On Going Out in Style ...

THE FIRST HURRAH: More than 100 cops, ex-cops, retired cops and other law-enforcement types turned out Monday night at the La Mesa American Legion Post for what’s sure to be a long string of farewells to retiring Sheriff Bill Kolender, who always took pride in being that police department rarity: a Jewish cop. A dozen of the celebrants were veterans of the Border Area Robbery Force (BARF), assembled more than a quarter century ago by then-Police Chief Kolender in a crackdown on bad guys from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border who preyed on illegal aliens. Also there Monday night was best-selling author and ex-cop Joe Wambaugh, who chronicled the exploits of the BARFers in his book Lines and Shadows. Kolender, who’s spent 55 years in local law enforcement, looked upon the assemblage and sighed, “My son is 53. He’s older than some of you guys and gals already retiring from the PD.” After former BARFer Manny Lopez recalled an incident when two Mexican police were shot by San Diego cops at the border, Kolender shook his head. “When I drove down to Mexico to try to soothe things,” he said, “somebody put a Mexican flag on my car. I told them, ‘Wait a minute, Yo hablo Yiddish.’”

SO I HEAR: Christine “Shimo” Shimasaki, who resigned as chief strategy officer from the San Diego ConVis Bureau last month after more than a dozen years, has landed at the Destination Marketing Association in Washington, D.C., as managing director of its online resource portal. The departure of Shimasaki, on the heels of CEO David Pekinpaugh’s resignation as well as communications veep Sal Giametta’s exit, has left a gaping hole in the organizational chart. Joe Terzi continues as interim CEO, with no permanent replacement on the horizon ... Former congresswoman Lynn Schenk, a longtime member of the state’s High Speed Rail Authority, was interviewed this week for a fall PBS documentary on the country’s crumbling infrastructure. Schenk, who served under former Gov. Jerry Brown as secretary of Business, Transportation and Housing, is still on Jerry’s team. She’s supporting Brown’s bid to return to the governor’s office, and planning a fund-raiser for him here next month.

QUOTEWORTHY: "Sometimes I think when I'm wearing this chicken suit, I can live forever. I'm not kidding, man." — Ted Giannoulas, a.k.a. the San Diego Chicken, in his 35th year of laughing and scratching at sporting events, responding to reports he may soon hang up his feathers.

FOR THE RECORD: Last-minute sub for an ailing Sherry Lansing at this afternoon’s Connect high tea at La Jolla Estancia Hotel: TV veteran Leeza Gibbons (Entertainment Tonight and Extra) ... And Ted Neeley, who’d originally vowed his upcoming tour with Jesus Christ Superstar would be his farewell, has changed his mind. Neeley, who first starred in Superstar in the early 1970s, now says he’ll continue touring with the show indefinitely. He’ll play our Civic Theatre for Broadway/San Diego in January. And if Neeley keeps this up, he’ll still be playing Jesus when he’s older than Moses.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Of course they don’t give writers bylines for writing headlines. But sometimes we’re just dying to know who pens such masterful, pithy prose. That’s how I felt yesterday when I spotted the Union-Tribune health column about a patient who diagnosed his own colon cancer by regularly monitoring his daily output. The headline: “Be True to Your Stool.”

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