SWCAMBORNE

Is it okay if a million people have to suffer a little bit so that a few thousand can keep thing the way they are? This is the situation with the 710 Freeway. The people of South Pasadena have successfully blocked completing the freeway for more than 40 years. The people of Alhambra have had to bare the brunt of the burden. But the residents of Pasadena, Arcadia, Monrovia, La Canada and many other cities in the San Gabriel Valley have had their commutes lengthened and the traffic increased a little in their neighborhoods so that South Pasadena can keep thing the way they were.

A special interest group with a lot to gain or lose can concentrate its effort on influencing the media and the politicians while a million people who suffer in the margin are not heard. A picture of a family who will “lose there house” makes good media but it is hard to picture the suffering of the million people whose daily commute is 5 minutes longer because the 710 freeway was never completed. This is one of the flaws of our democracy.

“There are three kinds of mistakes: accidental and intentional.”

Unknown

How old are those bottles of spices in your cupboard?

Did you know that they get old and lose there flavor? A few years ago we started to once a year write the year of purchase on the top of each jar.

After they are two years we throw them away. Wouldn’t it benefit us all if the spice companies would put an expiration date on their bottles? Why don’t they? It seems like a really good product differentiation idea that could command a premium price.

Thanks to Nurit for this idea.

I was amazed last week when I was driving down Orange Grove Avenue in South Pasadena to see that the improvements being installed do not include returning the road to four lanes wide. How can it be that South Pasadena, after stopping construction of the 710 freeway for 40 years, can get away with making one of the access roads to the 110 freeway permanently narrower?

South Pasadena has got to be one of America’s most selfish cities. But where are the city council people of Pasadena? How could they let this happen? What about fairness?

I propose that since the people of South Pasadena don’t want us to drive on a freeway in their city we do the only reasonable thing and not allow them to drive on the freeway in any city that there selfish behavior effects. All residents of South Pasadena should have their cars marked, maybe with a big “S” for selfish and they should not be allowed to drive on the 210 or the 10 freeways west of the 605. Fair is fair. They won’t let us drive on freeways in their town. We don’t want them on the freeway in our town.

Now what to do about the city council in Pasadena? It is time to elect some new people who will stand up to the Selfish South Pasadena crowd. Twenty years ago when Arcadia installed signs and bumps to keep the people from Sierra Madre from driving through their city to get to the 210 freeway. Sierra Madre sued and made them back down. What is the matter with our elected officials that they won’t put the interests of their constituents first?

We just spent a wonderful week in Wailea, Maui with our friends the Davids.

Click HERE to see a short slide show of our photos from the trip on Flickr.

We had some very good food and since Zagut doesn’t review Maui we prepared a chart.
The best food was at Ferraro’s in the Four Seasons Hotel. We had Cathy as our server and she was excellent. The best bargain was at Sensei in Kihei. We ate four or five cut rolls and the special hand roll and the entire bill was less than $60. The biggest disappointment was at Spago, the food was great but the service was quite bad. They made us wait in the lounge even though all of the tables were not full and then they took a half an hour to bring out our dessert. The manager never even came to the table she just left the server hanging. Matteo’s is just up from the Wailea shopping center and is run by the former chef from Ferraros. It fills an important niche in South Maui, a place like California Pizza Kitchen. Good food served promptly and with panache.
On a one to ten scale, ten being best, this is what we thought of the places we ate.

Restaurant: Service, Food, Ambiance, Price
Dinner
Joe’s : 7, 7, 6, $$$
Matteo’s : 7, 7, 5, $$
Sensei : 7, 8, 4, $$
Nick’s Fish Market: 9, 9, 8, $$$$
Spago : 4, 9, 8, $$$$$
Ferraros : 10, 8, 10, $$$$$
Lunch
Mama’s Fish House : 8, 9, 10, $$$$$
Café O Lei : 6, 6, 4, $
Tommy Bahamas : 6, 7, 7, $$$
Seaview : 5, 7, 9, $$$

The ranking are affected by the expectation, which are effected by the price. If the price is high the service should be impeccable.

The Pasadena Protocol states that people cannot whine about Global Warming until they have stopped their own contribution to to the problem. It is written in the densely bureaucratic style of the Kyoto Protocol. Click here to read the entire document.

For a direct link to the Kyoto Protocol click here.

“Money is a stupid measure of achievement, but unfortunately it is the only measure we have.”

Charles Steinmetz

Inventor of Alternating Current

Immigrant 

When we were in Alaska we were hiking one day and saw an old piece of pipe. On closer examination it turned out to be Wire Wound Wooden Pipe.

It was unusual enough that I took a picture of it, with Gene’s foot in the picture for perspective.

When we got home I did some more research and found in my own collection a germane book.

Years ago I had bought a 1923 catalog from the Continental Pipe Company the “worlds largest manufacturer of wooden pipe.” I saved it with my small collection of early 20th century industrial catalog.

Now in this post I can bring together a photograph of a relic of another era and the scholarship that shows its probable source.

Serendipity?

Here is an idea that requires going backwards to improve things.

In the 1970’s and 80’s the drinking age was raised from 18 to 21.  The expressed purpose was to reduce the number of deaths and injuries from drunk driving.  It is a noble goal, which no one can reasonably oppose.  But it has put us as a society in the paradoxical situation of telling young people they are old enough to vote and to defend the country but not old enough to drink.

Do young people obey the law about not drinking?  Only in the margin but they do learn that there are some laws that are not reasonable.  Why not change the rule to an incentive based one that says “You may drink at 18 if you are a college student, have successfully taken a class, passed a drinking education test and have had no arrests.

Young people would have an huge incentive to stay in school and do well.  Additionally they would have an incentive not to speed, fight or be abusive.  They would have had instruction in safe drinking, designated drivers and the danger of mixing drinks with sexual situations.  A tamperproof ID card would alert bars to their situation.  Perhaps they could only buy beer and not hard liquor.

The blanket prohibition against drinking before age 21 doesn’t work.  It makes young people scofflaws and promotes binge drinking and other uncontrolled bad behaviors.  It is time to rethink the laws we try to enforce about drinking.  The new rules outlined above would align our laws with our reality and save lives.