Wendy's EXCELLENT adventure—top primary vote-getter in 73rd AD

From the OC Reg; info from Registrar of Voters

Gabriella (D) and Brough (R) will
advance to the general election

     ...[Wendy] Gabriella had the best chance of riding the ideological divide in the Republican Party into Sacramento if Petrilla or Bryson had been nominated. Brough makes it a harder road. But she’s a bright and engaging figure and he apparently has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way — I heard people wonder if his coming out of an apparently resigned slumber to almost overtake Gabriella for the top spot in the primary was some sort of ballot tabulation error. Gabriella has worked hard and is not just another Democratic sacrificial lamb in South OC. If Brough doesn’t do a really good job of consolidating the party — and he’s going to need good luck to make that happen — Gabriella could be the sort of shocking Democratic success coming out of OC than Sharon Quirk-Silva was in 2012, except even more unlikely. She has already gotten off to a decent start! Anyone in touch with Jesse Petrilla, so we can find out what he thinks about his coming in third? –Greg Diamond in Wednesday’s Orange Juice Blog

My love of old contraptions is sparked, like the Hindenburg

     I was watching "American Pickers," and the boys came across an old "shave ice" machine—somewhere in the midwest, I think. It was manufactured in Japan and it sported an image of a Zeppelin, among other things. Pretty odd. Nobody on the show seemed to know much about it.

     The way the contraption works is this: a block of ice is positioned below the plate at the end of the screw. As one cranks the lower plate that spins the ice, one tightens the wheel above, forcing the ice slowly downward. A blade below the lower plate shaves the ice, depositing the shavings underneath.

     I did  a little research and came across the above image, which seems to match what Mike and Frank came across—I recalled the name "Tomitashiki" on the front of it.

     Evidently, "Tomitashiki" or "Tomita Siki" (see below) manufactured and sold these things pre-war. "Shave ice" treats, it seems, were made popular in the U.S. via Hawaii, which, as you know, has long had strong cultural connections with Japan.

Why a Zeppelin?

     I have learned nothing about the reason for displaying a Zeppelin on the machine. Obviously,  the Zeppelin company was German, and, ahem, the Germans and Japanese did seem to make connections in the late Thirties. Still, why display a blimp on an ice shaving machine? Maybe it was simply an iconic "modern" gismo of its time. (The Zeppelin's iconic status changed, of course, in 1937, when the Hindenburg crashed and burned. But that tragedy was more about the politics of fuels like hydrogen and helium than about the viability of dirigibles and the like.) (1929: Graf Zeppelin flies around the world. Stops in Japan.)

     I found an image of a similar model below.

     Very cool.

For Profit the Wet Sprocket

Some letters backing Corinthian College were sent by employees (OC Reg)
—A Register review has found that some testimonials sent to lawmakers touting the company’s grads were actually penned by its employees.

     One of the nation's largest career college companies, Corinthian operates 107 campuses under the brand names Everest, Heald and WyoTech.
     Currently enrolls 75,000 students – down from 86,000 last year.
     At Santa Ana campus, 13 of 169 students enrolled in medical assistant program graduated on time in 2012. (Another 118 students took more time but eventually graduated.)
     Of those 13 students, nine landed a job in the field. None reported making more than $20,000 a year….

Summer music at my house

She'll tantalize me.
Till I got to explode.
When I'm up there with her.
You just go go go.
Then she starts to bite me.
Man I just don't know.
She starts taking chunks of flesh.
Like a dog on a bone.

She's volatile.
She's my baby.
Nitroglycerine.
Nitroglycerine.
Nitroglycerine.

The Gories, c. 1990

X an' Cobras at the Majestic (long ago)

I love both bands

• Detroit Cobras - As Long As I Have You

• X the band Exene,John Doe -True Love

Who is standing up for those kids?

"Those parents lost little kids. I had 20 years with my son. That's all I'll ever have," he said. "But those people lost their children at 6 and 7 years old. How do you think they feel? And who's talking to them now, who's doing anything for them now? Who is standing up for those kids that died back then in an elementary school? Why wasn't something done? It's outrageous."

Rebel Girl suspects that everyone who works at the colleges has been thinking about those students and their families and friends today - and of course, our own students.

We should, of course, do more than think about them. We need to act.

Among the actions Reb took this morning was to call the local office and the D.C. office of Congressman John Campbell and make the suggestion that now is the time for Campbell to revisit his position on gun control.  She reminded the people who took her call that Campbell, of course, has a UC campus in his district. The congressman, it should be noted, has yet to make any statement.

Call and ask that he do so.  It takes about ten minutes tops.

(949) 756-2244
(202) 225-5611

Rebel Girl is always surprised at how many people have never called their congressional representative.  You should. We pay them after all.  It's supposed to be about US, not them.  Today  make it about us.  Better yet, make it about those students.

When Rebel Girl drops off her little guy at his elementary school, she walks by those parents who still shepherd their kindergarteners and first graders to class - and wait with them for the teachers to arrive.  Reb remembers when she used to do that.  She couldn't leave until she had seen him safely into the classroom.   Once, for a brief time, Reb worked as teacher's aide in a kindergarten and she used to volunteer in her son's.  She knows what those rooms are like, the tiny desks, the bulletin boards covered with the handmade work of young children, the teacher's desk, the floor where the students sit cross-legged gather to hear a story.   Now, every day, when she walks by those classes, she cannot help it, she thinks of Sandy Hook. Every day. Without fail. Sometimes longer, sometimes shorter.  But every day. Flashes. What it must have been like in those classrooms. Sometime she thinks if they had released photographs of the classrooms which had become, within minutes (minutes!) horrific crime scenes, maybe that would help. She knows that would be disrespectful, in poor taste - but she wonders what it will take to move people, a nation to really look at the human cost of gun control policies.

Sandy Hook vigil at Irvine High School. 2/15/12

Consider joining the vigil tonight at Aldrich Park at U.C. Irvine.  7 pm. All are welcome.

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What is Campbell's position on gun control?  Here are the main points of a bill he co-sponsored:
Ban gun registration & trigger lock law in Washington D.C.

Nothing in any provision of law shall authorize the Mayor, or any governmental authority of the District of Columbia, to prohibit possessing firearms by a person who is allowed to possess firearms under federal law.
Denies the District any authority to enact laws or regulations that discourage or eliminate the private ownership or use of firearms.
Repeals the ban on semiautomatic weapons.
Repeals the District's registration requirement for possession of firearms.
Repeals the trigger lock law.
Maintains the current ban on the possession and control of a sawed-off shotgun, machine gun, or short-barreled rifle.
Eliminates criminal penalties for possessing an unregistered firearm.
Specifies exceptions to the prohibition against carrying concealed weapons in the District.

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From the May 22 Lariat:

A review of free speech policies on Saddleback College’s campus

     Two vendors collecting signatures for same-sex marriage and the legalization and decriminalization of marijuana were asked to leave Saddleback College last March, on Senior Day, an event held for prospective high school students….