Mountain Views News          Saturday, April 7, 2012

9

Letters To The Editor & More

 Mountain Views News Saturday, April 7, 2012 


THERE’S NO FREE LUNCH.

Political and fiscal choices will be made. Hopefully they will be made based on honest and sober 
thoughtfulness. 

I attended the Kiwanis Candidates’ Forum and asked what was to be the final question: If elected, 
what SPECIFIC POLICIES would you, the candidate, fight for. Only two candidates came up empty. 
John Capoccia did not find the question clear or important enough to address. MaryAnn MacGillivray 
announced that she would not answer the question but, instead, only talked about the attack of 
the state upon our city. By the way, our city is no different than other California cities in dealing with 
the impact of the recession and the slow-motion glacier-like burden of Prop 13.

Also, Councilman MacGillivray repeatedly declared that despite the city’s budgetary crises and her 
opposition to the authorization for an increase to the Utility User Tax, there would be no cuts to our 
most prized institutions—police and fire departments, and the library. But what is before the current 
city council? Reducing library hours and reductions to access to the city pool. There is no free lunch.

Our combined household UUT for gas and electricity was $13.32 for February. A 20% increase (the 
most that could be levied with the ballot measures) would be $2.66 for that period. For this our town 
will contemplate reducing the quality of life? And what’s to keep us from conserving just a bit more 
to compensate for this $2.66 increase? It’s a win-win situation. Also, homeowners and renters alike 
directly pay the UUT—anyone with meters.

Nostalgia is not a direction for the future. Neither is the perception of penny-pinching nor exaggerating 
the singularity of our city’s relationship with the state. 

Jeff Lapides, Sierra Madre

RICH Johnson

WHAT IS IN A NAME?

If you had a great idea for a product or a service you would soon find 
one of the toughest decisions to make is the naming of the product or 
service. In the words of marketing and advertising gurus your name has 
to sell the sizzle. 

I’ve looked up a variety of products and services to see whether they 
were originally called something else. Most of us know VISA credit card 
was originally known as BankAmericard, and Nissan was called Datsun. I also discovered 
the following:

Computer and video games had different names. Google was originally known as BackRub. 
Quantum Computer Services turned into AOL; Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web 
morphed into Yahoo; Marafuku Company gave up that snappy name to become Nintendo. 
The American Messenger Company figured they should shorten their name and became 
UPS. 

When it comes to food and food products there have been a lot of switcheroos. In the soft 
drink department Brad’s Drink became Pepsi and Lithiated Lemon shortened to 7-Up. Kool 
Aid was originally known as Fruit Smack and Opal Fruits sweetened their name to Starburst. 
Papa Sucker turned into Sugar Daddy and in an odd switch Dried plums became prunes. 
Twinkle fingers started calling themselves Twinkies. Kiwi fruit was originally known as 
Chinese gooseberry…honest. Subway was once known as Peter’s Super Submarines. 

Possibly my favorite are the name changes made to three different types of fish to make them 
more palatable on a menu. Dolphinfish became Mahi Mahi. Order Patagonian Toothfish 
and you’re getting Chilean Sea Bass. And you should know if you prefer the taste of orange 
roughy you are really eating a fish known as slimehead.

Last week the band I am fortunate enough to be a part of (JJJukebox) performed at Café 322. 
Thank you to a large crowd of people who came by to see us and enjoy good food. Thank you 
Mario for inviting us.

If you haven’t listened to the Barry Lisa and Rich radio show on RadioFishbowl.com yet, you 
haven’t listened to Barry Lisa and Rich…yet. Monday and Saturday mornings at 10:00 am 
on your computer. Just type in radiofishbowl.com and turn on the speakers. Good music, 
humor and trivia await you. 

Finally, Fairy Tale Theatre is now offering up a repeat engagement of “The Sorcerer’s 
Apprentice” at the Sierra Madre Playhouse. Performances are an hour long, Saturday 
mornings at 11:00. Now through May 12. Come enjoy this magical adventure. Tickets are 
$18.00 for adults and $12.00 for children 12 and under. Call (626) 355-4318 for reservations.

TIME FOR A CHANGE... MARY ANN NEEDS TO GO!

Last week, Hail Hamilton touched upon Mary Ann’s MacGillivray’s role in the design and 
implementation of the Hillside Management Zone (HMZ) and the Residential Canyon Zone. My 
reason for writing is to expand on Hail’s informative editorial. 

I have lived in Sierra Madre for more than two decades and have watched Mary Ann’s political 
career “develop”. In her most recent foray into local politics, Mary Ann uses the expression “the 
shenanigan years,” referring to the 1990’s when she was a City Council member. What Mary Ann 
fails to mention is that during these “shenanigan years,” while a sitting member of the City Council, 
she supported and sponsored most of the policies and resolutions that she now rails against.

For example, in 2005-2006 Mary Ann was a member of the Hillside Management Zone (HMZ) 
Committee, which ostensibly was intended to protect our Hillsides from overdevelopment. 
During the process, Mary Ann, along with several other committee members and hillside property 
owners defined “Hillside” in such a manner that their hillside properties would be exempt and later 
included in the “Residential Canyon Zone” (RCZ). 

To illustrate the conflict of interest, the Hillside Management Zone is mainly several large canyons 
surrounded by a few hillsides, while the Residential Canyon Zone is made up of one small canyon 
(Woodland Ave) surrounded by large swaths of hillsides. It would seem to a reasonable person 
that a “Hillside Zone” would affect ALL Hillsides in the City and a “Canyon Zone” would affect 
ALL canyons in the City.

Instead, what Mary Ann and company did was to create gaping holes in the City’s Zoning Codes 
along with potential legal liabilities that in the long run will benefit the interests of those she so 
publicly opposes while harming the interests of those she allegedly represents.

Mary Ann has no problem espousing libertarian “Tea Party” values while pandering to pseudo-
liberals and out-of-town interests. The divisive techniques, obfuscation, duplicity and fear 
mongering by Mary Ann and her cohorts does not distinguish her from her former colleagues 
during the “shenanigan years” but rather is emblematic of them. 

I agree with Hail: “It’s time for a change. This Tuesday let’s show Mary Ann the door -- to a 
future of well-earned obscurity!”

Long time Sierra Madre, Mike Velasquez

OUT TO PASTOR A Weekly Religion Column


SOME THINGS SEEM TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE

Recently I discovered something. The more I tried to keep up with the 
latest trend the further behind I get. I am not a complete technical idiot, 
but I'm not too far off. The only thing I can say about me is that I at least 
try.

The best example of all of this has to do with my cell phone. Is there 
anybody on the planet today that does not have a cell phone? And, the 
most important question, is there anybody driving a car that is not at the 
same time on that cell phone? Who in the world are they all talking to?

My guess is they are all talking to each other. At least, they are not talking to me.

 

The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage finally convinced me to go into cahoots with her and 
get cell phones. The plan was this. She got to pick out the cell phones and I got to pay the bill. 
I must say I beat her on this one.

She only got to take the cell phone once but I, get to pay the bill every month. I was chuckling 
to myself that I finally pulled one over on her until I realized that I get to pay the bill every 
month. Every month! This is the last time I will try to pull something over on her. I never 
win.

Consequently, we now are in the cell phone industry. I am not sure it is all working out for 
the good.

I have yet to master the technological skill associated with successfully using my cell phone. 
Although my cell phone is rather small, it has more buttons on it than Bozo the clown's costume. 
Not only are there more buttons than I can count but each button is smaller than I can 
see. Who in the world designed such small buttons?

I really think that my cell phone was designed for some midget.

At this point, I cannot tell the difference when my cell phone is ringing or when I am receiving 
a text message. When a text message comes in I try to answer the cell phone and nobody 
seems to be on the other end. When I try to read the text message there are only letters 
instead of words. It takes me a half hour just to figure out one text message. Where is James 
Bond when you need him?

I may not be the brightest letter on the keyboard but I do know how to spell words. It seems 
that in order to use a cell phone today you have to throw out words and start using letters. I 
will never get the hang of that.

When somebody is on the phone and I am talking, all of a sudden the phone goes dead. I can 
talk for 3 minutes before realizing nobody is on the other end. I find this most frustrating.

I am not sure that the convenience of the cell phone is worth the frustrating elements associated 
with having the cell phone.

In a crowded restaurant the other day, my cell phone went off. Not thinking too much of my 
environment I answered the cell phone. It was a friend calling me.

The conversation started rather jovial for all practical purposes. Suddenly I became conscious 
I had an audience. There are times when I really prefer not to have an audience. This 
was one of those times.

I realized some of the people around me were eavesdropping in on my conversation. Then 
the unthinkable happened. My cell phone suddenly went dead. It went dead in the middle of 
a rather humorous joke I was telling. Now what was I to do?

It really was not my fault that the phone went dead. I did not plan it that way. Besides, I hate 
it when somebody stops in the middle of a joke and you never get to the punchline.

For a few seconds I was not sure what the proper protocol is when your phone goes dead 
and you have an audience. I had to do some very quick thinking and come up with, what I 
thought was, a brilliant plan.

I understand that when you do have an audience you have a certain responsibility with that 
audience. So, not to disappoint my audience, I continued my conversation on the cell phone 
as though somebody was actually on the other end. I was able to finish my joke and then I 
paused, not knowing what else to do. I merely continued the conversation I was having with 
my friend who really was not on the other end of this time.

Sometimes it is good just to keep up a good front. From the snickers of the people around 
me in that restaurant, it was well worth finishing that joke. I hate to waste a good joke. After 
all, they are so hard to come by these days.

Many things are just too good to be true and many of them I probably will never really get 
the hang of it. One thing I never really will fully understand is God's love for me.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16 KJV).

Although this sounds too good to be true, it is true nevertheless.

The Rev. James L. Snyder is pastor of the Family of God Fellowship, PO Box 831313, Ocala, FL 
34483. He lives with his wife, Martha, in Silver Springs Shores. Call him at 352-687-4240 or 
e-mail jamessnyder2@att.net. The church web site is www.whatafellowship.com.