I don’t feel savvy…

If you missed today’s Scene section, yours truly got a mention by Sam McManis in his “Media Savvy” column on declining air time for sports in local news.

Viewers are noticing, too. Don Zacharias, a sports fan and avid TV watcher, recently ranted about the “suckification” of local TV sports coverage on his local blog, Sacrag.com.

“It’s the way the new guys are being used,” he wrote in a posting, “… doing stupid on-the-spot reporting from behind the wheel of a race car, stuff like that which smacks of media contracts and PR.”

I thought that was a terrible sentence when I wrote it and I still think it. But there I am. His reporting on the airtime breakdown between Crandell’s Fox40 sportscast and whatever Keith Norton is doing at KOVR is clutch.

Maloofs blast city, county

Remember: women and children out of the ship first…

The owners of the Sacramento Kings have sent out a letter blasting city and county leaders for taking the side of a developer who they say wants to renegotiate terms of a deal for a new arena.

The letter was sent to season ticket holders, other customers, team members and at least some city leaders.

Is anybody out there in Sac Rag land on that mailing list? We’d love to get a copy of that letter…

UPDATE: Thanks, “somebody else” for hooking us up so quickly (26 minutes). This thing is turning into a full blown fiasco. The timing of this is great, even if the city/county could react it wouldn’t be until the weekend. Wonder how they’ll distance themselves from this?

One thing, though: “For us, failure at the Railyards would mean everything.” I thought it just meant that they “may have to consider other options”?

But will they upstage the hair?

For those of you who read The Sac Rag before you sign off for the night, I wanted to share this tidbit from our friends at Runaway Stage Productions:

News FLASH! (pardon the pun), If you have not yet seen RSP’s current hit show “The Full Monty,” actors from this exciting popular musical are scheduled to appear live on Channel 31’s Good Day Sacramento this Friday morning, September 15th during the 7:00 and 8:00 hours. Lots of music, interviews and a strip lesson for Mark S. Allen! Check it out and then be sure to get your tickets for “The Full Monty” before it’s too late!

Friends, I have seen the show (in all its glory, one might say), so I’m not just plugging a friend’s project. This is a fun show with heart and a lot of energy and I say it’s worth checkin out.

Wheels coming off the wagon?

Various sources are reporting that the talks between the Maloofs and the JPA are stalling over parking spaces. In a stunning turn of events, the pro-arena campaign is now saying that it will press on with or without the Kings:

“We still consider [the Maloofs] part of our team, but it is our arena, and we will decide where it goes, and the public has said loud and clear that the best place for the arena is in the railyard,” said Assistant City Manager John Dangberg

Again I ask how and when we made our voice “loud and clear” on the arena issue. This is starting to completely unravel into a major scandal. What are these idiots doing? More later…

Here’s your Chai, now quit your whining

When Hubby and I finished up our grubbin’ lunch at the Folsom branch of La Fiesta on Sunday, we noticed a business in the same strip mall that was called “Tea and Sympathy.” Wait..what? SYMPATHY? Did I read that correctly?

“Yes, I’d like an iced Mighty Leaf Green Tea Tropical, and my diabetic hamster who needs insulin shots just ran away.”

“That will be $3.40, and I’m sorry.”
Continue reading “Here’s your Chai, now quit your whining”

Arena boosters distance themselves from Maloofs, voters

I don’t blame the Arena supportes for distancing themselves from Joe Maloof’s apparently off-the-cuff prepared statement last week about the possibility of the railyard site not materializing. But in doing so they bury a key point of the agreement they made with the Maloofs: namely that the railyard site might not materialize and that “we may have to consider alternative locations in Sacramento.” They know it’s true because they signed the document, things Dignan’s not supposed to touch. Oops, sorry.

Campaign chairperson Sandy Smoley told News10 in a written statement. “The community has decided that the best place for its new arena is at the old Sacramento railyards, and we have no doubt that this is where it will be.

The community decided that? When was that, was I out of the country when we decided that?
Continue reading “Arena boosters distance themselves from Maloofs, voters”

Goethe had flare

One of the most common search engine queries that land on the Sac Rag is “goethe pronounce“. They land here because, of course, it’s Sacramento related and thusly has been written about on this here web log. Wikipedia has it as “Gay-tee” named after Charles Goethe (as Runnergirl noted) the famous, you know, eugenicist.

Goethe (pronounced “Gay-tee”) wrote admiringly of California’s Forty-Niners and the State’s giant redwood trees. Goethe also recommended compulsory sterilization of the ‘socially unfit’, opposed immigration, and praised German scientists who used a comprehensive sterilization program to ‘purify’ the Aryan race before the outbreak of World War II. Goethe also funded anti-Asian campaigns, praised the Nazis before and after World War II, and practiced discrimination in his business dealings, refusing to sell real estate to Mexicans and Asians.

Yikes. And all we care about his how to pronounce the dude’s name? I’m no Sacramento historian so I bounced around the Internet for a few minutes and found an article on the statehornet.com Web site about renaming the C.M. Goethe Arboretum early last year. This spawned a Web site, changethesign.org, which serves to “begin a public debate over how to approach the history of the relationship between Goethe and CSUS.”

So what’s the deal with this guy, CSUS, and the park in Rancho Cordova? And how can we blame Julie Durda for this?

Cooky Kaption Kontest: Big Fun Edition


sip

Originally uploaded by ~ChiCkYs~.

Well folks, the Cool family could not make it to Big Fun this year so we’ll have to settle for checking out the state exhibits on Flickr. I didn’t necessarily look at every photo tagged “californiastatefair,” but I looked at every page of photos, and for some reason this one catches my eye the most. I present to you “sip” uploaded by ~ChiCkYs~. Post your caption in the comments. (And in case you’re worried: I cleared this with ~ChiCkYs~ and he cleared it with the man in the photo!)

Did you get the memo?

The County is on strike.

While it sucks that they haven’t sent out a formal notice (that I know of) regarding the strike and what to do with our garbage, it doesn’t mean that those of us serviced by them should not make every attempt to stay informed.

Seriously, any local news organization‘s Web site can provide daily updates, but I suggest visiting the sacgreenteam.com site for the latest specifics. While you are there you can learn more about your garbage and how to dispose of it properly. And if you use this forum to tell me that not all folks have access to the internet you’re probably the same type of person that uses the “REPLY ALL” feature to tell people to stop replying all to spam and global solicitations…

For those of you that use this here web log as your only source of information pertaining to Sacramento (hey, you’re out there, I know it!), please be advised of the following:

Due to the current labor action by County workers, solid waste collection activities have been suspended. When collection crews return to work, the County will resume its regular collection pick-up schedule. In the meantime, please continue to place your containers out for collection on your normal pick-up day in the event we can assemble a crew to collect your materials. If uncollected, return your cans to your yard until your next regular collection day and store all overflow materials in plastic trash bags.

That means put your cans back in your yard, dammit!

More signs that SacTown is going to hell in a handbasket with a broken handle

Beancounters admits she no longer holds garage sales because the stealing gets on her nerves:

Stealing from sales has gotten more rampant. I get unreasonably mad at people who steal from my sale. Or bundle stuff tightly under their arms and come up to me and try to offer me a quarter for everything. Or hide stuff under their clothes. Or pass unpurchased stuff to a confederate who has already made her purchases. Or make their kids distract me while the adults throw shit into their car trunks or into the milk crates on the back of their decrepit bicycles, and then take off and meet the kids around the block.

When I see this behavior, I get. really. mad. It’s stupid, but I do. I am the first to tell you that the Rules of Garage Sale Engagement are sometimes nebulous, but the line is drawn at actual stealing! If you don’t know that, you are not fit to be out in polite society.

So, I hear myself yelling impossibly surreal things like “Yes, I see that Travel Scrabble game under your t-shirt, and it’s still fifty cents!”

Read the rest …