The LA Times is sinking into oblivion. Trying to be cool and compete with USA today, the paper references that movie, The Perfect Storm, in its title for an article, “Conditions for the Perfect Drought.” As I recollect everybody in that movie died though from an excess of water not a lack thereof. In any case, the article reports that this last year produced some alarming conditions; not only were the portions of CA that send water to LA affect but so were areas in surrounding states upon which So Cal is dependent for water. Very little rain, very little ice pack. Adding to the alarm recent geological findings suggest So Cal and its water supplying environs underwent decades of drought between about 900 and 1300 AD. A decade of drought would produce some pretty nasty conditions.
We had a drought—that lasted for six years maybe–in the late 80’s and early 90’s. But then we still had those other parts of the state and parts of other states to supply us with water. Still it was pretty nasty. One did not flush as frequently as one was used to doing. One installed a low flow toilet and also a low flow shower head, doing one’s civic duty. Also water was no longer automatically served at a restaurant; one had to ask for it. Lawns died out, and some people painted their front yards with green paint. The very rich people in the adjoining “community” of Montecito (mostly drug dealers and captains of corporate corruption) had water tankered in to keep alive their acres of lawn.
People talked, if the drought refused to break, of tankering water in ships down from Canada; also proposed was breaking off a huge chunk of an ice-berg and parking it off shore. The city did buy a desalinization plant towards the end of the drought, but never got it going as I recollect. They moth balled it and then sold it to a country in the Middle East.
At the time I thought, Those Idiots! Prudence dictated, as I thought, that we get the thing up and running and maybe even expand it, as long as the sale of the water took care of the upkeep (and couldn’t the water be bottled and sold to Tourists as real desalinated water from the Pacific—sort of a novelty item.) But No! So should another drought come we will have to go back to the ice berg idea, if any ice bergs are left by that time.
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Above is a picture of the UCSB penis or PHALLIC SYMBOL. Every UC Campus has one. They are called TOWERS, and as far as I am able to ascertain, they are the only completely non-functional or decorative pieces of architecture on any of the campuses. What does it mean, I wonder, that the UCSB penis should be housed in a non-functional structure?