Year: 2006

Peeping Smart

The Downtown Art and Wine Tour

While I’m no Travis Armstrong, my life as a peeper means that, in addition to meeting tons of people and getting invited to oodles of fantastic affairs, I do my fair share of drinking. And in my more sober moments, I find myself wondering what kind of toll the sauce is taking on my poor, defenseless liver. I was pondering that question the other day when Matt Kettmann popped his head in my office and told me of a company that’s been humping his leg promoting its “PartySmart” pill. He tossed me a sample last Thursday morning, and the timing could not have been better:

BRIEF CASE

The horse race for District Attorney had been agreeably bland to this point, with most forecasters picking current Assistant DA Christie Stanley to win in a relative landslide. But bland took a turn for the bizarre last week for DA hopeful Gary Dunlap when former Santa Maria City Council candidate Anthony Romero, an ardent Dunlap supporter seen lately driving a 40-foot RV plastered with “Dunlap for DA” signs, was stabbed in the chest on the evening of May 18 while standing outside his parked RV in Santa Maria.

SAVING SANTA ROSA:

The plan to turn Santa Rosa Island into a private military hunting resort was dealt a serious setback last week when a U.S. Senate subcommittee passed a resolution effectively squashing the scheme. Looking to hamstring the Republican-led plan, California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer authored the resolution, which backs the existing National Park Service plan to end all deer and elk hunting on the island by 2011.

Cities BBQ

Let’s get one thing clear right away:

Barbecuing and grilling are two separate beasts. Although many Americans (with the exceptions of Texans or South Carolinians) use them interchangeably, barbecue has nothing to do with cooking over a gas grill in your backyard. Real barbecue is slowly smoked, slathered in sauce (to keep it moist), and the subject of as much argument, secrecy, and speculation as Area 51. That’s why Jonathan Banks, owner of Cities BBQ, can’t divulge the ingredients that make up the restaurant’s sauce, only revealing that there are “more than 15.”

DEATH BY MOLD:

Many of California’s oak treesand their unmistakable imprint on the state’s landscapeface possible annihilation in an anticipated scourge of Sudden Oak Death (SOD). In mid-May, the United States Forest Service underwent its annual aerial monitoring of SOD in Southern California and discovered approximately 150 patches of dead oak trees, according to Lisa Bell of the SOD monitoring program.