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In the Warm California Sun

Monday, September 15, 2003

• TITLE: "In the Warm California Sun" This is a sure winner as a bar bet. Name the group which had the 1977 hit song, "The California Sun" which had such excellent lyrics as:

  Well I'm going out west where I belong
  Where the days are short and the nights are long
  Where they walk; And I'll walk
  They fish; And I'll fish
  They sin; And I'll sin
  They fly; And I'll fly
  Where they're out there having fun
  In the warm California sun

  They just don't write them like that anymore.

  Oh, the answer? The Ramones. But you knew that.

  HOWEVER! If the bar bet is "Who had the orginal 1964 hit?" then then answer would be The Rivieras.

  Well, I�m goin� out west where I belong
  Where the days are short and the nights are long
  Where they walk and I�ll walk
  They twist and I�ll twist
  They shimmy and I�ll shimmy
  They fly and I�ll fly
  Well they�re out there a�havin� fun
  In that warm California sun.

  Thanks to the many who wrote in, thus saving me from getting a bar stool in the ear.

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• "� Parachuting In �" Here's a short list of things you do to try and get a sense of what's really going on at an event like the California State GOP convention:

  One of the dangers of parachuting into a place like Los Angeles, spending a few hours at a political meeting, then writing about it is: You might have talked to the wrong people and missed what is really going on.

  To prevent that from happening you do several things. First you talk to political types who have no horse in the race and whom you already know and trust and get their sense of what they think is going on.

  If they have a horse in the race, they might spin you but, if you've done this long enough, you can stare at them for five or seven seconds and they'll say something like, "Ok, ok. This didn't come from me, but �" and you begin to get some semblance of the truth.

  Third, you talk to media types and find out to whom they've talked and what they've learned (this is always a trade - you gotta give if you're gonna get).

  The next thing you do is to walk around the listen to people are saying to each other. You do this NOT because individual delegates will have any particular insights - they won't. You do this because they will pass along information to each other which they think is helpful to their candidate and/or harmful to the opposition candidate. So, you get a sense of which way the chatter is going.

  Fourth, you talk to representatives of the campaigns and listen to the tales they tell you.

  Fifth, you spend enough hours so that you can filter all the data through the years you have been doing this and you begin get a sense of what's going on.

• Mullfoto of the Day:
  
  
  I said to my new best friend Jim Belushi, "Jimmy, baby," I said, "You need to be painting on a bigger canvas," I said. "I know some guys who can move you up to the next level," I said. "Gimme a call. We'll take a meeting," I said.

  Here's what I really said: "One of the highest compliments one writer can pay another writer is to say 'I like your stuff.' I know nothing about the film industry so this might not be appropriate but, I like your stuff."
  
  
  

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  World War I Poster
  

•     Mullings' Catchy Caption of the Day:
  
  All right, this was a staged event on Saturday, but still �

  (REUTERS/Mike Blake)