Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa last week filled the city's 800,000th pothole since he took office in July 2005 and that being a seemingly large number, a news conference was called.
"I love my life and every day I wake up grateful -- I'm grateful for the great leadership in the city," intoned Cynthia Ruiz, president of the city's Board of Public Works.
That prompted the Sage to put down an uprising by his breakfast. Too bad Ruiz didn't mention that Villaraigosa hired her to the tune of $115,090 annually to say such things.
As for the mayor, he also opined on what a great job the city does filling potholes. "We are not only a pothole filler, but a pothole leader in the nation," Villaraigosa said.
Hard to argue with that if you've bumped along Wilshire Boulevard or Hill Street recently.
Here's the actual news: The city doesn't really know how many potholes are out there; the city is resurfacing about 200 miles of road each year (New York City says it does four times that); and it would cost about $2.5 billion to properly repair city roads instead of patching problems as they arise.
Fascinating, eh?
So why does the Sage go to such news conferences? Because politicians intent on providing a visual for the media always insist on filling potholes themselves. That means they get to use heavy machinery to flatten freshly laid asphalt.
Now, I certainly don't want to see anyone get injured. But if ever a day comes along in which a harried aide says, "Have you seen the mayor's toe?," the Sage feels compelled to be there to record history.
Someone's gotta do it.
Birthing unit http://:// www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0%2C28804%2C1709961_1711305%2 C00.html "> www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0%2C28804%2C1709961_1711305%2 C00.html reported recently that traffic is so bad in Bangkok that "hundreds of women over the past few years have been forced to give birth in cars." So I e-mailed the California Highway Patrol and asked how often that happens on state-patrolled roads here. The answer: rarely.
And then, a few hours later, it did. On Route 50 in Sacramento early Friday, CHP Officer Charmaine Fajardo helped deliver a baby. The mother -- get this -- is a labor and delivery nurse.
"It probably helped me stay calm that she was so calm," Fajardo said.
The CHP, by the way, trains its officers in delivering babies, and expectant parents should know that CHP officers carry umbilical cord clamps as part of their first aid kits.
