QUIBBLES & BITS

. . . Berkley Publishing has some strong review quotes on the back of the “Jaws: The Revenge” novelization by Hank Searles: “A sea adventure that echoes in the mind like pings of radar!” from The Times, “Taut, crisp . . . intensely readable!” from the Chicago Tribune, etc. But the praise was actually for Searles’ novel “Soundings,” published in 1982.

. . . Remember all those writers--17 to the best of our, and the Writers Guild’s, knowledge--who toiled together and separately on Paramount’s “Back to the Beach”? Well, here’s the result of a guild arbitration: screenplay by Peter Krikes & Steve Meerson and Christopher Thompson, story by James Komack and B.W.L. Norton and Bruce Kirschbaum; based on characters created by Lou Rusoff (who wrote American International’s 1963 “Beach Party”). Got that?

. . . Helping the cause: The host of public-access TV’s “Spectrum,” speaking out against anti-pit bull legislation, said he hopes the bill’s sponsor “gets bit by a pit bull.”

. . . Heard this Iran- contra joke?:

“Knock, knock.”

“Who’s there?”

“I can’t precisely recollect.”