Mr. Toy's Mental Notes

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 in Carmel, Pacific Grove, and Monterey, barely spitting distance from the Pebble Beach gates. But Pebble Beach doesn't have nearly enough parking places for all of them, so there is a problem to be solved.   What tournament attendees are now asked to do is drive ten miles North, away from the Monterey Peninsula out to the parking lots at CSUMB, the university property on the land formerly known as Fort Ord. Everyone then gets on buses which retrace the same ten miles back to The Peninsula, into Pebble Beach. While there is no charge for either the parking or the bus ride, i...

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