Answers

I'm confused. Last week I received a political mailer from Greg Krikorian, who is running for state Assembly for the 43rd District. I found no political party affiliation in his literature. I checked his website but did not find a party affiliation. I thought this odd because California is politics, nothing but politics. Image my confusion when I read the Official Sample Ballot for the Primary Election delivered by mail just recently. Krikorian is running against state Assemblyman Mike Gatto, a Democrat.

A Burbank man and three of his college buddies are trying to bring AIDS awareness to Africans this year, one text message at a time. The program Brent Schackmann, a 22-year-old John Burroughs High School teacher, and his friends have developed will allow Tanzanian AIDS and HIV sufferers to send their questions and concerns regarding the illness via text message to volunteers in California for answers. “There’s just a total lack of information about things,” said Dustin Long, 22, one of the men who pioneered the project.

The city of Burbank asked if I wanted to pay up to $5 a month to support the city's purchase of renewable or green energy. A form was provided to sign up or request additional information. I did the latter, adding a question as to why the city had to beg for contributions to do the right thing. I received several pages of canned answers, although my question was skirted with, "Green energy is usually more expensive than other types of power. If we were to provide only green, energy rates would have to go up significantly."

In this column, I sometimes answer reader e-mails to try to help people with their grammar problems. It?s a good gig. I get to play expert and hero all at once. And through the magic of old-fashioned printing, my answers appear immediately after the questions. No one can tell how long it took me to produce them. So the finished product makes me look like a bottomless font of instant answers who never has any questions or conundrums of my own. If only that were true. In real time, there are a lot of grammar and usage issues that trip me up. The good news is I?

Karen S. Kim It's not easy to stump Brian Draper, owner of Geographia Map and Travel Bookstore in Burbank. Whether a customer is looking for information about trekking in the Patagonian Andes, traveling to Bangladesh, what kinds of native foods are available in Ethiopia or where the pet-friendly lodging spots are across the country, Draper has an answer. The answers are in the countless shelves of travel books that line the walls of Geographia.

I got one of those e-mails last week, the “getting to know you” e-mail from a friend with too much time on their hands. It’s a list of random questions answered by the sender designed to tell you more about them even though you didn’t ask. Not the major things that you may already know, like who they voted for, what they worship and who they stalk, but the little things that make us unique. After all, who doesn’t stalk Ryan Seacrest? You’re supposed to put in your own answers, reply all and include any new people you’d like to annoy.

I got an e-mail recently from a man named Bob in Pennsylvania. But before I share it with you, I need to make a request. Let's go easy on Bob. It was tough enough for him to admit how his question arose — from reading John Grisham novels — but the answer, as you'll see, was also hard to swallow. Bob wrote: "A few years ago, I began to notice that at some point in nearly every one of his novels, John Grisham uses the phrase 'beck and call,' as in, for example, 'She was at his beck and call.

Re: “ Should India send a mission to Mars? ” In Theory, March 2. How do you discuss the economic woes of India without mentioning overpopulation, or, for that matter, birth control? You ask a bunch of local religious leaders to write about it, that's how. Alan Burnett Burbank

Burbank's Colony Theatre will not be closing its curtains this season after roughly 200 supporters answered the company's plea for help and pulled together $50,000 in donations, operators said Tuesday. “It just flooded in - the checks and the letters and online donations,” said Artistic Director Barbara Beckley. Pinned to a wall near the theater's front entrance was a collection of handwritten and typed-up letters full of heartfelt comments and memories from theater-goers across the Southland.

I'm confused. Last week I received a political mailer from Greg Krikorian, who is running for state Assembly for the 43rd District. I found no political party affiliation in his literature. I checked his website but did not find a party affiliation. I thought this odd because California is politics, nothing but politics. Image my confusion when I read the Official Sample Ballot for the Primary Election delivered by mail just recently. Krikorian is running against state Assemblyman Mike Gatto, a Democrat.

I think most of us feel that Burbank is a good city in live in. It has a few faults, but who doesn't? But what's with the problems of the Burbank Police Dept.? The first problem is that only a small percentage of Burbank's police officers are women. We have a male-dominated police force. Another problem is officer Cindy Guillen, who is alleging social and ethnic discrimination. Then there is former deputy chief William Taylor, who joined other officers in a suit against the city of Burbank for the firing of minority officers.

John Hall is a successful entrepreneur and is earning his doctorate in education from USC. He's married, 37, and has two kids. By all accounts, Hall has a successful life. And all of it despite an early childhood diagnosis that could have set him on a completely different path, had he not had an intense intervention. At the age of 2, Hall was diagnosed as being autistic, or at that time, “mentally retarded.” “I exhibited all the signs of classic autism,” Hall said in an interview this week.

NORTH HOLLYWOOD — The first play from scrimmage Friday was indicative of how the rest of the evening would pan out for the Bellarmine-Jefferson High football team. The Guards surrendered a 39-yard scoring pass following a 40-yard kickoff return and they suffered a 49-12 nonleague loss to visiting Malibu at North Hollywood High. In all, Bell-Jeff (2-2) yielded three touchdowns on the first play of Malibu drives, though the latter two came with the game out of reach in the second half.

I have been trying to find words to express my disgust for the hate-filled diatribe of Bryan Griem, who chose not to answer the simple question regarding repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" with a spiritual answer, but filled his space by conjuring negative images that anyone who actually knows gay people will say are false ("In Theory: Should 'Don't Ask' law be repealed?" Sept. 29). And Jon Barta, who says that many homosexuals are fighting an internal battle against their "chosen" lifestyle.

Burbank Police Chief Scott LaChasse's apology for having to restrict the parking lot at Kmart and the surrounding area for such a long time after the shooting of two officers on July 2 ("Chief thanks public for cooperation", July 17) was well received by myself, as I am sure by most of the citizens of Burbank. His explanation of why this was necessary with regards to the investigation made a lot of sense. He also expressed his gratitude for the public's cooperation, and the many expressions of concern for the officers' welfare, as well as the cards and posters in support of the Burbank Police Department.

GLENDALE — The Crescenta Valley coaches had some concerns when their squad took on Burbank on Monday. After easily handling Burbank two days earlier in the teams' first meeting, the Crescenta Valley staff wanted to make its squad didn't take the District 16 Little League 10-11 All-Star championship game lightly. In retrospect, the coaches had nothing to worry about, as Crescenta Valley scored early and often in a one-sided 14-1 victory at Scholl Canyon Ball Fields to secure the title.

BURBANK HIGH — At this point, Crescenta Valley High pitcher Nate Rousey might be the last guy the Burbank baseball team wants to see on the mound. The sophomore right-hander beat the Bulldogs for the second time this season on Tuesday afternoon, allowing one run on four hits over seven innings to lead the Falcons to an 8-1 Pacific League victory at Burbank. “I was just trying to get ahead in the count and let the defense work for me,” said Rousey, who received plenty of run support from Troy Mulcahey and Elliott Surrey, who both went four for four with a combined seven runs batted in. The win was Crescenta Valley’s 12th in its last 13 league games since dropping its league opener to Burroughs on March 23. The Falcons’ only loss in that span came to Arcadia, which clinched the league title on Tuesday with its win over Glendale.