't," she implored the judge. "I understand that sparks fly between you and Mr. Clark," Superior Court Judge Arnold Gold told her. "Just grit your teeth and answer his questions."

There's a debate raging in the medical community about how to prevent deaths caused by patients being given the wrong medicine by mistake, a situation sometimes attributed to a doctor's illegible handwriting. At the San Jose Medical Group, doctors have come up with solution. They--like many others nationwide in a variety of professions and businesses--have gone wireless.

A variety of Internet companies are using the Web to hook consumers up to service providers. Now one of them, EFrenzy.com, is taking the concept a step further. The San Francisco company is connecting consumers to auto repair shops, plumbers and other professionals via Web-enabled Sprint PCS phones.

Fame unclogs an artery . . . Paying Paula . . . The ties that unbind . . . and it's deja vu in palimony land. Plumber John Keating was caught on the 1990s version of "Candid Camera," but he's not smiling. Instead, he's suing. Keating is taking HBO, Time Warner Entertainment and a production company called World of Wonder to court, charging that their idea of entertainment was--for him--a wrenching experience.

In equating plumbing and medical care, Jonathan Rosman ("A Doctor Has a Right to His Own Life," Voices, Oct. 30) misses the difference between private and public services. Just as no individual has a right to demand that another repair his plumbing, so no individual has a right to demand that another individual bear arms for him, protect his property for him or teach his children--but we as a society have decided to provide national defense for all of us, police and fire protection for all of us, access to education for all our children.

Lawrence Adolph Moraga, a retired plumber, died at his home in Ojai early Sunday. He was 76. He was born Sept. 27, 1923, in Ventura, where he was raised and attended school. He graduated from Ventura High. Moraga joined the Army and served in World War II. He was sent to the European front and was captured by German forces. For six months, he was a prisoner in Germany. After his military service, Moraga met his wife, Evelyn, whom he married in 1951. They have lived in Ojai for 48 years.

Hiring a licensed, insured master plumber (or a well-trained apprentice working under a plumber's license) is a no-brainer. The leak from a pipe fitting that costs less than a dollar can easily cause thousands of dollars in water damage, disrupt your household for weeks or throw your remodeling project way off schedule. But not all plumbers handle all types of work.

Some here say the crumbling castle called Nitt Witt Ridge hangs onto the hillside with the same stubbornness that marked its creator, the late garbage man and artist Art Beal. Its walls and archways are peppered with lightbulbs and abalone shells, car wheels and toilet seats. A ceramic baby shoe shares a stairway handhold with an iron claw foot from an old tub.

One of the hottest new concepts in American home real estate seeks to answer this intriguing question: Would you like a concierge for your own home? That's right--a concierge, much as you'd find at the front desk in a fine hotel, ready to help you with requests from the mundane to the exotic, whenever you need assistance. Got a squirrel in the attic or a bee's nest in the backyard but not a clue where to turn for help? No problem--call the concierge.