The Pacific Palisades Community Council held its annual holiday potluck dinner meeting last Thursday the historic dining hall in Temescal Gateway Park. Community Service Awards (given out since 1996) were presented to Andrew Frew and Sigrid and Arnold Hofer, after which more than 55 Council members, family members and friends were entertained by actor/singer Michael Dunn, who portrayed Charles Dickens. PPCC Chair Janet Turner presented the awards to Frew and the Hofers. ’He [Frew] spends most weekends behind the light and sound board at Pierson Playhouse,’ Turner said. ‘He works on all the Theatre Palisades plays and the Chamber’s Teen Pageant each year. He also loves movies and was one of the founders of Movies in the Park. ’In television where I work, when people start to take it too seriously we often say, ‘It’s not brain surgery.’ Well, in Andy’s case it is brain surgery, because he’s a neuroscientist at UCLA and in his lab he makes three-dimensional maps of the brain that guide surgeons when removing brain tumors.’ Turner noted that the Hofers have tackled 30 years of tedious chores at Palisades Symphony and Theatre Palisades, like mailings with announcements, requests for donations and thank-you cards. ’Sigrid sings with the Brentwood-Palisades Chorale, like the Brahms ‘Requiem’ and Handel’s ‘Messiah,’ and always played classical music at the family’s home in the Alphabet Streets, leading her son Manfred to confide that he didn’t know what rock-and-roll was until he was in seventh grade.’ Turner called Arnold Hofer the ‘stealth fixer’ because whenever something needs to be repaired at Pierson Playhouse, the retired tool-and-die maker ‘slips in to fix what needs to be fixed and then slips out.’ Norm Kulla, Councilman Bill Rosendahl’s senior deputy, presented special certificates to the Hofers and Frew. ’They make Pacific Palisades a better place,’ Kulla said. ‘Ordinary residents like these are also extraordinary because without their volunteer efforts, towns like this don’t exist.’ Michael Dunn amused the audience, inquiring ‘How many of you came to a complete cessation of movement at the stop sign?’ He told them if they received a $175 ticket at the camera-enforced intersection inside Temescal Gateway Park, there was a bright side. ‘Congratulations, you are now in the movies’a straight-to-video release starring you is now making its way to a big-screen TV.’ Dunn made several 2011 predictions for the Council and its members. ’Traffic congestion on Pacific Coast Highway from the new sewer project and [later] the California Incline replacement will be so horrific that George Wolfberg will propose that the highway be closed permanently and converted into a world-class six-lane bike path.’ Dunn also prophesized that Barbara Kohn will become a local hero after being arrested for vandalizing the massive new statute of Joe Edmiston in Temescal Park upon learning that it had been secretly converted into a cell-phone tower. He predicted the Council would issue an appeal to the City requesting a special fund to treat the carpal tunnel syndrome suffered by new Council member Jennifer Malaret after endless hours of typing Jack Allen’s PDFs into Word format. Dunn closed his performance with a song performed to ‘Auld Lang Syne,’ including the stanza ‘Bel-Air can boast of wealthy folks/Safe behind their iron gates/But friendly hearts and shady oaks/Fill the peaceful Palisades.’
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