Tournament of Roses treasurer Richard Jackson, in line to be president in 2012, gave a witty keynote address at last Thursday’s traditional breakfast, sponsored by Pasadena’s Chamber of Commerce.
(Acting President Jeff Throop was in Oregon to present roses to the winning team heading for the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1 to meet Ohio State. Go Ducks.)
After paying tribute to the late 2010 president, Gary DiSano, and trotting out the usual stats about the TofR’s local and regional mega financial knock-on effect, he pointed out that Forbes Magazine had named the Rose Bowl as the world’s fifth-most profitable sporting event. (It came in after the Olympics, the Superbowl, the soccer World Cup and the Daytona 500.)
And, to go along with it, Jackson promised a better Rose Parade every year. The 2009 parade was great, he said, but “2010: A Cut Above the Rest” will be even better.
Maybe that gives him a ready-made theme: “2012: A Cut Above 2010 and 2011.”
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The pranksters – “hacksters” in MIT parlance – at Caltech have struck again, although the effort seems unlikely to join the panoply of the institute’s legendary practical jokes.
In an article in MIT’s student paper, “The Tech,” MIT student Vicki Crosson wrote that she stumbled across a crumpled banner on her way to the student center last week.
“It looked at first glance like part of your average failed hack,” Crosson wrote, “but I quickly realized this failed hack was a little more Californian than average.”
A group of Caltech students had jetted to the East Coast to announce that MIT was being taken over by Caltech – for what other reason but “extreme financial pressures” – and the rival university would be renamed Caltech East.
The students created a Web site and a newspaper announcing the changes at http://east.caltech.edu.
Notably, East Techers would focus on liberal arts, be expected to go crazy “coloring, reading, and blogging to their heart’s content.”
The MIT facilities management caught the real Techers in the middle of their campaign to put up banners saying “SOLD” and “Caltech East,” according to Crosson, but one MIT sympathizer caught a shot of a successfully mounted banner at http://img113.yfrog.com/i/8ofj.jpg/.
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A year ago, residents in Temple City couldn’t watch council meetings on TV or on-line. If they did make it out to meetings, they were forced to wait hours before commenting on items not on the agenda.
After City Council elections in April, things have started to change: Meetings are now streamed on television and on the Internet, and an archive of video broadcasts can be accessed on-line. Officials have also added an extra comments period for non-agenda items to the beginning of each meeting.
Now, new City Manager Jose Pulido has helped oversee a pair of steps that make it even easier for residents to follow local government goings-on. Pulido has begun listing future agenda items, sometimes months in advance, in his weekly city manager’s report. And City Clerk Mary Flandrick will begin publishing a “Meetings in a Minute” summary after meetings that summarizes the council’s actions.
Together, these steps have made Temple City that much more transparent to residents. So, a Colbertian “Tip of the Hat” to staff and council members, old and new, who are helping to make it happen.
– Contributors Janette Williams, Emma Gallegos and Alfred Lee
