George Maloof, owner of the Sacramento Kings, has suggested that the 2007 NBA All Star Game be held in his city. The city is totally digging the idea and is all up for it. League officials are quite interested in it too.
Unfortunately, Maloof’s talking about Vegas, where his family owns The Palms Casino Hotel. Sorry folks, but you didn’t seriously think he would offer up Sactown, did you?
It’s that time of the year to discuss one of the many unique-ish things about Sacramento…it gets hot, damn hot. And the only thing more unique-ish about the heat in Sacramento is the denial about the heat in Sacramento by those who have lived here for years. I’m going on my 9th year in the River City and this “heat wave” is no different than in years past. However, no matter where you go or what you are doing you run into a steady stream of, “Man, it’s really hot out there, what’s going on?” “This heat wave, come on, it’s a killer, what’s going on?” Well, what’s going on is that it gets hot in Sacramento about this time each and every year. Sure, some days are hotter than others, but again, Sacramento gets hot, you with me yet?
The good news is that San Francisco has four times the number of heat-related deaths as Sacramento – about 41 per year, compared with 10 here. So chin up Sacramento, you’ve got that going for you.
The local version of Maury and Connie, KCRA’s Dave Walker and Lois Hart are stepping down from the 11 p.m. news later this year. Dave and Lois are definitely my favorite local broadcasting team (can you say, If you don’t like that, you don’t like local sports radio idiots?) and will be sorely missed in the CoolDMZ household, where the flirtatious “active adult” couple was a heartwarming part of the nightly local news gathering ritual. Although at their age, it was pretty obvious that most nights they needed to be in bed by 11.
They will be replaced at 11 by Edie Lambert and John Alston, who are competent newspeople but will have the chemistry of a pair of candlesticks. What good is hokey local news (lokey news? hokal news?) without a cute old married couple telling you about the Asparagus Festival?
While watching Ron Hyde deliver the nightly sportscast on WB58 News at 10, I realized The Sac Rag would be remiss if did not pause at Major League Baseball’s All-Star break to recognize the Herculean efforts thus far of El Camino’s favorite son, Derrek Lee of the Chicago Cubs.
Oh and something about a Triple-A All Star game in town. They’re great, I get my car battery jumped every few months or so just because I figure I’m paying for it anyway.
Has anyone else noticed a trend of unusual parental attire in Sacramento lately? Okay, I’ve only had two sightings so perhaps that does not constitute a trend, per se. But what does this say about our esteemed city? Thursday night at the Arden Fair Mall I saw a gigantic woman pushing a toddler in a stroller while her four or five-year-old son ran ahead. I don’t mention that she was gigantic to be mean, only to give you the picture that her t-shirt was wide like a billboard. A fact important to the story because in huge black letters the shirt said, “LEAVE ME THE F*** ALONE!” except in place of stars there were actual letters. In substance probably not an unreasonable request for the busy mother of two small children, who maybe gets about four minutes a day to herself IF Dora the Explorer is on, but must it be phrased this way? And must she advertise her hostility to her children and the world at large?
I thought it was a fluke until last night when I was at Albertson’s and I saw a man with his son, approximately age six, and the man’s shirt said “I DON’T GIVE A RAT’S A**.” Yet once again, spelled out. He was headed for the liquor section with his child, apparently making good on his proclamation. Is this a Sacramento trend? If so there’s going to be a run on child-sized “I’m with stupid” shirts.
Some random thoughts while walking back from lunch on J Street with RonTopofIt:
Were there “beach people” in Midtown *before* the Beach Hut Deli opened on J Street?
People don’t seem to come to the Beach Hut Deli for the free WiFi, but people do seem to come to the Starbucks just down the block for the pay WiFi.
There are more art supply stores on J Street than Starbucks locations. Now that’s impressive.
Asking the barista for an unwhipped MFer is apparently not the appropriate way to order a mocha frappuccino with no whipped cream at Starbucks.
Great lunch at the Beach Hut, nonetheless!
After reading CoolDMZ’s post on the Fourth of July activities in the River City I had to step in with an observation that was truly enlightening. DMZ links to an article on sacbee.com that is simply a must read. If you haven’t already created a dummy log in to the sacbee.com, please do so immediately. For if you have ever wondered what makes Sacramento tick or why we suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous disrespect you won’t after sifting through this little nugget of Sacramentocana.
Many thanks to you, Andrew McIntosh, for holding up both the mirror and the bed pan.
Almost had a shopping cart collision with State Senator Debra Ortiz last night at my local supermarket… If I told you the only products in her basket were Jack Daniels and pregnancy tests, not only would it create quite an uproar, it would be a bold-faced and irresponsible lie.
I used to think that Sacramentans’ propensity to getting drunk on the river without bothering to learn to swim, leading to what I can only assume is a higher than average number of annual drunken idiot drowning deaths, would lead to the lessening of Sacramento’s role in the future gene pool.
Now I think that’s a good thing:
Muddy river brawls erupt
30 revelers are arrested – part of ‘a sea of drunken humanity’ along the American River.
law enforcement officials spent much of the day trying to maintain order at a tiny island in the middle of the river, a remote spot north of Rancho Cordova’s Hagan Community Park. Authorities dubbed it “Gilligan’s Island,” but revelers called it “Fighters Island.”
Nothing describes Sacramento’s beer-bloated dogpile of fleshblobs better than a “sea of drunken humanity,” though I would have used the more apt term “semi-humanity.”
Most people made the rafting journey without incident, as three helicopters from the California Highway Patrol, Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department and Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District flew above to ensure public safety.
The more public safety resources that are diverted to make sure the throngs of wastoid drowning pre-victims arrive safely, the fewer of those resources are availabe later that night when said wastoids are lighting bottle rockets over the fence from my house. Read it all, if you dare. (Sac Bee, RR)
The NBA’s free agency period is upon us. So what’s that mean for you, the Kings fan who hopes to see a winning team next year?
It means you need to shape up your yard. We don’t want to see any weeds and Geo Metros or anything among the Gloriosa lillies and crape myrtle – we’ve got a city to sell!
If you want Kwame Brown or Udonis Haslem or even (gasp!) Samuel Dalembert to be pulling down boards for your Sacramento Kings next season, you’d better put a smile on your face and greet those nice young men when they come into town to check out the practice facility. Free drinks, free merchandise and free coconut shrimp are all we ask of you, Sacramento merchants.
And if you work at Centerfolds or Risky Business and you see a tall athletic African-American fellow sitting with a guy with a mullet, be a team player and give him some special attention. The black guy, that is. Not Petrie.
(Cross-posted at Pick&Droll: A Kings Blog.)
The Sac Rag 
