On The Waterfront

Bill Hood was hoping to photograph last Thursday's lunar eclipse and the night stars from a friend's South Redondo hillside home. But the cloud coverage discouraged him, so the El Camino self-defense instructor packed up his Minolta camera and 8-inch Celestron telescope and went home to Gardena. Then, as he was putting his equipment away, the clouds momentarily cleared "This is the only exposure that came out. I got lucky," said Hood, who exhibits his widely published, celestrial photography at Fiesta Hermosa each year. To view more of Hood's photos check out his web site at http://members.aol.com/wchphoto.

CHAMBER HARMAN-Y: Officially, it was the just another installation dinner for the South Bay Association of Chambers of Commerce. But politically, it was a lovefest for the local Congressional Representative. Are we describing 1998, when outgoing SBACC president Christy Gronseth proposed the President appoint retiring Congressional Representative Jane Harman to be the new Secretary of the Air Force?

Or are we referring to last week's installation dinner, when outgoing SBACC president Scott Goble introduced Harman's successor, Representative Steve Kuykendall, as the guest of honor, who in turn introduced Secretary of the Air Force F. Whitten Peters as the evening's keynote speaker? The answer could be either year. At the 1998 SBACC dinner retiring Representative Jane Harman - responded to a standing ovation from local business owners by telling them, "I'm having a love affair with the South Bay, and I'm not giving it up." Last week, in the same Torrance Hilton Ballroom where Harman was honored, Kuykendall was praised as local industry's greatest friend since...Jane Harman.

What makes the SBACC's fondness for both Harman and Kuykendall problematic is that Harman has decided to challenge Kuykendall for the seat she relinquished to him two years ago. Will the business community's loyalties and contributions be split? Not if last week's dinner is any indication. While Kuykendall and half a dozen staff members were working the tables, Harman and her aides were conspicuously absent...

HEAVY HITTER: Former South Bay Congresswoman Jane Harmon, poised to run against incumbent Steve Kuykendall for her old seat this year, will appear Tuesday, Feb. 8 on the Channel 8 government access TV show hosted by businessman Roger Bacon during the intermission of the HB city council meetings. Bacon already has had Kuykendall on his show...

UP, UP & AWAY: Hermosa Valley School eighth graders are building a hovercraft with funding from the Kiwanis. The students got the idea when they visited the Peterson Automotive Museum to race electrical cars they had built, and saw a hovercraft that some high school students had put together. Typically school hovercrafts make it just barely off the gymnasium floor, but maybe the Valley kids can use theirs to escape from math class...

NEAR MISS: Last week's Wharf Rat Report concerned a close call between a 30-foot sailboat piloted by Bruce "Biff" Lane and the tugboat and barge moving sand from Marina Del Rey's harbor to Redondo Beach. Biff says he had only gone below deck for a few minutes to try and get his on-board TV to pick up a football game. "When you're sailing every day like I am, it's easy to take your eyes off the water for a few minutes. Usually, no one else is out there," Biff said. He said the tug pilot had plenty of room to avoid him but thanked the tug crew for sounding their horn in time for him to avoid a collision.

CALLING DAVID HASSELHOFF: The L.A. County sheriffs have unveiled a crime fighting "super truck," a modified Ford F-150 pickup, that will appear at community events to help spread anti-drug and anti-gang messages. "Kitt, I think I see an at-risk youth near the passenger window..."