FACTORY MADE… Maybe Squid has given too much ink to Morgan Christopher over the years. Squid has covered the coffeehouse owner’s code violation feud with former Monterey city attorney Bill Conners and last spring’s FOOF fundraiser to keep the Ol’ Factory Café open. Squid was in the know when Christopher was evicted from Café Noir and now watches as the two-sided character heads down the same path at Ol’ Factory. In an e-mail to the Weekly, Christopher says his landlord Robbie Robinson has three-day-noticed him to vacate. “At issue is a $14,364.66 balance from two years ago that we sought and found help to pay off,” he writes.“I have several written notices to him indicating that we were ‘ready to pay it off immediately,’ though he is denying it. He effectively refused the payment by making unreasonable demands from those interested third parties and is now acting as though he has run out of patience waiting for repayment.” Like many of Morgan’s dispatches, the e-mail raises plenty of questions. (Robinson did not respond to requests for comment by the Weekly’s deadline.) So if the Ol’ Factory was “ready to pay” the debt, why hasn’t the balance been paid? Squid’s never known a landlord to refuse money. Christopher claims Robinson has discouraged restauranteurs from moving in. If Robinson has played the eviction card, Squid can’t blame him for wanting a new tenant. As detailed in last week’s cover story, Christopher is buried in unpaid bills, from taxes to electricians. At the same time, Squid realizes that Christopher has invested a lot to make the Ol’ Factory a Sand City hub. Squid hopes the green café can reopen with better management. Then Squid can take a breather from Christopher’s draining (albeit entertaining) drama.

SPOOKY DOINGS… Awhile back, Squid noted with interest the controversy over local spymaster Leon Panetta. It seems Leon was unhappy over Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to investigate alleged CIA wrongdoing. Panetta was allegedly so unhappy about the probe that he even used bad language. Leon denied it, and Squid always believes Leon, especially when he’s running an agency that can ruin a cephalopod’s life. Now it’s being widely reported that Panetta has won his latest bureaucratic battle, this time against National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair, who wanted to move in on Leon’s turf by picking his own overseas officers. Denied! Score one for the home team. It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy – Blair’s checkered past allegedly includes condoning massacres by the Indonesian military in East Timor against direct orders from the Clinton administration. By comparison, homeboy Leon is a regular Noam Chomsky.