Easter Bunny

LT. DON MEREDITH It was a typical day at the office. I handled about 70 telephone calls from citizens complaining that my officers should not have issued them a citation. They provided a litany of excuses, some of which were pretty humorous and others simply pathetic. The excuses ranged from, "Your officer is blind," "The other guy was going faster" and "What six-foot Easter Bunny in the crosswalk?" Oh yes, I can't forget to mention having been called a variety of profane and uncompli- mentary names.

La Crescenta children who want to get a head start on Easter egg hunts can visit two area parks. The Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation will have an Easter Egg Hunt from 10 a.m. to noon April 15 at Crescenta Valley Park. CV Park is at 3901 Dunsmore Ave. in La Crescenta. Later that day, the Department will host another Easter Egg Hunt at Two-Strike Park. This event will be from 2 to 4 p.m. at Two-Strike, at 5107 Rosemont Ave. in La Crescenta. The events will be for children ages 2 to 12. It will give children the opportunity to hunt for eggs, win prizes and visit the Easter Bunny.

Ten Years Ago ? The Crescenta Valley Sierra Club and the California Environmental Project put out an invitation to the public to join them in the Great L.A. Clean-up on April 26, 1997, to assist in the cleanup of selected sites in Big Tujunga Canyon. Twenty Years Ago ? The Verdugo Hills Hospital Women's Council held its 1987 fundraiser, "Olé," at Lawry's California Center. Proceeds of the event were earmarked to complete the underwriting of the Esther Donahoo Read endowment that supported the hospital's Health Education Center.

Seminar on water supply problems Award-winning television host Patt Morrison is guest speaker at Descanso Gardens' Waves of Change in Los Angeles Water seminar on Thursday. She will speak on ways to meet increasing demands on water supplies, a decreasing resource in Southern California. The seminar starts at 7 p.m. and is scheduled to finish at 9. To make a reservation, call the gardens at (818) 949-7980. Diabetes control seminar at center Glendale Adventist Medical Center is hosting a free seminar on diabetes control lessons learned from the Portland Diabetic Project on Thursday at the Hilton Glendale, 100 W. Glenoaks Blvd.

Rima Shah This weekend is going to be festive for the city, as Jews and Christians celebrate Purim and Easter. The Chabad Jewish Center's Purim celebrations will begin at 6 p.m. today at the Verdugo Hills Council Boy Scouts building, 1325 Grandview Ave., said Rabbi Simcha Backman. The celebrations will include a Purim Fiesta and a reading of the story of Purim followed by Mexican food, Backman said. "This is the happiest day of the Jewish calendar, so every year we use a different motif," Backman said.

TODAY MOMS Club of the Foothills, a support group for stay-at-home mothers in the Crescenta Valley area, will meet at 10 a.m. at St. Luke?s Church, 2563 Foothill Blvd., La Crescenta. Carrie Robertson from Mommy Adventure Club will speak about ?Preventing Mommy Burn Out.? Visitors and children are welcome. Baby-sitting is available. For more information, contact (818) 306-5052 or foothillmommembership@ hotmail.com. ? An Easter luncheon will be presented from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the city of Glendale Adult Recreation Center, 201 E. E. Colorado St., and Sparr Heights Community Center, 1613 Glencoe Way, Glendale.

The following is a sampling of Easter events in the foothills. SATURDAY Descanso Gardens: Egg hunts are scheduled every 45 minutes from 9:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Saturday, and each hunt is limited to 125 children. The $3 tickets will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis on the main lawn. Brunch will be served continuously from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Van de Kamp Hall complex. Call 952-4408 by Tuesday to reserve a spot. Descanso Gardens is at 1418 Descanso Drive, La Canada Flintridge.

Does Easter make you happy? I mean beyond Easter egg hunts, chocolate bunnies and a new Easter dress, does Easter make you really happy? Thoughtful people realize that the implications of Easter go deeper than just the seasonal trappings draped in pastel colors. Easter speaks to our most profound fears and hopes. Does God care about me? Is there really life after death? Can I be forgiven? Can I go to heaven? These are the persistent questions of the soul swirling around Easter. That Jesus was raised bodily from the dead is a bold claim indeed.

I am writing to express my concerns over Councilman Ara Najarian’s push to close the railroad crossing to vehicle traffic at Doran Street and San Fernando Road (“Metrolink looks into crossing,” Dec. 12). An approval of this proposal will present a huge problem for all who cross the railroad tracks going west across San Fernando. One of the easiest ways to reduce, in part, the traffic crossing at Doran, is to increase the green-light timing at Broadway and Brazil Street for traffic going east and west.

Director Peter Ramsey is sitting in his office on the DreamWorks Animation campus in Glendale and recalling a vivid childhood memory. “I remember being in my pajamas in the back of my parents' car at an Inglewood drive-in watching Disney's “Snow White” and being mesmerized,” he says. “We didn't get to go to movies a lot when I was a kid, so when we did, it was such an emotional overwhelming experience. That's where I really got that reverence for movies.” For an African American inner-city kid from Crenshaw, the dream of making it big in Hollywood seemed almost as fantastical as the movies he watched.