You Can Bet on It . . .

i On San Diego

A MONEY GAME: The Chargers’ quick season sellout this year is a clear indication the fans are believers——despite last season’s heartbreaking, premature end to the post-season. But then it’s not just the homeys who’ve been convinced. Las Vegas oddsmakers are putting their money where our mouths are. Going into the preseason, the Chargers were second only to the New England Patriots as favorites not only to go to the Super Bowl but to win it. New England’s odds were 8 to 5; San Diego’s 7 to 2. Meanwhile, Yahoo’s NFL report had the Chargers on top. Regular NFL writers Jason Cole and Charles Robinson both put the Chargers solidly in first place going into training camp. Both put the Patriots second. And a nice little bonus for San Diego fans: Robinson put the Oakland Raiders 31st among all 32 NFL teams; Cole put them dead last.

SHOW BIZ: When the American Idol TV team wrapped up auditions here last month for thousands of pop-star wanna-bes, five crews had captured 30 San Diego locations on film for use in the new season. It was a major coup for the San Diego Film Commission, which assisted with production and supplied 15 locals who were hired to work the show. Bottom line: An estimated 42 million viewers will see our gorgeous city this fall——without a penny spent by the ConVis Bureau . . . Rookie writer/director Glenn Smith, who struggled with financial challenges, reediting, reshooting and an unenthusiastic market, put his independent film, The Hungry Woman, on the shelf seven years ago. But he never lost faith. This month, his faith is being rewarded. Having secured national distribution, the film, revolving around controversial immigration issues, with dialogue that’s in Spanish and English (both subtitled), opens here at UltraStar theaters . . . Christian Hoff, who got his start in San Diego Junior Theatre when he was 8——and won a Tony Award for his work in Jersey Boys——has a new part lined up. He’s been signed to star in the title role of the Pal Joey revival on Broadway. Hoff’s costar: Cyndi Lauper.

DOG TIRED: Not so unusual to see signs posted in beach communities for lost dogs. But Chris Stokes did a double-take when he saw this one on the main drag in Pacific Beach. It offered a $100 reward over a photo of a large, black Labrador retriever. “Large” would be the key word here. It wasn’t the dog’s owner looking for the finder. It was the finder, seeking to unload the ravenous Lab on its owner.

THE WANDERING I: Each year, the San Diego Press Club offers one “wild-card” category in its annual journalism awards competition. This year’s wild card: City Attorney Mike Aguirre. Gotta be a slew of entries in that one . . . KOGO AM 600, the only local radio station offering a morning news show, goes the talk route this month. Chip Franklin, who hosted a popular midday show in Baltimore, takes over as 5-to-9-a.m. talk-show host, with hourly news drop-ins . . . No, trivia fans, Baseball Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn is not the first athlete from a San Diego team to grace a cereal box. (He got the Wheaties treatment this summer.) Remember Flutie Flakes? They first appeared in 1998, in a red, white and blue box, when Doug Flutie quarterbacked the Buffalo Bills. When he moved to San Diego, the box morphed to the Chargers’ colors, blue and gold. But these days, the only way to get a Flutie Flakes box (no flakes) is from collectors on eBay——bids starting at $4.99 . . . Planning to spend Labor Day at the beach? If you expect to be driving, bring cash for parking. On the Fourth of July, residents on Pacific Beach Drive were asking up to $150 for a car-size patch of front lawn.

BOOK BEAT: While there are millions, I’m certain, marking the 30th anniversary this year of Elvis Presley’s death, I’ve been observing the 35th anniversary of Oscar Levant’s passing——by rereading his three autobiographies. If the name fails to ring a bell, Levant was——not necessarily in this order——a concert pianist, composer, actor, comedian, author, raconteur, wit and world-class neurotic. He was also best friend of legendary composer George Gershwin, and was considered, by many, to be the greatest interpreter of Gershwin’s works. All of which compels me to share a brief anecdote from Levant’s most-widely praised book, Memoirs of an Amnesiac, in illustration of his delightfully mordant wit. After Gershwin’s death, a mutual friend came to Levant and said he had written a musical elegy for Levant’s beloved friend. He asked him to listen to it. Reluctantly, Levant did so. When it was over, and the composer asked for his opinion of the piece, Levant had this to say: “It would have been better if you had died, and Gershwin had written the elegy.” (The other two books you’ll want to read now are A Smattering of Ignorance and The Unimportance of Being Oscar.)

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