I don’t want to write about billboards today. That subject can wait a month or so. I’m going to sit back and enjoy a summer day in our fair valley of Santa Clarita. There was a time when I lived in the Pico Canyon oil town of Mentryville, in the Pico Cottage. On a summer day I would saddle up a horse...

I don’t know how the members of City Council and the employees of the city of Santa Clarita do such a great job. I can’t figure how they endure all of the terrible words that are thrown at them. Being a civil servant isn’t easy. I think the last job I would want is that of the city manager. As...

I read the commentary Sunday by Steve Petzold in The Signal newspaper. I wonder just how much CBS Outdoor, Lamar and Clear Channel are paying for what he wrote. At least it seems he must be getting paid for such misinformation. First of all, his statement about “closed negotiations” is misleading....

Living in a recreational vehicle full-time isn’t for wimps. All my years in submarines and ships taught me to live in extremely small places. This may be the largest stateroom I’ve ever had, but it is still only a 40-foot-long motor home. I’ve named it “Billy Bob,” and it tows my Jeep, “Betty...

Have you ever noticed that folks who that say they’ve had past lives – those who believe in reincarnation – usually say they were once some famous person? Seems like they were never Joe (or Josephine) Shmuck from a small village in the colony of New York. Then there are people who think the...

I don’t know how many people read what I write here at SCVNews.com. I do know there was one time when I wrote on SCVNews.com and a whole town in Kentucky sent comments that were none too positive. Well, it wasn’t the whole town, but maybe 45 out of the total population of 2,500 or so. I think they...

I was finding myself confused when describing the anti-billboard-ordinance folks. I’ve figured out what they really should be called. It is so simple. If they get what they want, more than 60 existing billboards will remain in place. Sure, there won’t be a few new electronic billboards – three,...

Why is it that when I say I don’t like a certain politician, I am being “mean spirited” and using “hate speech,” yet when you say something about my favored politician, I can’t call it “hate speech” in return? Why is it that we need to control cattle flatulence in the herds of cattle...

It is all a matter of perspective. In big and bold letters, the headline read, “Trial of the Century.” It wasn’t THE trial of the century. I think there are two trials of the 20th Century, both following World War II. Nuremberg and Tokyo had the real trials of the century. War criminals were brought...

Monday, 16 June 2014. Hope all of you had a great weekend. I got calls from my sons and their families in Virginia and Kentucky, so Sunday was a very good day. Looks like this week, we may be once again submerged in the debate about billboards. I’m staying out of it until after the council meeting...