SUGAR AND SPICE… Mere mortals are no match for Squid when it comes to a mudslinging contest, what with eight tentacles and all, but that didn’t stop Marina Coast Water District board member Ken Nishi from letting loose on one of Squid’s colleagues at a board meeting last week. After stating that he adheres to an “I don’t talk to the Weekly” policy, Nishi appeared dismayed that a bona fide, notebook-toting reporter dared to note said policy. When he saw pen on paper, Nishi earned a gold star from the good ol’ boys club by asking, “What are you doing, little girl?” Hmm… a reporter taking notes… must be part of a scheme to ruin the desal project with frogs and snails and puppy dog tails. 


It would’ve been opportune timing for board chairman Bill Lee to intervene by striking his gavel – which he did, twice, during public comment. At least he and Nishi had the courtesy to say that they’re through talking to the press about the Holy Grail – the $400 million desal project they so desperately want. General Manager Jim Heitzman, who turned his back and walked away from Squid’s colleague, appears to be lacking in such courtesies; either that, or he’s got a fifth-grade crush, the kind where ignoring little girls helps win attention. 


Too bad they didn’t get the memo that women work (and vote! and pay utilities!); they could’ve told their version of the Marina Coast soap opera. 


SEEDY BUSINESS… A few weeks ago, Squid riffed on Salinas Councilman Steve McShane for hosting a Tea Party rally at his nursery – and ruffled a few feathers in the process. But McShane took it like a champ. “That’s life in politics, and doggone it, my place of business is a community business,” he says.


He wants Squid to know he’s not a Teabagger; he just parties with them. He let the Tea Party sanction his support-our-troops rally after the Operation Yellow Ribbon people went MIA, he explains.


Local Tea Party Secretary John Hanson backs that up. “We wouldn’t have him,” he tells Squid in a delightfully thick brogue. “All the women would be frightened to death of him. He doesn’t have anything to do with us. Not on your nelly.”


The event turned up plenty of goodies for the troops, McShane adds, including seeds for horticultural therapy in the Afghani soil. “The statistics on what gardening can do for people that go through things like post-traumatic stress syndrome is amazing,” he says. “I think Britney Spears credits her success to getting back to gardening. It’s like men and hunting: people getting back to their roots.”


Squid’s still scratching Squid’s slimy head over the analogies, and why McShane would link the worthy cause with such a goofy group. But doggone it, that’s life in politics.