Maybe they should have let a horse loose

Entirely predictable protests at yesterday’s Sac City Unified School District hearing on whether to endorse this year’s nationwide Day of Silence for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students.

The district’s LGBT Task Force, itself a product of a 2004 board resolution to make schools a safe place for “gender nonconforming” students, recently asked the board to approve a symbolic resolution acknowledging April 26 as a Day of Silence.

No word on whether the district would consider a day of teaching, to ensure that the students learn enough about the world so they don’t grow up to be bigoted jackasses (that was supposed to link to a picture of a bigoted jackass from yesterday’s protest, but not even Fox40, where we saw this story, has anything). Maybe if the district needs a kick in that direction, they should remember the group of student protestors who managed to get CalSTRS to tentatively divest from its investment in the Sudan. Nice work, kids!

Free Coffee (sort of)

You regulars know that Peet’s Coffee & Tea is celebrating its 40th anniversary this month. They are offering free cups of coffee every day from 1pm to 3pm (this week Garuda, next week Major Dickason’s!). Here’s a calendar to keep track (also available in the store).

You’ll notice that they are also offering a free 1/4 lb of coffee on Fridays from 1pm to close. It’s vague on the signs in the store, but worth noting this detail:

COMPLIMENTARY BEANS
Every Friday take home a complimentary bag of beans with any purchase, as you take a journey through Peet’s history.

This is a cool gesture and all, but the words “free” (or in this case “complimentary”) and “purchase” shouldn’t be used in the same sentence. Unless it’s “no purchase necessary” of course.

Fire drill

Say what you will about Burning Man “… I don’t git why them hippies and yuppies got to go all the way to Nevada just to get stoned and get nekkid and burn somthin’ …” but if you want to do one thing truly great this year, join your friends on the playa to help break the Guinness world record for the longest Chinese festival dragon.
We’re talking two miles of colorful, history-making, fire-spitting dragon fun. Imagine telling your future grandchildren about this amazing feat of art!

A *what* crashed into a building?

KCRA reports that police say a vehicle crashed into a building in Sacramento. What, KCRA, you couldn’t tell?

SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. — One person died early Thursday after a van crashed into the side of thrift store in the Foothill Farms area, police reported.

As of 6:30 a.m., investigators were at the scene trying to determine why the vehicle smashed into the side of a thrift store at the corner of Auburn Boulevard and Garfield Avenue.

The thrift store sits in a building that was formerly a Kmart store.

Despite the tragic outcome, it says something about the newsworthiness of this type of story when the fact that the building was a Kmart at some point in time is considered an equally important detail to note.

Adios Paul y Jen, Hola Univision 19!

Sacramento Business Journal reports that Spanish-language television broadcaster Univision had the No. 1 local evening newscasts for viewers under age 50 in the Sacramento market in February, beating all the major networks…

KUVS-TV Channel 19 had the top-ranked newscasts at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. in both the adults 18-34 and the adults 18-49 demographic brackets, according to the results of the February sweep by Nielsen Media Research.

Trabajo de Niza, Sacramento. ¡Divulgan, usted deciden!

For you gamers out there…

I’d love to give some free publicity to ConQuest Sacramento, “A gaming convention with a sci-fi flair” which will be taking place this weekend (April 7-9) at the Red Lion Inn. Special events include a costume contest hosted by one of my favorite local celebrities, Mr. Lobo, and a “questing through time” (this year’s theme) movie marathon including such time-travel hits as “TimeCop,” “Back to the Future,” and “Bill And Ted’s” (shorthand I suppose for a double feature of Excellent Adventure as well as Bogus Journey, though I don’t recall the Bogus Journey having a time-travel theme–didn’t they go to H-E double hockey sticks?). Gather your plastic tube of dice and put on your mage’s robe and giant fighting robot pilot helmet and join the fun.

Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiii.

Here’s another one for our record books:

Dr. Katz uses a sophisticated clinical instrument, The Halimeter, to measure levels of bad breath at his clinics. Any reading above 70 means that someone has offensive breath.

The highest reading ever? 1800 – from a physician in Sacramento, CA who drank 2 bottles of wine daily and smoked 2 packs of cigarettes every day. Both habits are bound to cause bad breath because they make the mouth extremely dry.

Sacramento. The Bad Breath Capital of the USA.

The yuppies are coming

Who says we’re in a housing market bubble? Not Knights Landing, that’s for sure:

The sleepy river town of Knights Landing in Yolo County has become a target for developers.

Two builders are about to start construction on the first subdivisions in decades in the village beside the banks of the Sacramento River. They are small projects, totaling fewer than 100 homes, but one of the developers expects to submit a plan to build 600 additional homes in town…

The tract is about twice the size of the town itself. About 65 acres is in the designated urban area, and would be commercial development; the balance is agricultural land. In theory, 800 acres could hold 3,200 homes, assuming a fairly low-density project of four units per acre.

Let’s see…”on the banks of the Sacramento River”. That sounds promising.

But here is what really caught my eye…
Continue reading “The yuppies are coming”

We should call it… Berkeley…Two, or something…

Berkeley showed it’s not only capable of being in the news for banning stuff like the US flag and log burning fireplaces; it’s also got a shrewd business mind:

[Berkeley-based] Grocery Outlet, which operates 125 stores, closed its Rocklin store last week and reopened it with the old Lucky name.

They’ll never stick with it, however, once Rocklin bans the sale of patchouli.

(Note: I am pretty sure the Grocery Outlet company is the kind of business you wouldn’t know is from Berkeley unless you read it, and no, my understanding of Berkeley has not advanced since I was 10.)