Bratton Online

Bruce Bratton hosts University Grapevine, linking local and campus issues, every Tuesday 7:30-8:30 p.m. on KZSC 88.1 fm.

TOM SCRIBNER'S LOST SOUND and ARLENE'S COUNTRY SERENADERS. Tom didn't play many, if any IWW tunes on the saw but as you can see he did bill himself as "The Lost Sound" the group which Arlene led was called Arlene's Country Serenaders. That's Arlene Sutton on the accordion (she doubled on piano) and Herman Olson on Saw...but mostly he played accordion. They did hospitals, old folks homes and cheered up 1000's of folks. Tom died in 1982 we ( John Tuck, Paul Dragavon, me and hundreds of marchers) had a great non-permitted parade in his honor right up the middle of Pacific.

photo credit: Photo from author's private collection
Additional information always welcome: email photo@brattononline.com

GIRL SCOUT COOKIES. I've been fighting Girl Scouts selling cookies for decades.

Ron Sandidge sent this You Tube favorite...impossible to watch without crying but go for it....

If I don't take up the challenge each year I get as much mail asking why I gave up as I do from angry mothers whose daughters are out there selling that junk food in their deadly competition against each other that would embarrass used car dealers. The junk food part is hard for them to lie about but check out the phoney trans-fat claim in the Wikipedia section below. Ask those little scouts why they don't sell environmentally sound locally produced products instead of supporting huge corporate bakeries like Kellogg's and Canada's biggest food retailers. The corporate bakers get 1/3 of all monies spent. I have at least a one inch thick file of Girl Scout mommies who have been caught stealing cookie profits...then there are the sickos who have poisoned and laced the cookies with razor blades. Why not sell soap, flower and vegetable seeds, books, gift cards to locally owned businesses...why the damned cookies, why, why, why???

MAKE A DIFFERENCE. If you really want to support the Girl Scouts, just give them the money...leave the stupid cookies to rot. Better yet send the local group a check for $10 in April or May and only to be used locally.

WIKIPEDIA SAYS," Each Girl Scout council operates its own cookie sale. They set the price per box based on the local economy. The profits are divided by their own formula. Local troops get about 10-15 percent of the price paid, the council takes more than 50 percent, and the manufacturer gets the remainder. For a $4 box, the local troop will earn between 40 and 60 cents per box. The scout can earn a stuffed toy, a T-shirt or a patch for her uniform. In 1992 the Girl Scouts nationwide sold 175 million boxes of the cookies. Revenues at all levels are used to pay for events and activities for the Girl Scouts, maintenance of the council's Girl Scout camps and other properties, cookie sale incentives, and Council administration costs. Each council can provide a breakdown showing how cookie money is used in that council (this information is usually printed on the back of the Cookie Order Forms). The companies that produce the cookies get about one third of the selling price of the cookies. Girl Scout cookies are made by large national commercial bakeries under license from Girl Scouts of the USA. The bakers that the organization licenses can change from year to year, though change is not common.

In 2008 the licensed companies were Little Brownie Bakers (LBB), a subsidiary of Keebler, which is owned by Kellogg's, and ABC Bakers, a subsidiary of Interbake Food, which is owned by George Weston Limited.ABC Bakers has been making cookies for the Girl Scouts since 1939.^[5]

Alan Chadwick was the genius who brought organic gardening to UCSC. If you never met him here's a You Tube Clip...

Girl Scout cookies are listed as having "0 trans fat per serving" and will have packaging saying Trans Fat Free. The cookies are not truly trans fat free, as various partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs, i.e., trans fats) are still listed in the ingredients. Nonetheless, they now have a sufficiently small amount per serving to comply with the government's official standards for the Trans Fat Free label. (The official rules allow the label to appear where there are fewer than 0.5 grams per serving.)

SPEAKING OF DECADES. Way back in my KGO (ABC) and KCBS (CBS) radio days we started doing programs about the positive benefits of Fluoride. Doctors, Dentists, Surgeon Generals any group that did genuine research supported adding fluoride to public drinking water. They still do....just ask your local dentist. I do thank all the anti-fluoride folks who keep sending me the same old crap from San Diego (that city still has the dirtiest city water in California...according to Supervisor and Coastal Commissioner Mark Stone). I read it all once, the tone and temper of it always sounds so much like the anti abortionists it makes one wonder. Anyways I'd like to suggest reading the California Dept of Health Claims vs. Facts, or reading what the AMA and the American Dental Association say about fluoridating our water here.

OUR CHANGING COUNTY POLITICS. We'll probably hear less and less about Jan Beautz now that she's no longer our First District - Live Oaks County Supervisor. Here's what she recently wrote about the Rail-trail movement (lest we forget!!!)

ELERICK'S INPUT. Rebecca Connolly files for Superior Court Judge
On Monday, February 1^st, surrounded by friends and supporters at County Elections Department, Rebecca Connolly became the first candidate to file for Superior Court Judge. This important election will hit the ballot on June 8^th of this year. Being both a friend and supporter, of course I was there too, along with many friends from past campaigns. The turnout for Rebecca speaks well for her chances of winning – those that were there at this 8:00 A.M. event are seasoned campaigners in county elections. Google Rebecca Connolly for Judge to learn more about her.

More about that Aptos Village Plan....This plan that will affect just about everybody who lives in Mid-County is currently churning through an update process at the County. Those of us that live here have known for years that "Aptos Village" is destined for change. The question has always been how much change and what it will be. For some reason the existing Aptos Village Plan envisioned a large number of housing units for 2,500 to 3,000 people. Not realistic if you've ever driven through this area today waiting for traffic to clear at the intersection along Soquel Drive and Valencia, the heart of what's being called Aptos Village. A draft of the Aptos Village Plan Update calls for housing for approximately 200 residents, with a mix of market rate and affordable homes.

The only historic building in the existing AVP was the Bayview Hotel; the draft update includes 18 recognized historical buildings. It anticipates the Apple Barn being moved a short distance to face the Village Green that is being proposed. Current thinking is the Apple Barn becomes a grocery store to serve as an "anchor ", and yes, the building is thought to be moveable due to its sturdy redwood construction. The update to a terrible Aptos Village Plan of 1985 can be found here. It's a lot of reading, but it looks a whole lot better than the 1985 plan. Check it out! (Paul Elerick is a member of Nisene 2 Sea, a group of open space advocates, serves as the chair of the Campaign for Sensible Transportation, and is a member of the Sierra Club's Santa Cruz Group's executive committee).

EAGANS DEEP COVER. Scroll down for Tim Eagan's depiction of corporations as presidential possibilities...

LANDAU'S PROGRES. Read Saul Landau's article in Progreso about Jews in Texas and what's happening in Haiti. While you're on Progreso read Greg Palast's reactions to our Supreme Court's allowing Wal Mart to run for president. Saul Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies fellow whose films are on DVD from roundworldproductions@gmail.com

THE LION SLEEPS TONIGHT. A Bit of silliness...but clever. Click to view, youtube won't allow embedding of this one.

CASEY'S COMPUTER COMMENTS. "1GB of RAM". Previously I had mentioned that a simple memory upgrade would be a major performance increase for your system if you have less than "one gigabyte of ram". I will recap what RAM is. Random Access Memory is where a program on your computer resides when it is in use. The hard drive is long term storage, it is where the software resides. When the computer "boots up," software is read from the hard drive and placed in RAM. The computer can read RAM data about a hundred times faster than data residing on the hard drive, which is why the system places software in RAM; because it runs so much faster than reading from the hard drive.

The more RAM installed, the faster the system can run is generally true for all systems. Some older systems have a limitation on how much RAM they can address. Each bit (8 bits per byte) has an address; and that Central Processing Unit (CPU) knows where any of those bytes are at any particular time. It's actually pretty amazing stuff that goes on in there.

We could go into how binary numbers work here but I doubt many would be interested. The more addresses available the more memory can be accessed. In older systems they must have never thought we would want to use more than one gigabyte of RAM. (A gig is 1 x 10^9 of 1000 megabytes). The way RAM is made has changed over the years as well with the newer RAM being faster and more densely populated with integrated circuits and more connections than the older RAM. I bring all this RAM information up because you can check your RAM installed by "RIGHT CLICKING" on "My Computer" and select "Properties." The installed RAM should appear in the lower right. If you have less than 1GB of RAM you can check to see if more memory is possible on your system by going to this web site. This one (Kingston) was able to find the memory for my old system and also indicated correctly the maximum possible memory allowed for this system. It is a very simple procedure to upgrade RAM and for the money is a great performance boost if your system will allow more RAM to be added. (Please send your thoughts for next weeks Casey's Computer Comments...and any questions, comments, corrections please to pcasey1@gmail.com and remember he does house calls, affordably).

REPLACING THE UCSC SIGN. Not too exciting but it's local

PAT'S PUNS. Pat Matejcek sends us these "award winning" puns. She says, "Here are some first place winners in the International Pun Contest:

A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, "I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger."
Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says "Dam!"
Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.
Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, "I've lost my electron." The other says "Are you sure?" The first replies, "Yes, I'm positive."
Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.

WATERS WEIGHS IN. Christina reports on "Wozzeck", previews The White Ribbon, and some amazing salumi from El Salchichero. - all at http://christinawaters.com (it's possible she means "salami" but maybe not!!!)

S.F. MIME TROUPE'S R.G. DAVIS TO JOIN EL TEATRO CAMPESINO. SF Mime Troupe Founder—R.G. Davis—returns to El Teatro Campesino to direct the commedia del arte play ‘Los Olivos Pits' ‘Pits' is partnered with Luis Valdez' ‘Los Vendidos' to kick off ETC's 2010 season. Previews for ‘Los Olivos Pits' and ‘Los Vendidos' begin on Feb. 12, with the shows' official opening on Feb. 20. ‘Los Vendidos' (Spanish for "The Sold Ones") is a one-act play by the Chicano playwright and founding artistic director of El Teatro Campesino. Luis Valdez wrote ‘Los Vendidos' in 1967 and it was first performed at the Brown Beret junta in Elysian Park, East Los Angeles. The play examines Latino stereotypes in California and how local, state, and federal governments manipulate people. This will be the first time that ‘Los Vendidos' will be performed at the San Juan Bautista Playhouse. Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sunday matinees at 2pm. Special ticket prices for Thursdays—$5, and Fridays—$10. Ticket prices for Saturday nights and Sunday matinees are $12/adults, $10/seniors and students, and $8 for children under 12. Special group rates available for groups of 20 or more. Tickets will go on sale in mid January. For tickets or more information call 831.623.2444 or visit www.elteatrocampesino.com. Box-office hours are Monday through Friday from 10am to 5pm. El Teatro Campesino Playhouse is at 705 Fourth Street in Historic San Juan Bautista.

THE BEATLES. Hello Goodbye

EDGE OF DARKNESS. Mel Gibson does exactly what he's supposed to do in this very predictable film. It's a good cop-bad cop trip plus bad & secret government sponsored corporation vs. true believer. Nicely thought out script and decent acting too...go if you like these kinds of thrills.

WHEN IN ROME. Well this jerky mess of a movie came in 3^rd last weekend at the box office after Avatar and Edge of Darkness. Its lovey-dovey, frou-frou with actors who have no faces or names. At least none that you'll remember. Don't go and, I'm sorry I did.

2009 SECRET FILMS. Someplace I read once that there are more than 1000 films released every year. We are lucky to have the Nickelodeon and Del Mar theatres showing us on the big screen as many of the good ones as they can possibly book. Many, even most, world wide new films don't even get distributed, and only a small percentage of films do get to DVD. The following brand new all 2009 films I found at Cedar Street Video and East Cliff Video, just by searching and by luck. They are absolutely excellent some have won nominations from various film groups. Maria Bello in Downloading Nancy, directing award for Amreeka, watch Jeff Daniels in The Answer Man (think Jack Canfield, Wayne Dyer, Dr. Phil), Trucker with Michelle Monaghan, a low key saga of loneliness. There's also Goodbye Solo (mentioned here last week)...the list goes on. I think this has been an excellent year for films it's just that American audiences are dumbing down so far and don't want to think or react when they go out to see movies.

COFFEE FILTER SECRETS. My sister Jerrie McKown sent these surprise uses for cheap coffee filters. She adds, "Try these uses. Some of them sound really good and cheap too. Better than paper towels and a lot less expensive...she titled it "Coffee filters....Who knew!?" And you can buy 1,000 at the Dollar Tree for almost nothing, even the large ones.
1. Cover bowls or dishes when cooking in the microwave. Coffee filters make excellent covers.
2. Clean windows, mirrors, and chrome... Coffee filters are lint-free so they'll leave windows sparkling.
3. Protect China by separating your good dishes with a coffee filter between each dish.
4. Filter broken cork from wine. If you break the cork when opening a wine bottle, filter the wine through a coffee filter.

MORE MINNOTT'S MURMURS. Katherine Minott sent in even more shaggy dogs, to wit and to woo... A famous Viking explorer returned home from a voyage and found his name missing from the town register. His wife insisted on complaining to the local civic official who apologized profusely saying, "I must have taken Leif off my census."

A skeptical anthropologist was cataloguing South American folk remedies with the assistance of a tribal Brujo who indicated that the leaves of a particular fern were a sure cure for any case of constipation. When the anthropologist expressed his doubts, the Brujo looked him in the eye and said, "Let me tell you, with fronds like these, you don't need enemas."

UNIVERSITY GRAPEVINE. Each and every Tuesday from 7:30-8:30 p.m. I host University Grapevine on KZSC 88.1 fm. or on your computer at WWW.KZSC.ORG. On February 2^nd Don Miller from the Santa Cruz Sentinel will talk about recent changes to the paper, and in the second half hour Richard Saldavia from Lampshade Productions will talk about Rose's Dilemma their next production opening in February. Taylor Simkins will discuss Fair trade coffee and C.A.N. on February 9^th. Coastal Commissioner and County Supervisor Mark Stone will lead off on February 23. Any and all suggestions for future programs are more than welcome so tune in and keep listening.

QUOTES. "Studying literature at Harvard is like learning about women at the Mayo Clinic", Roy Blount. "If a writer has to rob his mother, he will not hesitate: "Ode to a Grecian Urn" is worth any number of old ladies", William Faulkner. "If you don't clean your house for two months it doesn't get any dirtier", Quentin Crisp.

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Bruce critiques films every Friday on KZSC-FM (88.1) on The Bushwhacker Breakfast Club at 8am.