The Week That Was

It didn’t take London Mayor Joe Fontana very long to mess with his top election pledge.

Londoners read his lips when he said no tax increases and chose him over 10-year-serving Anne Marie DeCicco-Best.   This week Joe mused about a new levy to raise money for a “war chest” to be spent on economic development. Oh well played, Joe.  Classic misdirect.  Tell us there will be no tax increases but bring in a NEW tax.  Is it breaking your promise?  Well, no, not literally, but people really hate that kind of shell game, Joe.  Anne Marie was called for her comments and she used several sentences to politely say something to the effect of, “Oh that’s rich!  Hey London, you get what you deserve!”  I’m paraphrasing, of course.

The city’s biggest roundabout has opened at Hale and Trafalgar.  There are several smaller ones in new developments around London but the way some media have reacted to it, you would think we were living in the backwoods.  I’m quite certain that many Londoners have at least heard of, if not actually ridden through, the roundabouts in London, England and elsewhere in the world where they’re so big they can keep a timid driver going in circles for days! 

Larry King signed off of CNN this week and good riddance, I say.  He did no research and boasted of that fact. If an author came on, Larry would proudly say he didn’t read their book.  He mixed things up constantly because he didn’t care about the facts. He interrupted his guests when they were making salient points because some ridiculous little question would pop into his cranial cavity and he simply had to launch it at that second.  His career was made when an odd little billionaire named Ross Perot announced on it, years ago, that he was running for President.  Suddenly the continent’s attention was focused on Larry King Live because something important could happen on it again.  But it didn’t.  Bye Bye Larry, you lucky, lucky man.

And finally a ridiculous little news item from San Jose, California where a kid playing high school football got beaned on the noggin and suffered a concussion.  Someone wisely called 911 and as the boy lay on the field, the school’s Principal prevented the ambulance from driving across the turf to get him.  He forced the Emergency team to trot 75 yards, put the 14-year-old on a stretcher, and hoof him back to the vehicle.  Why?  The Principal said he was told to keep vehicles off the grass.  The school board has responded saying in this case, driving on the grass would have been quite okay.  It’s called judgment.  Some people simply don’t have it.  The boy is going to be fine, by the way, but that’s really not the point.