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Oh, Nikki, you're better at math than that.

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And then there were two. Earlier tonight I watched part of the debate between Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis. DeSantis is a jerk, and I can't take him seriously. Haley, on the other hand is a smart gal, and offers some hope for bringing some level of sanity back to the Republican party. But she often dumbs things down to appeal to the simple-minded (mostly Trumpers), and that drives me nuts. Case on point: Haley promised that if elected she would eliminate the federal gasoline tax to reduce the tax burden on working class Americans. Moderator Dana Bash pointed out that the federal gas tax raises over $50 billion annually and is used build and maintain highways and bridges. She then asked Haley how she would pay for those things without it. Haley responded first by evading the question and talking about taxes in general. But eventually she got back around to the gas tax. She employed a classic Republican talking point saying the states collect the

Schnitzer Concert Hall

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The Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, Oregon is one of the latest additions to my online gallery. The theater was built in 1928 as the Paramount Theater, and the big vertical sign said as much until the early 1980s when the theater was converted to a concert hall. A woman named Arlene Schnitzer donated much of the money needed to refurbish the old theater with the condition that it be named after her. As I heard the story, nobody wanted to put the name Schnitzer on the vertical sign, so it was decided to put the name of the city on it. That made perfect sense since many of the original letters could be reused. The sign was refurbished at a sign shop in Salem, and I was able to get close enough to touch it. I shot this photo in November 1994. I scanned it some time ago with the intent of putting it in my online gallery. To my dismay, the top of the sign was just touching the top edge of the frame. I needed to add some sky to make it fit in a frame without being cut off. I als

Three Political Puzzles

Puzzle #1 Who in heck is behind Prop 29? The same measure was on the California ballot the last two elections. Both times it went down in flames and it is expected to fail again. But that's not the weird part. The weird part is that while the NO campaign has been reasonably convincing, there has been no visible campaign supporting it. Not this time nor the first two times. You'd think that after thrice going through the time, effort, and expense of gathering signatures to qualify for the ballot that they'd want to give people a reason to vote yes, but they haven't. So what's the point? Prop 29 is a phantom measure with no visible means of support. Puzzle #2 I can't help but wonder if the abrupt conversion of KGO radio from a news talk station to a sports talk station with an emphasis on betting has some connection to Propositions 26 & 27 which are all about sports gambling. An attempt to drum up interest in sports betting before the election, perhaps? The bi

Why I'm suspending donations to KDFC

Why doesn’t KDFC play organ music? This question has been bugging me for a few years now. KDFC is a listener-funded classical music radio station based in San Francisco. With multiple transmitters scattered around Northern California, its signal reaches from the Monterey Peninsula up to Santa Rosa and beyond. Here on the Monterey Peninsula it can be heard loud and clear at 103.9 on the FM band. KDFC began broadcasting locally almost six years ago. After a couple of years I began to realize that I had never heard any organ music on the station. Oh, now and then they play music that has an organ mixed in with other instruments, most notably Saint-Saens famous “Organ Symphony,” but never any pure organ music. What tipped me off was Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, which is arguably the most famous organ piece ever written. I noticed that KDFC always played the 20th Century orchestral arrangement that Leopold Stokowski put together for the Disney movie Fantasia. Bach’s original orga

My very brief Betty White story

The Monterey Peninsula lost three of our resident celebrities in the past month, Michael Nesmith, John Madden, and Betty White. I have no stories to tell about the first two, but I do have a very brief one involving Betty White. A few decades ago my mother and sister Liz were visiting from Oregon. We were having lunch at The Thunderbird, a bookstore/restaurant just outside Carmel. Quite suddenly Betty White came around the corner and started browsing the bookshelves next to our table. Liz's jaw dropped. My mother had a puzzled look on her face. Once Betty White had moved out of earshot I asked my mom if she knew who that was. She said "No." When I told her it was Betty White she said "Oh, I thought she looked familiar. But I thought she was someone I knew when we lived here and I wondered if I should say something to her." That wasn't too far fetched because she would occasionally run into old friends on her frequent visits. Even though Betty White was a

The Ten Worst Songs Of The 1970s

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After years of listening to the local oldies radio station and the ‘70s music channel on cable TV, this list gradually formed in my head. I know I'm not the first person to make such a list. Do a Google search and see how my list compares. The Ten Worst Songs Of The 1970s 10. Space Oddity -David Bowie (1972) An amateurish, inaccurate, dystopian interpretation of America’s space program. 9. Blinded By The Light -Manfred Mann’s Earth Band (1976) As written by Bruce Springsteen the opening line is “Blinded by the light, revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night.” But the enunciation is so poor that what everyone heard was “Blinded by the light, wrapped up like a douche, into the roner in the night.” What they were really saying became a hot topic of conversation in 1976. Really. Some who claimed to know said the word was “deuce” but nobody believed them because deuce doesn’t have a “sh” sound in it. In fact the whole song is loaded with mispronounced words. Howev

The Trump Demandments

Not long ago the Republican Party was the party of Christian family values and The Ten Commandments were, or so they claimed, core principles of their political beliefs. Not anymore. In the era of Donald Trump the Republican Party’s Christian values have been thrown out the window and replaced by unwavering loyalty to one man. Instead of following The Ten Commandments Republicans now blindly adhere to a new code I call... The Trump Demandments. 1. You shall recognize no other authority except me.   2. You shall engrave my name and likeness on everything. You shall bear my name on your clothing and on your flag, for I, your leader, am a jealous leader who requires constant reminders of how much you love me.   3. You shall not mock my name, even as I mock yours.   4. You shall let me play golf on the Sabbath.   5. Inherit the fortune of your father and mother. Make sure they like you best so your brothers and sisters inherit less. 6. You shall carry guns and threaten to use them o