Warning: this post contains dumb jokes

This morning in the break room I was reading last week's Bee with the story of the two Marines from Fresno that were best friends and were both killed at the same time in Iraq. Margaux had already told me about the part in the article where the mom of one of them relates how she was trying to call her son to tell him Bush won and that he would be so happy to hear this, but she could not get through to him and the next morning she found out he was dead. She related this without making any connection between Bush being president and her son being dead.

Speaking of Fresno, NPR reported today that many Californians are moving away from the coast and into inland cities because of skyrocketing housing prices, I already kind of knew that but I was stoked to hear that over half of all Californians are thinking of moving to another state because of this issue. This may sound harsh to be happy about this, but I would guess most of these people are probably not native Californians, and as a renter who may never be a homeowner, every person that moves away increases my chances just a little bit. Or maybe not, I never took Economics.

Speaking of the California heartland, a big shout out to Heather, who may be there right now. I just found out yesterday that Janet Leigh was from Merced. One of the google searches that led someone to my blog was "nolia clap song where Merced at?". Is there some local rapper who has inserted Merced into his take on "nolia clap"?

I wrote about this yesterday, but blogger ate it. I knew we were in trouble when doofy Maloof came out to back the Sheriff's land scam in Natomas to get the new arena built. This half-time interview was particularly irritating cuz it was mostly Grant Napear (or "G" as doofy Maloof called him) blowing Maloof on camera for being so rich. Not only was it front-page news in the Bee the next day, but Voison wrote an over-the-top endorsement and reminded us for the zillionth time that Arco is "creaking and cracked". Today it's front-page news again. The sheriff seems to have toned down his high profile on this scam. Maybe it would be unseemly for him to be spending time getting the arena built when he should be investigating why two of his officers killed an unarmed mentally ill man while his parent watched. The Bee's reporting on this issue is a bit confusing. Here is a sentence from yesterday's article, headlined "Doofy Maloof sez-new arena will be awesome!" "Landowners would reap the benefits of speedy development, and agree to contribute 20 percent of the proceeds - perhaps as much as $600 million - to pay for an arena." Here's a sentence from today's article, headlined "Sheriff sez-we better build this arena or my deputies will come to your house and kill you" "In return for quick county review, landowners would pledge 20 percent of the profits from the sale of their land to finance an arena - an amount expected to total at least $300 million." I guess the 600 million figure comes from whether or not we decide to gold-plate the arena and have the Kings wear actual jewel-encrusted crowns and purple velvet robes. I say go for it! It'll be awesome!