An endorsement with teeth

Politicians love endorsements, and I’d guess that supervisorial candidate Larry Carr is no exception. But I can’t imagine he’s feeling all that excited about having locked up the dog vote.

In fact, the news that he has came not from his campaign (which doesn’t even mention this on a rather long list of supporters), but rather from the Sacramento Dog Owners Group, which endorsed Carr because he “used to have a dog” and because he showed some support for SacDOG’s ongoing push for more off-leash recreation areas.

Still, with County dog owners likely outnumbering Bee subscribers — Carr picked up The Bee’s nod, too — maybe it’s not that bad an endorsement after all.

There are TREES on Fair Oaks Boulevard?

Shocker!

If you travel on Fair Oaks Boulevard between Eastern and Watt Avenues — also known as miles 18-19.5 of the marathon course — you’ve no doubt seen the new signs reading, “CAUTION: TREES NEAR ROADWAY,” complete with a graphic representation of trees near a roadway.

I’d post a photo, but given the speed at which people drive in this section, even my hardhat and orange vest wouldn’t protect me from being mowed over by a (insert name of luxury car or pricey SUV here.)
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Another week, another crash

Fifteen days since our last report, we hammered out another one :

A argument inside a moving car escalated to a hammer fight and ended with the car htting [sic] a power pole in South Sacramento…Officers say the accident was caused by an arguing couple. Police say tempers got so heated inside the car one of the people pulled out a hammer to use as a weapon.

Granted, this is not about a car crashing into a building, but I’m still impressed. Poles are harder to hit when someone is striking you on the temple with a hammer. Check out the video at CBS13, the pole actually didn’t fair too badly!

I’m sure you’ll hear back from me again within 2 or so weeks with another episode.

Run river

Is there any doubt the best thing about Sacramento is that which is also the most dangerous? I write, of course, about the rivers, so high at New Year’s that we watched the levees anxiously, images of New Orleans fresh in our minds. So beautiful now, flowing through river parkways still green with the rains and exploding with wildflowers.

Rivers, floods and levees… these have always been the story of Sacramento. Me? I worry more about a little creek than a big river, backing up as my house does to what by this time of year is little more than a smelly dribble. But at least three times in my lifetime, this little dribble became a torrent, once taking out part of Cal Expo and twice putting Woodside under water.

When the rains fall and the rivers rise, I watch the creek.
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Disappearing moms, disappearing babies

The online magazine Salon has a story (gotta view an ad first, sorry) about a book chronicling the post-World War II phenomenon of sending away young women from “good families” before their pregnancy showed …. and then taking away the babies, without the young moms having a say in the matter.

I’m not old enough to remember such times, but my mother sure is. Which is why when I bought my house in Tahoe Park some 17 years ago (I’ve since moved), my mom said, “Oh! It’s near the Fair Haven Home.”

“The what?” I said.
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Dude, don’t spam your mom

Sacramento’s other major daily online newsource (aside from the Sac Rag, of course) published a useful tip for Mother’s Day. The Sac Bee warns us today about subjecting our moms to spam:

According to McAfee SiteAdvisor, a unit of antivirus company McAfee Inc., at least 10 sites that offer greeting cards, silly poems or other light-hearted material can flood the sender’s inbox with spam. For instance, signing up at one joke Web site resulted in more than 1,000 spammy e-mails a week for McAfee’s testers.

Of the 10 sites that McAfee warns against, five are high-volume spammers and five others install unwanted software like spyware or viruses, Keats said.

A list of those sites can be found at http://blog.siteadvisor.com.

If you want to show Mom how much you care, McAfee recommends Hallmark.com, 123greetings.com, WorldWildlife.org and AmericanGreetings.com as sites that offer quality cards without a side order of spam.

A nice recommendation for those of us who care to send the very least for Mother’s Day.

In defense of exit exams

I have a policy that I don’t lose my patience with people that serve me. Whether at the grocery store, a fast food joint, or even my dear La Fiesta, I understand that most jobs in the world suck. This afternoon, however, my patience was tested.

I phoned in a “to go” order to the Chili’s on Howe Avenue (’bout Arden, in the news by the way) this afternoon on my home from work. I arrived a bit early so I stood and people watched for the better part of 10 minutes. A nice, young girl came up to me and asked if I was waiting for my order. I nodded my head and she informed me it would be about 5 more minutes. No big. So then proceeded to ring up my order. “$21.83, please” she said.
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Make an offer

Talk about your golden parachutes! Footnoted,org reveals this little gem deep in the filings on the purchase of Knight-Ridder by McClatchy (a/k/a the Best LittleBig Media Company On Q Street):

Earlier today, McClatchy & Co. (MNI) filed this amended S-4, which substantially upped the severance payments that Knight-Ridder’s (KRI) top executives will receive once the merger is completed. CEO Tony Ridder, which earlier news accounts estimated would receive $7.28 million in severance, would actually get $9.36 million in severance according to today’s filing, or nearly 10 times his annual salary of $980K last year. Other top executives also will clean up: as a group, they’ll collect nearly $30 million, with each of Knight-Ridder’s four other top executives collecting over $4 million a piece.

Haven’t been around here long, but I bet McClatchy could get the Rag folks to sell out for a fraction of the price.

I knew it!

Scene: Hoppy’s in East Sac. Two guys, watching the ballgame, discussing the tip.

“I just do what my mom always said, and double the sale tax,” says Guy No. 1. Guy No. 2 nods, and Guy No. 1 adds, “Then, I adjust the amount upward according on the rackage on the waitress.”

At the table next, dining on burgers and kettle chips, I shoot my brother a dirty look. He has a knowing smirk on his face.

“What did I do?” he protests.

High-pitched whine

I admit it: I’m an NPR junkie. Not only do I listen to KXPR to and from work, but I also download the NPR podcasts so I can listen to the stories I missed.

And yes, I donate every year.

Like any good Catholic girl (Sacred Heart, St. Francis), I am driven by nothing so much as a sense of responsibility seasoned with more than a little bit of guilt. Which is why when the begathon begins, I pay up. I don’t even ask for the free year’s subscription to Target Demographic magazine that’s offered if I pay with my platinum Amex card.

“Use it all for the station,” I say magnanimously, turning down the Capital Public Radio commute cup or umbrella as if my $120 annual toss-in were on a level with donations of the late Joan Kroc.

Of course, I’m not in Kroc’s class, but I would gladly double the pledge if only I never again had to hear Donna Apidone, usually the smooth-voiced professional, chirping like a big-haired QVC pitch girl during this week’s run of the “shortened pledge drives” that seems to go on longer than the career of Kings coach Rick Adelma — uh … well, a long time, anyway.
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