Feast Of Lanterns Going Away For Undue Political Correctness

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Not This Pc Again

If this was a minority group mocking some white male American they’d just call it “Cultural Differences” and let it go.

Feast of Lanterns Board President Dixie Layne says she doesn’t know of any response, but declines further comment. Two other board members did not respond to requests for comment.

The board’s apparent unwillingness to discuss the issue perplexes P.G. Councilwoman Lisa Bennett, who notes that the festival organization is unaffiliated with the city.

“The Feast of Lanterns is one of our traditional events, and at the same time, it depicts characters who are ethnic minorities” she says. “It would be a very good thing if the Feast of Lanterns committee were open to talking to people of Chinese ancestry about it.”

Although Bennett says the play isn’t intended as discriminatory, she adds, “I don’t think it’s right nowadays to uphold a tradition that is offensive to an ethnic group. We’ve been told that it is. Now what are we going to do about it?

P.G. resident Sue Parris, chapter director of the National Coalition Building Institute, feels that the play blights an otherwise charming festival. “We do this scene of fake Chinese-ness, and there aren’t any Chinese people involved or even consulted,” she says. “That part seems so unnecessary and kind of backwards. It’s not taking into account the effects on the people who are being portrayed.”

Local historians give the play mixed reviews. Monterey Peninsula College art history teacher Kent Seavey, a P.G. resident, calls it a “nice romantic story” that has nothing to do with the historically important Chinese residents of Point Alones.

Feast Of Lanterns Going Away For Undue Political Correctness

Melange Shuts Down

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Melange

One restaurateur who simply couldn’t hang on is Melange chef-owner David Frappiea, who, along with investors, sunk a substantial chunk of change (estimated at around $200,000) into the old Favaloro’s space (closing for seven months during renovation) to bring us Pacific Grove’s best fine-dining restaurant. But in the current economy, high-end restaurants have suffered the most due to lack of corporate events during the holidays, and diners searching for bargain fare.

Melang menu

$18.50 for a plate of noodles. This eatery seemed so out of place in Pacific Grove. Make way for Olive Garden!

Melange Shuts Down

P.G. Moves To Refill Reservoir

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If this is such a great idea, why was the reservoir drained in the first place? Earthquake safety? Pollution?

The City of Pacific Grove is taking a pro-active approach in the Central Coast water crisis. The city is moving forward with a plan to restore a water reservoir.

The proposed project would sit on the current operations yard for California American Water on David Avenue in Pacific Grove. The site was previously a dam that was built in the late 1800’s.

The reservoir would store storm water runoff that is otherwise unused. The are also plans to pull water from underground springs throughout the city.

P.G. Moves To Refill Reservoir

New Evidence For 2nd Stamm Trial

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David Stamm

The retrial of a former Peninsula businessman suspected of child molestation has been delayed until February. Prosecutor Glenn Pesenhofer said he requested the continuance to allow time to investigate new evidence against David Stamm.

Stamm testified at his first trial that the relationship with his accuser, by then 23, was consensual and did not begin until after the boy turned 18. The jury acquitted him of oral copulation of a person under the age of 18 but deadlocked on all other charges. Pesenhofer said jury selection is now set for Feb. 2, with testimony to begin Feb. 9.

New Evidence For 2nd Stamm Trial

Two Arrested For Counterfeit Money At Safeway

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Safeway is becoming our own little crime center on the hill.

Marquise Legaux, 21, and Laura Long, 31, of Seaside were taken into custody Dec. 23 with the help of the Secret Service, and officers of the Monterey County Probation Department, Seaside, Monterey and Carmel police.

Pacific Grove police detective Adam Sepagan said Legaux passed the fake bills by exchanging them for real money from the cash register at a retail store where he worked.

Two Arrested For Counterfeit Money At Safeway

What If Digital Research Had Won IBM’s Love?

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The software company was headquartered in P.G. and sold a computer operating system that many say was better than the upstart Microsoft’s product.

Digital Research Sign

Long before “Think Different” became a marketing slogan, Kildall’s Digital Research was thinking differently, writes Terry Horton, who remembers the early days and now lives in Dubai. He speculates that the IBM deal fell through in part because of an East Coast/West Coast culture clash.

“First, their office was not an office,” Horton writes of Digital.”It was an old house on the beach in Pacific Grove with a view to the northwest that produced some wonderful sunsets. Second, the office staff were not wearing real suits. In fact, a majority of the secretaries wore shorts and bikini style tops. In other words, it was horrifying to a staid easterner in a three-piece suit planning to put the ultimate success or failure of their PC project in the hands of someone like this.”

Jim Tirjan of Campbell found himself contemplating “what if.” What if IBM had gone with Digital instead of Microsoft?

“Would Pacific Grove today be what Redmond became?” he writes. “OK, maybe people in Monterey like it just the way it is, but the implications for Silicon Valley would be staggering.”

What If Digital Research Had Won IBMs Love?

Liberals Circle the Wagons in Butterfly Town USA

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(American Chronicle)
Ice Cream Shoppe

Interesting viewpoint that is not normally found..

I located Sgt. Williams, and he told me the name of the eatery, that it was an ice cream shop and he had been called a “baby killer” by the owner. Professor Toro´s column was carefully crafted to not disclose the exact nature of the eatery, and my e-mail to the columnist asking for the business´s name was never answered.

So the liberal local press and Chamber of Commerce are circling the wagons to protect the ice cream shop owner mostly from himself, I suspect. The owner needs sensitivity training on how to treat soldiers the same way liberals would have conservatives do when they say something politically incorrect about minorities, gays or militant Muslims.

Liberals Circle the Wagons in Butterfly Town USA

Ice Cream Shoppe Owner Denies Accusing Soldiers

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The store is a shrine to the far left leaning views of the owner – what do you expect?

Ice Cream Shoppe Awning

Ozuna has a very different account of what happened that day. “Those are all lies,” he said, after reading a Monterey County Herald report of the incident.

This week, the parties told The Pine Cone very different accounts of what transpired that Veteran’s Day.

Derek Williams, who served in Iraq from November 2006 to November 2007, said that as they were leaving the shop, he heard Ozuna say he didn’t want to serve military personnel. Derek then told his wife, who confronted the shop owner.

“I turned around and said, ‘Excuse me, what did you say to us?’” Courtney Williams said. “And he said, ‘I wasn’t speaking to you, I was speaking to my customers.’”

“Semi-heated” words were then exchanged, the Williamses said.

“I kind of went off on a tangent,” said Courtney Williams, who is studying Arabic. “I said he [Ozuna] wouldn’t have his freedom if it wasn’t for my husband. It kind of hit a soft spot in me.”

At some point during the exchange, the couple said Ozuna included their daughter in the argument.

“He said we were baby killers and murderers,” Derek Williams recalled. “And that we were raising the next generation of killers.”

“I couldn’t believe this guy was attacking us in broad daylight in front of customers,” Courtney Williams said.

Ice Cream Shoppe Owner Denies Accusing Soldiers

Beaches Draw Families With Model Cars

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Beware, the recreation loving families are likely to be chased away by the tidepool nazis.

From as far away as Oroville, members of the Nor-Cal RC (radio-controlled) Rock Crawling Club packed their diminutive trucks, controllers and tool boxes for the first competition of 2009 on the rocks just below Ocean View Boulevard near Acropolis Street.

Why there?

“The rocks,” said Rob Taylor-Shaw, a computer systems engineer from Marina, as the bright morning sun began to burn off the morning chill.

Wrapped in jackets and sitting on a couple of beach chairs not far from Sunday morning’s rock-crawling action were Lisa Gammon of Petaluma and Tiffany Heil of Rohnert Park.

Gammon said her husband, Erik, was competing, as was Heil’s boyfriend, Lance Herlund. The two women have been seeing each other at competitions from more than a year.

“It sure is a nice day, and you can’t beat the view,” Gammon said.

Beaches Draw Families With Model Cars