Rex

The rocky voyage of the city's flagship arts campus took a new turn Monday with the removal of the downtown high school's first and only principal. Suzanne Blake learned that she would be transferred from the still-unnamed Central Los Angeles High School #9 in a brief morning meeting with the new regional school-district administrator. The new leader of the year-old, $232-million school is Luis Lopez, a principal for the last five years at Franklin High in Highland Park. The decision to replace Blake, a former middle school principal, was made by Dale Vigil, the top administrator in that area.

The auctioneer gazed out at the audience, knowing this was the moment they'd waited for. Next up, he said, was lot No. 23 -- a "wonderful, exceptional, 66-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton known as Samson." He gestured to the ferocious-looking skull sitting on a stand to his left. "There she is," he said. The people who had gathered in the elegant gallery at the Venetian hotel gasped. Samson is one of the three most complete T. rex specimens ever discovered, possessing the most intact skull in existence.

As family and friends mourned the deaths of two farm workers, investigators determined Thursday that the tragedy at Sespe Ranch just outside the city was an industrial accident, not the result of foul play. Exactly how Oxnard residents Miguel Lopez, 43, and Palemon Rangel Yanez, 44, died is still a mystery to authorities, who are continuing to search for clues. The men's bodies were found Wednesday afternoon floating in a tank of fertilizer they had been told to clean.

The Supreme Court, in a key ruling supporting the enforcement powers of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn., ruled Monday that the organization may force Nevada Las Vegas to suspend its highly successful basketball coach, Jerry Tarkanian, for recruiting violations and other irregularities. On a 5-4 vote, the high court said that the NCAA does not have to follow the same constitutional guidelines that cover government agencies in investigating violations of regulations.

Thinking of giving something unusual this Christmas? Neiman Marcus is offering a $93,000 mechanical Triceratops dinosaur, one of many top-dollar items in the posh department store's 1993 Christmas catalogue unveiled this week. For that special someone who wants a piece of "Jurassic Park" in the back yard, the catalogue offers a pair of mechanical dinosaurs, both more than six feet high, that move and roar. The baby Tyrannosaurus rex sells for $63,000 and the Triceratops goes for $93,000.

Is the name Bill Harris coming off the "At the Movies" marquee? Harris says "no comment." Ditto a rep for Tribune Entertainment, which produces. But a source close to the syndie review show tells us there's talk of replacing the upbeat counterpart to acerbic Rex Reed--possibly with a female sidekick--for budgetary reasons. "Both our contracts are now in renegotiation," Harris admitted. Harris also hosts three Showtime entertainment programs.

"The Talking T. Rex" Ron Roy Have you ever seen a talking T. rex? Dink, Josh and Ruth Rose have a friend, Jud Wheat, who has one. Jud comes to Green Lawn and gives a show with Tyrone the T-rex. The money he raises is for a dinosaur museum. All of the money is hidden in a secret compartment inside Tyrone. But after the show all of the money is gone! To find out where the money went read this book! The book was great! It held me to the end. My favorite part was when the money disappeared.

Now that the private parties are out of the way, Rex Restaurant in Fashion Island officially opens to the public today. It's done in opulent Art Deco (etched glass, brass, a black granite dance floor), with separate rooms for dining and dancing. The a la carte menu accents seafood. All pastries, breads and pastas are made on the premises, and dinner, served nightly, will average $40 to $45 per person, exclusive of wine. (Lunch will come in December.) Reservations: (714) 644-4400.

A sharp whistle pierces the room. startled, we look up from our pasta, toward the grand staircase where a young man kneels before his blushing girlfriend, proposing right then and there. She nods yes. He slips a ring on her finger. They embrace. The room erupts in applause, and as the starry-eyed couple make their way down the steps and across the room to their table, we smile and raise our glasses in tribute.

Their names have a certain ring: Mandalay, Redondo, Ormond Beach, Scattergood. Since the Korean War, the huge power plants of Southern California have hovered over our finest beaches like steel T. rexes. Too ugly to love. Too big to move. For half a century, we've been forced to accept them or ignore them. One more price for living in our defiled paradise. But now, an amazing development. We will soon have the chance to rid ourselves of the beach plants. Not all of them, but some.