The city that knows how
– not
Every 10 years or so Hollister wastes thousands of dollars on
studies on how to improve downtown Hollister. Have you seen the
latest artist renderings? Absolutely hilarious. It is akin to
putting a $10,000 gown on Obama and thinking he will be crowned
queen of the Ku Klux Klan.
The city that knows how – not
Every 10 years or so Hollister wastes thousands of dollars on studies on how to improve downtown Hollister. Have you seen the latest artist renderings? Absolutely hilarious. It is akin to putting a $10,000 gown on Obama and thinking he will be crowned queen of the Ku Klux Klan.
The last time Hollister leaders wasted the taxpayers’ money they did it by showing an artist rendering surrounding the parking garage nobody uses with shops, apartments and a multiplex theater. Great idea but all they did with taxpayer money is put blue awnings on most downtown businesses which was great as it gave store owners some shade as they waved to customers going to Gilroy.
When I first started voting people could still be seen clutching endorsement clippings from the Hollister Free Lance and the San Jose Mercury. Newspaper endorsements still meant something in those days when newspapers were more of a reflection of the community they served. The Hollister Free Lance when I was growing up and at voting age was locally owned so naturally, Hollister being a cannery town and mostly Republican, what was good for the cannery and agriculture was good for the paper.
Now “hometown” newspapers are owned by conglomerates who don’t have a clue and sadly don’t care about the hometown. So their political endorsements mean very little.
One of the great examples is when only my column and the King City Rustler with a circulation of around 3,800 endorsed local boy Pete Frusetta for state Assembly. Even the Hollister Free Lance did not endorse him but then neither did the San Jose Mercury, the Salinas Californian, the Watsonville Pajaronian, the Monterey Herald or the Santa Cruz Sentinel. And the Gilroy Dispatch also dispatched Peter as a loser. All of those newspapers with combined readership in the millions against Bob Valenzuela and the King City Rustler. Pete won, big time.
I’d love to think it was due to my column and the King City Rustler but in fact it just proves that newspapers and their non-hometown editorials are not effective if not downright laughable how out of touch they are with the needs of their fast-dwindling readership. But remember, no one admits they voted for Richard Nixon despite the fact he won in a landslide in 49 states. Aye chee waa waa.
And I just voted for Richard Nixon again! Richard Nixon is running for a judgeship here in Los Angeles. Here comes the judge and he is not a crook. Voting for Richard Nixon one more time before I die … does life get any better? Aye chee waa waa.
That lightbulb in the Livermore fire station is still glowing after 107 years. To their death the owners of Last Long Bulb Company couldn’t figure out why they had no repeat business. They made their bulbs too damned good. But other bulb makers like General Electric learned a valuable lesson. Don’t make your product too good and the rest of America’s big business followed suit, built products to fall apart, and they did. God how I love this country.
More nostalgia from that 1958 entertainment page of the San Jose Mercury. Louella Parsons, the most popular and – more importantly – powerful gossip columnist in Hollywood spots Clark Gable and Kay Spreckles. Kay was the daughter of the most powerful man in Salinas and czar of Spreckles Sugar. Louella also mentioned that Disney was planning a Monorail. Well, that never happened.
At the movies in 1958 the Orpheum in San Francisco advertises in the San Jose Mercury that “South Seas Adventure” in Cinerama will not be showing in any other theater in Northern California and never on TV. While most theaters are selling tickets to first-run movies for 65 cents the Cinerama experience that you can’t see in any other theater in Northern California or TV will set you back $1.20 but it includes tax.
This is the happiest time of the year for us as our son David is vacationing with us. On June of 1981, over a quarter of a century ago when he was 11, we traveled from our home in San Francisco to Hollywood to see “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and the Grauman’s Chinese Theater.
In June of 1984 ditto “The Temple of ‘Dumb'” and in June of 1989 “The Last Crusade,” same theater, same row, same seats and the popcorn tasted as if it were popped in 1981.
This year the three of us will not attend the Grauman’s Chinese Theater on the opening day of the latest Raiders but that is because it premieres here in Hollywood at the Cinerama Dome. The Cinerama Dome is David’s favorite theater. Nancy’s favorite is the Vista and I’m partial to the Pussycat.
