Santa Clara Annexes Rose Garden

Trigger Warning for the Humor Challenged: Satire Ahead 

Santa Clara's Mayor announced that the City is annexing San José's Rose Garden neighborhood, in what the Mayor calls a "liberation action." 

 Two Councilmembers opposed the action, saying that the charter doesn't give the Mayor military powers.

 "Well, it would if it wasn't written by the Illuminati and the 49ers," said the City Attorney. "I'm disgusted to be associated with people who don't understand our Dear Mayor's intrinsic powers." 

Opponents pointed out to the Attorney that the charter was written in 1952 — more than half a century before the 49ers ever showed an interest in Santa Clara. "They were working on their diabolical plans many decades ago," said the Attorney. 

"This is just another example of how Satan-worshipping pedophiles and their dark money is corrupting our city government," said the City Clerk, who said he was going to launch an investigation into whether the dissenting Councilmembers were Reptilians from Mars and thus ineligible to serve on the Council. 

"The Rose Garden is a historical part of Santa Clara and there are thousands of Santa Clarans living under the oppressive hand of San José," said the Mayor. "Nothing has changed for the better for them since the dark days of Dutch Hamann. 

"People are marching across America for the right to be heard and have their votes counted," the Mayor continued. "And yet, right here at home just because Santa Clarans live on the wrong side of a line, they are denied their right to be represented in Santa Clara City Hall." 

The City received a direct appeal from Rose Garden residents, according to the Mayor. "Today the brave patriots of the Keep the Garden Brigade (KGB) and the Soccer Squadron (SS) have launched the liberation action." The mayor plans to lead the troops herself from her Mercedes SUV. 

"I don't know what the big deal is," said the Council Member from District 9¾ (New Hampshire). "It's just a friggin' line. What's your problem, Fake News?" 

 Reportedly, consultants are at work developing distinctive branding for Santa Clara's new paramilitary forces. The designs feature the colors brown and red, representing the fertile land of the Santa Clara Valley and the cherries once grown here. The Mayor is considering a blue uniform for herself, styled after the blue war paint of the Celtic warrior queen Boadicea. 

Last week in a 4-2 vote, the Council approved a $1 million contract with a San Francisco PR firm to develop educational materials about the annexation. When a Councilmember questioned the need for this when the city was facing a $34 million deficit, the City Manager replied that this was part of the Council's Transparency Pillar of governance. 

Called for comment, the Mayor of San José said, "Looney behavior from the Santa Clara Mayor isn't news. Let me know when she gets to University Ave."

Santa Clara City Council Moves To Repeal Law Of Gravity

Trigger warning for the humor-challenged: Satire ahead.

[With a hat tip to a good friend who gave me this idea]

 

Facing a budget in free fall, the Santa Clara City Council is set to approve a November ballot measure to repeal the law of gravity, which its proponents say would cause revenue numbers to ‘fall’ up instead of down. and expense numbers to ‘increase’ down instead of up.

 

Two Council Members panned the notion as disconnected from empirical reality.

 

“You can’t ‘repeal’ the laws of physics, even under the theory of General Relativity,” said one of the naysayers, an engineer. “Classic mechanics still apply in the context of events on planet Earth.”

 

The Council Member also noted that if deficits could be turned into surpluses that easily, many residents wouldn’t be applying for rental assistance.

 

“Dollars are not quantum particles,” added the other opponent of the proposal, a math teacher. “Even kindergarteners know that no cookies can’t be turned into a full cookie jar just because Mommy says it’s full.”

 

The Mayor told the dissenters that they didn’t understand Santa Clara’s Special Physics.

 

“We’re different in Santa Clara. We don’t do things just because other cities do them. It’s the Santa Clara Way. Just because the [air quotes] law of gravity applies in San Jose doesn’t mean it has to apply in our city,” the mayor said.

 

District 9 ¾’s Council Member weighed in via telegraph, explaining that there was no phone service at the Hogwarts NH Station. The meeting had to take a short recess while the City Manager found a retired employee who knew Morse code.

 

“We’re only having this argument because of the fake news calling a minus sign a ‘deficit.’ STOP.  It’s just a stupid dash. STOP. It means whatever we say it means STOP,” the Council Member telegraphed.

 

Another supporter told the dissenters, “I’m just shocked by your disloyalty to our dear, hardworking mayor, who is totally dedicated to making our city better, and all you can do is try to stand in the way. Well it won’t work!"

 

The Council Member then proposed a motion to unseat the dissenters, saying, “We have just had enough of them and it’s time for this to stop. City Attorney, can we start a process to remove them?"

The City Attorney said, that as shameful as the dissenters’ behavior was, “unfortunately the Charter doesn’t allow us to take that step.”

 

Another Council Member pointed out that there was Silicon Valley precedent for the Council’s action. “Look at Uber. Every day they’re turning minus signs into positive cash flow from venture capitalists.”

 

The City Manager told the Council that she would bring back a draft ballot measure as well as an implementation plan at the next meeting. The Manager recommended that the City consider hiring a former Theranos executive to head the project.

 

“Unfortunately, Elizabeth Holmes won’t be available during the timeframe we need,” the manager said, “but there are others who are well qualified to head this project.”

 

The measure passed 4-2.

City to Consider Replacing City Attorney with Legal Zoom as Cost-Cutting Measure

Trigger warning for the humor-challenged: Satire ahead. 

Faced with a $22 million budget deficit, the City Council has been brainstorming ways to balance the books.

“We’re in a unique position to be creative about this because we don’t know anything about municipal operations,” said the mayor.

However, the brainstorming has posed such a strain on council members that it had to be paused for an indefinite period after one council member ran a 104° temperature and another developed what appeared to be Tourette’s Syndrome, although a doctor later said that it was just burnout.

One proposal under serious consideration is a recommendation to replace the city attorney with Legal Zoom.

“This has several advantages,” said the city manager. “First, with an annual fee of $5,000, adopting Legal Zoom would result in $500,000 in savings. Second, it would provide the City with sound legal advice."

Gadfly Rufus Flywheel told the Council they needed to “reimagine and re-vision” the City Attorney’s office. “For example, there’s only one door to the office and it’s designed only for walking into the office.

“There should be a bike path and a bus stop,” he continued, adding that he was “shocked” by the local newspaper’s failure to cover this important issue. “It’s just another example of their bias against me.”

Other proposals under consideration include replacing the City Council with Council-in-a-Box software.

“This would cut millions that is being spent on irrelevant and pointless Council initiatives like the current investigation into whether Jed York’s dog groomer has ties to George Soros,” said a proponent.

A city commissioner suggested that the city also look into Mayor-in-a-Box software and offered to lead the task force to identify options. 

 

“Artificial intelligence is now off-the-shelf technology,” the commissioner said. “So we have an opportunity to upgrade at a very affordable price. We could also add a Roomba at no additional cost.” 

Equine Group Charges Biden Accuser With "Horsenapping"

 An equine advocacy group, Believe The Horses (BTH) is asking the Democratic Party investigate horse kidnapping charges against Biden accuser Tara Reade.

San Jose Inside was one of the first news outlets to report the alleged kidnapping.

“We demand that our voices be finally heard,” said the group’s founder and spokeshorse Mister Ed. “For decades humans like Reade have gotten away with this kind of behavior with impunity because nobody listens when horses talk.”

BTH alleges that Reade kidnapped a horse named Charm from an equine rescue organization without the horse’s consent. Charm says emphatically that she did not give Reade consent and was deeply upset by Reade’s assumption that she, Charm, wanted to be adopted by the human.

When questioned, Reade said that Charm had given hoofed consent, but that she didn’t keep a copy.

“We demand an non-partisan investigation of these charges,” said Ed. “Charm was taken advantage of by a human who used her position as a verbal biped to force herself on a quadruped without the resources to fight back.”

Ed also said that his group was investigating Vladimir Putin’s equine relationships, calling widely distributed photos of the Russian leader on horseback "disturbing," and "at least suggesting sado-masochism." Reade has expressed admiration for Putin and some suspect a connection.

The Democratic Party had no comment. Donald Trump tweeted, "FAK NUWS trying to smeer a desent womin. #gratestprezadintevr."

#BelieveTheHorses

City Takes Action Against Alleged "Candidates"

Trigger warning: Satire Ahead

Santa Clara City Hall filed complaints with the FPPC this week about residents who have pulled papers to run for City Council.

"We did our due diligence in this matter," said the City Manager.

"We hired Dewey Cheatum and Howe, the California arm of the Internet Research Agency, to investigate credible allegations of electoral ambition on the part of these individuals. DC&H found clear evidence that at least two known troublemakers were planning campaigns."

"This was never intended by our charter," explained the City Clerk. 

"The charter provides for elections when they are necessary — for example, if Council Members disagree with our great mayor. Elections were never intended to allow random people to run for Council."

The FPPC has yet to respond, although an official there, speaking on the condition of anonymity, commented that it was just another example of what the official called, "Santa Clara Looney Tunes."

"They are constantly sending us specious complaints. Right now the paper is useful in the face of the toilet paper shortage."

The City Clerk also said that the City is investigating the false narratives published by local news outlets.

"The First Amendment was never intended to allow newspapers to promote so-called 'elections,'" the Clerk said. "It's just another example of how Hillary Clinton and her space alien army living under Levi's Stadium are trying to take over Santa Clara."

The City was also investigating whether it could publish city legal notices in the Weekly World News, the Clerk said, until it was discovered the supermarket tabloid had gone out of business in 2007. "We were interested because of their fair and balanced Batboy coverage." 

City  Announces Progress on Day-Lengthening Initiative

At last night's Santa Clara City Council meeting, the City Manager announced that the City has made substantial progress in the City Council's goal of lengthening daylight hours.

"We can confidently say that the day is longer today than it was in December," said the City Manager. "We have done our due diligence and monitored KPIs and can state that we have definitely been able to add three hours of daylight. We're optimistic that we will be adding another two hours by mid-June."

The City Manager thanked City staff for their hard work in meeting the Council's goal. "I can say that staff put in a lot of late hours working on this. I also want to thank our consultant Magick Results for their outstanding work in achieving these stretch goals."

The City Council also passed a $500,000 contract amendment for MR to work on the Council's Rain Making initiative.

Welcome Literary Yuletide

Christmas is a time for many of our favorite stories. And when you say "Christmas story," the next thought for readers is Charles Dickens' (1812 – 1870) Christmas Carol.

Dickens was very much the "man who invented Christmas" as we know it today with his story of Scrooge and the three ghosts. So as you re-read that favorite, complement it with Les Standiford's, The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits.

It isn't only Christmas Carol that cements Dickens' place in the canon of Christmas. He wrote many stories and essays about Christmas. One essay in particular, What Christmas is As We Grow Older, captures just what it is that Christmas — and all the world's holidays celebrating the mystery of light out of darkness — make eternally present:

"Welcome, old aspirations, glittering creatures of an ardent fancy, to your shelter underneath the holly! We know you, and have not outlived you yet. Welcome, old projects and old loves, however fleeting, to your nooks among the steadier lights that burn around us. Welcome, all that was ever real to our hearts; and for the earnestness that made you real, thanks to Heaven!"

Over the years I've discovered other tributes to the holiday of "all that was ever real to our hearts." Here are some I recommend to lovers of holiday sentiment.

One of the loveliest Christmas tales I've found is Zona Gale's (1874 - 1938) Christmas: A Story. A native of Wisconsin, Gale was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Miss Lulu Bett in 1921. Gale's writing is graceful and touching without being flowery or maudlin.

"Christmas: A Story" takes place in Old Trail Town where the shutdown of its only employer causes residents to cancel Christmas. But Christmas comes all the same, in the form of a child who comes to Mary Chavah, who has learned from hard experience not to expect much from life, and who, in making a home for her motherless nephew, brings Christmas to the whole town.

Another Christmas story of the American prairie is Cyrus Townsend Brady's (1861 – 1920) novella A Christmas When The West Was Young. The bittersweet story is about a heartsick couple struggling to make it through the prairie winter. Like Gale's story, the harshness of prairie life is a character in the story, and like Gale's story, a child brings Christmas when they least expect it.

Anthony Trollope's (1815 -1882) novella Christmas at Thompson Hall is a plum pudding of a Victorian Christmas tale, with an element of farce, but all ends well even if — horrors! — that includes a married lady finding herself in a strange man's hotel bedroom. It's published in a collection with seven other charming Christmas stories by Trollope.

Mystery, too, finds a home at Christmas, and Louisa May Alcott's (1832 – 1888) story The Abbot's Ghost or Maurice Traherne's Temptation by puts a pleasant shiver in the holiday.

As Little Women's devoted fans know, Jo March (Alcott's alter ego) wrote romantic plays and sensation stories, which Alcott wrote in real life. The Abbot's Ghost is an example of the Victorian sensation story crafted by a master of narrative and dialog.

As a final bonbon for the season, treat yourself to Robert Benchley's (1869 – 1945) parody of Charles Dickens, titled Christmas Afternoon and which begins:

"What an afternoon! There never was such an afternoon since the world began…In the first place there was the ennui, and such ennui as it was! A heavy, overpowering ennui…a dragging devitalizing ennui which carried with it a retinue of yawns, snarls and thinly veiled insults, and which ended in ruptures in the clan spirit serious enough to last throughout the glad new year."

Benchley's piece is in his collection "Of All Things" and in Dwight McDonald's "Parodies: An Anthology from Chaucer to Beerbohm — and After."

"Parodies" also includes H.L. Mencken's Declaration of Independence in American, and Ring Lardner's theater of the absurd parody, I Gaspiri (The Upholsterers). Give it to yourself as a gift this Christmas.

Many of these works are available for free at Gutenberg.org, and at very low cost on Kindle and Nook. Many are available as free audio books at Librivox.org.

And of course, they can always be found at a public library near you.

Carolyn Schuk (c) 2019