I’m betting The OC Register is quite proud of themselves for blowing the lid off this whole teenage-photos-of-water-polo-as-internet-smut thing. It’s been picked up by almost every media outlet on the planet. However, it’s not really a new phenomenon. It’s been going on for years.

Let me start by saying that if my child’s sporting photos, or any other photos for that matter, were the subject of people’s lewd ogling I would not be pleased. In fact I would be down right furious. That being said, I have just one question: How do ‘they’ plan to stop something that’s not illegal?

In case you missed it, here’s the scoop: There are PG-rated pictures of teenage water polo athletes from Orange County circulating on the internets. The problem is that some people like to look at those pictures during One Handed Happy Time in conjunction with more illicit photographic content (most of it sexually explicit). Icky? Most likely. Illegal? Probably not. After all, one person’s Sears Catalog is another person’s erotica.

The article in The Register features quite a few blustering quotes from people who want to ban everything in the world for the sake of protecting children. The problem with this kind of situation is that, short of gouging out the eyeballs of every person on earth, I am not sure how they plan to address it. Let’s not forget that advertisers link sports and sex-appeal all the time, just look at Sports Illustrated or David Beckham. What I see as a sports photo others may see as something else. Are we really shocked that it’s come to this? It’s a slippery slope – one of our own design.

What do you think? How do we solve this problem? Can we have free speech and still ‘protect’ children here in Orange County? Either way, you may want to consider what all the visitors to your online family-vacation photo album are really there to see.

Well, how about a penny? That’s almost free. I say it’s close enough, so it counts.

In honor of their 50th anniversary, today and tomorrow the Sizzler chain of restaurants is having a promotion that if you buy one 8 oz steak dinner, you can get a second one for free. And, for every anniversary dinner sold, they will donate money to the Children’s Miracle Network.

I haven’t eaten at Sizzler for quite a while, so I can’t comment on the current quality of food, but hey, if money is tight, this might be up your alley.

Aaaand, I don’t wanna hear anything from the vegetarian contingent, either, about steaks and whatnot. I don’t go around trashing brussels spouts, do I? I mean, I could, but I don’t.

The person responsible for taking the rams from Angel Stadium in Anaheim to St. Louis, has died.

The LA Times reported that she passed away at the age of 80. For those of you who remember, Georgia moved the Rams from the Southern California area to St. Louis in 1995.

Back then the team was nothing to write home about and Angel Stadium had ugly bright orange seats and no outfield seating.

We’ve been trying to get an NFL team back ever since the Rams left.

Do you crave seeing naughty pixels pushed through a series of tubes? If so, then boy do I have an event for you! Tonight Michael Leahy, author of Porn Nation, will bring his “stage show” to UCI. It’s an event where students and the general public can witness his glorious musings about addiction, sex and Christianity. For the love of Loretta Switt, this sounds exciting! It’s going to be just like Cirque du Soliel… without the unitards.

Truth be told, I really am interested. My college degree is in Psychology with an emphasis on human sexuality. It sounds fascinating and ridiculous at the same time. In all fairness, an article in the OC Register does paint him as a pretty reasonable fellow. It points out that “he does not believe in censorship” and refuses “to label pornography as a social cancer”. Additionally he saves the particularly Jesusy parts for “the end of his show and warns students beforehand in case they want to leave”.

Anywhore, the event is free and open to the public at the UCI Student Center at 7 PM. I seriously am considering attending just to watch the train wreck as it happens. However, laughing at another person’s misfortune seems cruel, because it might be perceived that he’s just switched from one addiction to another.

Well whoever they are, they were given a new star on the Anaheim/OC Walk of Stars.

Alert the press, the turnout must have been huge! The world renowned super duper famous Yorbas were (according to the city of Anaheim’s press release) “among the early settlers of Spanish California and once owned much of the land in present day Orange County”. I don’t suppose they plan to give a star to the native tribes that once occupied this land; of course those tribes would first have to be federally recognized for that to happen.

Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle was there – no word on whether or not he posted armed guards at entry points to check and see if Hispanic people were legally allowed to attend the ceremony. My guess is no, but you never can tell with Pringle.

In case you care, the Walk of Stars is located on Harbor Blvd adjacent to the 15-minute parking lot for Disneyland. Stop by and check it out.

Karl Karcher, the founder of Carl’s Jr. restaurants, passed away on Friday at the age of 90. The warm and fuzzy yet deeply religious man was the patriarch of the enormous Karcher clan – eleven children!! Known for his kind works of good will toward his fellow humans he will be deeply mourned by homosexuals, women’s rights activists and liberal vegetarians across the west.

In other news, Britney Spears actually stepped foot in a church today. Carl would be so proud.

That’s it!

I really was trying not to mention the wacky congressman from Texas who thinks he could be president for the Republican party, but I just have to. I’m sick of his supporters who spam my inbox, leave comments on every single DIGG posts, and even “game the system” so to speak to get his name out there.

Today was the last straw.

Will the “Paultard” who slap-tagged my hood with bumper stickers, remove them immediately. You placed them on every reflector diamond, every stop sign, junction box, directional sign, and no entrance sign in an extremely busy intersection. I’m sure if you decided to stop and think you would have realized that you just violated traffic laws and city ordinances that prevent such postings:

“640.7. Any person who violates Section 594, 640.5, or 640.6 on or within 100 feet of a highway, or its appurtenances, including, but not limited to, guardrails, signs, traffic signals, snow poles, andsimilar facilities, excluding signs naming streets, is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding six months, or by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars $1,000), or by both that imprisonment and fine. A second conviction is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both that imprisonment and fine.”

Not to mention a violation of Anaheim City Ordnance.

Just a thought for the next time you decide to deface public property.

For the month of January, Baskin-Robbins is having a buy-one get-one free promotion for their sundaes!

This weekend is supposed to heat up a bit, so ice cream just might be in order.

But, you do have to print out the coupon.

Tesco‘s (a British retail giant) foray into the small-format grocery store has arrived in Orange County! So the Missus and I took ourselves, as well as our green-earth-hippie-Wiccan-gay-sensibilities down to the brand spanking new Fresh and Easy (hey it’s named after me!) on the corner of Main and Chapman in Orange. The new neighborhood grocer occupies what was once The Good Guys and then sat empty and derelict for far too long.

What was waiting behind the shiny new exterior shell of the building was anyone’s guess. I’ll tell you what we didn’t expect: Empty shelves – loads of them. When we breezed through the whooshing automatic doors we were met with shelf after shelf of bareness in the Produce and preprepared foods section.

As it turns out we weren’t the only ones to notice this problem. An article in Fortune recently detailed the stock-level issues as well. The CEO “chalked the shortfall up to unexpected demand for Fresh & Easy’s ready-to-eat meals” but when we queried an employee they blamed the shortfalls on the store’s complete “lack of back-of-house storage”. In other words, there is no storeroom and what is on the floor is the only stock the market has. She also said the stock levels were higher in the morning right after deliveries. Well, Okie dokie then.

Empty shelves aside, the store was a charm-free hybrid of Trader Joes meets Vons meets liquor store. Half Fresh and Easy store brand and half national brands, most of it healthy and most of it very reasonably priced. It’s an odd sort of shopping experience, but not an unpleasant one. Paired with the new Mother’s Market that’s opening just around the corner, F&E brings a much needed quasi-healthy shopping option to an area that was devoid of it.

Will I go back? Yes. Will I make it a regular stop for my shopping needs? Maybe. Hopefully time will allow them to iron out their stock-level issues and help them to thrive in the neighborhood.

New locations are open (or opening soon) in La Palma, Buena Park, Fullerton and yet another location in Orange. Anaheim seems conspicuously absent from that list – F&E seems like a perfect fit for the Resort district. Has anyone else tried this or a different location? What did you think? Will they survive in SoCal?

Well I am back from yet another trip out of town (which means I was away from my computer and this blog) and what do I return to? Rain and Britney Spears. We just can’t seem to get enough of either. Don’t argue with me on the Britney issue. If you were really sick of her you wouldn’t be pummeling TMZ, Defamer and Perez Hilton with the most page views in the history of the internets.

As for the rain, I enjoy watching the natives freak out about it. I was reared in the great Northwest and rain aint no thang. The traffic accidents and the flood watch and the power outages and the mud slides make for compelling news coverage. At least that’s what the local Network affiliates seem to think.

Don’t get me wrong, I am concerned about the well being of my fellow humans (that has to include Britney I suppose), but I would like a little variety in my news coverage, there’s more going on than celebrity wetness.

For example, here is a compelling article in The Register about how “New tests show DNA found at the scene of a 1984 killing [do not] match a man sentenced to die for the murder.”

Did he do it? Maybe. Maybe not. The only sure thing is that the DA doesn’t want to find out. I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about it. I wonder what the TV news has to say. Ahhhh yes, more Britney… she’s addictive, like a morphine drip. Thank Ganga there is all this rain to distract me.