The Bell Curve:

First off, thanks to two readers who inquired about my health when my column didn’t appear last week. As Mark Twain once put it, the rumors of my demise were grossly exaggerated, but at my age they are scarcely unexpected.

I’ve tried to convince a laundry list of editors over the eight years that I’ve been doing this column that a simple card saying I would miss only one column — so I could pay proper attention, in this instance, to the first wonderful chaotic, throat-cutting week of March Madness — would have avoided the torrent of mail that my absence inspired.

Now, the tournament is down to four manageable teams, and three of the favorites have been excised, which is the way it should be.

So enough of that. I’ve become very conscious of repetitive reminiscing, especially about my modest war history ever since the Pilot published a Forum letter several weeks ago in which the writer, in a kind of delicious agony, shouted “Enough, Enough” after reading that week’s column. I would suggest he stop reading it, unless he’s into pain, because I probably won’t change my ways beyond good intentions.

All this reminds me — in a role reversal sort of way — of Costa Mesa Councilwoman Katrina Foley’s recent agonized cry of “enough” when she said from the dais: “I’ve sat here for six years as a City Council member, and nearly every week we have to hear the vile and the venom about the people in our city, and it does not reflect my views.”

These two examples are parallel only in underscoring a truism about human behavior that we all have an edge somewhere that makes reaction inevitable when it is crossed. The reaction is cleansing if rational but can be dangerous — road rage, for example — if it isn’t.

We make our own judgments. Meanwhile, I will continue to draw on my history for these columns, and Foley says she will not apologize to those who might be offended by her comments.

So what else has been happening in these parts while I was watching basketball? Well, how about some fallout from the naming of Newport Beach in a fresh, respected ranking of America’s wealth centers as the wealthiest place in the nation? As if on cue, wealth was the principal lure, both in the proposal of a new hangar at John Wayne Airport and the plans to build the largest and most expensive estate in the nation’s wealthiest city three blocks from where I live.

The hangar, as the centerpiece of a property adjacent to the airport and designed for high-end corporate aircraft, would provide premium parking for the airborne rich and plenty of noise for the rest of us.

John Moorlach, my representative on the Board of Supervisors, was on top of this when he wrote in the Pilot: “I want to be on the record that I do not support the proposal at this time.”

Meanwhile, Costa Mesa Councilman Eric Bever, boxing with the same question, was saying: “We need to be certain that approving this would not violate our prior commitment under the corridor city agreement.”

Thus the rich already had an aileron in the door when the promoters of this project put it on hold last week. Wariness would seem to be the order of the day. We would greatly prefer ad infinitum over “at this time,” and Bever’s first commitment should always be to the residents of Costa Mesa who elected him.

Blocking forever the expansion of JWA noise and pollution remains — and will remain — the greatest challenge and danger to America’s richest city. But property values may be next in line, which is why it was so encouraging to read about plans for a 29,000-square-foot castle, a dozen fireplaces and a $95-million price tag to go up down my street. If I acquire a neighbor who is willing to risk $95 million against the possibility there might be a new runway built into his pool room, I’ll feel a lot more secure. We might even work him into our nickel-dime-quarter neighborhood poker game.

Finally, law enforcement in Newport Beach is dealing firsthand with a question that has been around forever: Do people who work within the system get special treatment when they are the accused rather than the accuser?

The arrest of Newport Beach City Atty. David Hunt by Santa Ana police on suspicion of felony domestic violence has carried this question to an administrative level — and imposed a responsibility on City Council members to make sure that justice is even-handed at every level.

The story behind the charges is common knowledge now, and so we will wait to see how well the balance of justice avoids either soft treatment from respected friends and associates or an overly severe reaction to avoid charges of favoritism.

The question before the council members must now be: Would an immigrant father and husband accused of the same crimes be accorded the same considerations as the lawyer who might have once judged him?

JOSEPH N. BELL lives in Newport Beach. His column runs Thursdays.