Richards is a former Iowa sportswriter who won a sportswriting award for suggesting in a column that a sports event not be held on the day of an assassination attempt against President Reagan. The locals, including church personnel, were enraged at the idea of postponing the action. But the editorial stand won him a prize. The Saratoga audience laughed roundly at this story. Richards said it was the first time the story had ever received that reaction, which he declared a fitting one.

As for car columns, posed in a question-and-answer format, they had been tried before by different papers--without success. But that was before email. When people answer via email, they generally offer detailed information, unlike a phone message, Richards said. When "Road Show" started, it generated 80 phone calls; today there are 500 to 600 emails greeting him daily. Humor, oddities and topics with wide impact are the ones that see print.

For instance, he wrote about excuses that highway patrol officers get when they've pulled over drivers. One of the strangest was from a woman who had been putting on pantyhose as she traveled the highways--her driving becoming more and more erratic. Thinking dope might be involved, the officer asked her to reveal what was under her coat. He asked her repeatedly and she refused repeatedly. Finally she realized the jig was up and complied. "Have a nice day," he said, as he peeled away from the unticketed, semi-clothed offender.

Here's a newer problem: The downside to those proliferating hybrids is that they are so quiet they're a menace to pedestrians. Audience member Felicia Pollock said she had had a beeping back-up device installed in her new car. Now the hybrid makes a warning sound much like the noise a truck makes when it backs up. Another noisy suggestion is to turn one's car radio on full blast.

When the long-awaited Highway 85 opened in '94, it made national news because of a traffic stall--not from the mass of commuters but because the word C-A-M-P-B-E-L-L had been spelled out in pansies along the berm near Winchester. Nosy motorists had slowed down to examine the display.

Headlines across the country read "Californians Are Pansies."

Richards claims he was the fourth or fifth choice for writing the column. Nobody wanted to attend those interminably boring transportation meetings. But he has made it his own with his friendly, thorough and caring attitude.

AGGRESSIVE GIRLS: Local chapters of the National Charity League sponsored a sold-out talk recently by the founder/director of The Girls Leadership Institute of Washington, D.C., Rachel Simmons. Simmons is the author of Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls, the first book to explore bullying between girls.

Simmons has appeared on TV and NPR and in news magazines. Odd Girl Out was adapted into a Lifetime TV movie. The author worked for New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and on U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer's campaign.

Winner of a Rhodes Scholarship, she attended Oxford University. There she studied female aggression. Her undergrad degree was from Vassar in women's studies and political science. Profits from the event went to The Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. The local chapter serves Saratoga, Los Gatos and Willow Glen, numbers 240, and its president is Lisa Pontier de Mattei.

SPA'S 10th: Nilou Day Spa in Saratoga is celebrating its 10-year anniversary this month. Spa owner and Saratogan Nilou Rahimi is also an artist who is submitting to the Rotary Art Show this year. Being an artist enhances her skills at permanent makeup, offered at the spa.

A native of Iran, Rahimi has an industrial engineering degree and has lived in many different countries.

"I love how relaxing and serene the spa is," says longtime regular Gail Longfellow. The spa is at the Cox Avenue shopping center.

BLESSED ANIMALS: St. Andrew's Episcopal Church held a blessing of the animals service earlier this month. Cats, dogs, rats, rabbits, hamsters, snakes, birds and fish all came to be blessed. Larger animals--horses, cows, llamas, goats--appeared, too. Even stuffed toy animals joined the procession to the altar.

A "cake and kibble" reception was held afterward outside the church. Bringing animals to church is typically found in Episcopal or Catholic churches, often marked on the day when the church celebrates St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals.

This year St. Andrews celebrated St. Blasé, patron saint of wild animals. St. Andrews holds this service every other year.

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