THE WALRUS DIP: December is hardly the...

THE WALRUS DIP: December is hardly the month that most of us think about taking a swim in the ice-like Pacific. But the “Walruses” of the Newport Beach Athletic Club are doing it for a cause--raising funds to help the homeless. About 100 of them will run two miles in the sand this morning at Corona del Mar State Beach--for corporate sponsors--then take a dip to “earn their tusks.”... Says spokeswoman Judy Cooper: “In the name of love, they gamble their sanity.”

RED HOT GIFT: Chad Smith, drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, recalls his first drums: “Baskin-Robbins ice cream cartons.” So he was delighted to meet a 16-year-old Huntington Beach youth with cystic fibrosis Thursday when the young man, named Loren, received a sheer blue $3,000 Pearl drum set. It’s the same kind owned by Smith, Loren’s favorite drummer. . . . Smith’s visit in Fountain Valley and the drums were made possible through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Says Loren: “It’s the best Christmas present you can ever get.”

LOADED FOR BEAR: For years Brad Wright of San Clemente has set up an award-winning Christmas display in his front yard. But sometime early Thursday, someone swiped the mechanical polar bear that’s been one of its central features for seven years. . . . Wright, who says it would have taken three people to cart it off, is offering a $250 reward, no questions asked: “I’d rather get back into the spirit of the season.”

TONIGHT: Saxophonist Boney James (F37) at 8, Galaxy Concert Theatre, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana. (714) 957-0600.

WEATHER: Fair today with increasing clouds late tonight. Highs near 70. Lows in the upper 40s. (B8)