People and Events

Freddie Krueger masks--celebrating the serial killer of the “Nightmare on Elm Street” movies--may have ranked among the hottest-selling items this Halloween. But none was in evidence Monday at the Los Angeles Police Department’s annual costume contest, judged by Chief Daryl F. Gates.

The winner, picked from a lineup of two dozen entrants, was Joyce Atzinger, portraying a crusading knight. A fingerprint-identification expert, Atzinger rode a hoof-less cardboard horse of her own making. She was handed a $25 check by Gates, who wore his own uniform.

Closest thing to a bad guy in the lineup was a pitchfork-brandishing devil, who failed to garner one of the five prizes.

Robert Campbell’s recent Los Angeles mystery, “Alice in La-La Land,” continues the long literary tradition of finding new names to describe Los Angeles.

“La-La Land”--where “murder is an art, perfect in the neon light”--has been preceded by Cuckooland (Will Rogers), Moronia (H. L. Mencken), the Queen City of Plastic (Norman Mailer), the Big Orange (Jack Smith), Lozangeles (Herb Caen) and “92 Suburbs in Search of a City” (unknown).

In addition, a new book of essays by Richard Meltzer is titled, “L.A. Is the Capital of Kansas.” This sighting represents a slight movement to the west since humorist H. L. Smith referred to Los Angeles as “Double Dubuque.”

Perhaps the most curious reaction to our city was attributed to Italian-born Primo Carnera, a heavyweight champ of the 1930s. Asked about Los Angeles, Carnera is reported to have asserted:

“I knock him out in two rounds.”

That three fire chiefs in Los Angeles County graduated from the same high school wouldn’t seem unusual--except that they did so in Anaconda, Mont. The last of the trio still in office, Los Angeles County Fire Chief John Englund, 57, retired Monday after 33 years with the department.

His classmates were the late Charles (Buck) Masten, former El Monte chief, and Ron Lathrop, retired Lynwood chief. “It was just a coincidence that we came down here,” Englund said. “In fact, I wasn’t even aware of them (being in the county) at first.”

Englund’s career dated back to the time when fire stations housed Dalmatian dogs as mascots. In fact, he recalled with a laugh, one “made me sort of notorious for a while.”

Huntington Park instituted a leash law that was strongly enforced in a park across the street from a county fire station. Englund, then a battalion chief, received complaints that the station dog, T. J., shouldn’t be an exception.

So he ordered T. J. leashed, and “there were all kinds of protests when the story got into the newspapers. I even got one letter that said, ‘Did you know that God spelled backward is dog?’ ”

From a recent “Police Blotter” section of the Monterey Park Progress newspaper:

“Noise: Neighbors . . . complained of banging when the home was supposed to be empty. Police found three people hammering the crabs they were eating. No crime.”