Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/147993
6A Daily News – Friday, August 2, 2013 Opinion Memory is the first to go, can't remember the second DAILY NEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U NTY S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes letters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submitted will be considered for publication. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. Mission Statement We believe that a strong community newspaper is essential to a strong community, creating citizens who are better informed and more involved. The Daily News will be the indispensible guide to life and living in Tehama County. We will be the premier provider of local news, information and advertising through our daily newspaper, online edition and other print and Internet vehicles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its communities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the residents and businesses of Tehama County. How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 I can still remember the first telephone number my family had when I reached the age that one can memorize a phone number. It helps that my mother kept the number for several years after my brother and I flew the coop, but for the life of me I have no idea why my brain is hanging onto 479-9265 some 30 years later. Especially considering all the other numbers swimming around up there. Of course, these days practically nobody bothers to memorize a phone number. Instead, we save it in our phones or check the recent calls queue. Sometimes I'll even run into someone who has to check his phone just to tell me his own phone number. Probably a good thing, all this technology, because with it has come the advent of passwords and user names for just about everything we do. I'm all for being safe on line, but it's getting a little out of hand. Off the top of my head, I have passwords for a couple of email accounts, Facebook, Twitter, my bank, the cable company, my credit card, investment accounts, Reddit, the online version of the Daily News, ESPN, Map My Ride, Netflix, Tout, wifi service... You get the point. And this doesn't include the many passwords I use to access news content for work. The simple thing would be to pick one user name and password for everything I do on line, but that's not always possible because different sites require different parameters and some demand that I change my password every few months for security reasons. The result is that logging on to a site these days has become something of a crap shoot, especially those I visit infrequently. I've thought about keeping a list of passwords somewhere near the computer, but that sort of defeats the point of having secure pass- them. The solution is to have fewer passwords. words. I started deleting Used to be I could, bookmarks for sites I at any given moment, can live without and rattle off a dozen key even closed a couple phone numbers, my of accounts for serSocial Security numvices I don't really use ber, passport number enough to justify the and ATM number. expense. It feels good Child's play comto simplify life a little. pared to the number But then it came of things I'm expected time to cancel the to remember these cable service and, you days. Chip guessed it, that can't After an hour of be done online until I trying to log into my account to find out Thompson correctly enter my why my cable bill 545 Diamond password. If I was a smart jumped up by 30 perAve. man, I would have just cent overnight — used that old phone turns out I was number for my passreceiving a special price for a limited time — I word. threw up my hands in frustraChip Thompson can be tion. But in that moment I had reached at 527-2151, Ext. 112 an epiphany. by email at The solution isn't to keep a or list of passwords or engage in editor@redbluffdailynews.com. him on Twitter some sort of mental gymnastics Follow to increase my ability to recall @EditorChip. Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Dan Logue, 1550 Humboldt Road, Ste. 4, Chico, CA 95928, 530-895-4217 STATE SENATOR — Jim Nielsen, 2635 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico, CA 95928, (530) 879-7424, senator.nielsen@senate.ca.gov GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 5583160; E-mail: governor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Doug LaMalfa 506 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515, 202-2253076. U.S. SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 3930710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224-0454. Commentary Revolving doors Although the demise of the once great S.F. Giants, and their inability to score with the bases loaded with no outs twice last weekend while playing the lowly Chicago Cubs continues to clutter my mind, there are still greater issues to contemplate. One is the catch and release rule as practiced by our courts. I mentioned to a person versed in jurisprudence that it appears, according to police logs, most people arrested for nonviolent crime, have had a "failure to appear" warrant outstanding. This means they appeared before a magistrate during a hearing, promised to come back to court at a later date…and just flat out ignored the whole procedure. Here, in part, is my learned friend's response: "When the Realignment bill of 2011 went into effect, our jail became a state prison. As there is no room for anyone, the jail becomes a walk through. Folks are arrested and delivered to one door to be released minutes later through another door. There is absolutely no room for those who commit non violent, lesser crimes and the subculture knows it. We can tell you stories of the person who has now been picked up a dozen times on the same offense, each time being released on his promise to appear (no room, etc.), each time then failing to appear — bench warrant, arrest, release on promise to appear....continue this ad infinitum and you breed a certain casual disregard for the law which I find disturbing. Our criminals laugh about how long they will be detained, and our police officers can tell you stories of the cretin they just arrested, sitting in the back seat of the patrol car, boasting to the arresting officer that he will be back home in time for lunch. Tsk, Tsk is an understatement." *** In an effort to get to sleep one night, I did a particularly difficult cryptogram from the SF Chron. It is worth printing the solution herewith: "Rabbit that hides many baskets full of edible mollusks once each year is known as The Oyster Bunny." If you take the time, solving these little gems can make your day. An example: "In a perfect world, rap music would not have to take the blame for gang activity. Square dancing music would." fronted a vagrant who had been occupying a *** J.K. Rowling, creator of the Harry Potter homemade shelter in the area who became books, published a novel titled "The belligerent forcing the law to step in and arrest him. Pat and fellow Casual Vacancy" to much activist proceeded to clean acclaim. It was not a child's up the area and had accubook, but published under mulated 10 bags of trash her own name, was an and waste when the instant success. Then she vagrant showed up again wrote another novel, "The brandishing a hammer. Cuckoo's Calling" under Although we are all in the pen name of Robert favor of a shelter for the Galbraith. Once investigahomeless per se, there are tion revealed the name of those in the midst who can the true author, the book be, to put it mildly, antishot to the top of the best Robert social. Wondering how seller list. That is underthese people are handled in standable, but this little Sacramento, I contacted charade revealed the fact of our cop granddaughter who how "brutally unfair the litreported the situation is out erary world can be (TIME of control in that area. issue of the 29th of July) for the new book sold only 500 copies until However, in Placer County, an area has the author's true name was revealed. Buying been fenced off for people without shelter a new novel is a risky proposition in that where they are provided with water, portathey cost more than movies or albums, but potties etc. allowing them to conduct their are harder to get a sense of what's inside, lives with some degree of dignity. By showand the name on the cover is the best indica- ing identity cards, they are given access to tor of the book's contents. Reading is not a the area and the plan seems to be working. passive experience; it is more like a duet Tehama County needs to step up and probetween reader and author, and as a result mote such a program. Finding the proper any baggage a reader brings to a book can location is first on the to-do list. *** radically change his or her response to it." A couple of old guys were golfing when *** Last week's quiz was first answered cor- one mentioned he was going to Dr. Smith for rectly by early bird N. Rick who reported a new set of false teeth. His elderly buddy that the only letter not included in the names said that he had also gone to Dr. Smith for of our states is Q, that those states beginning same two years ago. "Is that so? Did he do a and ending in the same vowels are Alabama, good job?" His buddy replied, "Well, let's put it this Alaska, Ohio and Arizona, and that the state way: I was on the course yesterday when I with the most letters is Massachusetts. This week's quiz: Name the state that can got hit by an errant ball from a golfer in the be typed on the keyboard with only the left next fairway. It must have been going 200 hand...and the only one that can be typed miles an hour and it smacked me right in the with only the right hand...and name the only privates! The point of the story is that it was the first time in two years that my teeth didone syllable state. n't hurt..." *** Saturday's columnist J. Harrop Robert Minch is a lifelong resident of addressed the homeless situation in his last effort and will apparently address various Red Bluff, former columnist for the Corning solutions tomorrow. In the meantime, P. Daily Observer and Meat Industry Johnston dropped by to tell of a recent magazine and author of the "The Knocking encounter under a bridge in the Antelope Pen." He can be reached at Area. She and a nearby businessman con- rminchandmurray@hotmail.com. Minch I Say