Slim Pickings

Yippee and hooray upon the arrival of Adrian Gonzalez and his Red Sox pals, the Boston Herald proclaiming "Bums Away," but then Los Angeles is dazzled by star power. The public address announcer introduces the newest Dodgers - Gonzalez, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto - the crowd cheers and then Hanley Ramirez emerges from the dugout and takes an unannounced curtain call as well. It's perfect, the fun that has been missing here returning with a stadium-wide laugh, and a few Manny-esque moments later Gonzalez hitting a three-run homer.

A center to apply for federal housing aid at the Ventura County Fairgrounds was scheduled to close today because of the low turnout of farm workers hurt by the crop freeze last winter, officials said Monday.

Notwithstanding repeated pronouncements over the past several years that the Vietnam War is behind us, the issue of one's military service (or lack of it) during that most divisive war in modern American history will almost surely be raised in the 1996 presidential campaign, as it was in the '88 and '92 campaigns.

The way he sees it, Tom Pickens III has, fittingly, three options in life, each as varied and different as the other. The senior at Lancaster Desert Christian High wants to play in the NBA or, if he can't get there with his 5-foot-10 stature, get a degree in business. Then there's the third option, the one that tugs harder at him every day. He could follow in the footsteps of his father and become a pastor, a pursuit he begins this fall at the Rhema Bible Training Center in Tulsa, Okla.

Two exhibitions at Newport Harbor Art Museum--one by a curator recently hired by the museum, the other by a curator laid off during a round of deficit-reducing staff cuts earlier this month--offer disappointingly slim pickings for viewers, although in different ways, and for different reasons.

The way state Senate candidate John Ward figures it, even in the best of times he could not wage a dollar-for-dollar campaign against incumbent Sen. Robert G. Beverly, who has more than $400,000 socked away in his campaign account. And these are not the best of times. Recession-embattled campaign contributors are keeping a tight grip on their wallets at the same time dozens of candidates are clamoring for cash. "Times are tough," said Ward, a Lakewood furniture store owner.

The fishermen stared across Anaheim Lake, where dark, crouching birds peered into the gently rippling water. Long-necked and hungry, cormorants were on the prowl. One bird glided swiftly onto the water. "There they go, raising hell," grumbled Fullerton angler Jim Davis, 51. The waters churned in a frothy white tumult. "Probably got a big one," said David Piskorz, 49, of Anaheim, with a mixture of envy and disgust.

If this were a typical spring, Tom and Betty Wade would be getting ready to throw open the gates of their Leona Valley cherry ranch and let paying visitors fill their buckets. But thanks to a jolt of spring chill, the Wades and many of their neighbors find themselves fruitless or nearly so just as the "U-pick" season in this valley--which has about 8,000 cherry trees on 35 ranches--should be in full swing.