SHORT (LEGAL) NOTICE… Squid’s still pissed Nicole Scherzinger won Dancing With the Stars last year. It was a stacked competition. How could mom-of-eight Kate Gosselin or smarmy Bachelor Jake Pavelka hope to compete with a Pussycat Doll?


So Squid can’t help but narrow Squid’s beady eyes at Marina Coast Water District’s latest casting call for legal services. 


Monterey County Bar Association boss Elaine Richelieu sent the district’s request for proposals to local lawyers on May 2 at 3:20pm. And when were the proposals due? May 2, 5pm – giving candidates less than two hours to apply for the gig. 


Marina Coast’s HR boss, Jean Premutati, says she actually sent the notice to the bar association April 20, but Richelieu says they didn’t get it until May 2. After hearing a chorus of WTFs, Marina Coast extended the deadline to May 20.


Incompetence, or a failed attempt to Pussycat the winning applicant? Squid can’t decide.


WASTE NOT, WANT NOT… Squid’s sincere fondness for the Monterey Bay as a thriving habitat, combined with Squid’s giddy excitement when it comes to old-fashioned business, makes Last Chance Mercantile this cephalopod’s favorite eco-conscious thrifting destination. So any blow to the Monterey Regional Waste Management District’s fine junk shop makes Squid a little nervous. When regular customer Ellen O’Shaughnessy of Marina was examining a table last year, the tabletop fell onto her big toe, which required at least one surgery so far to repair, according to her lawyer, Ralph Thompson. She’s asking for at least $25k to cover medical costs. That’s a lot of $1 dresses and $5 bathtubs, even for a store that brings in $700,000 annually. 


Squid likes navigating the precarious chaos of stacked junk at Last Chance, and hopes this doesn’t bode for a guard-railed future, though district General Manager William Merry assures Squid insurance will cover the costs of the lawsuit. The fate of the table remains unknown.


SQUIDA CULPA… Squid hates it when Monterey County Herald publisher Gary Omernick gets all pouty. The wounded look in his eyes, the quivering lip – all because Squid was off by two pages in describing the Herald’s glossy triumph of an advertorial section, err, magazine, celebrating Pebble Beach Food & Wine. It appears a minion even commented on the matter; “Ifrysquid” (using an AT&T email address under the name of Herald Advertising Director Robert Powell), chimed in “learn to count!” In the interest of clarity, the fabulous advertorial, err, magazine, was actually 260 pages – and not 258 pages – including the front and back cover.