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November 18, 2007
Christmas Preview Could Save City! Will You Pitch In?
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| Image: Two upcoming DCBA Christmas events. The
Christmas Preview is tonight, and the Community Tree Lighting ceremony
is on December 7th. Both are nice events to attend. The Peace and
Freedom Party will also be celebrating the bombing of Pearl Harbor on the 7th, so that's a 2-fer! Fellow Chicoans, tonight is a night where you can do your part to solve Chico's budget problem. The Downtown Chico Business Association is holding the Christmas Preview. There is also a story in the ER today showing that our per-capita-General Fund revenue is down. I'm not sure how to describe the Christmas Preview. In the past some downtown streets were closed, a few vendors were out selling stuff, and a couple of dance troupes put on shows in the windows. The dancers were probably the biggest crowd draw. Historically, the event seemed to be more about community than selling wares. It's a good event, and worth attending. There are two additional reasons to attend the Christmas Preview. One is that I'm sure someone in Chico will want it to be changed to the Holiday Preview soon. This could be the last one about Christmas. We've already lost the Christmas Tree Lighting to the Community Tree Lighting. But the second reason to go is to spend money and push up the General Fund per-capita-revenue. For every $1,000 I spend tonight, the city will get something like $9.50. A quick calculation tells us what we each need to spend tonight to pay for the sales tax component of the non-managerial highest paid employee at the city. pay = $180,000 + 62% benefits on regular pay ($88,000*.62) = $235,000 43% of that comes from sales tax = $101,000 City gets 0.95% of each dollar -> if I spend $10,616,926 tonight then I've done my part! There goes my plan to buy a Caribbean island and a personal jet. Time to get out the AMEX and Discovery Card, because this is going to hurt. One last note: I'd like to invite you all to my City Council campaign's first informational gathering. The flyer is reprinted below. We've worked really hard to get some quality speakers up to Chico for this event. Don't miss it. Vote for me, because I'm the best. Bet on it! |
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CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Mark Bohn, see comments below for the answer. |
Posted by Lon at November 18, 2007 06:55 AM
Comments
This is the charred remains of Rudolph's nose which was recently discovered under a thawed glacier near the N. Pole.
It is currently on display at the Smithsonian under a high security bullet proof glass case. Museum janitors have claimed that it still flickers and glows late at night during the winter months.
Posted by: Gregg Payne at November 18, 2007 09:04 AM
CI Challenge: A deformed pomegrante?
You are a creative, funny guy, but the "Hooker Beat Alliance" might raise a few eyebrows, uh you know what I mean? You might end up riding in back of the cop car instead of in front. Just a FYI.
Posted by: L.A. Simpson at November 18, 2007 02:37 PM
Oy!
Posted by: Anthony at November 18, 2007 05:12 PM
LA,
Thank you. Of course the Hooker Beat Alliance comes from Tom Gascoyne's fixation with the Hooker Oak Alliance, and the fact that his crystal ball tells him I'm running for council.
But the word play leaving a possible reference to streetwalkers is intentional.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at November 18, 2007 06:10 PM
OK I was just joking about Rudolph's nose, so tell all the kiddies he's still just fine.
It's a bronze panther head of a gargoyle on the St. Nicholas Cathedral in Prague. Looks like a pretty mean one. He's facing the lower left corner with his ears back, his eyes squinted and his fangs bared. That's one way to scare off the pigeons.
Posted by: Gregg Payne at November 18, 2007 06:58 PM
Gregg,
Such very good guesses, but none quite hit the mark. As a hint, the CIC is a logo and related tangentially to the "debaters".
Lon
Posted by: Lon at November 19, 2007 06:15 AM
"As a hint, the CIC is a logo..."
And I was going to guess it was a "Horta".
If that's somebody's logo, they need to fire their artist and hire Gregg Payne. Jeez that's ugly.
Posted by: Anthony at November 19, 2007 09:44 AM
Alright, how about another hint. The fellows that created some of our greatest holiday claymation speacials later worked on other kid's projects. The logo is related to one of those projects.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at November 19, 2007 10:01 AM
I've already looked all over the place at Rankin Bass and projects they did. I did that early yesterday, and again today.
I cry uncle!
Posted by: Anthony at November 19, 2007 12:59 PM
Well, that would be the Thundercats!!!!
Posted by: MARK at November 19, 2007 01:14 PM
Posted by: Lon at November 19, 2007 01:22 PM
PS... Sorry I'm running behind on these blog responses... I love the Ad you made! I also love Ranking-Bass Claymation. We have a Christmas collection of four VHS tapes... I still watch them around chritmas every year. My favorite: The little Drummer boy. But I also watched thundercats too.... Those guys also did a decent job on the the lord of the rings and hobbit. It was all we had until Peter Jackson came along and really did it justice.
Posted by: mark at November 19, 2007 01:25 PM
Well I cry foul, the image you used is not the official Thundercats logo:
http://www.tinchio.com.ar/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/thundercats_wallpaper.png
It's some horrible mutant version, which when shrunk to CIC size, looks like some sort of gelled blob.
Still looks like a "Horta" to me at that size.
Posted by: Anthony at November 19, 2007 03:32 PM
Anthony,
You got me. Of course I never said it was the official logo. Although I might have implied that it was.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at November 19, 2007 04:00 PM
One of my secrets to the many times I have won or almost won the C.I. challenge, is to think out of the box. Is it a "Horta", or a "ThunderCats Horta"? Honestly, it looked like a pair of red silk thundercats underwear to me. But hey, once a thundercat always a thundercat...
Posted by: mark at November 20, 2007 08:24 AM
Interesting thing just happened.
I replaced my trusty ole 21" Viewsonic tube/phosphor CRT with a 24" LCD widescreen HDTV 1920x1080 capable monitor, and all of the sudden the Thundercat "logo" pops right out.
Must be the 10 gazillion to 1 contrast ratio on this thing. No more Hortas on my screen. However, I'm now getting retina burn.
Posted by: Anthony at November 21, 2007 03:02 PM