Mr. Toy's Mental Notes

There’s something about the recent Artemis II mission that stands in stark contrast to how the rest of the country is being run. That something is professionalism. A team of rocket scientists, engineers, and technicians designed and built the rocket that safely launched the astronauts into orbit. The astronauts went through years of rigorous training for just ten days of flight. Flight controllers in Houston guided the spacecraft on its flight path so precisely that it splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at the exact minute they had planned. None of this would have been possible without the glue that held it all together: professionalism. What exactly is professionalism? It’s an attitude that demands the very best of everyone involved. It is a combination of proper training, skill, dedication, teamwork, ethics, honesty, integrity, respect for others, cooperation, planning, attention to detail, orderliness, personal responsibility, and putting safety first. Professionalism demands st...

I've been watching Artemis II on the TV all week. It is encouraging to see us finally going back to the moon after more than 53 years since Apollo 17. So I was dismayed to see a post on Nextdoor from a former NASA employee who thinks the whole manned space program is a waste of money, and always was. I responded to him with the following. Sending people to the moon seems like a much better use of our money than bombing Iranian bridges, power plants, and schoolgirls. Or buying up abandoned warehouses for use as "detention facilities."  Or shooting peaceful protesters on American streets. Or maintaining a nuclear arsenal that could wipe out the entire Earth several times over.  Humans are natural explorers. It is part of being human to push our boundaries. We've been at it for thousands of years. By doing so we have created many wonderful (and some not so wonderful) inventions, expanded our collective knowledge, and learned more about ourselves in the process. You sa...

I recently had a vivid dream. I was in a Trump prison because of something I said. I was given permission to roam the building freely, but it was a dark, dingy place. Everything was a shade of grey, the walls, the floor, the furniture, everything. I asked if I could have my phone back. I was told yes I could, but they said nobody could find it. At one point I saw through a doorway my phone being pulled out of a basket or something, but I was still told it couldn't be found. I then met a man who looked and talked like an old retired Nazi. He said he could help me if I did what he said. But he was so smarmy I  just said no thanks and moved on. Next I was sitting on a bench at a table contemplating my situation.  An attractive blonde woman in black business attire and carrying a briefcase came up to me. She handed me a small crumpled piece of paper with a symbol on it, and a small rectangular cinnamon cookie. She said "Here's something to help and something to make you fee...

This may sound counter-intuitive, but voting Yes on Proposition 50 will help neutralize political gerrymandering across the country.  I know, on the surface it looks like it will have the opposite effect. In 2008 California voters passed Prop 11 which took the drawing of state legislative districts out of the hands of self-serving politicians and turned it over to an independent commission so politicians couldn't pick and choose their own voters anymore. In 2010 the passage of Prop 20 extended that to include California's congressional districts as well. Prop 50 temporarily suspends Prop 20 for the next three election cycles, 2026, 2028, and 2030. It should be noted that Prop 11 will be unaffected. State legislative districts will continue to be determined by the independent commission. But California's congressional districts will be intentionally gerrymandered for the remainder of this decade. The reason for this is to level the playing field and give both major polit...

2024's Peninsula Nights  is what My Dinner With Andre would have been if it was written by Woody Allen. A chance meeting on a street initiates an evening of quiet discussion between two strangers, as they wander through the streets of Carmel. She is an artist from Manhattan while he is an aspiring screenwriter who sells Carmel real estate to make ends meet. Fast forward a year, and the two run into each other in downtown Monterey, again at night, and resume their uncertain relationship. As the night progresses they are faced with a decision to pursue their relationship further or travel through life on the separate paths already laid out for them. Peninsula Nights  is 90% dialogue and 10% imagery. You could just listen to it and not miss a thing. But the movie benefits from the unique character of the two famous Monterey Peninsula communities, taking advantage of their historic charm and modern sophistication, as the setting for this story. And limiting the story to nighttime ...

I saw this in an Associated Press article in the June 3 Monterey Herald.  “The high court in 2022 handed down a ruling that expanded gun rights and told lower-court judges they should no longer consider factors such as public safety in deciding whether firearm laws are constitutional. Instead, they should focus on whether a law fits into the nation’s historic tradition of gun ownership, the court said.” I checked it out, and it is true. The Supreme Court of the United States of America, in what is known as the Bruen decision, stated that tradition is more important than the written law. This comes from a court whose conservative members have often declared that the letter of the law is not open to interpretation. It should be taken literally, as the founding fathers intended. This is ironic, no it’s completely nuts, because the stated objective of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution is “the security of a free state,” in other words, public safety. On a few occasions I h...

My message to Congressman Jimmy Panetta After reading your May 4th newsletter on the chaotic first 100 days of Trump 2.0, I'm more convinced than ever that Congressional Democrats are taking boxing gloves to a gun fight. You write about legislation to curb Trump's abuse of power. But this legislation will require some Republican cooperation to pass, and most importantly, would need Trump's signature to go into effect unless you miraculously get a veto-proof majority in both the House and Senate.  Considering how unlikely it is that any of this legislation could ever become law it looks like you're just engaging in busywork so it looks like you're doing something, but which is clearly a waste of time. I understand you wanting to play by the rules, and certainly you shouldn't break any laws fighting Trump, But the Trumpers have thrown out the rule book, so you need to be more aggressive and visible than you would be under ordinary circumstances. Maybe I missed ...

CBS News posted this brief news item on Facebook: "World War II codebreaker Julia Parsons died last month at 104 years old. She was part of an all-woman team unscrambling messages to and from German submarines." When I was a kid, a common topic of adult conversation involved things that happened "during the war." Mostly they talked about everyday things that happened on the home front, like where they lived, who they knew, how they used gas ration cards, that sort of thing, as if it happened yesterday. I was fascinated by those stories, and it prompted me to learn everything could about WWII. Today there's almost nobody left to tell those tales.  The last civil war soldier died in 1956, at age 106, just three years before I was born. We think about the civil war as ancient 19th century history, but many people who were there lived through the first half of the 20th century.  Lately I've encountered several young people who are very interested in 1960s cu...

During the past week I've read several posts and comments on Facebook praising Elon Musk for uncovering and eliminating waste and fraud in the federal government. They range from simple expressions of gratitude to positively giddy but unsubstantiated pronouncements that Elon has found huge savings, or exposed massive fraud. Slow down. Musk's so-called "Department Of Government Efficiency" has only been operating for a few weeks. Its staff of around 100 people with little or no government experience hasn't had time to really get to know their way around the massive federal bureaucracy and learn what these agencies actually do, much less determine what is meat and what is fat. Yet from day 1, they've been firing government employees right and left and proudly telling everyone they've already saved us billions of dollars. I see no evidence that DOGE has uncovered any waste or fraud as they claim, though it is possible they may have stumbled on some by acci...

  I'm starting to see a common thread among Trump/Musk ("Trusk") supporters who are letting an unelected billionaire from South Africa dismantle government agencies without going through Congress. They justify this because they are all convinced that Congress has been so thoroughly corrupted that it can't do anything in the public interest anymore. There is a nugget of truth at the core of that perception. Congresscritters, particularly the Republican variety, have for the most part become so dependent on campaign donations from giant corporations and billionaires that they are indebted to them for winning their seat and keeping it. Bernie Sanders built a substantial following by pointing this out and he attempted to correct it. Bernie was somewhat successful.  Democrats are now less dependent on big money donations thanks to the grassroots organization Act Blue which makes it easy for Democrats to receive large numbers of small donations from individual citizens. ...

Sing to the tune of My Boyfriend's Back . It might help if you have a backup singer, even if she's only in your head. If you don't know the tune click here . ___________________________ He went away yet he hung around And he lied to us every day Insisting he had really won And did things that weren’t very nice The Donald’s back and he’s out for retribution He lied, they lied, the Donald’s back He’s so pissed off he’s gonna change the constitution He lied, they lied, the Donald’s back He’s been spouting words that were not true He lied, they lied, the Donald’s back His minions now are comin’ after you He lied, they lied, the Donald’s back Hey, he thinks the deep state’s real And that Putin’s the real deal He was out for four short years He lied, they lied, the Donald’s back Now he’s back and stoking people’s fears He lied, they lied, the Donald’s back You’re gonna be sorry that you gave him your vote He lied, they lied, the Donald’s back ...

I have a question for Trump voters. What did you vote for? I'm assuming most of you are fine upstanding citizens who want what is best for our country. You believe in the United States Constitution, and you want to uphold its principles. But from where I sit it looks like you voted, perhaps unwittingly, for something very different. To me it looks like you voted for... A con man,  A narcissist,  A bad businessman, A fascist, A crook, A puppet of Vladimir Putin, A liar, A vulgar man, A sex offender, A convicted white-collar criminal. A bully, I could go on. At the same time you're probably wondering why I voted for Kamala Harris. It's because I saw her as... A strong woman,  An intelligent woman, A competent woman, An honest woman, A woman who can stand up to bullies, both foreign and domestic, like Vladimir Putin or Donald Trump, A compassionate woman, A woman who has a good sense of humor, A woman who knows when to be tough and when to be gentle, A woman who embodies ...

So another Car Week has come to and gone from the Monterey Peninsula. And as usual the community is divided into two camps. On one side we have people who are frustrated with the traffic, crowds, and noise. The other side is telling these folks to stop whining because "it's good for the economy." The second group has no sympathy for the first, and often goes as far as telling them to move away if they don't like special events and the tourists that come along with them. How did this come about? Car week evolved slowly over several decades. The core event is known as the Concours d'Elegance (which is pronounced properly by maybe half of the local population). The Concours began in 1950 as a single Sunday display of classic automobiles. I remember going there as a kid once, after Sunday School. I watched my dad run his hand over a smoothly polished fender, so I did the same. Suddenly a very cranky man came up behind me saying "NO, NO! FINGERPRINTS!" as...

The subject of the Monterey Branch rail line and the associated SURF bus transit project have been discussed for awhile now in local social media and news reports. For little historic perspective I am posting below a guest commentary I had published in the Monterey Herald back in June 2010. While it may be a little dated, most of what I wrote is still valid today. ---------------------------- For ninety years Southern Pacific's Del Monte Express carried travelers between Monterey and San Francisco. Although the train remained popular to the end, it was discontinued when Amtrak took charge of passenger rail in 1971. Almost immediately, efforts to revive the train began. In 1979, when SP abandoned the tracks from Seaside to Monterey, the cities acted quickly to preserve the line for the Del Monte's return. Using state transportation funds, they purchased the right of way to the wharf depot and formally agreed to keep it available “for future passenger rail service between Mont...

It has gotten harder to call the police. The last few weeks I have made several attempts to report illegal fireworks to Seaside PD. We've always used the non-emergency number 831-394-6811 to do this, and our call would be promptly answered by a dispatcher who would take the information and immediately enter it into the system. Now one must jump through several hoops with no guarantee the system won't disconnect you before the report is made. And I'm getting fed up. Instead of having our calls answered by a human, a machine will answer, much as it does for every business you call these days. First it tells you that this number is not for emergencies, and if you have an emergency you must hang up and call 911. Then they say it again in Spanish.  Next, you are instructed to choose English or Spanish. Next it tells you that they're busy answering emergency 911 calls and implies that your non-emergency concern is an imposition on their important work. Then the voice asks...

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...

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...

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 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...

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 ...