Author: RonTopofIt

RonTopofIt is a complex personality, as are most of the small breed of modern day renaissance millionaires. He wishes more people were like him and yet believes that it takes all kinds. You've met RonTopofIt many times, you just don't remember him.

Speaking of crap detectors

Ok, I can’t hold it in any longer. This “Weeping Mary” thing is just too much. Not sure where to begin. I think I’ll just make a few observations and be done with it.

  • Why is it so hard to find out if she is really weeping blood or not? Did I miss something? Crack that thing open, look for a red food dye pump and call it a day. And we all know there are folks camping out 24 hours a day so no one is climbing up it and placing the tears…oh, and call in the CSI and send those tears to the lab!
  • “Even if it turns out the tears are not real, people at the church said the effect is the same — more people are praying to God and rekindling their faith.” — Hmm, can’t you hear the “who really got hurt? people got back in touch with their religion because of this, it’s a victimless crime” speech in a few days when the truth is revealed?
  • Isn’t the timing of this “story” a little suspect, too? And how soon until this grows to the point of “Red November” status?

Ok, there, I feel better now.

Had to be Wal-Mart

Once again, Sacramento shines brightly as we learn of two carjackers who forced a driver to take them to Wal-Mart to make shopping returns AND out to dinner.

“The truck was still in the parking lot. We brought out the CSI to look for prints from the suspect off the vehicle”, says R.L. Davis of the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department.

The CSI? Jack in the Box?

Anyone else hear their crap detector going off?

Noriyuki “Pat” Morita Passes Away

The Sac Rag sends its condolences to the family of former Sacramento resident Noriyuki “Pat” Morita who died of natural causes yesterday.

After the war ended and the internees were released, there were many more hard years. Eventually the family resettled in Sacramento and opened a restaurant. It was called the “Ariake Chop Suey” (after the area in Japan where Morita’s father was born). They served Chinese food in apredominately black section of town. Morita and his father worked 14-hour-days in the kitchen and his mother, aunties and cousins served the food.

Does anyone know more about this restaurant and where exactly it was located?

UPDATE: It was on Fourth Street.

“Black Friday” Falls Upon Local Retailers

So it’s Friday morning and I have been watching local news stations inform me about “Black Friday” over and over. At first I thought, “Oh no, another catastrophic stock market crash?” Then I realized that this phrase refers to retailers who can move out of the red and into the black with strong sales leading into Christmas. There has to be a better phrase, right?

Historically, the term “black” has been used to describe other disastrous days in financial markets. For example, Tuesday, October 29th, 1929, a day the market fell precipitously, has been coined Black Tuesday, signaling the start of the Great Depression. Additionally, the largest one-day drop in stock market history occurred on Black Monday, October 19th, 1987, when the DJIA plummeted more than 22%.

As chronicled here recently, local folks were willing yet again to wait in a line as early as 4 p.m. yesterday to grab a laptop computer for $400 or a flat panel television for $250. Check that, for a chance to grab a laptop or flat panel TV. I know, I know, as SinghCity pointed out recently, this stuff isn’t really news so I won’t waste your time piling on. That is, until “Cyber Monday” strikes…

New Restaurant Rating System

Not to step on sac-eats toes or anything, but it appears that Sacramento may be adopting a restaurant rating system much like the one used in Los Angeles.

I, for one, am in favor of this new system of green, red, and yellow signage. It is very annoying to visit a restaurant in Sacramento and order your food only to happen upon the hand written inspection results (scribbled, at best) posted on the wall that are either vague and/or detail something disturbing involving warm mayonaisse containers and a cockroach. I am sure the restaurant owners in town might have a different take as who knows what the guidelines are for getting a green card.

I wonder if this will change the way the web site sac-eats brought to our attention in August displays their inspection results. I am sure the Rice Bowl on Florin does, too.
Continue reading “New Restaurant Rating System”

Sacramento Singles Unite

I came across a list today of the Best Cities for Singles as provided on Forbes.com that I thought was rather amusing. Mostly because of their methodology. But our fair city did manage to rank in the top 15 (#15) which is a step up from 2004’s rank of #31.

{Reader’s Note: Sacramento’s worst ranking came in the category of Nightlife. Kissmekate, this is a special call to action for you to continue pounding the pavement, sipping those foo-foo drinks, and report back on why our Nightlife should kick #28 San Diego’s ass! (we tied for 30 with Salt Lake City)}

It appears that the author’s “Cost of Living Alone” was determined by a proprietary index which incorporated the average cost of a metro area’s apartment rent, a Pizza Hut pizza, a movie ticket and a six-pack of Heineken. Man, there’s gotta be a better way to determine this information, right? Heineken?

And the Singles category was based on the percentage of a metro’s population above the age of 15 that has never been married. 15? {insert West Virginia crack here}

All in all, we beat out some pretty big little cities. Portland, San Diego, Las Vegas, and Salt Lake City to name a few. Not bad Sacramento, not bad at all.

Starbucks® Nation

The story of Starbucks is no secret. I think we all understand that there literally IS a Starbucks at every corner. In fact, there are currently 4,666 Company-operated coffeehouses and 2,222 licensed locations in the United States alone. I also think we can agree that whether you like their coffee or not (I’m a Peet’s guy actually) they are here to stay. What got me to post today is best illustrated by the photo I’ve provided and the number 13. Why 13 you ask? Well 13 is the number of cars in line at the Starbucks on Eastern and Arden this morning. What’s worse? That 13 people decided that waiting in line for 20 minutes for a cup of joe rather than drive down the road a mile or two to another location OR that 13 people chose to use the drive through for a cup of joe rather than park their car and go into the store which is FAR less crowded than the drive through line (I’ve been paying close attention to this over the last few months and find it to be true).

Reader’s note: Should you find yourself near this location in the future, the coffee at Whole Foods Market is quite delicious and they rarely have more than 2 or 3 people in line. “But Whole Foods Market is so…” I know, I know. Just go for th coffee, dammit.

Sacramento Authors Balance the Scales

Sacramento takes its fair share of abuse. But one of the great things about our city is that it always knows how to make a comeback. Case in point: two Sacramento authors were among the winners at the 2005 National Book Awards ceremony held in New York City on Wednesday.

Now that’s what I’m talkin’ bout. Books! Reading! Sacramento!

Heads I Win, Tails You Lose

Oh, greater Sacramento region, what are we going to do with you? Earlier this month we had to suffer through your offensive video introductions at the Kings game and now we learn that one of your local area high school football coaches is suing over an unfair coin flip?

Terhune is suing to have the “tiebreaker” overturned, arguing it violated the open-meeting requirements detailed in the state’s Brown Act. “It’s a technicality,” said Terhune. “Let’s say it like it is. It was decided only the ADs would toss, period.”

Seriously, is this an onion article?

Let’s put the football politics aside for a moment and talk about how three teams were going to be narrowed down to two by the flip of a coin? I can hear them at the Round Table now…

Ok, you three coaches call it in the air and whomever gets it right wins…oh wait, that won’t work…ok, we’ll flip the coin and one coach will call it in the air and before it lands the other two do a thumb war and the winner of that contest can move on to the elimination round…

Totally ridiculous…and besides, everyone knows that a situation like this called for Odd or Even.

UPDATE: The judgement is in. A superior judgement no less. Still no word on how a coin toss was going to make a decision between three parties.

Arrr, Matey, News10 Strikes Again

Ok, News10, you are making this WAY too easy for us here at the Sac Rag. Today’s headline “Schwarzenegger Begins Trade Trip in China” (eBish, btw) lets us know that the Governor is in China “pumping” up trade while trying to “buff” up his political image. Ok, ok, I’ll let the bodybuilding puns slide, although I do commend the effort, but the last sentence is just too good to be true.

Schwarzenegger is in China to promote California piracy and encourage Chinese officials to crack down on piracy.

That’s right California, your Governor wants you to get out those blank CDs and DVDs and get to work helping your financially strapped buddies out and reject those cheap Asian knock-offs! Now that’s an initiative I’d back any day of the week!

UPDATE (from CoolDMZ): Well, it’s 12:15 and that link still says “promote California piracy”…

UPDATE 2 (from CoolDMZ): At 12:19 the story was updated but there was no correction, which means it must not be a typo…

UPDATE 3 I know, I know, you all have moved on, but it is a day later and the story has been updated several times and piracy still reigns supreme…nice work, ebish.