Yea while I drive through the valley of the Great Park on my way to work at UC-Irvine, I gaze out at the great expanse of dirt and look for gophers that might be crossing the road in front of me. On a clear day, I can see the old runway of the El Toro Marine Base. Then as I enter the city of Irvine ("the Safest City in the US"-except if you are on the UCI campus during Israel Hate Week), I enoy the view of the forest (of campaign lawn posters) lining both sides of what seems like every road in town. Sort of reminds me of when I was driving through South Dakota back in the early 80s, a truly beautiful state -except for the billboards every 100 yards inviting you to visit Uncle Bob's Fish Farm (just turn left). Now when you drive through Irvine, you see nothing but campaign posters and signs telling you which way to turn to get the The Great Park (where you can hunt for gophers). My drunk-driving friends tell me that it's hell to drive through Irvine at night because one of those posters is liable to walk out in front of you.
Most of the posters tell us to vote for the great triumvirate of Larry Agran, Shiva Farivar and Sukhee Kang. Along with Beth Krom, they take turns being mayor of Irvine while the others are on the city council. A few years ago, it was Beth Krom, Larry Agran and guy named Todd Gallinger, who also happened to be a CAIR attorney, whose specialty was suing book publishers whose books he didn't like. When word got out about who he really was, he was the only one who didn't get elected. I have no idea who Farivar is, but apparently, she is raising a ruckus because some of her lawn posters have been disappearing-which is definitely what would happen if you put one on my lawn.
Agran is the power behind the throne and the throne in Irvine. When he isn't the mayor, he is on the city council-probably telling the mayor what to do. He is also the force behind the Great Park. Everybody is still trying to figure out how to find out where all the money has gone that went into building the Great Park, which up to this point has produced only a big orange hot air balloon.
Beth Krom, of course, is now trying to get out of Irvine and join the circus-in Washington. She is running for John Campbell's congressional seat. Last night, word was she was going to speak at UCI, but instead, she was apparently up in LA at some fund raiser hosted by Howard "The Scream" Dean.
"Yeaaaaah!"
I guess I'll stop here since I have to drive home-through the Great Park.
4 comments:
Gary,
Thank you for description of the "Great Park". One wonders why this park is called great, when its claim to fame are gophers and a big orange gas bag. Perhaps the the symbol for this park should be a lot of hot air.
As far as the Shiva Farvar's lawn sign disappearance controversy, she should understand that there is equal opportunity political sign disappearance. In my community, a string of signs appeared for almost all candidates, at the entrance within our development. A day later, all the signs were gone. Don't personalize this Shiva!
Squid
I like your panoramic, musing, style.
I also like Larry Agran.
So this is what you do at work, at UC Irvine (extension)?
Anonymous,
No, what I do at UCI-Ext is teach English to foreign students. Since I am retired and living on my pension, I do this part-time. My class schedule is generally 2 hours a day. The rest of the day is devoted to whatever I feel like doing-including this blog.
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