tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39127816168506160982012-01-13T15:19:01.420-08:00A journal of miscellany that falls out of my headMr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.comBlogger1841100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-86307593487786028762012-01-12T00:30:00.000-08:002012-01-12T00:35:07.886-08:00

On Tuesday afternoon I was listening to former KGO talk show host Bill Wattenburg, who has found a new home on KSCO in Santa Cruz. For those who don't know, Dr. Bill often talks about science stuff, because he's a famous scientist and engineer. He had a couple of kooky callers who insisted that jet contrails are a government conspiracy to destroy our lives. They called them "chemtrails" and

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-52939905615241237702011-10-22T01:02:00.000-07:002011-10-22T01:15:49.100-07:00

You probably know by now that our local classical music station KBOQ ceased to exist as of Monday. K-BACH as the call letters were pronounced, suddenly started playing pop stuff from years past. Nothing wrong with that per se, but the same thing has come and gone from so many other stations over the years that I lost count.  This isn't the first time KBOQ listeners were subjected to an

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-39736993682015522202011-09-04T23:17:00.000-07:002011-09-05T15:37:28.471-07:00

A recent garbage bill included an enclosure called Monterey County Recycler - Fall 2011 Newsletter providing useful tips and helpful hints about Waste Management's curbside recycling programs.  One section of the flyer stated that "On April 16, 2011, the Monterey Herald printed a story about recycling in Monterey County that included some incorrect and possibly unclear information about

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-22074060153553523342011-09-03T00:45:00.000-07:002011-09-03T00:49:51.364-07:00

Conventional wisdom says that when a big corporate superstore moves into town, locally owned shops can't survive the competition. Now that one of those superstores, Borders bookstore, is shutting down, I've been reflecting on this common assumption. Maybe the Big Boys aren't as invincible as many believe, and I can't help but wonder if local shops sometimes give up too easily. Carmel's

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-84539523581169466392011-07-31T02:17:00.000-07:002011-07-31T02:17:51.237-07:00

The Monterey County Weekly's cover story this week was about the ever present raccoons that prowl The Peninsula.  I remember my first encounter with a raccoon when I was three or four years old. It was at the Little Red School House, better known as Bay School, in Carmel. This was in the early 1960s. Someone brought a raccoon to show us kids. The one thing that fascinated me the most was their

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-51606061092927881302011-07-01T00:49:00.000-07:002011-07-01T15:01:35.403-07:00

For the last three years I have been an affiliate advertiser for various companies, including Amazon.com. This relationship has allowed me to offer links to books, movies, and other products of local interest. In exchange I get a small commission for every sale the links generate. On Wednesday Amazon affiliates in California were abruptly notified that due to a change in California sales tax

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-89970976196632585342011-06-19T00:48:00.000-07:002011-06-19T02:31:02.864-07:00

It is a source of continual amusement to follow the ongoing feud between Paul Miller, publisher of the Carmel Pine Cone, and the editorial staff of the Monterey Herald. Miller is well known for his right-wing conservative credentials which, he constantly reminds us, qualifies him to determine whose reporting is biased (The Herald, obviously) and whose is completely fair and objective (The Pine

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-54430328840425117862011-05-11T01:59:00.000-07:002011-07-01T00:50:51.429-07:00

Perhaps the most significant on-screen kissing scene was when Snoopy smacked Lucy straight on the lips, causing her to run around screaming for disinfectant. But for some reason the scene with Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr, lying on a sandy beach as a wave washes over their entwined bodies, gets all the attention. Go figure. The movie was 1953s From Here To Eternity which has long been on the

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-32713795375478502412011-04-11T01:42:00.000-07:002011-07-01T00:51:32.834-07:00

Sunday's Monterey Herald published the last installment of an excellent local history book called The Death & Life of Monterey Bay. Over the last several months I have been avidly following the saga of how our community's relationship with the bay evolved over the past few centuries from reckless abuse to loving respect. If you only read one local history book in your lifetime, this should be it

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-67737927262365157822011-03-18T22:04:00.000-07:002011-03-18T22:04:53.544-07:00

With much fanfare KSBW TV in Salinas is rolling out its newest product line. In addition to their regular NBC programming on channel 8 (Comcast cable channel 6) they will soon be adding ABC programming on digital channel 8.2 beginning April 18th. Channel 8.2, which KSBW used until recently to provide round-the-clock weather reports, will move from cable channel 186 to channel 7. Until now ABC

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-14175438331621540532011-03-05T00:06:00.000-08:002011-03-05T00:06:13.705-08:00

There was an article in Friday's Monterey Herald about groups promoting special California license plates that help fund the arts. In exchange for a higher vehicle license fee you get plates with a pretty picture and a good feeling knowing you're supporting something worthwhile. The story reminded me of something that happened back in the mid 1990s when these plates were first introduced. I

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-17773940219376620382011-02-24T01:23:00.000-08:002011-07-01T00:51:57.551-07:00

The February 11 Carmel Pine Cone reported that the Pilgrim's Way bookshop on Dolores Street had attempted to brighten up their storefront only to bring the aesthetics police to their door. This skinny little independent bookshop felt that their business was difficult to notice and needed a little boost to catch people's eyes. They decided to repaint with a “tan-ish orange” hue, topped with a

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-49902657942061145782011-02-07T02:28:00.000-08:002011-07-01T00:52:31.808-07:00

I learned some more about Smart Meters over this past week, and I'm no more comfortable with them than I was before. PG&E held an open house in Seaside last Wednesday. The people who were there were friendly and explained their program fairly well despite my surly attitude going in. The two impressions I came away with were that they really wanted to get this right, but that the company is

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-52645188018049474622011-01-28T14:51:00.000-08:002011-01-28T14:51:48.998-08:00

In my last entry I noted that Monterey will be discussing a possible ban on PG&E's Smart Meters on Tuesday, February 1st.  I just learned that Seaside will be discussing Smart Meters at its next city council meeting on Thursday, February 3rd. If this concerns you, write your city councils a letter or show up at the meetings and let your views be known.

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-24397524678810927392011-01-28T00:28:00.000-08:002011-01-28T00:28:06.663-08:00

I thought my readers might like to know that the Monterey City Council will consider a ban on PG&E's so-called "Smart Meters" at the February 1 city council meeting. I hope other local jurisdictions will do the same. Click HERE to see a copy of the city staff report and proposed ordinances. My concerns about smart meters are as follows: They record data about your personal habits by recording

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-72815143050272082862011-01-13T02:34:00.000-08:002011-07-01T00:53:05.089-07:00

I took a look tonight at the City of Monterey's latest version of the new Waterfront Master Plan. My primary interest, as an advocate of rail transportation, is to see that the legal railroad right-of-way (which includes the historic passenger depot near Fisherman's Wharf) is properly used in accord with the city's agreement with Caltrans. This agreement requires the city to actively support the

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-69093017450834417152011-01-03T23:24:00.000-08:002011-07-01T00:53:42.636-07:00

"We must look deep into realism instead of accepting only the outward sense of things." -Mary Baker Eddy One learns interesting things when one does a little research. Fifty years ago the presence of clover in one's lawn was the sign of a good gardener. In those days, grass seed was actually sold with about 5% clover seed in the mix. Why? because grass needs nitrogen in the soil to grow thick,

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-38315982015964632342010-11-16T01:35:00.000-08:002010-11-16T01:40:09.681-08:00

Local movie buffs with cable may want to dig into the Comcast On Demand menu and check out the 1974 movie Zandy's Bride. It's a 19th Century drama, starring Gene Hackman, about a Big Sur rancher who marries a mail-order bride. They don't get along particularly well, mainly because Zandy, a reclusive fellow, has no social skills.  Zandy's Bride was filmed almost entirely in Big Sur, mostly in

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-62289020178540785392010-10-30T02:00:00.000-07:002010-10-30T02:03:26.435-07:00

Political campaigns are frequently known for stretching, twisting, and mangling the truth, but a kernel of truth usually remains. Take, for example, the statement by Jerry Brown that he would not raise taxes without a vote of the people (a reasonable position, one that puts the voter in control). However, his opponent twisted that around to say Brown wants to ask voters for more tax increases.

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-78990038284698106762010-10-20T23:22:00.000-07:002011-07-01T00:54:30.190-07:00

Before I go any further, let me state up front that I don't do drugs. I don't like to put anything in my body that may screw it up, so I don't smoke, drink alcohol, or otherwise ingest anything that isn't food. I don't even like legal drugs. My experience with prescription drugs has been mostly unfavorable, and I prefer to avoid even over the counter medications. I'm as squeaky clean as they

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-28099028108319656442010-10-08T00:37:00.000-07:002010-10-08T00:43:34.578-07:00

Late last night, well after midnight, I took my little telescope out front to look at Jupiter. I had the porch light turned off so as not to spoil my night vision. While I was aiming the scope, a couple of noisy middle-aged Mexican guys walked by, speaking loud Spanish, and spitting a lot. It looked like they were walking home from work. I could see one guy was wearing a cowboy hat, but

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-30917290852065585762010-09-23T23:16:00.000-07:002011-07-01T00:55:11.639-07:00

In this internet age of instant commentary, I'm behind the times, writing a review of something that happened three days ago - ancient history in the cyberspacetime continuum. But I'm an old dude, to anyone under 40, so bear with me.  I was a fan of the original Hawaii Five-0 TV series. It was a well-written police detective show with just the right proportions of suspense, action and drama. The

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-11372134370028235912010-09-18T16:12:00.000-07:002010-09-28T15:32:30.507-07:00

It was reported in the Monterey Herald today that the Seaside City Council approved a six-month extension of negotiations for an In-N-Out Burger joint on Del Monte Avenue next to Laguna Grande Park. All I can say is "Sigh." The City of Seaside is notorious for setting its sights impossibly high then settling for the ridiculously low. The property in question was zoned for a hotel. When they

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-35971942384150176842010-08-23T18:06:00.000-07:002010-08-23T18:06:36.421-07:00

Someone on a discussion forum directed me to this website for the Desal Response Group. It provides the most concise explanation I have yet seen for the proposed Monterey Regional Water Project, which would build a desalination plant to provide for Peninsula water needs. The more I look into this project the less I understand it. The physical plant seems straightforward enough. A desal plant

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-91750509093341717182010-08-02T17:02:00.000-07:002010-08-02T17:02:37.407-07:00

Last week we had a little adventure with Comcast cable TV technical support. On Tuesday July 27th, we noticed that our on-screen program guide had disappeared, along with On-Demand service and every other on-screen display. We could still watch TV, but had to use the newspaper TV listings (remember those?) to decide what to watch. The first thing I tried to solve the problem was to reboot the

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-80457823689085972902010-07-24T01:41:00.000-07:002011-07-01T00:55:46.850-07:00

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? -Matthew 7:3 A week and a half ago, after a lengthy public hearing, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution condemning Arizona's controversial immigration law. Now, personally, I can see why some people have concerns about the new law - there is certainly potential

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-62777447393991094792010-06-18T23:47:00.000-07:002012-01-13T15:07:34.095-08:00

Another big Pebble Beach golf tournament is half over tonight. The U.S. Open has two more days to go, giving me two more days to shake my head in dismay over the parking and transportation arrangements.  I've been doing this every year for a decade or more now, usually during the AT&T Pro-Am. In a nutshell, here's how golf parking works. Golf fans come from all over the world and find lodgings

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-27110999321913910862010-06-08T23:49:00.000-07:002012-01-13T15:12:18.715-08:00

Dear Safeway, Your store is one mile from Monterey Bay, one of the richest fisheries in the world. It is three miles from where the local fishing fleet unloads its catch. So when I walk up to your fresh fish counter I do not want to see the words "farm raised product of China." Sincerely, -Mr. Toy

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-193874809623545212010-05-08T20:25:00.000-07:002012-01-13T15:14:44.882-08:00

Do you ever notice that whenever we have a dry winter in California, come Spring fire officials warn us that the dry vegetation creates an unusually high fire hazard? And do you ever notice that whenever we have a wet winter in California, that come Spring fire officials warn us that the rains bring more vegetation growth, providing excess fuel to burn, creating an unusually high fire danger?

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-20255265039669515012010-04-06T22:44:00.000-07:002012-01-13T15:15:26.225-08:00

A couple nights ago a taxi driver was shot in the stomach during a robbery attempt in front of Borders book store in Sand City. The robbers got away, and the cabbie is recovering at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula (CHOMP). I wish the driver well, and hope the criminals are caught very soon. But that's not why I'm writing.  In reporting this story, KION/KCBA News stated that a

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-57278135740010924232010-04-03T01:20:00.000-07:002012-01-13T15:16:08.117-08:00

On Good Friday the controversial Monterey beach cross found its final resting place in the San Carlos Cemetery on Pearl Street. A small ceremony marked an unsatisfactory end to a petty constitutional crisis.  For those who just joined us, here's the story in brief. In 1769 a team of explorers marched up the coast from San Diego to Monterey Bay. They erected two crosses on each side of the

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-45912263887281654592010-03-12T17:19:00.000-08:002012-01-13T15:19:01.436-08:00

Here's a topic of absolutely no importance. Does anybody remember that the confection we know as Hostess Ho-Hos was originally named Yo-Hos?  If you're under the age of 45, you probably don't. According to the official Hostess site, the treat was introduced in 1967, but the company makes no mention of the name change. If memory serves, the change occurred two or three years later with

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-19726789888071080162010-02-24T02:24:00.000-08:002010-06-19T23:38:03.933-07:00

Tuesday evening KSBW News ran a 30 minute showdown interview with Monterey County Sheriff Mike Kanalakis, and Fred Garcia who is running to replace Kanalakis in the next election. If you have followed the local news lately, you know that Garcia held, until recently, the rank of Commander in the Sheriff's department and he was head of the Homeland Security division until the Sheriff demoted

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-73050721647342417722010-02-21T18:49:00.000-08:002010-02-24T16:08:53.010-08:00

With the recent passing of Alexander Haig, a famous old soundbite has been dragged up once again, and misinterpreted once again.  On the day when President Reagan was wounded in an assassination attempt there was, understandably, a fair amount of confusion in Washington. Al Haig spoke at a press briefing in the White House to explain what was happening. One of the things he said was "I am in

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-48940029656079962062010-01-21T00:43:00.000-08:002010-01-21T00:46:39.083-08:00

A good friend of mine, Sarah Ward, is setting up shop as a freelance wedding and special event planner. I had the privilege of working with Sarah for about three years in a local hotel. At the time she was the hotel's wedding coordinator. I worked for the in-house audio/visual department and operated sound equipment for most of the wedding ceremonies she set up for her clients. It never ceased

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-57728592089650067742009-11-29T21:24:00.000-08:002009-11-29T22:14:37.942-08:00

Every now and then someone invents a product or service that convinces people that the old fashioned way of doing things is much harder than it really is. By so fooling people they get them to spend much more than they need to.Microwave popcorn is a perfect example. Making popcorn in a saucepan is almost as easy and just as fast as putting a paper bag of seeds into the microwave. But nobody knows

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-22584978355089886302009-10-16T01:09:00.000-07:002009-10-16T01:29:09.255-07:00

I recently posted a new page in the Bits-O' History section of the Monterey Peninsula Toy Box. It provides an accurate and reasonably complete history of the crosses overlooking local beaches, focusing particularly on the Monterey cross that was vandalized last month, and which was the subject of my September 23rd entry.The new page is called THE TRUE MEANING OF THE CROSS.I decided a new page was

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-2122969781263293752009-10-05T22:43:00.000-07:002009-10-05T22:57:37.283-07:00

On October 28th the Transportation Agency for Monterey County will decide how to develop the Monterey Branch Rail Line between downtown Monterey and the junction with the Union Pacific Coast Line at Castroville. The choices are to restore the tracks as a light rail corridor, or pave it over for a dedicated bus rapid transit line.I cannot stress strongly enough that we need to support the rail

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-18300916780562301382009-09-23T22:56:00.000-07:002009-10-16T01:26:47.379-07:00

Only a lawyer could find reason to declare two pieces of wood unconstitutional. It came to light this week that the ACLU, representing an anonymous plaintiff, is doing just that. A few days ago vandals cut down a wooden cross on the sand dunes near the Monterey Beach Resort. The City of Monterey may be unable to repair or replace it due to legal opinions that a religious symbol on public park

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-62775049405179447782009-09-02T01:11:00.000-07:002009-09-02T02:21:58.612-07:00

Watch this brief commercial from the Republican National Committee and see if you can spot the ways they're trying to manipulate you.The ad begins with a thinly veiled accusation that Washington Democrats are blaming citizens for opposition to health care reform, when they're actually trying to correct misinformation that has spread like a California wildfire.The ad then builds on this

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-7921390323953948982009-08-30T23:56:00.000-07:002009-08-31T00:50:39.383-07:00

Here is reason #652 why I'm no longer a Republican. Once upon a time, this country accomplished pretty much everything it set out to do.Defeat the Nazis. We did it.End racial segregation. We did it.Put a man on the moon (during war time, no less). We did it.Conserve energy during an oil embargo. We did it.We used to be a "can-do" nation. But as the extreme right-wing nuts have taken over the once

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-18796016283268420552009-08-21T16:51:00.000-07:002009-08-21T17:05:49.805-07:00

The Monterey Herald reported today that some folks in Seaside are asking the city to rename Broadway Avenue as Obama Way.I'm as much a fan of President Obama as anybody. I support his work on health care reform, I support his efforts in the middle east. I'm behind him on pretty much everything.But let's not let our excitement get in the way of good sense. So far, President Obama hasn't had time

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-9404807783697773832009-07-08T23:25:00.000-07:002009-08-04T23:53:09.588-07:00

The recent passing of Robert McNamara, who was the U.S. Defense Secretary during the Vietnam war, brought to mind a brief encounter I had with him a few years ago.I never got close enough to talk to him, but I was within eight feet as he sat at a banquet table in the hotel where I worked. He was scheduled as the after dinner speaker that evening. As the in-house audio/visual technician on duty

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-83444293534048184232009-07-05T22:04:00.000-07:002009-07-05T22:10:10.907-07:00

An engineer I know brought this video to my attention. The tornado occurred in Illinois on January 7, 2008. The camera was mounted in the last locomotive, facing the freight cars they were pulling. Watch the trees in the background as the rain starts. Then hold on!!!!

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-35739491551107896912009-06-20T22:29:00.000-07:002009-09-30T00:30:53.469-07:00

Now that the digital television age is underway, an interesting situation has come to my attention. Some people have widescreen (a.k.a. 16x9) TVs and some people, like us, have older TVs in the standard format (4x3). The problem is how do TV stations deliver their new widescreen pictures to people who have standard TVs.I understand that over the air converter boxes, the kind they were telling

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-30177145523607810862009-06-05T00:27:00.000-07:002009-06-05T00:39:36.311-07:00

Wednesday afternon UPS misdirected a package to our door. It was meant for somebody with a similar address. I called UPS to correct the problem and got stuck in a voice recognition phone maze that didn't give me any relevant options.So I used my usual method of pressing "0" to speak to a real human. Unfortunately, unlike most other systems, it just put me into another maze.I was not in a good

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-18209680718897333342009-05-30T22:48:00.000-07:002009-05-30T22:52:34.849-07:00

The people awakened one morning to hearThat the Grinch of Prop 8 had stolen their cheerSo they marched in the streets to protest the decisionAs victims of public discrimination.But one of them said, in a voice starting low“Maybe, just maybe, it need not be so.“Does love need a license from officials of stateTo affirm what our hearts know will never abate?“Perhaps marriage is something that can't

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-47386102498268840422009-05-26T23:37:00.000-07:002009-05-27T00:17:03.571-07:00

It's nice to see an average person with talent being newly discovered, and I'm happy for Susan Boyle getting the exposure her voice deserves. What puzzles me, though, is how she got that recognition.When this frumpy middle aged housewife with a flat nose and a horrible hairdo appeared on stage for the Britain's Got Talent show the audience looked on her with low expectations in their eyes, while

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-32946463708277259292009-05-23T14:46:00.000-07:002009-05-23T14:48:30.576-07:00

I remember when holidays were tied to specific calendar dates, so Memorial Day, Labor Day, etc., could fall on any day of the week. In those days holidays were observed with a specific purpose in mind. After certain holidays were shifted to always fall on a Monday, they lost much of their meaning and morphed into three-day commercial extravaganzas. Try to remember the fallen soldiers as you party

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-22167032448288290882009-05-21T14:12:00.000-07:002009-05-22T14:44:10.462-07:00

As a committed nonconformist I often find my votes on the losing side of the election. But I am particularly dismayed by the rejection of Proposition 1A. This is the second time voters have rejected a measure that would have helped even out the boom-bust cycles in state spending.The biggest problem with the state budget is that legislators have often used increased revenues from good economic

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-86813419556240432362009-05-19T18:44:00.000-07:002009-05-19T19:00:17.678-07:00

We recently took advantage of Comcast's free digital cable upgrade, finally freeing ourselves from the olden days of analog television. As a techie kind of guy, you may think it odd that we waited so long. We had our reasons, most notable being the fact that upgrades were previously very un-free. Also our small house had no place to put a VCR sized cable box without sacrificing CD storage

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-40362002998593222452009-05-15T23:49:00.000-07:002009-05-16T00:03:55.069-07:00

I've always been a night owl and late sleeper. Most of the jobs I've held in my life were night jobs. Yet I've often been subject to criticism from early birds for being lazy.Today I feel vindicated. The Week magazine reported on research which discovered that we night owls maintain our alertness levels much longer than early birds. At 90 minutes after rising, early birds and night owls were

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-111377816813108342009-05-11T15:39:00.000-07:002009-05-11T15:49:39.290-07:00

A few months ago I set up a Monterey Peninsula Town Square forum, which I hoped would provide a place where local residents could engage in civil discussion on local issues. Regrettably, I am shutting it down as of today, due to a lack of interest and activity.In looking over the site statistics, the vast majority of forum "visitors" were not even local residents, and not even human. They were

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-60942117048994677062009-04-27T01:28:00.000-07:002009-04-27T01:36:18.031-07:00

I joined Facebook. After years of thinking such things were too frivolous for me, one random thought about an old friend got me wondering who I might find if I joined.After less than 24 hours I had reconnected with half a dozen people I hadn't heard from in years. After 48 hours that number had more than doubled. I've had a nice e-mail exchange with my high school prom date.A few months earlier I

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-86741513914508952612009-04-23T22:49:00.000-07:002009-04-23T23:34:43.390-07:00

Does anyone in cyberspace want to have a civilized discussion anymore? There was an article in the Herald of April 17th about some Monterey and Salinas area McDonald's employees suing their employer for allegedly demanding they work off the clock if they wanted to keep their jobs. Other alleged offenses were changing employee time records and requiring employees to use their vehicles on company

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-27425819808686868472009-04-23T22:31:00.000-07:002009-04-23T22:43:30.043-07:00

Here's a video about my favorite news publication. I grew up with the Christian Science Monitor, and I recommend it to everyone because of its unbiased, solution-oriented approach to reporting. It doesn't just tell you what's going on, it helps you understand why. It's entirely free on the web, and you can subscribe to their portable weekly magazine. &

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-67725341294449776682009-04-16T00:27:00.000-07:002009-04-23T22:40:17.991-07:00

I've never understood why radio stations change their formats with no advance notice. One popular station, KIDD, better known as Magic 63, did just that last week, unleashing a flurry of fury from upset listeners. Magic 63 presented an easy-listening format for a good 20 years, playing classic recordings of people like Nat King Cole, Petula Clark, Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra, along with some

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-75155421783973978522009-04-12T00:32:00.001-07:002009-04-12T01:08:41.703-07:00

Evidently sex sells fear even better than it sells beer. Convicted child molester James Lamb was officially released from prison a year ago, but it wasn't until last week, after two aborted attempts, that the government was able to find a home for him that satisfied the requirements of the law.No sooner than the news broke as to his whereabouts, the neighbors came out with their knives and

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-4716460857012985962009-03-27T23:05:00.000-07:002009-03-27T23:21:30.543-07:00

The Monterey Herald has taken a lot of flak this week for a headline in last Monday's paper. It read "Cop killer was depressed, struggling."Apparently several people read this and thought the Herald was somehow justifying or excusing the actions of that guy in Oakland who killed four police officers last week. I didn't see it that way at all.Making an observation is not the same as making a

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-84661950851526775372009-03-25T00:29:00.000-07:002009-03-25T00:40:48.969-07:00

One of those knockoff phone books landed on our doorstep a few days ago. It's the one called "Valley Yellow Pages." I don't know whose valley they refer to, but we're on a peninsula here.Phone books usually have a nice photo or illustration of the community contained within its pages. At first glance, this one has a nice photo of the Pacific Grove shoreline. But somebody with no sense of scale

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-79029190102875807742009-03-15T00:07:00.000-07:002009-03-15T00:26:07.411-07:00

I hadn't intended to drag a PG&E lineman out to my house at 9:00 at night. It was Friday, and I noticed all of our lights were flickering again, as they had been for a little over a week. I kept making mental notes to call PG&E during the day, but since the lights weren't on during the day I kept forgetting.Friday night I figured I would call PG&E's 24 hour service center and report it, thinking

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-76821407178867938022009-03-03T22:38:00.000-08:002009-03-03T22:52:42.717-08:00

In my January 31st entry I discussed hearing occasional loud explosions around Seaside which leave no trace that they ever occurred. There was another one last night, also around 1:30AM. The police scanner indicated that it was somewhere in the eastern portion of Monterey in the vicinity of Casanova Street.I still suspect pranksters. If anyone else is hearing these things, please leave a comment

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-74442689859775431712009-02-18T00:15:00.000-08:002009-02-18T00:31:51.508-08:00

The Monterey Peninsula Toy Box has launched a new feature, a Town Square forum where folks like you can get together and chat about issues of the Monterey Peninsula, rate local businesses, or just shoot the breeze.I decided to start a forum because I have always wanted to make my website more interactive. In looking around I realized there are no longer any truly local discussion forums available

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-81458101381285199142009-02-07T00:57:00.000-08:002009-02-07T01:36:10.931-08:00

I opened the newspaper one recent morning to find an obituary of a good friend. It was not a good way to start the day.From 1996 to 1999 Don Nivling and I worked together providing audio/visual services in a local hotel conference facility. We became close friends and we stayed in touch. In 1999 he ditched the rat race and became self-employed as "Captain Connector," a superhero to Monterey

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-26167047265031642842009-01-31T23:27:00.000-08:002009-01-31T23:31:22.984-08:00

At about 1:30 AM on Friday night, er, Saturday Morning, I was working at my computer when BANG! I was jolted out of my seat by an explosion. It sounded like a building blew up. Scared the crap out of me! It wasn't the first time I've heard such explosions, but it was by far the loudest and closest. Now, you're thinking, this has happened before???? Things are just blowing up???? Why isn't this in

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-16787402941315026672009-01-06T00:24:00.000-08:002009-01-06T01:04:19.097-08:00

I'm a sports widower. I grew up with sisters and learned to cook. My wife grew up with brothers and learned to watch football, basketball, hockey, tennis, NASCAR, and ask "What's for dinner?" So I am forced to endure hour after hour of sports action on television when I'd rather be watching reruns of Star Trek and Gilligan's Island. I do enjoy Giant Spaceball (and only the Giants), a couple hours

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-2730625962583737372008-12-30T00:52:00.000-08:002008-12-31T13:44:01.058-08:00

I walked outside a little while ago to place some additional garbage into our cans at the curb. I discovered that some delinquent individuals had dumped two of our neighbors' garbage cans into the street. I don't know why ours were not dumped, too, but I'm grateful for small favors.I didn't want the neighbors to discover the mess as they were rushing off to work in the morning, so I went out with

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-54442796523143300172008-12-18T23:57:00.000-08:002008-12-19T00:54:14.237-08:00

On December 13th the Monterey Herald ran two contrasting stories. One was about a local family facing hard times and living in a motel. The other was about a lady in Southern California who spent $20,000 to build a mini Victorian mansion in her back yard for her doggies Chelsea and Coco Puff.The clear lines between need and excess prompted four local women to write letters to the Herald

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-65128368880151382552008-12-14T00:23:00.000-08:002008-12-14T00:45:51.997-08:00

Less than half a day after I wrote my last entry, praising our Chevrolet Impala, our local dealership, Love Chevrolet, shut down. I am both sad and angry.From what I've gathered from news reports, it wasn't so much a lack of willing buyers as the inability for buyers to obtain credit from financial institutions. Those same financial institutions were given billions in bailout money which was

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-23890301992430152372008-12-12T00:26:00.000-08:002011-07-31T02:26:13.551-07:00

Whatever you may think about the competency of US automobile executives, please don't tell me their companies are failing because they're putting out bad products.My favorite cars of the last 20 years have all been GM products. Right now I drive a 20 year old Buick. While it is showing inevitable signs of wear and tear, it still gets me where I want to go just fine.Five years ago we bought Mrs.

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-15168699557768129852008-12-11T01:41:00.000-08:002008-12-11T01:46:47.277-08:00

Ya gotta love the thought processes of modern conservatives. It wasn't long ago when they were saying that Ford, GM and Chrysler were selling big gas hogging SUVs because that's what people wanted. It fit in so neatly with their confidence in market forces to keep the economy humming along. Their beliefs were accompanied by firm opposition to tougher fuel economy standards, saying it would stifle

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-59439753195609501812008-12-05T00:34:00.000-08:002008-12-05T01:18:35.155-08:00

There were two (so far) letters to the editor of the Herald this week complaining about the cover photo on Sunday's TV Week insert. What was it they found so offensive?I'm offended by the ever increasing popularity of violent "reality" programming showing video of actual plane crashes and police chases; crime dramas which depict grisly killings in horrific detail, that sort of thing.I'm offended

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-77004431514809909622008-11-16T01:47:00.000-08:002008-11-16T02:03:40.572-08:00

I don't worry about media bias, but I see a lot of media stupidity. There was an article in the Monterey Herald of Saturday November 16th which was a perfect example. The article was about compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), and was written by Mary-Liz Shaw of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. I have since discovered that the article has appeared in dozens of papers all across the country,

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-39937968331524289882008-10-31T23:25:00.000-07:002008-10-31T23:43:29.984-07:00

It's a line from The Music Man. "We've gotta protect our children!" In the movie version Buddy Hackett shouts the line at a town hall meeting, after Professor Harold Hill gets the townsfolk all riled up about the pool table that came into town.What's wrong with a pool table? Nothing. But the little town in Iowa had never seen one before, so its residents were easily duped into believing it was

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-14945953701323342008-10-23T01:22:00.000-07:002008-10-23T01:36:07.848-07:00

The arguments against Proposition 2 don't pass my ridiculous test. If something sounds ridiculous it probably isn't true.Do Proposition 2 opponents really expect me to believe that allowing chickens to turn around and stretch their wings will force grocers to import toxic eggs from Mexico?Clearly, they're trying to scare us away from doing the right thing because it will cost them some money to

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-2817352057636831172008-10-18T22:42:00.000-07:002008-10-19T02:34:05.276-07:00

For those of you who just crawled out from under a log, Measure Z is the proposed half-cent sales tax increase to pay for roads, plus a few bus routes, in Monterey County. While there may be some good reasons to support it, I'm not jumping on the pro-Z bandwagon for three reasons.First, Measure Z is not the original version of the proposal as envisioned by the Transportation Agency for Monterey

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-68219562664554085882008-10-13T00:06:00.000-07:002008-10-13T00:47:20.445-07:00

After four years of delays, we finally have a chance to vote for California's high speed rail program. Please don't be put off by naysayers who say we can't afford it. We can't afford not to connect California's largest cities with the latest, cleanest, most energy efficient, and most comfortable form of transportation known to man. It should be a no-brainer.Unfortunately, people with no brains

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-44558810379051513982008-10-08T02:12:00.000-07:002008-10-08T02:13:52.717-07:00

I have known Felix Bachofner for more years than I can remember, and I am happy to report that my good friend is running for a seat on the Seaside City Council this November 4th.Felix will bring a breath of fresh air to Seaside politics. For too long we have suffered through mediocre city councils with little or no vision for our city's future. Several generations of mayors and councils have

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-13138900121876479992008-10-01T01:03:00.001-07:002008-10-01T01:15:51.527-07:00

I'm glad I moved my website and Mental Notes when I did. For eleven years the Monterey Peninsula Toy Box was hosted at no cost to me on AOL's Hometown service. I was notified today that AOL Hometown will be shutting down on October 31st, along with AOL Journals, which hosted these Mental Notes since 2004. I had a lot of time on my hands this summer when I decided to move the Toy Box to a real

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-88405405238362332152008-09-07T23:13:00.000-07:002008-12-14T00:22:49.984-08:00

I got the notice in the mail about a month ago. I was instructed to report for jury duty at 8:15am on September 2, 2008. Being a night owl, and a late sleeper, I was relieved to learn, when I made the required phone call the weekend before, that I didn't actually need to report until 12:30pm.I arrived in the cattle yard of the Monterey courthouse on time, but had the devil of a time trying to

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-29960716717198942182008-09-06T00:42:00.001-07:002008-09-06T00:58:48.623-07:00

I have corrected a twelve year old sin of omission. The Monterey Peninsula Toy Box Visitors Guide finally has a page describing the many opportunities to enjoy sports & recreation in our beautiful area.Why has it taken so long to include such basic information in my website? Well, sports and recreation just aren't high priorities with me. I was the nerdy kid who was always picked last for the

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-34118790292885021812008-08-16T23:34:00.000-07:002008-08-17T19:54:58.819-07:00

Mrs. Toy and I have noticed that the Carmel Pine Cone's editorials have grown more whiney over the last few years. Their August 15th editorial entitled The Front Page confirms that and then some.Their subject of the week was media bias, which, apparently, they felt was important enough to justify a half page editorial. They began with a primer defining what media bias is and why it is inescapable

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-30505430728041858742008-08-05T23:28:00.000-07:002008-08-30T19:29:40.107-07:00

I've never been a fan of Paris Hilton. Until I saw this. McCain ran an ad comparing Obama to certain mindless celebrities. Here is how one of those celebrities responded.See more funny videos at Funny or DieI'm actually inclined to agree with her. At best more drilling will only postpone the inevitable, but it could buy us some breathing room, a little more time for technological innovation

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-16632331780982339282008-07-24T14:25:00.000-07:002008-07-26T21:52:56.816-07:00

Thoughtful articles about my favorite political subject, passenger trains, are hard to come by. This one, Train in Vain is a notable exception. The author, Ben Jervey, makes a cross country trip on Amtrak and reports his findings.Jervey seems genuinely concerned that this country hasn't made a commitment to passenger rail, and he shows why Amtrak isn't all it could be. He gently, but

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-78839802210764997462008-07-21T01:19:00.000-07:002008-08-30T19:30:24.948-07:00

The upgrades to the Monterey Peninsula Toy Box continued this week with the addition of our new store! For lack of a better name, it is called the Monterey Peninsula Toy Box Store. It is stocked with guidebooks, maps, history books, art and photography books, literature and cartoons by local writers, locally made music, and our favorite subject, movies made on the Monterey Peninsula.Our little

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-54328024313069863122008-07-14T01:26:00.000-07:002008-08-30T19:31:10.127-07:00

The Business section of Saturday's Herald showed a crowd of people gathered outside the AT&T store in Del Monte Center. The headline read "SOLD OUT, THEN NOTHING." What was all the fuss about? A new phone. Not just any phone. Only the sleek lines of the latest Apple iPHONE can draw such crowds. This thing does everything. No, wait. The first iPHONE did everything. This one can do more than

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-87247062697777378362008-07-10T17:08:00.000-07:002008-10-10T00:18:17.499-07:00

First of all, as noted in my previous entry, the Monterey Peninsula Toy Box has moved from AOL's free service to one that costs just pennies a day. The new address is www.montereypeninsula.info.This is also to be my last Mental Notes entry in the AOL Journals service. When I learned that Google's free Blogger offered so many better formatting options I felt it was time to move this journal as

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-68482270280145885072008-07-10T16:13:00.000-07:002008-08-30T19:31:31.427-07:00

Well, folks, as I noted in my old Mental Notes page on AOL Journals, big changes have occurred at the Toy Box. A few days ago I moved the Monterey Peninsula Toy Box away from the free AOL Hometown hosting service to a more formal service that costs just pennies a day to maintain. The service I chose is InMotion Hosting, which from extensive research indicated reliable customer service. And with

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-57620199422676897232008-07-02T01:05:00.000-07:002008-10-10T00:20:37.766-07:00

Big changes are coming to the Monterey Peninsula Toy Box. Our old AOL address, with the hard to remember URL of http://hometown.aol.com/toylandmry will soon be giving way to an easy to remember address. Actually, we have an official domain name but it hasn't been publicized much. I am the proud owner of www.montereypeninsula.info, which has pointed to the AOL servers for a couple of years.AOL's

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-12305985075165406482008-05-16T01:51:00.000-07:002008-10-10T22:35:18.482-07:00

On the ballot for the upcoming election are two competing propositions, 98 and 99. Both deal with eminent domain, the power of government to take private property for "public use."As many of you may already know, in what was probably the least popular U.S. Supreme Court decision of all time, the term public use was defined as any use a government thinks will work better than what is there now.

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-19018422378052588752008-04-30T02:19:00.000-07:002008-10-10T22:36:36.215-07:00

Have you heard how John McCain and Hillary Clinton are pandering to voters this week? They want to eliminate federal gasoline taxes for the summer to give us a break from high gas prices. With gas pushing $4.00 a gallon, who wouldn't think this is a great idea?Not me!Gasoline taxes are the primary source of funding for our roads and highways, which, if you hadn't noticed, are falling apart. The

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-33944751448067053932008-04-20T17:25:00.000-07:002008-10-09T23:56:07.405-07:00

I turned on the radio this morning and heard a commercial for the Monterey Jaguar auto dealership. I always liked the look of Jaguars, ever since I was a kid. And we always called the car "JAG-waar"My three dictionaries say this is correct. In recent years Jaguars have been advertised by gentlemen with English accents who pronounce it JAG-you-ar. That rattled my ears a bit, but two of my

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-88531024595221975042008-04-12T01:24:00.000-07:002008-10-10T22:38:12.878-07:00

Last year when the California Department of Food and Agriculture started spraying pheromones to keep these alien light brown apple moths from breeding, I was cautiously concerned about the effects of the program, but not particularly alarmed by it. But lately, every time agriculture secretary A.G. Kawamura opens his mouth to reassure us the more worried I get.In a March 30th commentary in the

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-83537394513301546702008-03-20T00:55:00.000-07:002008-10-10T22:41:44.771-07:00

I've never been one to jump on a bandwagon. I find that in going along with the crowd a lot of good things get passed over unnoticed.Take the iPOD bandwagon. Apple makes a great product here, to be sure, and they revolutionized portable music with an easy interface and attractive device.However, while Apple's products are very good, if I was a grade school teacher I would put this note on Apple's

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-41403028031019488212008-03-07T00:29:00.000-08:002008-10-10T22:40:27.899-07:00

Sing to the tune of Super-cali-fragi-listic-expi-ali-docious:Excess-Cali-fornia-green-house-gasses-gonna-toast-us,Cuz the EPA won't let us regulate themostest,Arnold Schwarzenegger's gonna sue theman who hosed us,Excess-Cali-fornia-green-house-gasses-gonna-toast-us.Dumb is the little minded Johnson guy,Dumb is the little minded Johnson guy.The EPA administrator says that we're apest,For doing

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-56883359724313646622008-03-06T01:33:00.000-08:002008-10-09T23:56:07.388-07:00

I sent a letter to the president of Amtrak a few weeks ago. I was concerned with the way Amtrak was handling the Coast Starlight service disruption after a mudslide closed the tracks in Oregon. A couple of weeks later I received a nice, if somewhat vague reply signed by Alexander Kummant himself. Since Amtrak is a federally funded transportation system, I also sent copies of my letter to our two

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-84286076554820683352008-03-03T02:34:00.000-08:002008-10-09T23:56:07.318-07:00

In my February 14th entry I noted some homonyms posted by illiterate AOL users. One used "BAND" when he meant "banned" and another used "bread" when he meant "bred."If that wasn't bad enough, I've begun to notice the misuse of homonyms in news stories, written by people who would have had to take an English class or two to qualify for their jobs. Today this headline showed up on the KSBW website:

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-26456854128937678322008-02-23T18:46:00.000-08:002008-10-09T23:56:07.337-07:00

At times I have considered starting a blog of Monterey Peninsula business reviews. Sort of like restaurant reviews, but for places we shop at or call on for services. But I don't really shop at that many different places, so the thing would likely not get very far. But I would like to share my expreiences at the two most prominent ofice supply stores, Staples and Office Depot. I tend to go to

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-79385633401301622562008-02-19T17:24:00.000-08:002008-10-09T23:56:07.268-07:00

I am thoroughly amused by the political pundits who seem unable to explain John McCain's success. They keep telling us that McCain isn't connecting with the Republican conservative "base" and therefore may not be a true conservative. Based on this, they question his ability to win, even while he is winning. The explanation is obvious to anyone who doesn't define the Republican party by its

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3912781616850616098.post-42614074635014020752008-02-14T19:15:00.000-08:002008-10-09T23:56:07.286-07:00

I often read the news on AOL, after signing in to check my mail. The public comments that often follow the stories paint a pretty bleak picture of the thought processes of other readers. Unfortunately, there is often a lot of mindless hostility expressed. And today there was some mindless spelling.A story about Barry Bonds gave us these two comments:1. "...strip Bonds of the Home run record and

Mr. Toyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00453735455065132664noreply@blogger.com1