Tidal Wave

July 15, 1956: An estimated half a million people crowded onto Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach for what The Times called a "tidal wave of beauty" as the Miss Universe Pageant held its annual International Beauty Parade. "No less than 72 of the most glorious girls on the globe participated in the procession of pulse-quickening pulchritude," the newspaper said, "and it was obvious the public liked what it saw."

For much of the 1960s in the state of Wisconsin, there was a shared deity. There was the incumbent and there was Vince Lombardi. It was a time of bobby socks and crew cuts, of Edsels and Cadillacs with fish-like tail fins. Everybody smoked, drank brandy at parties, bought snow tires in October and looked forward to Friday night fish fries. Everybody also worshiped Lombardi's Green Bay Packers. As in all small pro sports markets, Wisconsin fans were both protective and paranoid about their teams.

Dear Cynthia: I love the beach. I have never had a traumatic experience in water and I'm not afraid of going in boats. But ever since I can remember, at least three times a year I dream about huge tidal waves. Usually in my dream I'm at the beach and I have this strong feeling that a tidal wave is coming, so I try warning everyone. No one listens but when the wave starts coming at us, we all run. I seem to always run up this sand hill.

Things are a little crazy out here on the water to begin with, and then the water polo team shows up, dragging along a floating goal. Hey, McHale, I think I found your navy. McCovey Cove is insane this World Series, full of kids-at-Christmas smiles and all manner of flotsam and personal watercraft. Mostly kayaks, but surfers too. Swim teams, water polo players, dogs, beer bongs, reefer. Lots of reefer. At one point, I think the idiots on one raft exhausted their stash and had resorted to smoking the rope.

Americans' attitude toward natural resources has always been like that of children with a toy: Use it, break it, move on. The only way to control the profligate squandering of water in Southern California is to tax it to the skies. Use the money to clean up toxic waste. DAVID RESKIN Hollywood

Projections of a "tidal wave" of students in California colleges over the next several years are widely overstated, the state's legislative analyst reported Thursday. Even as the children of the baby boom generation move through their college-age years, the analyst found, growth at California's colleges and universities will be "steady and moderate . . . and manageable." The 18-page report, "Higher Education Enrollments: Is a Tidal Wave Coming?"

Polar sea ice, tidal waves and other oceanic wonders will become less mysterious to scientists as they turn to satellites capable of providing a "tidal wave" of information, marine experts say. The measurements of some ocean conditions will be multiplied by several hundred times with the installation of the satellite equipment, according to John Sherman III, an oceanographer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

A 23-foot-high tidal wave crashed into the northern coast of Papua New Guinea, washing away villages built on beaches, killing at least 71 people and leaving hundreds missing, disaster officials said Saturday. Thousands were without food and shelter after the wave hit the southwest Pacific island group Friday night after a magnitude 7 earthquake about 12 miles offshore, the National Disaster Center said.

Last week: What a thrill ride of news! On June 23, Ed McMahon died, and pontificators everywhere got to work fashioning remarks about the unsung virtues of second banana-dom. On June 25, Farrah Fawcett died, and we were treated to semiotic analysis of her hairstyle and famous red-bathing-suit poster. Then, less than six hours later, news of the death of Michael Jackson briefly caused the Earth to stop turning.

First the stipulation that "Black Money," a "Frontline" look at international bribery, is first-class journalism: high-minded, fact-filled and balanced, with some eye-catching visuals. How could it be anything but stellar given the presence of correspondent Lowell Bergman, one of the top investigative journalists in the nation, if not the world?

Angelo Mozilo, chief executive of Countrywide Financial Corp., must have known his company was skating on thin ice more than a year ago as he began to cash out more than $140 million in shares in the company. It wasn't as if he was late on his mortgage payment or anything. Countrywide has fired more than 11,000 employees so far and its stock is now worth 85% less than a year ago. The tsunami from the mortgage industry meltdown will be felt for a long time. AT&T shut down service to more than 450,000 customers who could no longer afford to pay those bills.

July 15, 1956: An estimated half a million people crowded onto Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach for what The Times called a "tidal wave of beauty" as the Miss Universe Pageant held its annual International Beauty Parade. "No less than 72 of the most glorious girls on the globe participated in the procession of pulse-quickening pulchritude," the newspaper said, "and it was obvious the public liked what it saw."

The TV movie remake of "The Poseidon Adventure," a Hallmark Entertainment affair airing on NBC Sunday night, tries to riff on the original Irwin Allen disaster epic down to the retro chic of its cast. It's a cavalcade of stars that starts promisingly at Steve Guttenberg, Rutger Hauer, Bryan Brown and C. Thomas Howell but runs out of steam at the actresses, failing to assemble a similar gaggle of where-have-they-beens. Oh, those Hollywood double standards.

About 4 million people, including a last-minute contingent from Poland, converged around the world's tiniest state as the humble and the mighty joined for today's burial of Pope John Paul II. Pilgrims camped out overnight in the alleys around St. Peter's Basilica in anticipation of the requiem Mass. Helicopters clattered overhead and sirens screamed through city streets.

It's in the nature of political writers to turn disaster into cliche. Seismic shifts end electoral droughts. Windy politicians with volcanic tempers create surging oceans of debt and ignite firestorms of criticism. Cartoonists are no different. We'll label a wildfire "AIDS," tag a tidal wave "personal debt" or rechristen a hurricane after a school board member. No act of God is too disastrous to stand in for even the most mundane political issue.

A massive earthquake rocked a wide swath of South and Southeast Asia today, triggering tidal waves and flooding that killed more than 500 people in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Thailand and Malaysia, officials said. Tens of thousands were displaced. The highest toll was in Sri Lanka, off India's southeastern tip, where military officials said 300 people died. At least 94 were reported killed in an Indonesian province, 74 in southern India, 20 in Thailand and seven in Malaysia.