BOOK LOVERS: Got any old Hardy Boys...

BOOK LOVERS: Got any old Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew books in the attic? Or perhaps a 1904 Bobbsey Twins first edition? Collectors by the hundred are expected at a Series Book Collectors Convention beginning Thursday that highlights a publishing phenom popular with youngsters for almost a century. (E1) . . . Among those expected: actor Frank Thomas, who played Nancy Drew’s boyfriend opposite Bonita Granville’s Nancy in four movies in the 1930s.

PRICE OF DEATH: Maybe you can’t put a value on human life, but county officials have affixed a price to the task of transporting the dead. . . . On Tuesday, the county agreed to pay two mortuary firms to take bodies from crime scenes and other locations to the coroner’s office for $66 each. In all, the county expects to pay up to $170,000 a year for transportation of bodies.

BACKTALK: Richard Nixon is the only recent Republican president spared any barbs in Robert McFarlane’s new book, “Special Trust.” The former national security adviser accuses both Ronald Reagan and George Bush of deceiving the public on the Iran-Contra affair in 1985. . . . McFarlane will speak on his book Oct. 17 at the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda. “It’s a chance for Republicans to ask him some hard questions,” says library spokesman Kevin Cartwright.

IN THE DOGHOUSE: Newport-Mesa Unified School District trustees got an earful recently before giving an initial OK to using drug-sniffing police dogs on high school campuses. . . . Estancia High School teacher Paul Fitzgerald decried the potential loss of students’ rights. But Costa Mesa High School PTA President Kathy Koenig said her group supports using dogs. “The PTA has always been known as the punch and cookies people,” she joked. “From now on, we want to be known as the Milk Bone and water dish people.” Final approval is expected next month.