Xerox

Tandon said it sold $8 million worth of outmoded floppy-disk drives to a Bulgarian concern. The Chatsworth-based computer-products company, which has been trying to raise money to finance its ambitious expansion into the personal computer market, said the data-storage devices were bought by FTO Technica of Sofia, Bulgaria. To ease its cash crunch, Tandon within the past few months has borrowed $7 million from Foothill Capital Corp.

He wants only to be known in life as John Odom. Nothing more or less. Odom's idea of whooping it up is watching children play on Sunday, or tossing a fishing line out on a lake. There was only a problem because his right arm couldn't stand being ordinary. His arm wanted to paint the town red. Odom never asked to be famous. He just was. He could heave a rock farther and harder than nearly any other kid in Macon, Ga. And on the day a baseball replaced a stone, there was no turning back.

Western Digital Corp., an Irvine-based manufacturer of computer components, has agreed to lend Tandon Corp. of Chatsworth $12 million as part of a joint venture to develop a new generation of computer disk drives. Ranjit Sitlani, Tandon's executive vice president, said terms of the loan are still being negotiated. He said the loan, which Tandon can use for varied corporate purposes, would be secured by Tandon disk drives and technology.

A smiling Cheshire cat will greet the youngest students of Manhattan Beach's Pacific Elementary School when they return to classes Monday. Dumbo the elephant, Mother Goose and Humpty Dumpty will be smiling down from their places on the walls of the pre-kindergarten building, as well. "These little children will come back to school on Monday and see this, and they'll be ecstatic," said Principal Christine A. Norvell, admiring the newly painted Alice's Adventures in Wonderland mural.

Borrowing its title from a Langston Hughes poem, Los Angeles artist Mike Saijo presents a new exhibition examining the ethnographic histories of the Boyle Heights neighborhood ? to Hughes' Harlem ? vis-à-vis the Japanese American, Latino and Jewish communities that resided there in the 1940s. "A Dream Deferred" sets forth a series of multimedia works in the artist's distinctive style of layered photographs, drawings, Xerox transfers and text in bold black-and-white. Caporale/Bleicher Gallery, 355 N. La Brea Ave., L.A. Opening reception 6 p.m. Sat. Free.

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Telefile Computer Corp., an Irvine-based maker of computer systems and products for Xerox and Sigma-series computers, said it lost $1.1 million in its fiscal 1987 second fiscal quarter ended March 31 and is uncertain about its ability to survive. The company reported a $59,791 profit in the same period last year. Revenues for the quarter of $1.3 million were down 44% from $2.3 million a year earlier. For the first six months, the company has lost $1.

The trial of former major league pitcher John (Blue Moon) Odom for allegedly selling small amounts of cocaine to a fellow worker is expected to begin today, 14 months after his arrest. The trial, which had been postponed five times since the arrest on May 24, 1985, will be heard by Superior Court Judge David H. Brickner after a jury is selected. Odom, 41, has maintained his innocence and said Tuesday that he is glad for the chance to finally tell his story in court.

Arnold Horton saw an ad touting the availability of a "double crypt adjacent to Monroe"--meaning actress Marilyn Monroe--at Westwood Memorial Park. "What comes to mind," Horton commented, "is the real estate industry's universal admonition, 'Location, location, location.' " * DINING GUIDE FOR THE ADVENTUROUS: For today's selections (see accompanying), we offer: * An unusual tip about cold cuts, * Some egg foo yung that is under the weather (submitted by Edith Zittler).