Nancy’s HancockShe won’t sign your Rush concert...

Nancy’s Hancock

She won’t sign your Rush concert T-shirt or your little brother’s head, but Nancy Reagan will autograph books today at the Reagan library near Simi Valley. . . . The former first lady appears from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. to benefit the nonprofit Reagan Foundation. A Nancy visit can boost daily gift shop sales to $10,000, says a spokeswoman. The hottest souvenirs are postcards, T-shirts, coffee mugs and a presidential ruler.

Nancy’s Diet

Nancy Reagan’s library appearance is at lunch time, but foundation spokeswoman Lynda Schuler says the petite celebrity won’t be eating. . . . “Generally, Mrs. Reagan doesn’t eat lunch,” she says. “Or sometimes she might bring a sandwich with her to eat in the car on the way home.”

Far Trek

Eddie Fitzgerald has been hanging around Ventura’s beachfront Promenade for two weeks, healing. . . . The 59-year-old Canadian wants to complete a 10-year bicycle trek that he says has taken him 114,000 miles. Bitten twice by a desert rattlesnake, Fitzgerald is almost recovered and ready to roll. . . . At trip’s end, he says, he and a partner will write a book.

Flood Fest

Some towns get the Shriners, some get Tailhook. So what’s the city of Ventura about to get as a convention host? Flash floods. . . . Staged by the National Weather Service, the 1996 ALERT Conference at the Ventura Harbor features three days of seminars on floods and how to fight them. . . . About 100 experts are expected from all over the country.

Priorities

When the roll is called up yonder on Capitol Hill, Ventura County’s congressmen are usually there. They hate to miss a legislative vote (B1). . . . Rep. Elton Gallegly skipped his son’s college graduation for a budget vote. And he cut short a Canadian vacation for the federal crime bill. “One of the things I learned early around here,” he says, “is that sometimes . . . you have to put your personal life on hold.”