Thanks for the rate hike
Thank you very much! I received your massive rate increase!
Are you aware that the average annual wage increase is about 2
to 3 percent? When in a sane person’s life does an entity raise
rates in the neighborhood of 50 percent or whatever it is? Even an
insane person would say this is crazy. This is why the absence of
competition doesn’t work. This is so obviously greedy on your part
that if there is a class action lawsuit against you, I will join it
and hope you, the water and sewer bureaucracy are sued into the
ground. I hope you are investigated thoroughly. I will vote and
vote anyone out on a rail who had anything to do with this. Anyone
who puts this kind of an increase in and thinks it won’t be reacted
to is not a rational individual.
Point to ponder: This increase will be food out of many kids’
mouths. I do realize the words of concern are just that; words.
This is how one loses faith in humanity.
All this increase is, is a massive tax increase, parading as a
water-sewer rate increase.
Dave Pierce
Hollister
It’s a matter of principle
My wife and I have been regular customers of the China Garden Restaurant on Airline Highway for eight years. We recently paid for a take-out order using our Visa card. Upon receiving our statement, I was surprised to see that $6.70 had been added to our original bill. Although small in nature, I wanted an explanation.
I made contact with an older woman at the restaurant that I believed to be the owner. She showed me all the original paperwork, including our food order. She explained that when we had paid for the order, the restaurant had failed to charge us for one item. Without our knowledge or permission, they again scanned our Visa to collect the additional money.
I told the woman that what she had done was both unethical and illegal. I asked that the $6.70 be returned to me. She balked at first and then, adding insult to injury, wanted to bargain for a lesser amount owed.
I stated that I would not barter with her and that it was the principle of the matter. I told her she should not be conducting business in an unscrupulous manner. There’s no way of knowing how many times before that she has employed this deplorable practice.
I was finally able to obtain my $6.70. Needless to say, we will take our business to a more honorable establishment. I would urge others to think twice prior to patronizing this restaurant.
Bob Carney
Hollister
Testing culture harms students
Last week’s Pinnacle story about students and high stakes testing highlighted the increasing challenges that students face. Our local school districts are complicit in the insane drive by federal and state mandates to increase student testing. Local schools require teachers to test often, even in the primary grades. First grade students must take as many as 20 assessments throughout the school year.
The testing culture forces us to dumb-down the curriculum, so that test-taking is the primary goal of education. We should teach students higher-order thinking skills, where they become analytical thinkers. Instead, they learn primarily through rote-memorization and how to prepare for tests.
Studies show that public schools are competitive with charter schools and there is no significant difference between schools. However, there are differences between private schools and public schools that have to do with affluence, access to resources, and private schools restrict who can attend. Public schools teach to all children, regardless of their academic skills and emotional and behavioral differences. Private schools teach to the whole child and expose children to art, music, culture, science and physical education, which are being sacrificed in public education because of pressure to raise test scores.
Local school districts and teachers are losing control of teaching, and are forced to use scripted teaching programs as prescribed by the No Child Left Behind Act. Creativity and fun are no longer valued in public schools. Local, state and federal elected officials should be held accountable for this sad state of affairs.
Joe Navarro
Hollister
Thanks for the rate hike
Thank you very much! I received your massive rate increase!
Are you aware that the average annual wage increase is about 2 to 3 percent? When in a sane person’s life does an entity raise rates in the neighborhood of 50 percent or whatever it is? Even an insane person would say this is crazy. This is why the absence of competition doesn’t work. This is so obviously greedy on your part that if there is a class action lawsuit against you, I will join it and hope you, the water and sewer bureaucracy are sued into the ground. I hope you are investigated thoroughly. I will vote and vote anyone out on a rail who had anything to do with this. Anyone who puts this kind of an increase in and thinks it won’t be reacted to is not a rational individual.
Point to ponder: This increase will be food out of many kids’ mouths. I do realize the words of concern are just that; words. This is how one loses faith in humanity.
All this increase is, is a massive tax increase, parading as a water-sewer rate increase.
Dave Pierce
Hollister
‘Vertigo:’ Aye chee waa waa!
A big aye chee waa waa to Donna Guerra Howe and her love of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” and more importantly her wanting others to enjoy it. If I hadn’t vowed never to leave Hollywood I would love to attend the 50th anniversary of the filming of “Vertigo” in San Juan Bautista.
Not that anyone asked. Much to the chagrin of the San Juan Bautista Chamber of Commerce, I was born in San Juan Bautista and – even more chagrin from the Catholic Church – I was baptized in Mission San Juan Bautista. Luckily for me I’m chagrinless.
As the former entertainment critic for The Pinnacle I hope to be asked to submit a complete review of the film I consider to be the second most important talkie ever made. If I am not asked I will submit one anyway.
The sole purpose of my life is making sure every movie fan including those who think “Jackass Number Two” is cinema verite sees this wonderment of bewilderment. “Vertigo” is only one of two films that I know of that has gotten better with age according to critics, film snobs and more importantly movie fans.
John Ford’s “The Searchers” with John Wayne and Natalie Wood is the other.
Both films were deemed way too complex by critics and audiences alike. I, too, found the films confusing, but whenever I find confusion I endeavor to defuse the confused and stayed for a second showing. Like a first date in the front seat it is not until the second date in the back seat that the mystery unfolds. Aye chee waa waa!
But don’t wait until next year to see “Vertigo,” rent the DVD version with the special edition “making of” features and unplug your phone, unplug the dog, unplug the kids and the next day if you’re not plugged in, watch it again.
Try to imagine “Jaws” or “Star Wars” without the music of John Williams or “Psycho” without Bernard Herrman’s slicing score. A life without seeing “Vertigo” is a life not worth living. From the beginning credits of Saul Bass and the music of Bernard Herrman to the denoument where Mission San Juan Bautista envelops the strangest threesome ever: James Stewart, Kim Novak and a nun who has the second greatest last line of any film ever made, as though it was written from the bowels of hell.
I know, I live in Hollywood … and lived in Hollister! Aye chee waa waa!
Bob Valenzuela
Hollywood
