Opting In, Opting Out

My head is just about spinning on my shoulders! I’ve shared with you that summertime is typically a slow time at CV Weekly. But even though fall is still a month off, the pace has definitely quickened here.

I shared with you that the ballots for CV Weekly’s Finest have been tallied and now we’re in the process of telling – and congratulating – our winners. Yesterday morning – the first day of school – was also the monthly meeting of the CV Chamber of Commerce. My distinct pleasure yesterday morning was congratulating those on the chamber board who were voted The Finest. These were Dr. Cynthia Livingston, former principal at Rosemont Middle School, who was voted Finest Administrator in Education, Steve Pierce, voted Finest Community Volunteer and Leonard Ghazarian, owner and operator of Caspian Services, whose company was voted Finest Web Design and he was voted Finest IT/Web Specialist.

If you think that such distinction was easily acquired, think again; over 9,000 votes were tallied and winners came from near and far. For example, on Friday, I traveled to Sierra Madre to congratulate Dr. Priya Harder who was chosen as the Finest Pediatrician.

In September we’ll be printing the list of all the winners in the paper and distributing our annual Finest Magazine, which will also have a complete list of winners in addition to those who advertised their achievement. It’s a beautiful magazine that folks keep on hand for a year as a quick reference guide when they want to know where to find the Finest restaurants, services and people.

Of course, yesterday was also the first day of school for Glendale Unified School District students. If you were out on the road, you undoubtedly knew this. While on Tuesday, local streets were easily navigated, on Wednesday morning most traffic ground to a near-halt as parents drove their kids to school. And afternoon traffic also slowed. Oh, well – as my mother would say: “Patience is a virtue.” I guess now is the time to be virtuous.

And consider yourself warned: CHP officers, sheriff’s deputies and Glendale Police Dept. officers will be out in force near our schools, keeping an eye on drivers and pedestrians to make sure everyone is kept safe. Mary O’Keefe will be tagging along next week for a ride-along with CHP officers to see from their point of view how our drivers are doing.

Though you might want to “opt out” of driving on our crowded streets, I can advise you as to a choice as to which you definitely want to “opt in.”

On Tuesday night, Charly Shelton and I made our way to Bourbon Steak in Glendale, one of my all-time favorite places (especially for its “hip and happy hour”), for the restaurant’s launch of its fall menu. Specialty cocktails, wine and dishes were presented to the media representatives invited for this special evening. In addition to the delicious food and drink, I had a chance to meet the publisher of Pasadena NOW, described as an online daily newsmagazine and city guide to Pasadena. Publisher James Macpherson and I had a chance to swap stories and share our passion for the news gathering business. (To learn about the food and drink served at Bourbon Steak and what to look forward to on the fall menu, read next week’s Travel & Leisure section where Charly will share his impressions of the fare.)

Finally, I learned of an opt out that you too may find beneficial.

While I understand how information hungry the public is, I, for one, am tired of the pop-up ads online and the junk mail that still arrives in my mailbox. Did you know that you can opt out of much of this junk mail much in the same way you can opt out of receiving junk email? For example, I don’t care for the Redplum ads that come out every week in the mail. But if you go online to redplum.com there’s a form to fill out that will stop the flyer from coming to you. You can still go online to see their ads but the flyer won’t fill your mailbox. I filled out the form this week; I’ll let you know within six weeks if, as promised, the flyers stop coming.

  robin goldsworthy