Gloomy, doomy Santa Ana Mountain communities

The OC Reg’s Science Dude reports that, according to the National Weather Service, “The cold North Pacific storm that’s streaking toward Southern California will drop 1 inch to 1.5 inches of rain by 8 a.m. Friday, with the heaviest precipitation falling in and around the burn areas of eastern Orange County….”


8:14 p.m.: Canyon residents under mandatory evacuation:

MODJESKA CANYON – Weary canyon residents, scarred by the recent wildfire and forced to leave their homes for 24 hours during a rainstorm last week, are now under a mandatory evacuation order again. ¶ The decision to make the evacuation mandatory was based on a National Weather Service forecast that the canyon areas will receive a minimum of 2 inches of rain tonight in a six-hour period….

On an even drearier note, I spotted Raghu P. Mathur at Irvine Valley College's Holiday party today, which, owing to his presence, was a shitty affair, judging by the faces of those who surrounded him. It was bleak, way bleak, I tell you.



Well, so it seemed to me, but I was only there for maybe one minute. No doubt the party was great in every other respect—even IF Tony was not allowed to roar up to the party on his Harley, wearin' his Santa suit.

I bet Mathur told Glenn: "You WILL have your holiday party in the Performing Arts Center. You will NOT have bikers. Or Bauers. Got it?"

I'm told that Mathur took that little poinsettia with him when he left. Could be somebody just made that up.


THE "POINSETTIA" EPISODE, 1998
FROM DISSENT 14, December, 1998:

...Late Thursday, the 10th, everyone seemed to be buzzing about President Mathur’s latest outrage. He had imposed himself on a lunch for classified employees at around noon. Each table held a lovely potted poinsettia. The idea was to give the thing to the classified employee who had been with the district the longest.

Since she had been with the district for nineteen (?) years, classified employee Linda X was identified as the recipient of the plant for her table. But the President—Mr. Raghu P. Mathur—put a stop to that. He announced that he had been with the district for nineteen and one half years, and so, as he left, to the astonishment of everyone, and despite his never having been a classified employee, he took the plant.

“Can you believe it!” people said. “Who does he think he is?” “What next!” Some among the classified staff who had witnessed the infamy offered suggestions as to where Raghu might plant his poinsettia. (Oh, how they hate him.) My inveterate commitment to peace and loveliness precludes saying more.

At about 2:30, I briefly visited a Burrito picnic out by the temporaries that had been arranged by students. Naturally, people were still buzzing about the purloined poinsettia. Then someone appeared holding two plants that he and others had purchased at Ralph’s—poinsettias, of course. A group of about ten faculty and staff—I was told to stay behind by my self-appointed handlers—took the plants and entered the Administration Building. As they walked past the President’s open door, they loudly hailed Linda X and presented her with the replacement plants. Everyone clapped and cheered. Then one of the group halted the applause. “No,” he said. “One clap.” [In those days, Mathur used to insist on what he called the "Orange County 'Clap'."]

Then, in unison, loudly: CLAP!

Again, smoke could be seen exiting Raghu’s riffraffian ears. —BB