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| Child Left Behind |
Photo by Christopher Victorio
Passing through the Del Mar Fairgrounds gates bound for the toll-road hearing inside O’Brien Hall Monday morning, you were first re-directed to a party scene created by 241 opponents. At any time during the 10-hour marathon inside, dozens and dozens of people filled the bustling area outside to sign up with environmental groups, get free food vouchers, make protest signs or acquire pre-printed ones, pose with a cut-out of George W. Bush in a green “Save the Park/Stop the Toll Road” t-shirt and get their own matching t-shirts to wear inside the hearing as a show of solidarity with the anti-Foothill/South extension cause.
Most wound up slipping into the green shirts, but a particularly striking black “Save Trestles” tee featured Ronald Reagan’s bust on the front and a quote the then-governor made in the 1970s when he established San Onofre State Park in perpetuity. Toll road backers now want to pave over The Gipper's gift.
By contrast, the pro-toll road area on the opposite side of the walkway was much more subdued. It was also less populated, with many more union helpers in orange “Less Traffic/More Jobs” tees than visitors at any given time. One bored toll road supporter scanning the dismal scene was overheard dejectedly telling another, “Three hours to lunch.”
As Clockwork sits in deliberations as an Orange County Superior Court alternate juror, speaking as this is being banged out is our foreman, Stephen Mensinger. When Mensinger is not being paid $15-a-day to fulfill his civic duty, he earns bukoo bucks to preside over Irvine-based developer SunCal's multifamily division. In essence, he's in charge of the apartments, townhomes and condos that are included in SunCal projects.
One such project is the delay-plagued Marblehead oceanview project in San Clemente. Register business columnist Jonathan Lanser reports on his real estate blog today that among the projects bankruptcy court-bound Wall Street giant Lehman Bros. was financing was Marblehead.
"He's just lucky that both his wife and his mistress are named Debbie. Keeps it simple for the guy. Harder to mess up." - One dude in a suit to another outside the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse this morning, on Sheriff Mike Carona.
His Indictedness eluded the media again this morning, sneaking into the courthouse a little past 7 a.m. when everyone showed up at 8 (hoping to catch him at 9). But that doesn't mean there wasn't any royalty at the scene:
Happy Halloween! Peggy Lowe reports that Carona, his wife and mistress are being held in separate cells at the Reagan Building.
Their hearing's at 2 p.m. Our very own Rich Kane will report from the scene later today, so do check back.
Before a recent Orange County criminal trial of a Vietnamese American defendant, Superior Court Judge William Froeberg asked if any of the prospective jurors could speak Vietnamese.
There was silence and then:
Juror #126: I know one word of Vietnamese!
Froeberg: One word?
Juror 126: It's not a good word.
Froeberg: I won't ask you to say it then.
"But I thought the cops couldn't hear me talk on Nextel."
--Twentysomething criminal defendant, who ridiculously believed police couldn't monitor his Nextel walkie-talkie "chirp" communications, to his annoyed lawyer in an Orange County courthouse hallway, Sept. 7, 2007.
I was mildly surprised to see about 50 shoppers inside Nordstrom Rack at Metro Pointe in Costa Mesa seven minutes after they'd opened on Saturday morning. Sure, I wasn't expecting the power (and air conditioning) to blink, resume and then crash while I was inside a dressing room with my pants off. (I would have cursed but the gentlemen around me in other stalls took care of that for all us.) And, of course, I was amused that clerks came to the pitch dark dressing area and told us to leave immediately--as if we'd want to stay in the cramped, hotter-than-hell booths surrounded by ill-fitting clothes and sharp pins littering the floors. But no, I wasn't expecting to return inside the store and see (barely) dozens of shoppers still furiously working the clothes racks in the dark and without air conditioning as if nothing had happened.
Thursday night outside my HB apartment balcony: one neighbor attacks another loud enough for all to hear . . .
"I've seen you and your cute young blond boyfriend, always running around naked in your living room. There are children here! You, you're not a real man! I've seen you with your eyes as wide as saucers! And your eyeliner! You rump ranger! You're not a real man! You and your . . . your lifestyle, you're living a lie! You liar! Living a lie! You and your eyeliner!"
Half an hour later, the cops show up. Time to make popcorn.
Side note: This is from the same chick who is always screaming at her husband for being a racist. "This isn't Costa Mesa 1970!!!" she yells in the wee hours of the morn. No need for an alarm clock in these parts.
"No, like, dude, don't date no white girls. They're, like, plain. You know? They have no spice like a Mexican girl. I'm not trying to use stereotypes. (Silence.) Uh-huh, uh-huh. (Silence.) No, I know she's hot. I know. (Silence.) But white girls are, like, individualistic. I'm a family guy. We are family people. We love our families. They don't. (Silence.) No, I'm not using no stereotypes, but white girls, uh, they ain't got no spice and, I mean, we all like to shop, but they really do. (Silence.) I'd just tell her that you want to be friends. (Silence.) All I'm saying is that you'd be better off dating just Mexican girls."
--Word for word recounting 20 minutes into a Mexican American community college student's 30 minute cell phone conversation as he sat next to me in a Santa Ana coffee shop this afternoon.
"I'd say 'marry me,' but I wouldn't wanna, like, be a statistic." - guy to gal at Coco's in HB on 7/7/07.
Santa Ana's Old County Courthouse is usually closed on Saturdays, but it'll be open today - starting (surprise, surprise), 7 a.m.
Some advice for the truly superstitious from ABC's Rob Hayes: "...Swing by a 7-Eleven, buy a 7Up and pay the $7 admission at the (Hollywood Park) racetrack."
Bribing your child, Huntington Beach style:
The scene: A nail shop run by cheerful, chatty Vietnamese ladies. A large white mother and her two daughters — one in her 20s, one probably 12 — sit in the spa chairs getting pedicures. A little white dog lounges on mom's lap.
12-year-old to Mom: I don't wanna go to that thing later.
Mom: But I want you to go.
12-year-old: But I don't wanna.
Mom: But I want you to.
12-year-old: No.
Mom: $40. I'll give you $40 to go. I want you to be there.
12-year-old: *ignores Mom and instructs the lady doing her nails to paint three flowers onto her larger toes*
Mom: Honey . . .
12-year-old: $60.
...right before the beginning of Nigger Wetback Chink: "White Power".
So Balboa Peninsula is always dark in terms of morals and decency. But now it's just plain DARK. Yes, I stood outside Cassidy's tonight and watched the lights flicker, waver, return to strength ... then bow out completely.
After a few moments, SOME streetlights came on. And some of the neon signs in the bar. But after another hour or so, we had a second pulse, and BANG! Everything went dead Everything.
As I walked back to my house, I couldn't help but notice lots of red flares blocking my path. And I especially couldn't help but notice the firemen telling me to stop, to turn back.
"But I live here," I shouted.
"You can't go any further, you'll have to turn right," said one of the firepeople.
"That's where I live!"
"Okay then, just go home."
We'll ignore that I was planning on doing this anyway. According to these dudes, there was an explosion underground. According to So Cal Edison, they don't know what happened but there's an outage in Costa Mesa.
Balboa Peninsula is most certainly not Costa Mesa.
P.S. I had to walk to a Starbucks on Mariner's Mile to contribute this report
UPDATE: Everything seems back to normal at 1 pm on Friday, except the Albertson's on Finley is still dark. Might want to scamper over there later, I suspect they'll be having deals on frozen goods...
