The weirdly addictive radio program Car Talk used to have a plug for their chicken soup division maintained by “Kent Hoyt”, which, along with their Russian chauffeur “Pikopp Andropoff’ and their legal defense team “Dewey, Cheatem & Howe” always made me laugh aloud.
Well yesterday was time for a little ‘Kent Hoyt’ strategy. I was asked to come down to the tiles and film a “thank you” for all the financial support Shell has given to Martinez over the years. With no irony whatsoever and my best foot firmly forward I went down to thank them for their help with the beaver festival and the tree planting. Several beaver friends were there, as well as the mayor and a certain well-sheetpiled property owner. They were all forced to acknowledge how lovely the tiles were, which I greatly enjoyed.
Then, with my ears still hot from the excitement of being filmed twice and asked to “shorten it up”, I drove home and got a lovely card from the wife of MW. Long time readers of this blog might remember the attorney that represented the Friends of Lake Skinner beavers many years ago, and won a challenge at the appellate level that resulted in the bad guys paying the good guys attorneys fees to the tune of 50,000 dollars. The heart of the suit was that beavers had such a huge role in the environment that killing them without an environmental impact report violated CEQA. Anyway, he wrote our mayor a cautionary letter very early on, and we became friends. Yesterday he and his wife made a very generous donation to the beaver festival, which made my ears all hot again.
Thanks so much, I promise it will go towards something very, very special!
