If summer vacations are meant to realize in part one`s dreams, the June issue of California offers some ultimate, and bizarre, reveries.
The Los Angeles-based monthly asks some favorite Californians to pick a place to take a special visitor. Where do you go? Whom do you meet?
Julia Child craves to take French singer-actor Yves Montand around her beloved Santa Barbara. She`d have a drink on the terrace of a local hotel, then stop by the marina, drive over the Santa Ynez mountains and end with a trek to a winery and a fine restaurant. ``It`s so nice to have the ocean at your front door.``
Comic Billy Crystal would, with the help of his friend Fernando, take Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda to the most romantic spots of old Hollywood, starting at the Beverly Hills Hotel, then going to a Johnny Carson taping, Mann`s Chinese Theater to put Tommy`s spike prints in cement right next to Sinatra`s footprint and finally to Sammy Davis` house so Crystal could scream into the intercom, ``It`s Frank, let me in, damn it!``
Newscaster Christine Craft, who had no luck with the U.S. Supreme Court in her sex discrimination case, would take Justice Sandra Day O`Connor surfing in Santa Barbara, have an off-the-record discussion on coastal oil drilling, camp overnight and drive to Sacramento for a power lunch at the Sutter Club, a male-only bastion.
Wine baron Robert Mondavi would take French counterpart Baron Philippe de Rothschild for a nice Napa Valley lunch at Mustards Grill (the baron sleeps late, so no breakfast), ride around the valley in a hot air balloon, take a nap, retire to Mondavi`s home for a dip in the pool, watch the stars, drink champagne and then retire for the night.
Then, there`s Joan Rivers. She`d take New York`s loudmouth Mayor Edward Koch to a charity event she and Ken Kragen are sponsoring for Imelda Marcos, called ``Shoes Across America.`` Since Koch is a bachelor, she`d find him a
``virgin who`s not interested in marrying a man for his body or his money.``
But that being the mandate, she wonders ``if he`s ever been to Kansas?``
($3.50, 11601 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, Ca., 90025)
-- National Geographic (June)--Peter Jaret and fabled Swedish photographer Lennart Nilsson combine for a fine, visually enthralling look at ``The Wars Within,`` or how our bodies guard against disease via awesomely complex immune systems. To get a sense of the enormity of it all, be apprised that the virus that causes AIDS is so small that about 230 million could fit within the period at the end of this sentence. Besides the detailing of cell wars that rage inside us, focusing in large part on the fight against AIDS, stunning color photos, magnified as many as 18,000 times, show the likes of malaria protozoa multiplying, bursting and releasing parasites, which infect other cells.
-- Washington Monthly (May)--What a Newsweek cover just tagged ``the new greed`` is explored in a profile of Steven Rattner, 33, a once fast-rising New York Times reporter who split for investment banking, where he`s said to earn $1 million a year putting together big media deals, including Tribune Company`s $510 million purchase of a Los Angeles TV station. Was he an idealistic muckraker out to help the world? Not quite. Is he now an amoral creep? Not entirely, either, though writer Philip Weiss finds troubling Rattner`s recognition ``that no profession is inherently moral`` at the same time ``he also seems to have given up on the idea that individuals should strive to be useful to society.`` ($3, 1711 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C., 20009)
-- New Woman (June)--The potentially amorous side of throwing a woman out a four-story building is revealed via winners in its ``meeting that changed my life`` contest. One lucky Lynn, Mass., couple met when he, a fireman, saved her life during an encounter in her burning apartment. For those females unable or unwilling to find male affection under any circumstances, there`s an essay on the ``surprising source of joy`` offered by celibacy.
-- Art & Auction (May)--Art theft is rising worldwide, with few culprits ever caught, and current trends in bigtime skulduggery are outlined. Theft for hire by wealthy collectors is less prevalent than one might assume, with the most common thief said to be ``the smart thief who steals lesser known works of art and has a fence buy the loot.`` Elsewhere, Victoria Lautman crafts a nice overview of the history and present state of collecting in Chicago, profiling top artists and collectors, and lauding developments like the 1979 start of the annual International Art Exposition as instilling a greater degree of confidence in the city`s standing. ( $4, 250 W. 57th St., New York, N.Y., 10019)