Tests

How do you measure up style-wise? Are you considered a person of style? Maybe you \o7 think\f7 you are, but in reality you're a fashion victim. Or maybe you have great personal style and don't know it. To find out where you stand, take the Style IQ Test. Not that anyone will ever ask for your style-Q, but you'll have lots of useless fashion facts at hand. Careful, though. The questions can be treacherous--and knowing the right answer is not always a good sign.

Sound technicians from the Orange County Fairgrounds' Pacific Amphitheatre conducted a sound test this month to determine whether concerts at the county fair in July might pose a noise problem for nearby neighbors. "We did different tests in different neighborhoods and we had our switchboard open for calls," said Jill Lloyd, a spokeswoman for the fairgrounds.

Federal officials have given permission for underwater sound experiments to resume off the Northern California coast after determining that the deaths of three humpback whales were unrelated to the tests. It was not known if the tests by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego would be immediately resumed.

A 78-year-old woman taking a driving test accidentally put her car into reverse and ran over her son, killing him, police said Friday. "The examiner had the door open and was telling the woman to use her turn signals, and for some reason she got nervous or confused and put the car in reverse," Hillside Deputy Police Chief Frank Alonzo said. In Thursday's mishap at the license exam facility, Margaret Bowen's car crushed her son James, 46, who had sought to halt the vehicle.

His embassy? An apartment. His uniform? A lab coat. His duties? Eating ice cream. Lots of it. Such is the life of Gary Carlson, a free-lance advertising writer and producer who earlier this year was chosen to represent Los Angeles as an "ice cream ambassador" for Oakland-based Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream. The 38-year-old Glendale resident said he applied for one of the 37 ceremonial posts on a whim, but admits he's loved the stuff for years.

You've probably heard by now about the new driving test. The horror of driving on the freeway and parking between cones--things that prompt you to call every DMV in Southern California until you find one that gives the old test. You've heard of people who have failed the test. Now how about the good news? Lots more have passed it--and so can you. First of all, you need to know how your car operates.

There is a growing population on the streets of Southern California--unlicensed teen-age drivers. Their numbers have soared, officials say, because of the virtual elimination of free high school driver-training courses, the high cost of training and insuring a young driver and a recent law requiring proof of legal residency for license-seekers. "I was waiting till I reached 18 so I didn't have to go through driver training," says one teen-age driver, who still plans to get her license this year.

Teen-agers must train and wait years to take this all-important test. If they pass, they get more than a grade: They get a driver's license. But recent changes to the driving test, getting a trial run at some Department of Motor Vehicles offices, make getting that coveted license harder than before for some teens. The new version requires applicants to complete a three-point turn (turning the car around on a narrow two-way street), drive on the freeway and park between orange cones.

The new driver's test is no piece of cake. When I went to take it at the Fullerton DMV last summer, I spent 10 minutes in the parking lot. I got as far as the parking part of my test. I really can park my car. Honest. I can even parallel park. However, I discovered I can't park my 1987 Pontiac Bonneville in a parking space lined with tall cones without hitting one--especially when the space is about the size of a 1994 Mazda Miata. So, I hit a cone. Actually, I didn't even hit it.