Category: Misc

We Don’t Need Another Hero

What we need is more national attention in the media like in the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly. Profiled on page 4 in the “Obsessive Fan of the Week” blurb is Lincoln resident Joe Ristau who has an entire room of his house dedicated to all things Tina Turner, including every CD, recordings of all her TV appearances, autographs, posters, trading cards, and cardboard cut-outs. There is no Ike in sight in the photo.

Yes, this is a pointless post; I was just excited to see Lincoln in my magazine. Yay for Joe the Tina Turner fan!

Blog roundup – 3/29/07

Heckasac wonders whether SacPD is doing enough to stop drunk driving in midtown, though I think she probably unfairly places blame on suburbanites. Of course it’s general, it’s a generalization.

Nick from FFT started a River Cats blog with his brother. Which makes me think two things: My brother and I should totally start a blog, and I am stoked for the A’s-Cats game tonight! Photos tomorrow for sure, and hopefully, hopefully, one of me mugging with Mike Piazza.

Ziller wants Hibbert in purple.

Make sure to register for Midtown Grid’s Free Lunch Fridays.

Holla at your board!

Lately we’ve been getting a lot of “I don’t know where to put this” comments, from document dumping to appointment TV spoilers, so I’ve decided to dust off an old idea and reintroduce The Rag Board, a community forum. This time it’s powered by bbPress, a robust forum software built by the WordPress people.

Sign up today and start posting. Feel free to send me ideas for new Forums, though the 3 existing ones should give us enough fuel for a while. I’m making a goal of 30 discussions going by the end of April. Have fun!

Have you adequate postage, Master Luke?

I was on my way into the State Capitol this morning when I saw a mailbox painted to look like R2-D2 at 11th and N. At first, I thought that it had fallen prey to an incredibly nerdy vandal until I saw the Web site tag. Apparently, the United States Postal Service has teamed up with the Star Wars people to bring you mail service. Hopefully, my Netflix returns will not end up in a galaxy far, far away…

Massive Meteorite Found in Delta

CBS-13 reported today on a meteorite found ten miles west of Stockton on Victoria Island. The crater is estimated to be three miles wide, several times larger than the really cool Barringer Meteor Crater in Arizona. Scientists think that the impact was 50 million years ago and will begin excavating the blast site that lies underneath more than a mile of soil.

Could this be the magical tourist attraction that will change Stockton from a mediocre backwater shithole to… a less mediocre backwater shithole? If not, I hope that they can dig up enough of the fragments to put an exhibit on this in the Haggin Museum.

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

When we moved into our official married couple house just before Christmas, we noticed that our cross-the-street neighbors still had pumpkins on their front porch. Since they have the most beautifully updated house on the block, keep their yard immaculate, were the first to welcome us to the ‘hood, and seem to be awesome people in general, I didn’t think much of it. I figured the pumpkins had been there so long that they didn’t notice them anymore.

Continue reading “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!”

Are-eye-gee-ayche-tee aye-double you-enn. Right Awn.

Thought I forgot about this little bit, didn’t ya?

Well, actually, I did.  But late last week, after a tip from sources close to the Sac Rag and the media reports that came out the next day, it seemed appropro to throw up a fist and give a shout out.

Last year, Roseville’s Josephine Kao won the Central Valley Spelling Bee, sending her to the National Championships where she made it to Round 4.  While that was an accomplishment in itself, guess what – she just won the Central Valley Bee again:

The Roseville sixth-grader won the 24th annual Central Valley Spelling Bee on Wednesday for the second consecutive year, cementing her status as the region’s top speller.

On May 30, she will head to the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. She competed there last year and finished 45th.

Continue reading “Are-eye-gee-ayche-tee aye-double you-enn. Right Awn.”

“Character education is like, the foundation”

The Bee today reports on several area schools that are taking part in local non-profit group Center for Youth Citizenship’s “Free to Learn” program, that helps little students build traits like “caring, giving and service; justice and fairness; leadership, initiative and teamwork; respect; responsibility; and trustworthiness.”

“Character education is, like, the foundation of my classroom,” said Carly Davenport, who teaches fourth grade at Prairie [Elementary, in Elk Grove].

That is like, a really noble goal. (I kid the Carly Davenport. I am a horrible impromptu public speaker.)

In the abstract, I suppose it is good that educators are concerned with building those skills. What sorts of content do they cover to achieve those goals? Continue reading ““Character education is like, the foundation””

“Students Against Malaria”

I had forgotten I took this shot weekend before last at the Davis Farmer’s Market. Word on the street is this group gets into it frequently with the “Students FOR Malaria”…

"Students Against Malaria"

But I kid the kids. Riffing on this last night my wife and I realized there aren’t very many better options… Student Fighting Malaria sounds good at first until you realize it also sounds like they have malaria. Students For the Eradication of Malaria is precise but wordy.

So if you just tell yourself that it’s against in the sense of “in hostility to” and not in the sense of “disapproving of,” it probably is your best bet. It just sounds and looks funny.