TALK ABOUT SACRIFICE… Forget abstaining from food for several days – or actually doing something practical to stop youth from picking up guns. This meal-loving cephalopod is giving up double cheeseburgers and chocolate milkshakes for a week. Squid knows it will be hard, but when an In-N-Out craving sets in, Squid will think of Squid’s inspiring elected officials.

Seaside Mayor Ralph Rubio, for instance, told a daily rag he was sacrificing large meals as part of Fast for Peace Week. The diabetic also gave up dessert. Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue forfeited eating lunch. Squid likes it how eating a little less – or, eating how doctors recommend – equals fasting.

The trend is catching on. Squid hears that Salinas police Cmdr. Kelly McMillin gave up donuts. Squid wonders why other gang-ridden cities didn’t jump at the fast offer when Donohue tried to take the initiative statewide? Perhaps they are busy with real solutions. When Donohue pitches the fast to officials in Guanajuato, Mexico, on Dec. 7 he can rest assured that Squid’s burger-and-shake-free meal plan is keeping Salinas safe.

HOLIDAY MINUS… The holiday season warms Squid’s three hearts: the spiked eggnog, the re-gifting, the P.C. wishings of a merry Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa/Eid al-Adha/Yule/Festivus. Squid’s beady eyes sparkle with hope and wonder when Squid imagines that jolly, fat, mythical Christmas hero: the holiday bonus. Or a raise.

Pacific Grove employees shouldn’t hold their breath on that last one. On Nov. 19, the P.G. City Council shot down a 2 percent pay raise for city employees, who haven’t gotten one in four years. Considering the recent sweets for cops (an 8 percent raise per year for three years) and firefighters (who locked in PERS benefits with the Monterey merger), on top of a citywide reorganization that shattered any illusions of job security, surviving P.G. employees might be feeling a little postal this holiday season. Hopefully new Interim City Manager Charlene Wiseman will cheer them up – though that might be hard, considering all the criticism she took under Jim Colangelo, the boss P.G.’s good old boys love to hate.

Meanwhile, the current council has prepared a gift for incoming councilmembers, who will be sworn in Dec. 3. Just imagine their shining faces when they crack open the Draft Council Code of Ethics and Protocols Manual! A few of the gems therein, word for word: “Ask questions if you don’t know what you’re voting on.” “Vote your conscience (be a hard-ass) even when over a hundred people are screaming at the council.”

Squid’s fav: “Don’t run for City Council (just kidding!).” Spike that eggnog a little stronger, please.