Category: San Luis Obispo

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Halloween… a time for kindness

jack-o-lanterns

 

Maybe, it’s because I once worked for two different candy companies (chocolate)… or maybe it’s because I had my own ‘grim reaper’, ‘Spock’ and ‘fox’ canvassing the neighborhood each year, but I have always enjoyed Halloween. It is one of my favorite times of the year.

It is a time in which we can show kindness to children, stranger’s children and just plain strange children.

Year after year, our neighborhood grows grayer and with that less and less children come to call… or at least that is true of many of the homes in our neighborhood. This year, we had a steady stream of young people… some had ‘heard of our house’, or wanted us to remember they came last ‘year or years ago’. You know you are getting old, when your one time trick or treaters’ kids come calling.

See's Candy... simply the bestMany people miss the joy in the eyes and the excitement of children as they place their eyes on a big piece of chocolate…. and it’s free!

I buy popularity.

My secret? I buy See’s Chocolates in bulk… so it really isn’t that expensive… and as long as my ‘competition’ continues to hand out individual ‘tic tacs’… I can still be a hero. The cost of being a hero on this holiday is easy… as compared to Christmas.

Over the years, I have discovered what the REAL favorite bars are… you can see it when you observe what the kids take … when they are free…. and what they leave behind. Nutrageous is still king of the modestly priced bars.

If you are living in an affluent community… you might try Ethel M. Chocolates…. Forest Mars, Sr. really got this one right. Legend says that Forest Senior didn’t want to go down in history as the inventory of SNICKERS and M&M’s… but as a purveyour of quality confection… and in the company named after one of his two mothers ( both named Ethel).. he achieved perfection! Ethel M Chocolates

Next year… instead of watching kids look at their treats and say ,’yuck, raisins!”… go to the next level with something Chocolate that says, ‘thanks for stopping by!’

 

Roger Freberg

 

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WHO beat San Diego State? er… ah… Cal Poly?

Cal Poly Over San Diedo State! ... WHO beat San Diego State??? And to think that Bear Bryant’s widow moved to San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) to escape college football!

Who would have thought?

First, I have to tell you that I am NOT a big fan of Cal Poly on many levels… however, I am impressed that sandlot kids from C.P. playing in their street clothes could whoop San Diego State!

The local paper did a fine job covering the unusual event… with some of the expected hyperbola:

“Saturday’s victory not only ensured a fourth straight winning season for Cal Poly but cemented its place in the top 10 and keeps the Mustangs’ playoff plans in order.”

Gosh, I just wish they wouldn’t write about playoffs or National Championships… someone outside of SLO might actually read this! However, the ‘talk’ is bound to leak out as their sports writer is now a blogger.  On his blog he has a few links to how others view the debacle…

The Cal Poly Coach — who I defended in the local paper for getting a modest salary increase  might have been reading too much of his own press when he was quoted:

“In assessing the talent gap between his team and Division I-A schools last week, Cal Poly coach Rich Ellerson said he believed the Mustangs had reached a point where they could be competitive against middle-of-the-pack programs from the Mountain West and Western Athletic conferences.”

Ya think? Hmmm….  well, I did read the Cal Poly Athletic web site… and it looks like a good site… if you compare it to any univesity circa 1996. I can’t understand why their athletic site is sooooo cheap… it’s not like the better schools can buy more electrons. In any event, they tell of the rivalry between the two school that has recently been reenacted in this great duel… but that was different times and long long ago.

Today — I hear — that a so-called ‘full-scholarship football player’ at Cal Poly recieves a 1 shirt and 1 pair of shorts for free… but he must buy anything else he needs. As you can imagine, the other ‘sports’ get less. Oh, if you ‘letter’… you are awarded a Cal Poly T-shirt… just like the ones you can buy in their student store. whoo-hoo!

Maybe yuo guys could lend Cal Poly some of your nice clothes... facilities, shoes... and a ride home.So, San Diego State, nothing good came out of this meeting for you. To be humiliated by guys who have to buy their own shoes has got to hurt.

Cal Poly is a funny place where the President of the College actually makes three or more times as much as the football coach.

In my opinion, Cal Poly’s program died 20 years ago thanks to a President who has tried to turn Cal Poly into a quaint college… the kind you see dotted in the North East of our country. However, there are those individuals and a few teams from time to time that hang in there… hoping to make it something more.

Congrats to Cal Poly’s Football team… that won in spite of it all.

Roger Freberg

 

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Next Time… run over the damn dog!

another student makes a great decision at Cal polyI don’t always read the local paper the San luis Obispo Tribune very often… I really — as they say — don’t care who turned 100, what shrub is now endangered or how green which politician is… once in a while a story or two pops up that says… IDIOT!

Well, here’s what happened:

“…when he swerved to miss a dog that wandered onto the road, according to the CHP.The car spun out of control and hit a large tree, impacting the right-front door, the CHP said. Mariano was taken to French Hospital Medical Center, treated for major injuries and released. Viernes was taken to Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center, where he died, the CHP said.”

So, what was this guy thinking? Save a dog, lose a friend is a good trade? He’s not alone, I have a female relative…. a d-i-s-t-a-n-t relative… who tumbled and totaled her car in a ditch and almost bought the big one in order to miss a ground squirrel. Hmmmm, maybe these two could find each other.

The next story is very cool by Jeff Carlton of the Associated Press entitled: ” In case of a gunman in class, Texas kids taught to fight back”. It’s about time!. It seems like Robin Browne ( a Major in the British Army reserve) is teaching students ‘they can win’ against an armed attacker. This could only happen in Texas!

Remember how the Amish boys ran away and let the girls get wacked? Had they been prepared mentally … maybe, they could have prevented it all from happening.

I remember hearing teachers and others in responsibility preaching that we must cooperate with our rapist, attacker, murderer or even worse thnigs might happen… like what? …. and, yes, we must — while driving — avoid all ground squirrels even if it means taking out a family of four riding in the opposite direction….

In any event, courage — as we should teach our children — is not the absence of fear… but the mastery of fear.

Roger Freberg

 

 

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Level the Playing field!….. 5th Year of Eligibility is Fair

Here I am as a young track & field athlete.... if you look closely, Laura is in the stands!It does seem like a lifetime ago that I was a scholarship athlete at UCLA… but I do remember coming home, eating my dinner and then falling asleep. Somehow, I still managed to graduate in 4 years.

Since then, times have really changed for both students and student-athletes. Today, graduating in 4 years is a real challenge for many. It could be that economic times are tougher or maybe students are just dragging their collective heals; however, more often than not it is the university itself that slows the graduation rates. Sometimes, just getting 1) the required classes in majors whose unit requirements have inflated over the years and 2) obtaining the prerequisites in a timely manner slows the process to a crawl.

When I was at UCLA, I almost completed a triple major but opted to graduate ‘on-time.’ It is clear that by today’s hurdles and requirements, I would never have been able to be so adventurous and my graduation date would have been stretched out. With students taking longer and longer to complete their degrees often due to no fault of their own … it seems only logical that we reevaluate the support we offer student athletes with a fifth year of eligibility. Here’s a link and a copy of a letter I wrote to the Daily Trojan:

 Unequal standards

A favorite topic – by some – is to pick on athletes who struggle through the academic requirements set by the NCAA (Athlete graduation rate lags, Oct. 6, 2006). I always ask myself, “How many ‘regular’ students make progress to degree completion in the time allotted by the NCAA?” You’d be surprised to know the answer.

In the non-football powerhouse, academic community in which I live (San Luis Obispo), the “average” student graduates in 6.5 years. This is more of a pain to the parents than it is to the university or the NCAA, but it points out the fact that athletes everywhere are held to different and, in my opinion, unfair standards.

The unintended expectation of the NCAA academic progress regulations is that athletes are required to outperform their non-athletic peers, but this is unreasonable given the time, energy and recovery demands of Division I athletics.

Every effort should be made to aid athletes and non-athletes in earning their bachelor’s degrees. A big, positive step for athletes in reaching this goal would be in offering a fifth year of eligibility.

Roger Freberg
San Luis Obispo, Calif.

This is not to criticize the NCAA. The NCAA has made great strides in supporting athletes over the years… in particular , allowing athletes with remaining eligibility to continue through graduate school ( as did my daughter Karen) is a wonderful tweak to the system for the best students in the student-athlete mix. The addition of a fifth year would help everyone else towards earning their bachelor’s degree… which is the point, isn’t it?

As for me, I really did have an unfair advantage… I married my tutor.

Roger Freberg

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Walmart or Costco?…. there is a choice out there!

Where we shop says a lot about who we are. It tells people about our attitudes and values in the things we buy and who we buy from. Although I can’t get all worked up about ‘sweatshops’ in other countries … I try not to patronize the domestic equivalent…. Walmart.

Costco vs. Walmart... there is a choice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In fact, there is usually a choice in where you can spend your dollars and that choice affects your community and beyond.

I have always tended to buy from UNION shops if I could… however, I would trade with non-union folks IF I believed that the employees were well treated and shared at some level with the success of the business. I observed that Costco’s people work hard, but they pay and seem to treat their people well… they appear to be fair and the usual grumbling seems minor. As one union friend of mine told me… ‘there’s nothing we can offer them to join ( the employees usually recieve higher salaries and benefits when they become unionized).’

San Luis Obispo, California just recieved it’s first ‘box store’ and listening to the local politicos, you would have thought that the world was going to end. It’s ironic that the city’s coffers will be stuffed with the unanticipated gains from the store they fought so hard to keep out.  As I mentioned, the benefits to the city are significant as well as to the consumer.

Looking back, I can remember that only a few years ago, it seemed like shopping locally was really adversive. When you walked in and asked a local merchant, ‘how much he was selling his lamp for?’… he would typically respond by asking,”well…. how much do you have?” Times have changed and with greater choices come lower prices.

shopping at CostCo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The car on the left is obviously NOT mine but from a post by someone proud of their visit to Costco… obviously a thrifty soul as he is driving the vehicle featured in the last ‘Pink Panther’ movie… I think this …er…ah… car is said to be priced around $16,000. Come to think of it, I think something like this ‘auto’ was in the last Austin Powers flick, too?

I my neverending quest to provide reading material, here are a couple of links to recent articles on Arkansas-based Walmart that might just give you a chance to pause:

OCT 3rd Editorial

Walmart to cap wages & Add part timers

I guess I’d rather put a couple of nickles into someone’s pocket knowing that they’re making a happy living… and yes, I enjoy the discount, too!

 

Roger Freberg