HIGHBROW HOLIDAYS: Want to do your Christmas...

HIGHBROW HOLIDAYS: Want to do your Christmas shopping without setting foot in a mall? Try a library or museum (F1B). . . . At the Ventura County Museum of History and Art, for instance, you can spend as little as 15 cents for a tiny gemstone on a card to as much as $9,000 for a Beatrice Wood glazed bowl. . . . Music boxes are selling well so far this season, but gift shop manager Lisa Huff expects that a Wood exhibit starting Sunday will spur sales of the beaded jewelry and silk scarves that resemble accessories favored by the 102-year-old Ojai artist.

SURFSIDE SPOTS: The state park service has its own gift suggestion, and it’s one that your favorite surfer or jogger might appreciate. For $75, your recipient gets a year’s worth of free day use at any state park where the parking concession is operated by the state. In Ventura County, those parks are McGrath, San Buenaventura, Emma Wood and Leo Carrillo state beaches. . . . Call 899-1400 for info on where to purchase the pass.

SKY-HIGH DEBATE: It may be colorless and odorless, but methyl bromide sure kicks up a political cloud. . . . Environmentalists and farm workers called on the state to halt the use of the toxic pesticide on Ventura County strawberry fields next to schools (B1). . . . Locals are not the only ones debating the chemical. Representatives of 150 nations meeting in Vienna this week pushed to quickly phase out methyl bromide because it depletes the Earth’s protective ozone layer.