LAX support group slowly loses altitude

About 18 months after formation of LAX 21, a high-profile booster group, it is in an engineless glide toward a soft landing.

"The reason? Personalities and politics. LAX 21 leaders say Mayor Richard J. Riordan - who initially gave his blessing to the privatesector group's effort to raise funds from the business community for a pro-expansion campaign - has quietly withdrawn his support in the past year . . ."

The Journal explained that after Dan Garcia, the former Airport Commission president - who had a falling out with the mayor - took charge of the group, Riordan lost his enthusiasm for the LAX 21 effort.

"So without the mayor's support and the money from business and local leaders that had followed, leaders of LAX 21 - whose name optimistically looks to the 21st century - are mulling whether to disband," the Journal article said.

On the same day the Journal story appeared, a press conference was held in Los Angeles to announce formation of an alliance of 65 regional governments who oppose the LAX expansion plan.

The group is urging L.A. city to focus on expanding other Southern California airports, including Palmdale, rather than expand Los Angeles International Airport so it can handle 40 million more passengers a year than it does now.

Cities bordering the airport want the air cargo businesses moved because they say that the noise, traffic and pollution from the airport are too much already. Rural regions want the jobs that would be created if cargo planes bound for the Los Angeles area landed in their towns.

El Segundo Mayor Mike Gordon is the prime driving force behind the opposition to expanding Los Angeles International Airport. Gordon is expected to speak at the Palmdale Regional Airport Advisory Council luncheon on Tuesday, April 20, at the Antelope Valley Country Club.

Ruth Galanter, a Los Angeles Councilwoman, said in 20 years the population of north Los Angeles County, including Santa Clarita, Palmdale and Lancaster, is expected to nearly triple.

"Palmdale Airport will be far closer to these population centers than LAX or even Burbank," she said. "This airport can serve passengers and cargo needs of the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley as well."

Doing some late night reading last week, I found these words:

"Teetering now between an unwanted war and an unpalatable peace, we ask frantically how such a choice was ever forced upon us. Beholden to an inscrutable ally and beleaguered by an insidious enemy, we berate ourselves almost as much as we do them. `Get it over with!' is one cry, or `Get out!' yet we are unable to do either. What we are beginning to sense, of course, is tragedy: the inexorable yet continually surprising march of incidents, evoking almost predictable responses, driving the drama along."

Although it reads like something written about the current situation in Yugoslavia, actually the paragraph was written in 1966 in regard to the Vietnam situation.

The passage is included in a book titled "The Times of My Life and My Life with The Times" by Max Frankel, who wrote those words when he was covering the Johnson White House for the New York Times.

Is history repeating itself?

My nomination for "Understatement of the Week" goes to Jamie Rubin, State Department spokesman, in discussing the news that Russia, which opposes the NATO bombing attacks in Yugoslavia, has ordered seven of its Black Sea Fleet ships to go through the Bosporus to the Mediterranean Sea.

Rubin said: "This is not a particularly helpful gesture."

World War I started in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. I sincerely hope that World War III won't start in the same region.

More to the point of what is going on there, Kenneth Bacon, Pentagon spokesman, said that approximately 100,000 refugees leaving Kosovo for Macedonia and Albania are "fleeing a murder machine," that is, the Serb forces.

I am greatly intrigued by this sentence in a USA Today feature headed "Experts brainstorming over memory loss:"

"And Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, N.Y., which in 1995 created a fruit fly with photographic memory, is partnering with giant drug maker Hoffmann-La Roche to develop and market a memory drug."

How do they know that the fruit fly has a photographic memory?

Could the fly memorize the Gettysburg Address, the multiplication tables, the Bible or all the state capitals?

If memory serves, I think I remember reading about this experiment and the fly was able to remember which room to fly into inside its little cage. Big deal!

According to the USA Today article, middle-aged Americans are worried about losing their memory simply because they forget a friend's name or lose a train of thought during a business meeting.

This condition is called Age-Associated Memory Impairment (AAMI).

Major pharmaceutical companies are spending millions of dollars to try to develop "smart drugs," but so far no miracle cure has been developed.

Here are some tips on how to outwit forgetfulness and keep your memory sharp:

Pay attention - Listen to the name when you're introduced to someone and then repeat it silently several times as you look the person in the face.

Get organized - Designate special places for your eyeglasses, cell phone, car keys and those always-disappearing TV remote controls. Make lists of chores and errands and post them on the refrigerator.

Get rest - Almost two-thirds of Americans don't get the recommended eight hours of sleep experts say keeps us mentally sharp.

Time magazine suggested that if you can't get to sleep within 20 minutes, get up and read quietly in another room so that your brain associates your bed with sleep, not anxiety. Of course, we all lost an hour last night in the switchover to daylight-saving time.

One extra suggestion, don't try to catch up on your sleep while you're on the clock at work!