HAPPY FRIDAY, NEIGHBORS!!!
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HAPPY "SCHPOOKY WEEKEND" FRIDAY, NEIGHBORS!!! Oct. 28, 2016

"Character, the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life, is the source from which self-respect springs."
-Joan Didion (born 1934)  Journalist, Essayist, Novelist




"A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you, and were helped by you, will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble."
- Charles Hadden Spurgeon (1834-1892) Pastor




"Patience serves as a protection against wrong as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you."
- Leonardo Da Vinci

"It is an incalculable added pleasure to any one's sum of happiness if he or she grows to know, even slightly and imperfectly, how to read and enjoy the wonder-book of nature."
- Theodore Roosevelt,  26th US president
Take note of the railway tracks just up from the pier. This rail line was built in 1903 by Los Angeles Pacific (LAP) Railroad, an electric transit line. It later on became Pacific Electric (PE) and ran from Playa del Rey to Redondo Beach. and made four stops along the route. The "Red Car" Trolly line made stops every hour during the day. Years later it was removed due to high maintenance costs!  Full time crews had to constantly keep the tracks clear of sand and debris. Because of the rails, ties and bedding were in sand, keeping the rails straight and level was another constant issue!
Also, note the extension to the pier. They used to catch 300-pound sea bass off that extension to the pier.
If you want to see historical pics like this posted regularly on Facebook join the public group of "Manhattan Beach Haunts That No Longer Exist". Fun posts from locals "who remember when....".
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 Back in a day...its why they call it the sand section.
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NEIGHBORS GRACIE & LYNN O'CONNELL HELPED ME BUILD OUR "CHEF BOY R. DEE" PUMPKIN FOR THE 26 ANNUAL MB PUMPKIN RACE. In the words of one of my competitors, Wayne Powell, "When you crash you will have a salad." and, yes, we did crash against the wall. Newbie driver mistake.
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One of the positives for choosing a college out of the So Cal bubble.  My beach born & bred son, Graham, is getting to experience the Fall change of colors in Eugene, OR. Not to mention a little rain. Nice.
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A PEEK INTO CHICANO ART: FROM THE PRIVATE COLLECTION OF CHEECH MARIN, curated by HOMEIRA GOLDSTEIN (in pic with Cheech below), at the Manhattan Beach Art Center, 1560 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Manhattan Beach. Hours, Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Through Dec. 31. Call (310) 379-5800 or email [email protected].
Below pic from the Wed night reception.
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HOLY CREEPY CRAWLIES...THATS A BIG PUMPKIN!
2624.6 = weight in pounds of a giant pumpkin harvested by a Belgian grower, setting a new record for the world's largest.

FOR YOU HALLOWEEN FOODIES:
On All Hallows' Eve, many Western Christian denominations encourage abstinence from meat, giving rise to a variety of vegetarian foods associated with this day.
Because in the Northern Hemisphere Halloween comes in the wake of the yearly apple harvest, candy apples (known as toffee apples outside North America), caramel or taffy apples are common Halloween treats made by rolling whole apples in a sticky sugar syrup, sometimes followed by rolling them in nuts.
At one time, candy apples were commonly given to trick-or-treating children, but the practice rapidly waned in the wake of widespread rumors that some individuals were embedding items like pins and razor blades in the apples in the United States. While there is evidence of such incidents, relative to the degree of reporting of such cases, actual cases involving malicious acts are extremely rare and have never resulted in serious injury. Nonetheless, many parents assumed that such heinous practices were rampant because of the mass media. At the peak of the hysteria, some hospitals offered free X-rays of children's Halloween hauls in order to find evidence of tampering. Virtually all of the few known candy poisoning incidents involved parents who poisoned their own children's candy.
One custom that persists in modern-day Ireland is the baking (or more often nowadays, the purchase) of a barmbrack (Irish: báirín breac), which is a light fruitcake, into which a plain ring, a coin and other charms are placed before baking. It is said that those who get a ring will find their true love in the ensuing year. This is similar to the tradition of king cake at the festival of Epiphany.
List of foods associated with Halloween:

RE: TEACHING OUR KIDS AND OURSELVES ABOUT SPREADING RUMORS...response from a neighbor:
"I read your newsletter every week also.  Loved hearing about your boys and also about your story on rumors.  The sister of one of my students ended up in the ER this week for cutting because of nasty rumors being spread about her. Horrible!"
TEACH YOUR KIDS TO NOT BE A PART OF THE PROBLEM.

RESPONSE FROM MB CITY ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAM MANAGER, SONA COFFEE, RE MY PIC OF THE CIGARETTE TRASH PILE IN LAST WEEK'S HFN:
Oh goodness, that cigarette pic is bad. What is wrong w/people??! Do you happen to know where that was located? We have a "hot spot" list for the enforcement officers to patrol. And it looks like that downtown location needs a visit. Also, if there are problem areas in North MB just let me know where.
Also, we have a "butt brigade" program for volunteers that want to collect & tally the number of cig butts picked up off our streets, alleys, and beach. At least if we can't catch all the smokers violating the ban, we can encourage some volunteers to help cleanup their mess and keep the butts off the sand.
Thanks Mark!
Sona
Sona Kalapura Coffee
Environmental Programs Manager

IN CASE YOU ARE NOT AWARE...THERE ARE LOTS OF PLACES ON YOUR CITIES WEBSITES WHERE YOU CAN SIGN UP TO RECEIVE PRESS RELEASES, CRIME INFO, ETC. 
MB HAS SOMETHING THEY CALL, "Just the Facts"
In an effort to ensure that the community has access to the most up-to-date and reliable information, the City has created a"Just the Facts" page. This page will offer factual information about services in the City and respond to potential misinformation.
The City has posted a new topic on its Just the Facts page regarding the Exer Urgent Care project at 3215 N. Sepulveda Boulevard.
For questions or concerns about this new effort by the City, please contact the City Manager's office at (310) 802-5063.

FROM SOUTHBAYBYJACKIE.COM  The Manhattan Beach Parks and Recreation Department presents the annual Family Halloween Carnival on Saturday, October 29. The event takes place at Manhattan Heights Park from noon to 4 p.m. and is designed for children ages 2 to 13. A costume contest and parade gets under way at noon with several costume categories and prizes for Most Original, Scariest and Judges Choice. Costumes can always be enhanced with a little face painting and artists will be on hand to create small designs or entire face masks. Play carnival games, participate in the push-up challenge, tour the haunted house, decorate cookies and more. The cost for each activity is $.50 - $2. Tickets for all events will be sold at the Information Booth and are $.25 each. Bills over $20 will not be accepted. Tickets are also required for goodies from the Snack Stand. For additional information, visit the website at http://www.ci.manhattan-beach.ca.us/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/49890/35?curm=10&cury=2016
Manhattan Heights Park is located at 1600 Manhattan Beach Boulevard in Manhattan Beach.

SKIMM THE VOTE
skimmPH:[skimm-thing-to-know-SKIMM THE VOTE]
"My vote doesn't count." False. Especially in a year where  third party candidates are making a dent in the polls. A third party candidate has never won. But they have influenced election results by taking away votes from the major party candidates. Hi, Memory Lane...
Ross Perot: In 1992, the businessman took 19% of the vote. Bill Clinton was elected over incumbent George HW Bush - but many wondered if the outcome would have been different without Perot in the game.
Ralph Nader: In 2000, the activist won a small portion of the popular vote. But he picked up more than 90,000 votes in Florida. Guess which state decided the this-close race between Al Gore and George W Bush?
Bottom line, voting third party can mean voting for someone you may actually like. It also could mean helping one of the major party candidates by taking a vote away from their opponent. Another reason why every vote matters.

DID YOU KNOW?
- DENVER HAS RUN OUT OF SPACE TO STORE CONFISCATED POT (so, sell it to the dispenseries)
It's been nearly four years since the State of Colorado legalized marijuana, but that hasn't stopped illicit activity. In fact, authorities in Denver have seized so much illegal pot that they're having a hard time figuring out what to do with it all.
"Prior to the legalization with Amendment 64, we received small quantities of marijuana, maybe a couple ounces or a few pounds," said Lt. Cliff Carney, who's in charge of the evidence and property section for the Denver Police Department. "After 64, we're seeing huge seizures the come in. We'll get sometimes 300 to 400 boxes of marijuana at one time on one seizure."
Authorities have run out of physical space to store the weed-although we can think of a few people who'd gladly volunteer.
"We're dealing with what we have," added Carney. "We have a pretty good turnover so we don't have to keep it forever, but we have to have a place to store it and process it to get rid of it."
- BECAUSE WE ALL HAVE HUMMINGBIRDS IN OUR BACKYARD "And finally, there is hovering, unique to hummingbirds. No other bird really hovers --kites, storm petrels, kestrels, and kingfishers appear to do so, but only hummingbirds can sustain this method of flying for more than a few moments. Instead of flapping the wings up and down, the wings move forward and backward in a figure eight. During the forward and back strokes, the wings make two turns of nearly one hundred and eighty degrees. The upstroke as well as downstroke require enormous strength; every stroke is a power stroke. Like insects and helicopters, hummingbirds can fly back­ward by slanting the angle of the wings; they can fly upside down by spread­ing the tail to lead the body into a backward somersault. Hovering becomes so natural to a hummingbird that a mother who wants to turn in her nest does it by lifting straight up into the air, twirling, then coming back down. A hummer can stay suspended in the air for up to an hour.
"Hummingbirds are specially equipped to perform these feats. In most birds, 15 to 25 percent of the body is given over to flying muscles. In a hummingbird's body, flight muscles account for 35 percent. An enormous heart constitutes up to 2.5 percent of its body weight -- the largest per body weight of all vertebrates. At rest, the hummingbird pumps blood at a rate fifteen times as fast as that of a resting ostrich, and that blood is exception­ally rich in oxygen -- carrying hemoglobin. 'There can be no doubt it reigns supreme over all the other birds of the world,' writes Esther Tyrrell, 'and truly deserves to be called the champion of flight.'
- HERE ARE THE MOST EDUCATED CITIES IN EVERY STATE.  All big university towns. (take a look at #5, Sammie)
Education matters. Over a lifetime, a working adult with a college bachelor's degree can expect to earn  an average of $2.1 million, compared to $1.2 million for someone with a high school diploma. A master's holder will earn an average of $2.5 million over his or her lifetime. For people with doctoral degrees, that figure is closer to $3.4 million.
Given the economic benefits of higher education, a city's college attainment rates are a big deal. Now, 24/7 Wall St. has identified  the most educated metros in every state.
To identify the most educated cities in every state, 24/7 Wall St. ranked the percentages of metro area adults who have completed at least a bachelor's degree in every state. The college attainment rate, along with poverty, income, and high school attainment rates, as well as the percentage of households receiving SNAP benefits for metro areas and for states all came from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2015 American Community Survey.
Nationwide, the researchers found that 30.6 percent of adults had earned a bachelor's degree or higher. Cities with a high number of well-paying jobs and those with major universities saw the greatest college attainment levels.
Here are the most educated cities in the 5 largest states:
5) Bloomington, IL (bachelor's holders 44%, postsecondary grads 5%)
4) Ithaca, NY (bachelor's holders 54.9%, postsecondary grads 4%)
3) Gainesville, FL (bachelor's holders 42%, postsecondary grads 9%)
2) Austin-Round Rock, TX (bachelor's holders 42.6%, postsecondary grads 43%)
1) San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA (bachelor's holders 48.7%, postsecondary grads 32%)

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND, NEIGHBORS!!! SEE YOU IN THE YARD.
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Nice, Jackie.
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Pop culture doing its thing. Gotta love that Bubble satire. 
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Trick or treating in Manhattan Beach.
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Quick Links...
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Mark Lipps
310-849-9181
 
Chef Tammy, The Ripe Choice Catering
310-962-4597  Catering
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