Jennifer McLain Blogs About Rosemead. . .

It looks good. Not the stuff about Rosemead... but overall it looks interesting.

.     Well, coincidence or not, Jennifer posted to her blog again a few days after we noted it here.  Her recent posts on "perbatim minutes" and on the eagle gift to the councilman in Monterey Park reminded me of a story that may very well be interesting only to me.

.     A few years ago, I was working with a co-author on an article concerning banking regulations.  My co-author had conducted a number of interviews (with banking regulators, banking industry lobbyists, congressional staffers, etc), all of which he recorded.  Then, because he was employed by a so-called Research I institution, he had a research assistant transcribe all the interview tapes.

.     As I thumbed through the transcripts, looking for evidence to support our thesis, a kept reading the phrase, "glass eagle."  No doubt the RA who did the transcribing was wondering why so many people in the banking industry were worried about glass eagles, and how glass eagles prevented bankers from doing certain things, and forced them to do other things that they didn't want to do.  He/she probably wondered what a glass eagle looked like.

.     Well, what I knew when I was reading these transcripts that the RA did not know when he/she was typing them is that there was a landmark piece of legislation that, for decades, had governed what banks could and could not do.  And it, like many laws, was commonly referred to by the last names of the act's main authors:  Senator Carter Glass of Virginia, and Congressman Henry Steagall of Alabama:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass-Steagall_Act

.     (This story probably illustrates why not many professors ever make it as stand-up comedians.)

I found this bit of J. McLain prose:

"We've seen the list of proposed tenants," Saeki said. "It's a very chic development that fits very well with the character of the community."

While officials would not disclose what retailers have shown interest, they assured that many are national chains.

The developer, Los Angeles-based Grae Ventures, has completed more than 50 commercial development projects throughout California and over 10 projects in Texas with an aggregate value more than $400million since 1997.

Tenants of past projects include Radio Shack, Starbucks, Panda Express, GameStop, Walgreen's, KFC, Target and Subway.

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Ha ha, what a smartass. Yeah, I know, all the pr---- in 'Dena like to look at Rosemead and chuckle, and it's McLain's job to give them their daily dose of media to titter at over lattes.

Maybe it's a stretch to say Grae's projects are "chic", but it's a cheap shot to pick the most "discount" businesses to list. Grae's also brought in Trader Joe's and Expo, as well as Super Laundry. They get a range that matches the area.

Gadfly: a person who persistently annoys or provokes others with criticism, schemes, ideas, demands, requests, etc. (dictionary.com)

I include the definition because of this post, in which Jim Flournoy is tabbed with the "gadfly" label. Not to say I agree with his statement, but, really, when you look at Jim and you look at Gary Taylor, the only difference is that Jim’s paying his own way, while Taylor gets the city, Wal-Mart, or Mike Lewis to pay for his criticisms, schemes, ideas, demands, requests, etc.  IMHO, of course.