Penguins love ice-skating
…[Your holiday of choice here]! The Downtown Plaza Ice Rink opens tomorrow at noon with FREE skating all day. After tomorrow, regular admission is $6 plus $2 for skate rental. Plus $8 later on at Rite Aid for ankle braces and ice packs. The rink accepts cash only.
Mrs Cool reminds me that this weekend also brings 2nd Saturday and the Antique Faire. It was great planning to have the faire on Second Sunday, if you aske me.
The Sac Rag 
aw come on…we just elected the first black president in our history, Sacramento elected its first black (and former NBA star) mayor…gays got their right to marry taken away, valley farmers are going to have to treat their chickens better, sacramento may be part of a massively expensive bullet train project, arnold just announced he’s going to massively raise taxes because the state is in danger of drowning in the red sea…and the only local blogging angle is free skating at the downtown rink? Didn’t even the hipster kids throw a party on Tuesday night?
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I’m going to give you way more credit than you deserve and assume you’re being what the hipster kids call “sarcastic.”
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No I’m being serious….did nothing on Election Day, Sacramento or even generally related, warrant even a short post to mark the occasion? Maybe the Mormon temple isn’t under siege as it is in LA right now…but I thought something interesting happened in Sacramento between Tuesday night and now.
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Dan, something interesting like what?
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I don’t know, I’m not in Sac right now. But seriously, nothing went on in Sac on Tuesday? No rallies, no celebrations? No one on Sac Rag personally got excited or noticed anything notable? Sacramento is the political center of America’s biggest state and one of its most popular blogs doesn’t have anything to say about what has to be one of the most exciting election days in our generation? Weren’t the lines long at least?
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Yes I actually knew you were being serious… I was trying to give you an out. There was something about a gay marriage thing but I can’t find it being discussed on the interweb anywhere. Checking again…. nope, I guess nobody got fired up about nothin. Sorry bro! Have a good one!!!
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Actually, I thought you were going to allude to that, and I was hoping you weren’t. Sac Rag’s last post about the gay marriage initiative was about a small local rally and about how it really put the Yes on 8 people in their place. Two days later, Prop 8 supporters won and gays who cared about marrying and civil rights are a bit upset (in Los Angeles, the protests have stopped traffic)…I’m a little bit saddened you think that a fun and upbeat post before the actual election (and the ensuing flame baiting in the comments) is all the attention the issue merits, considering Sacramento’s own tensions in the local community over homosexuals, nevermind Sacramento’s place as California’s political center.
But I would also say that Prop 8 was not even by far the most interesting California political issue to arise after Tuesday. No really, I’m genuinely interested in the election day aftermath in Sacramento, and it doesn’t have to be all numbers and names. I really do think there’s something more interesting in Sacramento in these days than free ice skating.
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There you go with that sarcasm again. I’m going to call you Sarcastic Dan. It’s better than the other thing I’m thinking of.
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Not to be too pedestrian, but I believe that I and my fellow writers are suffering from Election Fatigue. Every single news outlet in the known universe (including Pluto) is wringing every iota of information they can out of the election results, its historicity, its meaning, its events, its controversies. When I saw a post about ice skating, and not about the stupid chicken law or the high speed drug rehab or anything else, I smiled with the simple joy of the message. You see, I believe the children are the future, lead them well and let them find their way.
On a side note, our political “coverage” is typically so sarcastic anyway, that it rarely sheds light on any issue, but rather just ticks people off, and in this new time of change and hope, I think it wise to hold off a week on that. Enjoy the little things in life, Dan. Like ice skating.
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That’s very true. However I would like to un-sarcastically thank Dan because he obviously came here hoping to see our take on the results because he wanted to read it and participate in the discussion, and at the end of the day that’s why we do the site.
And to echo sac-eats’ point about our coverage, I think between Stickie’s and my takes on voting, RonTopofIt’s questions about Vote & Vax, his helpful roundup of voter info, and his open thread on voter reactions, and the postmortem on Prop 8 (or I suppose a postmortem on gay marriage in CA more precisely) — not to mention a few posts about the mayoral race — you got just about all the political/election coverage you were ever going to get here, and you got it with our characteristic voice.
Hey that’s actually quite a bit of coverage. Suck it, Dan! 🙂
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We could try and make thin ice analogies about the states economy…..
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Dan, Sacramento is certainly not the political center of California. Yes, we are the Capital, but travel 30 blocks in any direction from the big white building and you would be hard-pressed to find someone who knows or cares about California politics. Sad, but true. Our population is not big enough to influence any statewide races.
As far as local politics, practically everyone I know is sick to death about the Mayor’s race. People were excited about KJ because of his celebrity and because he is a local success story, not because we are quaking in out boots in anticipation of his amazing plans. A lot of people are pissed that he was elected. As for Mayor Fargo, most of her supporters were on board through habitual loyalty, because they are strong Democrats, or because they didn’t want to take a chance on KJ. Most people who give a damn about the mayor was hoping that someone, ANYONE, was running besides the options that we were given.
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Stickie> Huh? So Washington DC isn’t the political center of the United States, even though its contribution to the electoral college and to GDP is minuscule compared to California or NYC? Don’t get down on Sacramento just because Arnold doesn’t spend his weekends there. Sacramento is where all the lawmakers, lobbyists, and policymakers are headquartered, and so yes, Sac is the political center of California despite its small population, and the political world provides a pretty big chunk of the economy and life in Sac, so whether people in Sac can actually name all the Props is besides the point.
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DC has much more power, it is the national capital. Power gravitates there.
I don’t think that Sac has the same pull. Sure, lots of decisions are made here, but I wouldn’t go as far as to compare it to DC. Look at the amount of money that DC controls compared to the money here in Sac, especially considering that such a huge chuck of out state budget it auto-spent.
Yes, Sac has quite a few lobbyists. State lobbyists. Take a look at the number of political organizations with national power and influence and most of them are headquartered in SF or LA.
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sac-eats> OK I wasn’t expecting serious or groundbreaking post-mortems from a local blog, but god, someone on the writers’ list must have noticed something, or felt something worth sharing, and must have been clever enough to do it in a way that’s not heavyhanded about these past couple of days in politics. And wanting to maintain a snarky persona* is not much of an excuse when so many other snarkier blogs and sites could either come up with something snarky about Tuesday or even, for once, get past how cool it is to be snarky and just make sincere comment. And no, I don’t think that everything worthwhile that could be said has already been said, not by a long shot. Look at the blogs Natomas Buzz or JoeSacramento, both who cover more limited ground than SacRag, have fewer writers, and yet were able to drive coverage on election related issues (crime in Natomas particularly).
But it’s not just this election, SR seems to have this problem in general…with the exception of the food coverage, reading SR makes you think that either nothing is going on in Sacramento or that no one at the News and Review’s Readers Choice blog can think of anything to say about it (both possibilities are unlikely to be true, but the posting strategery is a little confusing).
* this is doubtful, considering we’re having a debate thread inside a post, one of the few this entire week, does nothing but mention prices for skating at the downtown rink. But whatever, I’m just probably all bitter because I’ll have to pay for my ice skating. :whiny emoticon:
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Dan: I didn’t want to spoil this, but I am in fact working on a series of hard-hitting posts about Your Deal, tentatively titled “What Is Your Deal: Seriously, I Mean What the Heck.”
But for real dude, thanks for the constructive criticism and continued visits.
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Dan, my recap of the elections consisted of asking myself, “What does this all mean to me as someone who was laid off four weeks ago?” and continuing to write customized cover letters and submitting work samples to a vast pool of potential employers — as well as have multiple meetings per week with business and community contacts who are helping me progress into my next career opportunity.
Believe it or not, some of us have genuine issues going on right now that take higher precedence over blogging, have election fatigue, and are downright giddy to see items like free ice skating posted on this here weblog.
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CoolDMZ> .the Prop 8 controversy and the theater director’s resignation have both been saturated by coverage (the theater director’s resignation was on the Drudge Report yesterday)…and yet you’ve posted on it…which means you aren’t committed to staying away from heavily discussed political issues. I figure you posted on it because you personally knew someone involved in it…which is FINE, and added another angle to whole thing.
That’s all I was bitching about before, that it was hard to believe no one had anything to say at all about last week, on a blog that is one of the largest in this state capital.
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