NIXON HE KNEW: One certainty about Richard...

NIXON HE KNEW: One certainty about Richard Nixon’s funeral today is that the Rev. Billy Graham will participate (A14). The two have remained close friends since Nixon’s resignation. Nixon asked Graham, 75, to speak at Pat Nixon’s funeral in Yorba Linda last June. And Graham was at Nixon’s hospital bedside last week. . . . In Marshal Frady’s biography of the evangelist, he quotes Graham saying of Nixon: “I’d had a real love for him. I looked upon him as the greatest possibility ever for leading this country on into its finest days.”

RADIO CHOC: Kids ask the darndest questions of doctors from Children’s Hospital of Orange County. Like “Why do I have eyebrows?” or “What causes freckles?” The questions are asked and answered twice a week on a syndicated children’s programming service heard on Orange County’s KORG-AM (1190) radio. . . . Toughest query to date? “Why do some people sing better than others,” says CHOC Marketing Director Jena Jensen. “That completely stumped the doctors”--until they found a vocal-cord specialist.

PLAY BALL: In “Baseball Chronicles: An Oral History of Baseball Through the Decades,” Mike Blake of Brea provides tales from 140 former players, including Hall of Famers, such as Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle. . . . “What I got was their favorite story,” says Blake, author of two previous baseball books. “I didn’t want their greatest day because they can write that themselves.” The bite-size stories span the years 1910 through 1992.

COURT SURVIVAL: A common problem for many homeless women who come through the Santa Ana YWCA: dealing with the court system. . . . “It’s puzzling to them, and often seems unfair,” says the Y’s Janet Connellan. But YWCA officials say the courts are confusing to other women too. Municipal Judge B. Tam Nomoto will give a “Survival Guide for Women” in court at a noon buffet at the Y today. The YWCA’s goal: to help women learn to stand up for their rights.