Harry Potter themed fun at Fairytale Town!

If you’re looking for the nerdiest holiday gathering around, look no further than Fairytale Town’s “Safe & Super Halloween: The Magical World of Harry Potter.” The event, which starts Friday and runs Friday & Saturday of this week and next, not only has Hogwarts themed candy hunting and special guests, but there is also a Harry Potter trivia contest in the puppet theater stage. Now there’s a trivia night I can win without bringing a posse!

My daughter only recently caught the Potter bug, so we are still way into this stuff. If I have time after constructing working Quidditch player’s uniforms for the kids you’ll catch me there in a kickass Mad Eye Moody cosplay outfit. But now that I think about it, maybe I’ll convince Mrs Cool to go as Tonks and show up as tweedy werewolf Remus Lupin?

Safe & Super Halloween: The Magical World of Harry Potter
Friday & Saturday
October 21 – 22 & October 28 – 29
5PM – 9PM
Tickets are $7 for members and $10 for nonmembers, children 1 and under are free.
Ticket prices increase on October 21 ($9 members/ $12 nonmembers).
Trivia contest is an additional $1 for members and $2 for nonmembers.

Intel is hiring/has hired/can’t hire again

Job seekers certainly took notice of a headline in the Bee on Saturday announcing that “Intel in Folsom is hiring again.” The story supports this encouraging headline, too, in the first sentence.

After a decade of downsizing at its Folsom campus, Intel Corp. has begun hiring again.

Great, so you *are* hiring folks.

The Santa Clara-based high-tech company, one of the largest private employers in the Sacramento region, said it has added nearly 370 workers to its local operation since January.

Ok, so you *have* hired this year.

Intel spokesman Mark Pettinger noted that the company has recently instituted a hiring freeze. But Pettinger added that Intel could bring on additional hires at the Folsom campus if the economy picks up.

Oh, I see, you *aren’t hiring* right now, but wanted to let us know that you *could* hire again if things get better in this nasty economy?

Am I missing something here, folks?

I-80, your tyranny is over

great bridge, lousy phone camera

For years, North Natomans who worked just 3 miles from home started each day with an exhaust-spewing surrender to tyranny. That tyrant was I-80, which blockades our northern suburbanites from a tantalizingly close downtown destination – because even on a clear, warm day, these oppressed commuters had no choice but to pile in their cars and slog through traffic.

Well, those days are over. Yesterday, city officials opened a new bike and pedestrian bridge that arcs over I-80 and liberates a whole community from the monopoly of the car. For the weary road-enraged populace, bicyclical commutes are no longer a fantasy, but an actual choice.

Continue reading “I-80, your tyranny is over”

Went big at Sam’s

footage of the incident

One of the thrills of blogging is extending the bounties of a life-changing discovery to countless readers. It’s that thrill that I resume with my describing Sam’s Hof Brau and my adventures there.

Sam’s Hof Brau is a “time out” from the judging eyes of society’s nutritionists and vegans. It’s a place that people visit for only one reason – to get serious about eating a lot of very fine carved meat.

I discovered Sam’s about a month ago when a very great friend of mine took me there for my birthday. We literally ordered every cut of meat on the menu – some of them in abundance – and several sides of Sam’s excellent potato salad. Where one might expect the grim spectacle of Man vs. Food-like perseverance, I was instead enchanted by the succulence of every bite.

Continue reading “Went big at Sam’s”

Is it Possible to go Fanboy for a Dairy Product?

It’s not like I haven’t had gelato before. I’ve had my fair share in fact. But I wouldn’t call myself a gelato lover, or in a more appropriately Italian vein, a gelato aficionado. Nevertheless I am absolutely gaga over Devine Gelateria in Midtown.

Maybe it’s the creative range of flavors — bananas foster, fig/honey/ricotta, salty peanut — that has me shorting out my keyboard with drool; or maybe it’s the ridiculous quality of the product, so fresh and obviously natural that it makes Michael Pollan look like Colonel Sanders; or maybe it’s the absolutely fabulous (and when I say fabulous, I really mean faaaabulous) service I receive every time I go.

Whatever the reason, I’m stupidly excited every time I drive by the 19th St storefront, giddy like a fanboy every time I see the updated flavors listed on Facebook, and smiling like a dentist’s model every time I walk in the door. I love this place so unabashedly it’s embarrassing.  Basically, I’m saying, “Hey you should check it out, it’s pretty good.”

Devine Gelateria & Cafe– 1221 19th St

Family art festival this weekend


Harley White Jr. Orchestra, via MySpace

Saturday afternoon at the MARRS building it’s the Midtown Modern Arts Festival, featuring performances and exhibits from a dozen local arts groups. Pretty much every artistic medium will be represented: visual artists; improv comedy by Sacramento Comedy Spot; Sacramento Ballet and B Street; even creative writing is getting in on it.

I heard about it from my old pal Jeff Musser, a local artist, who will be showing off some of his edgy work. There will be live music and dance, and hopefully wonderful weather as well. I guess Third Saturday afternoon is the new Second Saturday? It sounds fun!

Central city alleys to get street names

After a five year (!) process, the alleys in the central city are finally going to get street names (whats going on withthat URL?)

City officials are beginning to develop the grid’s alleys and hope to one day have cafes, housing and shops lining some of the corridors

But again, just naming them took 5 years, so don’t hold your breath.

The names will reference different aspects of our city’s history and character, like Jazz Alley, Solons Alley, and Dorothea Puente Alley. (That last one might not be real.) The alley between I and J will be named Improv Alley either after the city’s strong improv comedy scene, or as its status as the birthplace of Wayne Brady. (Also made up.)

Anybody got some alternative names that were not considered, but have comedic value?

School’s Out

Almost every one of California’s 120 legislators left town last month, and last week Gov. Brown finished his solemn task of cleaning up the mess they left.

I wish I could say it was this year’s rambunctious Legislature that kept me from posting on Sac Rag for the last five months. It definitely is on the list of reasons, right below ‘lazy,’ ‘distracted,’ and ‘goofy kid wearing the ‘College’ t-shirt from Animal House who ran a stop sign, totaled my car, and condemned me to a Kafkaesque eternity of dealing with insurance companies and car dealerships’ (no one was hurt, thank God, except my faith in traffic laws). It made me hope, while sifting through the 1000s of bills our Legislature served up this year, that at least one stiffened the penalties for stop sign-running – but no luck. Apparently there were 1000s of other issues worth legislating. Continue reading “School’s Out”

Pumpkin patch review: Zittel Farms

Hay Rides at Zittel Farms in Folsom
Hay Rides at Zittel Farms in Folsom

It’s October, and that means it is time to start thinking about Halloween and visiting your local pumpkin patch for some autumnal goodness. I know this is normally CoolDMZ’s beat, but I had occasion to visit Zittel Farms yesterday in Folsom and thought I’d write a few words about my experience.

We went with another family and the kids quickly grabbed a wagon (they have a cool collection of old wagons to haul your gourds around) and started shopping. Within a few minutes of arriving, we were asked if we wanted to hop on the next hay ride. Who says no to a hay ride? People with allergies, I quickly found out, but you get the idea.

We were under a time crunch and did not have a chance to enjoy the petting zoo or pony rides, but were otherwise very impressed by the low-key nature of Zittel Farms. Their prices aren’t exactly cheap, but I think it is one of those “support your local farmer” type things. Parking was a bit tight, but manageable. The staff was rather friendly and didn’t seem to mind that we were taking more photos than we were purchasing pumpkins.

At any rate, I know there are more exciting pumpkin patches out there, but if you are in the area and would like a few photo opportunities (RonTopofIt playing with Google+) to celebrate the season, head on over to Zittel Farms at 6781 Oak Avenue in Folsom.

FBI Creepiness at CSUS

Why was the FBI undercover at Sac State this week? And why were they mistaken for perverts?

Earlier this week at Sac State, a female student reported two suspicious men to SSPD. The men, described as in their 50s, approached her and identified themselves as undercover campus security officers. They asked her to accompany them to a nearby parking lot to assist them in an investigation. She wisely refused.

After the Police alerted the University community about the attempted weirdness, adding that they do not employ plainclothes policemen, people freaked the hell out. Safety meetings occurred frequently. Thankfully, no further incidents of creepiness occurred, but the suspects still remained at large.

A second statement was issued by campus police yesterday announcing the threat to be unfounded. Was it a fanciful yarn spun by a lonely freshman desperate for attention during her first month away from home? A prank inspired by a wacky 80’s low-budget college sex romp, or a terrifying 90’s high-budget torture porn? Sorority initiation time again?

No, they were undercover FBI agents.

Assuming this entire story isn’t a load of hooey, something still doesn’t add up for me. If these men were FBI, why wouldn’t they identify themselves as being FBI? For someone investigating crimes at a University, the worst disguise is “undercover campus cop”. Very fishy. So what really happened?
Continue reading “FBI Creepiness at CSUS”