Gassing Up: There was a time in this great land of ours when most of us didn’t give a hoot about such things as how many miles per gallon the family bus got. Or, for that matter, how much air pollution we were spewing. Ignorance was bliss. We just bought what Detroit rolled off the assembly lines.
Barney investigates Santa Barbara’s sanitation complaints, crowns the King of crossword puzzles, and checks out an upcoming Kona Village soiree.
Sex, Lies, and Videotape: It was Valentine’s Day, maybe a half-dozen years ago or so. A young Montecitan, full of romantic fervor, proposed to his wife that they go out for dinner and dancing, according to the story relayed to me by a friend.
Santa Barbara online columnist Craig Smith says he was watching the Master’s Golf Tournament on TV saw “and this year’s winner Zach Johnson get choked up as he credited Jesus for helping him win the tournament on Easter Sunday.
Strange Times at the Times: The money-grubbing Chandler family, which built a great paper (at least the late Otis did), is going, going, going and few at the L.A. Times are shedding tears. “Good riddance,” snarled columnist Tim Rutten. The paper has now been sold twice in five years (this week to an eccentric Chicago real estate tycoon) “to accomplish the impossible-satiating the Chandlers’ greed,” wrote Rutten.
When future President John F. Kennedy honeymooned at the San Ysidro Ranch with Jackie in 1953, he paid a mere $27 a night. Today it would set you back $2,990 to bed down in the vastly renovated Kennedy Cottage, a Ranch spokeswoman confirmed Monday. The renovation is part of a $150 million redo of Ty Warner’s Montecito getaway. Stonehouse restaurant and Plow & Angel lounge have reopened as well.
Sara Donates $1.5 million: Sara Miller McCune, although nursing a shoulder injury suffered in a fall, has donated $1.5 million to CAMA (Community Arts Music Association), the highest single gift in its 88-year history.
Nexus in Red Ink: Not only is Jerry Roberts, former News-Press executive editor, still fighting Wendy McCaw’s $25-million contract arbitration claim, but he recently took over UCSB’s Daily Nexus student newspaper and inherited its $650,000 deficit.
Suppose you’re on a plane overseas that’s been hijacked by terrorists. They demand to see everyone’s passport.
You show them yours and they grab it. “Another from the Great Satan,” one yells. “U.S.”
I couldn’t believe the rumor going around town, that Ty Warner has sold his paradise-like Kona Village Resort on Hawaii’s Big Island. Would Ty really sell his prized luxury enclave of thatched-roof bungalows (pictured), a virtual South Seas island village on a white-sand beach with a palm-shaded lagoon?
