Dec. 3, 1997

To shut out the din of leaf blowers around her Brentwood home, actress Julie Newmar first tried playing Mozart and Handel at full volume. When that didn't work, she started wearing industrial-strength earmuffs. But they made it hard to answer the phone.

So Ms. Newmar, best known as TV's first Catwoman, has gone on the attack.

"Ah, for the sound of rakes and brooms on a walk or driveway," read antiblower leaflets she has plastered around the neighborhood. She has written to the mayor of Los Angeles, threatening to move to New Zealand. And after one neighbor refused to stop his Latino gardener from using a blower, she bought a can of black paint and sprayed the word "ruido" - Spanish for noise - in big letters on the alley outside his house.

The neighbor promptly filed a vandalism complaint. "At least I got their attention," Ms. Newmar says.

The article goes on to note that because of complaints like Ms. Newmar's, the Los Angeles City Council passed an ordinance banning the use of gas-powered leaf blowers within 500 feet of residences. But, gardeners protested loudly, and the ban was delayed for 6 months, until Jan. 1st.