Column: James Tehrani's new book is about Alfalfa and Carl Switzer

Of all the minor memories that kids carry into adulthood, some of the dearest and most vivid are the faces of other kids, the little characters met on movie or TV screens.

For James Tehrani, one of those faces is that of Alfalfa, who he first encountered on a Zenith TV set in the basement of his grandparents’ home. He and his twin brother Justin were especially fond of all the characters who cavorted in the TV rebirth of the “Our Gang” film series as “The Little Rascals” shows, along with Spanky, Darla, Porky, Buckwheat and the playful others.

At the time, in the early 1980s, Tehrani didn’t know anything else about the “real” Alfalfa, an actor named Carl Switzer, or the others who, he now says, made “an endearing package. Their personalities resonated with every innocent smile, gulp, mis