I’m doing research, honest.

I would make this one a “Make us laugh” post, but that clearly doesn’t motivate folks. But, you know what motivates people? MySpace (a place for friends) discussions. With that said…

Access to MySpace has been blocked at the Lodi Police Department.

Police officials say they decided to block access to MySpace on the department’s internal network because officers were spending too much time browsing online.

But, never fear, officers who use the site for investigations or other authorized reasons will still have access.

Hmm, if you have a site that may need to be visited from time to time for investigations and other authorized reasons, do you really need to be on that site for non-investigations and unauthorized reasons?

Burrito Supremacy

Everyone has their favorite burrito.  Mine happens to be from the same place that also supplies my favorite tacos.  If I dug a little deeper I’d probably find that they give pretty good massages as well.  Of course I’m speaking about Angel’s Fresh Mex on 16th Street at U.  I know that I’ve lauded Angel’s before, but they really deserve it.  Today’s chili verde burrito was a thing of gastronomic beauty, a pork filled tortilla sleeve of love.  It will be hard to ever look at a burrito the same way again without feeling a little dirty.  If you haven’t made the trip over to Angel’s, you’re not only missing out, you’re probably doing irreparable harm to yourself, your family, and in some small way, giving aid and succor to our enemies.  Go there, now, eat, enjoy.

Zodiac coinkidink?

Does anybody else smell a big fat rat?

Nearly four decades after some of the most infamous serial killings in U.S. history, Vallejo Police investigators have submitted new DNA evidence to a California crime lab in hopes of catching the Zodiac killer.

The search for new evidence coincides with the release of a new film chronicling the hunt for the Zodiac killer. “Zodiac,” starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr. opens March 2.

Although I am least happy that this story does not involve someone named Britney or Anna Nicole…

New day, new digs for Graswich

Reader kit (whoa! redesign) just emailed with breaking news from the Biz journal that R.E. Graswich, late of the Sacramento Bee, is bouncing back after leaving his 35-year gig by taking a new one at the Sac Mag.

He will now be writing monthly columns for Sacramento magazine and twice-weekly blogs for the magazine’s Web site, sacmag.com.

The best part about the Sac Mag’s website is that it can be read in places other than in the lobby of Supercuts. We can’t wait to see Bob’s new stuff.

Lost: the local angle

21Q’s Sam McManis beat me to the punch last week on the Lost promos for News10 starring TV’s Sawyer:

He looks into the camera with that Sawyerian smirk and says, “Don’t trust ‘The Others.’ Watch News10.”

The viewer can easily detect the barely-disguised ennui actor Josh Holloway (Sawyer) is nursing having to do promos for every ABC affiliate from here to Baltimore.

Quipped one friend of 21Q: “Yeah, Henry Gale is totally a KCRA guy.”

If you’re a “Lost” fanatic, you’ll get the reference.

Which I technically still am, but I don’t. Even with the ennui it’s still better than those Colusa Casino radio spots starring Carlos Santana.

UPDATE: Sam McManis emails:

Now, the implication by my colleague who made the Henry Gale/KCRA quip was that “The Others” aka “The Man” aka “The Establishment” would watch KCRA whereas the good guys would watch warm-and-fuzzy News10.

Yeah I don’t know why I didn’t get that. Although I like to think that Sawyer would be all over this here weblog, since he is the premiere provider of snark on the island. And thinking of him hunching over a keyboard hunting and pecking is almost as funny as when he wears glasses.

Sonoma County road trip 2007


Originally uploaded by cooldmz.

The Cool family enjoyed a road trip to Napa and Sonoma Counties over the weekend. It solidified my belief that Sonoma County is one of the most beautiful locations on Earth. It helps when you gamble on the weather and it comes up aces. (Thanks a lot, Dirk Verdoorn!)

To the left is a photo of “Train Town,” a great Funderland-type amusement park just down from the Sonoma town center. Train Town has several rides–mostly the classics, including a ferris wheel and a carousel, and a longish train ride–nestled in the Sonoma foothills. It boasts “1/5 the size of Disneyland!” Which sounds fabulous until you realize that about 80% of Train Town is meant only to be looked at from the train ride. On the other hand, the train ride is great fun and includes a stop at a petting zoo that has a llama. So it’s settled then, Train Town is a winner. (More photos on my Flickr.)

Continue reading “Sonoma County road trip 2007”

Nice goes all wrong at TJs

Being niceThese days when I visit the East Sac Trader Joe’s–which no matter how crowded it is, always seems to have a staff to patron ratio of about 1:1–I notice that the cashiers are very friendly. Like, serial killer friendly. I assume this is company policy. Saturday night, after a long tiring day of yard projects and kid-wrangling, I was asked by the young cashier whether I had any plans. Nothing much, I said, just going to watch a movie with the wife. “Oh really? What movie do you have?” At this point I was too tired to think of way to avoid telling him what movie, and then since it was an obscure low-budget science fiction flick (“Primer“–which by the way was kinda interesting, and at 68 minutes is worth your time, but your wife will haaate it.), I found myself having to give him a plot summary and genre explanation of this movie which I had not seen. Too bad I hadn’t just rented “Caddyshack” or something…

This is not the first such encounter. Continue reading “Nice goes all wrong at TJs”

Looking for Snoopy?

Spike, Snoopy's brother from Needles, CADon’t check the Bee’s comics page. Today is the day that The Bee pulls the plug on the Sunday Peanuts strip. Say it with me: Good grief! Along with your Sunday dose of Charlie and gang, say goodbye to “Frank & Ernest,” “Rose Is Rose,” “B.C.” and “Family Circus.” More tragically, if you’re a fan, say goodbye forever to “Mother Goose and Grimm,” which has been running only Sundays for a while and is now gone altogether.

If Sunday just isn’t the same without a 40 year old Peanuts rerun, remember that the Official Peanuts Website has a daily strip. Mike Peters, creator of “Mother Goose,” (which I actually kind of enjoyed) has a web page but as of Saturday morning it seems not to be working.

Memo to the Bee’s comics dept.: Don’t mess with my Dilbert.