Smith: This Santa Rosa diner orders grandly, then says he can't pay

The least favorite patron of a growing number of Santa Rosa restaurants is a paunchy, 60-ish guy who orders generously, eats and drinks to his fill, then announces he’s homeless and has no money.

At Bruno’s on Fourth, he told his server he’d heard raves about the clam chowder, then ordered it, bruschetta, the meatloaf entrée, a bottle of Hook and Ladder red blend and the bread pudding.

Presented with the $75 bill, he shrugged and said, “I’m homeless and have to eat.”

Santa Rosa police have several times arrested him or run him off.

On a couple of occasions, other patrons have intervened offering to pay his tab.

Nobody who’s been stiffed by him thinks it’s very funny.

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HE PLAYS WHAT? Guerneville teen Ben Zeigler mentions his favorite sport and listeners smirk and await the punchline.

But 16-year-old Ben truly does play underwater hockey, known in England as Octopush.

“It’s totally different than any other sport I’ve played,” said Ben, a junior at El Molino High and a longtime competitor with Sonoma County’s Neptune Swim Team. And, he added, “It’s the most fun.”

In underwater hockey, players plunge into a pool geared-up with a mask and snorkel, cap, fins and a protective glove on the hand that grips a short stick and will be swung in close proximity to opponents’ sticks.

Everyone pursues across the pool bottom a hefty, nonfloating puck and attempts to smack it into the opposing team’s goal.

Ben must be pretty good at it: He’s been selected to play in July on America’s under-19 team at the World Underwater Hockey Championships in Hobart, Tasmania.

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THE WISH LIST at The Living Room was extensive.

The homeless or vulnerable women who rely on the Santa Rosa day services center needed personal hygiene supplies, diapers, wipes, sleeping bags, underwear, tents, protein drinks, healthy snacks, all sorts of things.

Normally this time of year, a few months after the holidays, donations pretty much just trickle in.

So you can imagine the jubilation at The Living Room when a young man pulled up with a trailer loaded with enough items to fulfill the entire wish list, and then some.

“I gave them everything they needed,” said Eric Oblad, who’s 17 and attends Montgomery High.

He wasn’t bragging but acknowledging all of the people who contributed to his drive on behalf of The Living Room, which he mounted as his Eagle Scout project.

Eric said he didn’t expect to collect such a huge load of essentials for women and children in crisis, but when he told neighbors, members of his church and others what he was doing and why, their generosity blew him away.

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BASEBALL FOR ALL: If there’s a special-needs child in your life and you live anywhere near Healdsburg, there might be no happier place for the two of you to be at 10:30 a.m. Saturday than at the baseball field at Foss Creek Community Center.

It’s the season opener for Wonder League, which pairs buddies with children 4 through 19 who live with disabilities that in years past would have precluded them from playing baseball. But not today.

Batter up!

Chris Smith is at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.