Say Grats at Dinner

When we read about problems and tragedies it’s easy to become distressed. To increase happiness, think about things for which you have gratitude. My family does this at the end of dinner when we say “grats.” This involves one person telling us three things for which she or he is grateful. Then we have a conversation about what was said. 

Being the old guy at the table, I often discuss how one of those things was different in earlier times. For example, if televisions are cited I might talk about how, when I was young, we didn’t have one and that the first TVs had small screens and took a while to “warm up” before a low-quality black and white image grudgingly appeared. 

The only rule we have is that grats shouldn’t involve a person at the table. Otherwise, they can be anything – big or small. Examples: freedom of speech, paper towels, email, volunteers, toothbrushes, friends, pie, plastic, sunshine, living in America, electricity, teachers, parks and music. 

Grats has sparked a lot of good conversation and made us more appreciative of the lives we have. Try it. You’ll like it.

Gary Jump
Itasca, Illinois

CVWD’s Money-Saving Tactics

In business school, the student learns that organizations can “externalize costs of operation” by acting to pass off their costs to the community or to the ecosystem.  For example, Acme Chemical could dump the byproducts of its chemical factory in the nearby creek instead of building tanks to capture those byproducts and then building facilities to further process the byproducts into harmless materials to be taken away.

CVWD is externalizing a portion of its costs on its neighbors to replace its aging pipelines by using the Williams Reservoir plot located on Ocean View [Boulevard] as a materials depot and materials yard. The CVWD should lease or buy an appropriate parcel that is not located within a quiet residential neighborhood in the Sagebrush portion of La Cañada Flintridge. That neighborhood  is now suffering from constant double dump truck traffic running up and down Ocean View, round-the-clock operation of heavy equipment on the reservoir property and heavy congestion of trucks hooking up and dropping off trailers on narrow streets. This neighborhood used to be a quiet residential section where kids walk to school and people walk their dogs.

The CVWD is saving cost and bringing its pipe replacement activities in-house. Sure, the CVWD is saving money because the CVWD does not have to pay premium prices to have contractors do its pipe replacement work. The CVWD is shifting some of those costs onto the La Cañada Flintridge community because the consequences of the CVWD’s shortsighted decisions are being borne by the Williams Reservoir neighbors.

Greg Hiscott
La Cañada Flintridge

Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara 

On Nov. 6, victims of the Eaton Canyon and Pacific Palisades fires called on Governor Gavin Newsom to demand the resignation of Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara.

“Commissioner Lara has proven he won’t protect consumers,” said Jill Spivack, speaking at a press conference in Altadena. “Please replace him with someone who will” (Los Angeles Times; Nov. 7, 2025).

Good luck, Jill. As you know, Ricky missed a hearing in March when State Farm asked for a 38% rate hike. He was enjoying the tropical delights of Bermuda and, I might add, ignoring the return-to-work order issued to government employees (The Center Square; April 9, 2025)

Don’t you wish that you could afford a junket to Africa, Chile, Columbia, France and (best of all) New York? My gosh – Ricky spent $11,000 for four days in a five-star hotel. The cost for security was $9,000. Wow! But the performance by DJ Kitty Litter was simply fabulous! (KABC Radio and KFI Radio reports).

Fabulous!

Les Hammer
Pasadena