Thursday, December 29, 2011

Dreaming a non-existent David Allen column - fiction is sometimes stranger than the truth

On Wednesday night I had a bizarre dream, which included portions of a David Allen column that has, to my knowledge, never existed.

In my dream, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin columnist David Allen wrote about a scandal engulfing the city of Ontario. The article reported that "until last week," sportscaster Bob Trumpy had maintained a city office in Ontario.

Allen took great pains to note that the office was maintained in the city's Aviation Services Division.

Incidentally, Allen had learned of the scandal while attending an Ontario City Council meeting.

While trying to analyze the dream afterwards, I became more and more baffled. Yes, portions of the dream are rooted in reality, but those portions are very few.

You will recall that there was a recent scandal in which someone maintained an office to which the person was not entitled. However, Jerry Sandusky's office on the Penn State campus was the least of Sandusky's concerns, and none of the other Sandusky story elements made it into my dream. (Thankfully.)

I'm not sure why Bob Trumpy made the dream. I don't listen to him much; in fact, he may have been the broadcaster that we ridiculed in college for the startling observation "He's an athlete." To my knowledge Trumpy, long associated with the state of Ohio, has no connection to Ontario, California.

I can see how airports made it into my dream. In fact, David Allen's colleague Liset Marquez just wrote about the battle between Ontario and Los Angeles for the local airport (I have yet to read the article; it's starred in my Google Reader account). However, the city of Ontario does not have an "Aviation Services Division." After all, why WOULD it have one? It doesn't have an airport!

Lastly, I cannot see how all of this could be elevated into a "scandal." While public offices should not be given to people not entitled to use them, this does not rise to the level of real scandals that Allen has discussed in the past. Since Trumpy has (to my knowledge) no connection with Ontario, I'm not sure how the office could be seen as an example of undue influence.

Oh well. While the dream is mystifying, I guess it could have been even more bizarre. Perhaps Allen could have turned into a book and read himself during the month of December.

Friday, December 23, 2011

I missed My Delight's birthday party

Earlier this month, Liset Marquez noted that My Delight Cupcakery celebrated its second birthday. But the customers got the presents:

On Tuesday, My Delight CupCakery hosted its second birthday party by giving away 200 cupcakes to customers.

To...um...top it off, food trucks were also present.

For more information, see Marquez's Storify entry. (First time I had heard of Storify. Maybe David Allen will join this service in addition to the others he's joined.)

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

First, Seventh and Mountain. Second, the world.

David Allen recently wrote a blog post that began as follows:

Ice cream lovers who like the Handel's in Upland will be thrilled, and maybe chilled, to learn one is coming to Rancho Cucamonga.

For a picture and the location of the new Handel's, read Allen's post.

But Handel's isn't the only business at Seventh and Mountain in Upland that is expanding to new locations. You'll recall that San Biagio's Pizza, just a few doors down from Handel's, has expanded to the Upland Colonies.

I wonder if that shoe repair place is going to expand soon.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Advertising fail from a Medicare advisor

I recently received an unsolicited advertisement that read, in part, as follows:

xxxxxxx
Senior Health Care Advisor
xxxxxxx Victorville, CA 92395

You're Source for Medicare Health and Drug Plans
Medicare Choices Made Easy

Congratulations! On your upcoming 65 birthday.

Please allow me to introduce myself...

So, please call xxxxxxx @ 760-xxx-xxxx to make an appointment. I will come to your home or you can come to my office in Spring Valley Lake....


I'm sure that xxxxxxx paid a lot for the mailing list that was used, but there are two issues with the mailing list that was purchased.

First, I live in Ontario. The chances of my driving from Ontario all the way to Victorville to meet a Medicare advisor are pretty slim.

Second, no one in our family is even close to our 65th birthday. Will xxxxxxx still be providing Medicare advice a couple of decades from now? I'm probably not going to retain xxxxxxx's advertisement that long.

Oh, and by the way, xxxxxxx, "you're" advertisement has at least one glaring grammatical error. If the advertisement has to have a grammatical error, don't put it in the title.