During my crawl of a commute this morning, inching past the giant dirt pile that was once La Conchita, I found myself behind a pick-up truck bearing a license plate holder reading:

EM EYE SEE KAY EE WHY

on the top, and at the bottom:

EM O YOU ESS SEA.

Everyone just loves that Mousc.

It was a fitting beginning to my day, because not long after I arrived at work, Nigel came over to ask me for a section of yesterday's paper. He was wringing his hands (literally) and fretting over an editorial complaining about the increasingly artificial appearance of this little town due to an overly powerful architectural design review board. "They say it's getting to look like Disneyland!" Nigel said, outraged. "I say, If this is Disneyland, move over Mickey Mouse, I'm moving in!" Which was stupid, first of all, because he already lives here, and second of all, because this place does look like Disneyland, and more so every day. I didn't bother telling Nigel what I think, because he was engaged in explaining that this town is "paradise," before segueing into his party piece, a heartfelt speech entitled "I Pay a Lot of Money to Live in this Town, I Should Not Have to Walk By Homeless People On My Way to Work." Mmmmmm. Paradise.

I almost never read the paper, filled as it is with advice on where to buy $1800 shoes, but I decided that since they seemed to be pushing the anti-Disnefication agenda, I'd give it another chance. Am I ever glad I did! I would love to share with you a few of the things I learned, not just about overregulation of design standards, but about life itself. (Enclosed in quotes are the direct quotes):

• "Acts of God aren't preventable, acts of man are."


• "Nothing is so utterly final as is death."


• "It's that time of year to mix and mingle, wiggle and giggle, schmooze and snooze."


• When posing a question to a celebrity from the audience, "never tell the performer 'I love you'" or it will reflect poorly on the town.


• Britney Spears was spotted at a local restaurant with her husband and his child.

EM EYE SEA... KAY EE WHY...

Star of the day. . .Bugs Bunny