Mr. Toy's Mental Notes

The lame-stream and blame-scream media are driving me nuts with this latest Clinton e-mail "scandal" as if a new smoking gun has been found. Get real. Here's all we really know as of now: 1. The FBI is investigating Anthony Wiener for sexting a minor. 2. The FBI seized Wiener's laptop as part of the investigation. 3. It turns out that Wiener's wife, Huma Abedin, also used the same laptop to communicate via e-mail with her boss, Hillary Clinton. 4. The FBI told everyone about point #3 yesterday, but didn't give any details. That's it! BFD. So far this is a non-story. But the easily excitable news media seems to have a Pavlovian reaction any time the name "Clinton" is used in the same sentence as "e-mail."

Radio station format changes are not usually pleasant. For reasons known only to station owners, they tend to be drastic, abrupt, and unwelcome to loyal listeners. Friday evening, as I was getting ready to take a shower I tuned the bathroom radio to KBOQ hoping to hear classic rock tunes which is my favorite entertainment for my particular bathing ritual. But instead of classic rock, it was just...classical. Now don't get me wrong. I love classical music as much as any other form, but it was still kinda jarring to expect one thing and hear something very different. At first I thought it was some sort of feed mix-up, as this particular station had that happen once before. But no, apparently KBOQ is now rebroadcasting San Francisco's classical KDFC in Monterey. So KBOQ, originally known as "K-Bach," has come back to its classical roots. Five years ago Mapleton Communications abruptly changed KBOQ's format from classical to classic hits, much to the dismay...

I love Carmel. I was born in Carmel during one of the final years of it having its own hospital and maternity ward. Carmel is in my blood, and like many people I never want it to change. Of course, over the last 56 years it has, in many ways, changed quite a bit, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. Yet it is comforting that many of the village landmarks I grew up with, from the Pine Inn to Bruno's Market still look pretty much the same as they did in my earliest childhood memories.   For some strange reason a single building on the corner of 7 th and Dolores seems to be the focal point for the local political drama over keeping Carmel Carmelish. Several years ago it was suggested that a Long's Drug store might occupy the former bank building, but that was shot down by the anti-chain-store crowd whose short memory forgot that the townsfolk fought to preserve a similar chain store that closed its Ocean Avenue location just a decade earlier.   More recently there we...

Sing to the tune of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." Oh you'd better shut up You'd better not whine You need to stand up and fall in line Donald Trump is coming to town. He's building a wall To keep Muslims out Mexicans too, that's what it's about Donald Trump is coming to town. He's planning massive tax cuts And massive spending, too Do you think he plans to pay for it Out of his own bank-a-roo? He'll make us all great By making us hate Those people he shall designate Donald Trump is coming to town.

In recent years it has become a weekend ritual for Mrs. Toy to pick up burgers and fries from Wendy's on her way home from a busy day of church musicianship. This weekend we thought it might be fun to alter the routine and try out the new In-N-Out Burger joint in Seaside, which opened to great fanfare and excitement about three months ago. While we didn't expect our meal to live up to the hype, we did expect a reasonably good hamburger and fries, and we left open the possibility of being pleasantly surprised. We didn't expect to be too disappointed, much less a little disgusted. The bag contained two double burgers with cheese and two “containers” of fries. I used quotation marks because the fries were placed in shallow paper trays that didn't really contain them. They just sort of spilled out everywhere. The burgers were half naked with the other half wrapped in a flimsy paper shell. Unlike normal fast-food hamburgers, which come in a clamshell box...

To Donald Trump protesters: DO NOT engage in any form of violence, threats, or bullying! It only makes you look bad and makes Trump and his supporters look like the victims. Instead, think like Gandhi and Martin Luther King - practice peaceful, nonviolent noncooperation. To Donald Trump supporters: Because your guy has systematically insulted huge numbers of Americans in order to gain your favor, don't expect to be greeted with tea and cookies.

Let's get something straight. When people (mostly Bernie Sanders supporters) complain that Hillary Clinton "voted for the war in Iraq" they're missing the larger context. The vote was to "authorize the use of force" against Saddam Hussein if he didn't open up Iraq to UN weapons inspectors and comply with American demands that he destroy any weapons of mass destruction he was believed to possess. The Bush Administration sold it to Congress as a way to use the threat of force to get Saddam to comply. And it worked! The mere threat of force did indeed compel Saddam to readmit the UN weapon inspectors who found absolutely nothing. It should have stopped there. But Bush didn't accept the inspectors' findings and started the war anyway. I don't know how Hillary reacted, but many members of Congress who voted for the authorization for its threat value felt betrayed by Bush. Remember, in early 2003 Bush did not yet have the re...

As someone who advocated repairing the wooden cross that was vandalized on Del Monte Beach in 2009, I have mixed feelings about the metal cross that suddenly appeared in its place on Easter weekend. For starters, a metal cross is historically inaccurate. And my sense of law and order dictates that one should not place things on public property without permission. On the other hand, that same sense is still outraged that vandals got away with a crime thanks to the American Civil Liberties Union.   So I am grateful that the issue is back on the public radar. A little civil disobedience on the part of those who made this metal cross may be a good thing. Since nothing was destroyed, and something new was created, one might call it a constructive form of vandalism. News reports said that passersby were delighted to see a cross back on the concrete pedestal, indicating that this controversy was never really settled in the public consciousness. For that reason I think it is ti...

Last Wednesday the Pacific Grove city council approved a special election, scheduled for April 19th, asking the townsfolk to change the zoning of the American Tin Cannery site to allow for a new hotel on the property. The hotel, code named “Project Bella,” is being billed as an economic necessity for PG, and a much better use of the site than the existing indoor retail mall that never lived up to expectations.   Project Bella may indeed be the best thing to happen to Pacific Grove since Holman's, but why is a special election necessary when a regularly scheduled election will come just eight weeks later? The answer is simple. A special election favors the developer.   Special elections tend to attract fewer voters, those most interested in the subject, so the results may not reflect the town as a whole. Also, it gives voters less time to scrutinize and discuss the project, giving the developers more control over the information presented to voters. It therefore comes a...