I shouldn’t have to post this, but Sacramento never ceases to amaze me. From News10.net:

Sacramento Metro Fire spokesman Christian Pebbles said the fire spread rapidly, stretching across the length of a football field within minutes. Fire officials said they have not determined how the fire started, but the creosote-soaked trestle fueled intense black smoke that could be seen from more than 50 miles away.

The fire brought rush-hour traffic to a halt on the Capital City Freeway bordering the state fairgrounds as commuters stopped to look at the blaze. Some even got out of their cars and began walking towards the flames, forcing officials to use megaphones to warn spectators away.

As if the blazing heat wasn’t enough to keep folks from stopping? Gadzooks:

Brief direct contact with large amounts of coal tar creosote may result in a rash or severe irritation of the skin, chemical burns of the surfaces of the eyes, convulsions and mental confusion, kidney or liver problems, unconsciousness, and even death. Longer direct skin contact with low levels of creosote mixtures or their vapors can result in increased light sensitivity, damage to the cornea, and skin damage. Longer exposure to creosote vapors can cause irritation of the respiratory tract.

As always, stay classy Sacramento…

So I was sitting last night at dinner in a local family chain eatery, watching in horror as children as young as 5 were being left completely unsupervised in a crowded restaurant, planning a long rant recounting all the times I’ve seen this happen lately. And then I realized that I can’t say a darned thing.

Continue reading “Please watch your kids” »

I’d like to give special recognition to the woman working at the Del Taco on near Howe & La Riviera who did not question my giving her an odd amount of cash to cover my Chicken Tacos Del Carbon (a high protein, lowfat meal) for today’s dashboard dining.

Wow, someone who actually knows how to make change — this calls for a special posting on the sacrag! 

Continue reading “Be the change you wish to see” »

While we are on the topic, I wanted to mention this story about a lawsuit that has been filed against News Corp. (the owners of the popular social networking site MySpace.)

Four families have sued News Corp. and its MySpace social-networking site after their underage daughters were sexually abused by adults they met on the site, lawyers for the families said Thursday.

I know, shocking right? Nevertheless, the debate rolls on whether society should hold organizations like MySpace or 107.9 The End accountable for incidents like this. The site provides the forum for chaos and mayhem, but people themselves actually provide the chaos and the mayhem, right?

“In our view, MySpace waited entirely too long to attempt to institute meaningful security measures that effectively increase the safety of their underage users,” said Jason A. Itkin, an Arnold & Itkin lawyer.

Ah, interesting. But, shouldn’t the underage girls know better than to visit the site and chat it up with older dudes? I mean, no one puts a gun to these girl’s heads (if you read the story you’ll find that comes later) and forces them to log on.

Continue reading “MySpace & personal responsibility” »

Has anyone else noticed that on cbs13.com (other local sites, too, I’ve just noticed it more here lately) they “write” their online stories by sort of transcribing their video reports? For example, I’m reading today’s story about recent copper thefts on construction sites. I start to read the first few sentences and I notice that there a several errors. So I watch the corresponding video from the newscast. Ron Jones tells me that there is a rash of copper burglaries in Sacramento. The text in the story is more or less the text from the video report. Except that key words are removed:

The owners of a construction supply company in West Sacramento tell us a guy driving a nice tan or gold colored Chevy Suburban is copper thief…Copper is all craze among legitimate customers and recycling thieves…The suspected thieve is accused of stealing about 2,000 pounds worth…

I can go on and on. It seems like lazy journalism. As with most local online news stories (not just cbs13.com) I wonder if anyone ever reads them after they go live. Perhaps it’s an automated system that converts the spoken word to print. If so, does anyone know how this works? I wish we knew people at local news stations that could shed some light on this!

From the L.A. Times:

The love affair between Phil Jackson and the state capital continued Thursday.

“It’s a beautiful place,” he said, opening his arms figuratively with an apparent compliment for Arco Arena. [...] “It’s just one of the very few places where you have to walk across the court to get to a locker room that’s a dungeon.”

There’s more, and the LAT seems to like it just a little too much. In fact, they took a dig in another section, too:

Sacramento is a suburb of Los Angeles. Nothing drives home that point more than a walk through Terminal A at Burbank’s Bob Hope Airport at the start of the workweek, where you can see a host of L.A. lawmakers — and lobbyists, political lawyers, labor leaders and corporate executives — waiting for their short hops to the Capitol. [...]

California’s capital city may be where all the state’s movers and shakers mingle, but L.A. still rules.

Yeah, just ask ‘em. Here’s the rest.

After asking the S.F. vs. Sac question yesterday, I’m now dealing with the diss of the Big Tomato by Bee L.A. Bureau Chief (and sole reporter) Laura Mecoy. Well-known around the Bee newsroom as one of its best reporters, Mecoy headed south for The Bee 14 years ago and has filed some incredible stories in the years since.

But The Bee decided we didn’t need to know anything from L.A. (or S.F.) that couldn’t be pulled from the Associated Press wires and offered the far-flung correspondents either a bus ticket back to Sac or a buyout. (The recalled reporters also include Herb Sample in S.F., and Claire Cooper, who knows more about the California Supreme Court than the justices do).

Writes Mecoy, in the L.A. Observed blog:

I saw how the recall worked out for Gov. Gray Davis and decided it’s not for me. I look forward to traveling across the Los Angeles basin in search of a new calling. I know I will find great wisdom in all the wonderful people I will meet along the way.

Don’t bother checking in at the L.A. Times after that buyout money runs out, Laura. I got a Christmas card from a friend who’s pretty high up there, and in the note inside, that person scribbled a few words that weren’t entirely optimistic about prospects for the Best Darn Paper south of the Grapevine.

Sad.

My father was born in San Francisco, and still — he’ll quickly tell you — holds baseball records set in 1949 when he played for Mission High School in what my family have always called simply, “The City.” When my parents married — at Fremont Presbyterian, back when it was on 34th and J — they decided to settle in Sacramento. My father, by then a professional baseball player in the Red Sox organization, said he “liked the heat.”

Flash forward a half-century and change. My parents last October celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary. They are happy with most everything they’ve done and accomplished, save one thing: They wished they’d settled as newlyweds in San Francisco.

My father is still a San Franciscan in his own mind, even though three-quarters of his life has been lived in Sacramento. He is in The City at least three times a month, to attend luncheons for former star jocks, visit with high-school buddies, pick up ravioli and proscuitto at Lucca’s or (with sadly increasing frequency) attend a funeral.

When I ask him about this, he shrugs. It’s pretty obvious to him: Would you rather be from San Francisco or Sacramento?

Continue reading “Will we always be in San Francisco’s shadow?” »

Last week two very incredible things happened to me, and they both I think have everything to do with life here in Sacto. First of all, we found out that one of my daughter’s preschool classmates lives in the house I grew up in. Her parents actually bought it from my parents about 4 years ago, and now she is one of 24 or so kids in my daughter’s class.

The second one is I think even weirder. Continue reading “Only in Sacramento…” »

Late last year I wrote a post about the forming of lines in public places. My point was that we have unwritten rules in society which allow us to function in such a manner that total chaos is held in check. That, and sometimes people just suck.

Well, I’m at it again. This time I am having issues with the “rules” regarding the opening of doors for people. In general there are a few basics, right?

Continue reading “Here, let me get that for you” »