Month: August 2008

Weekend events – SF Outside Lands Festival

Jeff Tweedy
Jeff Tweedy of Wilco

Also known as the most rockinest way to blow $700. The lineup is totally insane… Radiohead, Beck, Wilco, Tom Petty, Jack Johnson for the big names. Broken Social Scene, Cold War Kids, Drive-By Truckers, M. Ward, The Walkmen. Norcal will be represented too, with Cake, Mother Hips and Jackie Greene. Looks like Sean Hayes is going to be there too, I wonder if he’s going to do “Just Jack!”*

No artist has ever played at night in Golden Gate Park before. Radiohead will be the first!

Crazy. Thom and the boys will be playing a 2 hour show on Friday at 8 at the Polo Fields, after Beck rocks the house at Lindley Meadow.

*This joke provided by Stickie

Enjoying the Fair for Less

Spend less dough getting into the fair so you have more to spend on the fried dough inside! Here are some ways that the State Fair folks are saving you money this year:

Today is Tuesday, so that means all children 12 and younger get in for free, and those carnival rides will cost you just $1 each today.I LOVE POPPY This applies to next Tuesday, too.

Today, August 19th, is First Responders Day, so all First Responders (in our out of uniform) with proper identification gain free admission. (OK, so I have a First Responder card from my CPR/AED/First Aid/Bloodborne Pathogens certification — would that get me in? They mean firefighters, paramedics, EMTs, and the like, right?) Continue reading “Enjoying the Fair for Less”

Bee’s teacher database sidesteps privacy issue

Kudos to the Sac Bee for its newest salary database on all of the state’s teachers. “See how well your school district pays its teachers.” Not “See how much your kid’s teacher makes.” The tool allows you to look up district average salaries and other data, and compare salaries across districts in a region or across the state. A useful tool without any of the privacy issues. This should be the model for all of the Bee’s salary databases.

I do think it is interesting that the spin has been spun somewhat on this one… “Are teachers in your area making what they deserve?” That sentiment is absent from Melanie Sill’s editorial on the backlash to the State worker pay database. Back then it was all about doing a public service, giving us information about worker compensation because “state spending [is] under pressure.” Now, it’s all about making sure your kid’s teacher is getting a good paycheck? Maybe I’m splitting hairs, but I sense that the Bee is making some much needed course corrections here.

Bee’s Crime Q & A is not bad

Via the Bee’s Sacto 9-1-1 program I discovered an interesting feature called the Crime Q & A by Ryan Lillis. Ryan tracks down information related to area crimes in response to reader queries. No question is too small either:

Coming home last night in the Tahoe Park area, 65th street between 14th and 21st was blocked by cop cars. This morning nothing in the paper or other news. Do you know what happened? Where can a neighbor find information about incidents area quickly after the fact?

Give it a read, it’s not as fun as learning how much money your neighbor makes, but it’s informative just the same.

AVOID Elk Grove

With the Fair underway, the Sacramento Bee reminds us that there will be a sobriety checkpoint in Elk Grove tonight. Wait, the Fair is in Sacramento, right? Where lots of folks will be drinking? Ok, cool, Elk Grove it is.

The enforcement is part of the statewide “Avoid” campaign funded by the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Interesting slogan. At any rate, if you follow the link on the Bee story (oh, wait, it’s broken, posted on the 13th, too) you will learn more about the program.

The overall goal of the awareness campaign is to let drivers know about the countywide increased enforcement periods and warn drivers that the only way to “AVOID” the county’s law enforcement officers is to drive sober.

Ah, there it is. I get it now. A press release reminds us that party hosts and families must limit drinks to their guests, and to not serve more than one or two over several hours. Stickie, can you hear me?

Be safe out there.

Fair Food Preview

Click here for more picsRunnergirl, Stickie, and I got a chance to peek around at all the food vendors last night at Cal Expo.  We came away with a few deep-fried nuggets of information that we just have to share.

1.  GELATO-That’s right.  The EYE-talian delicacy makes its way to the food midway.  Trust me you can’t miss it.  Even if the place didn’t offer the “World’s Largest Waffle Cones,” you’d never walk by without noting the flesh colored columns.

2.  NEW DEEP-FRIED TREATS- Chicken Charlie, that fried food innovator has outdone himself this time.  Going back to his roots, especially the concept of deep frying things that started out as totally fattening meals to begin with, Chuck has a new lineup of fried fare for the fair.  New this year are deep-fried White Castle burgers, deep-fried pop tarts, and deep-fried Spam with pineapple sauce.  

3.  BBQ BEEF SANDWICH- It’s still in the same place, on the eastern end of the fairgrounds, across from the petting zoo, on the way to the horse races.  It’s unassuming, with the word “SAUSAGE” most prominently lit on the sign, but trust me, you need to go and get a BBQ beef sandwich on a lard roll with homemade chips this year.  I’m not suggesting, I’m commanding.

Sorry Kings fans, not this year

I say this as a fellow Kings fan, but my years of following the NBA tell me that the team’s chances of reaching the playoffs this coming year is slim to none, with slim being a 100-1 long shot. (Hmmm, in the face of the semi-resolved Tim Donaghy scandal maybe quoting odds isn’t the best choice,)

Now the team has finally traded away its second-best player, Ron Artest. I will miss the good things he brought to the table, namely a never-say-die attitude on the court, a presence in the post, and, of course, most of all, his defensive intensity. But, I will happily wave goodbye to his penchant for off-the-cuff, contradictory statements to the press, which grated on Kings fans’ nerves after awhile. And, on the court, his self-delusion he could create offensively like a Kobe Bryant proved ill-founded and would lead to a poor offensive possessions on a team that could not afford very many of those.

Continue reading “Sorry Kings fans, not this year”

McClatchy to freeze wages

This just in… The McClatchy company is announcing a one-year freeze in employee wage increases.

This means that if you are scheduled to receive a merit or salary review between September 1, 2008 and August 31, 2009, your review will occur one year later than scheduled. For example, if your next salary review date is March 1, 2009, the salary review will be postponed until March 1, 2010.

Ouch. The tough times continue. And two weeks’ notice, that’s rough. However, if you’re working for McClatchy and you’re…still working for McClatchy, this is somewhat of a relief?