Sydnie Weiss

Nestled inside a system of barbed-wire-topped walls and security stations, bunnies frolic on perfectly manicured lawns. It's as serene as a golf course after closing time here as the lights go out in neat little bungalow apartments. Meanwhile, Sydnie Weiss drives through the Leisure World twilight in a car with a license plate frame reading, "Screw the Golden Years." Weiss, who turned 77 Tuesday, bills herself as the "Grandma of the Comediennes."

Nestled inside a system of barbed-wire-topped walls and security stations, bunnies frolic on perfectly manicured lawns. It's as serene as a golf course after closing time here as the lights go out in neat little bungalow apartments. Meanwhile, Sydnie Weiss drives through the Leisure World twilight in a car with a license plate frame reading, "Screw the Golden Years." Weiss, who turned 77 Tuesday, bills herself as the "Grandma of the Comediennes."

The first time Blanche Lack saw John Raitt sing, they were both eighth-graders at a Fullerton grammar school. "His voice was already so much better than the other boys'," Lack recounted Saturday. "I was trying to think what the name of the song was, but after 60 years I forget."