Plectrum

Noun:  “A  small thin piece of metal, plastic, bone or similar material, used to pluck the strings of certain instruments, such as the guitar or lute.”

Used in a Sentence: “In fairness, Mr. Secretary, I will say that my indsutry’s treatment at the hands of your agency’s gibbering, pus-brained regulators has only caused me within the last several weeks to want to gouge out my eyes with a blunt plectrum.”    Read more »

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New Law Would Detail Non-Discriminatory Policy on Transgender Students

 California is poised to become then first state in the country to put into law what public schools must do to ensure transgender pupils aren’t discriminated against.

Primarily that means being allowed to use a restroom or locker room that matches the gender the student identifies with, which may not be the same as the gender listed on their birth certificate.    Read more »

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Happy Birthday Wendell Berry!

“The complexity of our present trouble suggests as never before that we need to change our present concept of education. Education is not properly an industry, and its proper use is not to serve industries, either by job-training or by industry-subsidized research. It’s proper use is to enable citizens to live lives that are economically, politically, socially, and culturally responsible.    Read more »

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Who Is Mr. Serling Talking About?

“Where will he go next, this phantom from another time, this resurrected ghost of a previous nightmare – Chicago? Los Angeles? Miami, Florida? Vincennes, Indiana? Syracuse, New York?

“Anyplace, every place, where there’s hate, where there’s prejudice, where there’s bigotry.

“He’s alive.

“He’s alive so long as these evils exist.

“Remember that when he comes to your town.    Read more »

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“I Fled Him, Down the Arches of the Years” *

 

“They say a man isn’t old till regrets take the place of dreams.”

 — John Barrymore in “Barrymore” by William Luce

(Then again:)

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”

— C.S. Lewis

(*A line from the first verse of “The Hound of Heaven,” by Francis Thompson, quoted near the end of “Barrymore.”)      Read more »

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An “Exclusive” Interview with Gloria Deukmejian

 

From the Long Beach News, Thursday June 20, 1985: 

What Gloria Deukmejian likes most about being California’s First Lady – next to her husband being the governor, of course – is “meeting people and going to places I wouldn’t normally travel to.”

Like the town of Quincy in Plumas County, 140 miles northeast of Sacramento.    Read more »

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Politics on Tap — Of Malta, Medi-Cal and Millennials

A Look at California’s Future and Present Challenges With Katie Orr, Capital Public Radio reporter; John Malson, Research Manager at the California Department of Finance; and Jim Gomez, CEO & President of the California Association of Health Facilities    Read more »

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Miguel Santiago Shows Over $214,000 Cash-on-Hand in Assembly Bid

(Editor’s Note: The above is the headline on a recently sent e-mail to Sacramento lobbyists by Santiago’s campaign.)

Miguel Santiago is running to succeed Assembly Speaker John Perez who employs Santiago as his district director. Nearly 59 percent of the registered voters in Perez’s 53rd Assembly District are Democrats like Perez and Santiago.    Read more »

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Does This Guy Rock or What?

By Dennis Hoey, Portland Press Herald Staff Writer 

George H.W. Bush, the nation’s 41st president, did not decide to go bald for style or even for comfort.

His spokesman, Jim McGrath, said the 89-year-old Bush went under the razor to show his support for the 2-year-old son of a Secret Service agent assigned to his security detail at the Bush family compound on Walker’s Point.    Read more »

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Photos of Dead People, Dog Parks and Redundancy

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation to reassure coroners that they’re shielded from liability if Californians see illegal copies of photographs or images of dead people.

The bill — AB 957 by Assemblyman Don Wagner, an Irvine Republican –only reassures because coroners have been protected from liability for someone else copying or leaking official corners’ photographs since 1968.    Read more »

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