SILENT VICTIMS: Orange County ranked fifth statewide,...

SILENT VICTIMS: Orange County ranked fifth statewide, and well below San Diego County, in the number of rapes reported last year. But those who counsel rape victims here are convinced that the number of unreported rapes remains astoundingly high and includes many male victims. . . . “Just like female victims, males think they are at fault,” says Barbara West of the county’s rape center. It operates the county’s only rape hot line: (714) 831-9110.

MIKE’S NIGHT: If you think libraries are just for books and reading, you haven’t been to Brea lately. The library there is hosting, at 6:30 tonight, the third of its series of “Open Mike” nights. . . . Amateurs sign up to sing, dance, read poetry. “One fellow is even bringing his own karaoke machine,” says library spokeswoman Letitia Maitlen. Besides the entertainment: free coffee and hot chocolate.

PAT’S NIGHT: The famous clubs were in New York and San Francisco, but Orange County had a folk scene of its own in the ‘60s. One regular was comic and perennial presidential candidate Pat Paulsen, who was living in Orange when he first joined TV’s “Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.” . . . . He still does his comedy act: Wednesday night he’s at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano (F1). Paulsen recalls of those early days: “John Denver, people like that, were doing folk clubs at that time, and I was always the opening act.”

WRITERS’ BLOCK: Lee Mallory’s popular night poetry writing class at Rancho Santiago College is feeling the pinch of the new state fee schedule: A weekly three-hour course that used to cost a pittance, it’s now $150 for most. Too many say that’s too steep a price to become the next Chaucer. . . . If he doesn’t get five more students immediately, the class will be canceled. Says Mallory: “Art, music, writing, these are the things that make a college a college, but too many just can’t afford us.”

Rape Report

Orange County ranked fifth statewide in reported rapes last year. Los Angeles: 3,885 Alameda: 871 San Diego: 857 Santa Clara: 680 Orange: 631 Source: Department of Justice, Bureau of Criminal Statistics