Images for a warm Tuesday evening

Got some images here for you.

Irvine Valley College's theater people (aka "the thespians") have displayed the same dang photos in their box display at the center of building A200 for--well, I figure it's been at least 15 years. The Reb insists this stuff has been hanging around for a lot longer that that.

It's like these two-dimensional performers—and IVC's neglectful theater people—are stuck in a time warp.

The Reb asserts that the children of these performers are now attending the college. Could be.

(We're pretty sure that nobody in the Theater area reads this blog. So we're not too worried about offending them here or alerting them to our machinations.)

A few days ago, at the Reb’s prompting, a few of us were examining the display. We stood back as though we were patrons of an art museum. We marveled at its antiquery, its ridiculosity, not to mention its abject cheesery (what is this, freakin' "Guys and Dolls"?).

While we were jawing, I grabbed my key ring and looked for a key that might open the display (see the two locks?). I found a tiny, silvery key. Don't remember where I got it. Something told me to try it. I stuck it in the lock, and—what do you know?—it turned!

We swung open the door and then marveled at these faded artifacts, seen unobstructed for the first time in, um, decades or something. We sniffed the stale air, noted the dust.

Everybody started staring at my mystery key. "Where'd you get that!" they barked.

"Um, I was the chair of the School of Humanities and Languages once," I offered.

"Yeah, for like five minutes," said a peevish Rebel Girl.

Well, we left word with the dean—about this absurd display, about my key, about what use might be made of this nifty display box—and then disappeared into Spring Break.

* * * * *
Late last week, we started finding these very attractive fliers (see below) around campus. As you know, Saddleback College's Santander, Spain, "study abroad" program is now legendary, owing to the brutal demagoguery of a certain mean-spirited trustee—and the vigilance (and camcorder ownership) of two Dissenters.

Before that absurd/terrible/wonderful moment (about five years ago), the Saddleback program was merely "highly-regarded and very popular."

Now, it's mythic.

Nice flier. OK, I made one tiny change. Just couldn't leave it alone.

A picture of some oaks down the hill from my place, taken a week or so ago

“I was used,” he said

Supervisors strip Street’s investment authority

OC Reg “Watchdog” reporter Jennifer Muir reports that

County supervisors [today] unanimously voted to revoke Orange Countys Treasurer-Tax Collector Chriss Street’s authority to invest county funds.
. . .
Supervisors said … that while Street has done a good job as treasurer, the move was needed to prevent the public and investors from losing confidence in the county’s investment pool….

“It’s a sad day,” Supervisor Bill Campbell said.

Street recommended last week that the board temporarily remove his ability to invest county funds, but he suggested handing over that authority to the county’s elected Auditor-Controller David Sundstrom. The board rejected Street’s plan and instead gave investing authority to the county’s Chief Financial Officer Robert Franz. Street was not at the supervisor’s meeting.

Street was the court-appointed trustee for the End of the Road Trust, successor to the bankrupt Fruehauf Trailer Corp., from 1998 until creditors forced him out in July 2005. Supervisor John Moorlach hired him as the county’s assistant treasurer in January 2006, in effect making Street his designated heir in the June 2006 election.
. . .
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Richard M. Neiter ruled that Street wasted millions of dollars trying to create a truck-trailer manufacturing business that he could run, rather than liquidating assets as he was hired to do. And he found that Street used trust money to pay for everything from fancy dinners to parking tickets.
. . .

And the judge dismissed Street’s sworn explanations for his conduct as “absurd”, “inconceivable” and “incredulous.” He wrote that Street’s conduct as trustee “amounts to gross negligence and willful misconduct.”

Moorlach said he’s known Street since 1994, when he ran against Robert Citron for the treasurer. Citron’s risky investments later drove the county into bankruptcy, and Street, Moorlach said, was one of the few people who knew what Citron was doing.

But Moorlach says that when Street expressed interest in running for treasurer, he never told Moorlach about his issues with Fruehauf.

“I was not informed properly. I was used.” Moorlach reiterated Tuesday. “Fruehafuf [sic] was not a fly on the wall in a room. It was a Doberman Pinscher.”
. . .
Supervisors Bill Campbell and Moorlach called for Street’s resignation after the ruling. Street declined, and he’ll remain in office until the beginning of 2011. He has decided not to run for reelection, and the filing deadline to fill his open seat closes Wednesday.