-
Nov 1, 2024 | 
lagunabeachindy.com | Michael Ray
We'd abandoned a dreadful cruise and found ourselves marooned on Mykonos, only slightly less dreadful than the cruise, where my long-term girlfriend Kim Bowen and I invited Stephen Jones and his husband Craig to come hang with us. We’d vacationed together many times, and I’ve always enjoyed Stephen’s dry, English, low-key and occasionally bitchy sense of humor. I knew Stephen made hats, and on each trip, he miraculously produced pristine titfers for us.
-
Sep 27, 2024 | 
lagunabeachindy.com | Michael Ray
I first met my political mentor, Dick O’Neill, in 1970 when I worked as the Student Coordinator for the John Tunney (d. Ca.) US Senatorial campaign. Our offices were on mid-Wilshire in an old furniture showroom and consisted of the upper Mezz where the Big Wigs worked, and the ground floor where the drones like me worked.
-
Mar 8, 2024 | 
lagunabeachindy.com | Michael Ray
In the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden won 80 million popular votes to Trump’s 74 million. In the Electoral College, Biden won 306 votes to Trump’s 232. In short, Biden won the presidency and Trump lost. However, Trump continually has lied otherwise, and so often, that approximately 30% of all Americans and 70% of Republicans believe it. Pretty astounding numbers, and it shows that if one repeats a Big Lie often enough, many people will believe you.
-
Jan 19, 2024 | 
lagunabeachindy.com | Michael Ray
Just to torture myself, I sometimes tune into City Council meeting videos. Friends recommended that I tune into the meeting on November 21, 2023, and begin watching at the 2.25-hour mark. Reason: the sheer hypocrisy demonstrated by Village Laguna (VL) at the meeting over the methodology of selecting Mayor and Mayor Pro Temp positions. Currently, each is elected by the Council and serves for two years. If the Council wishes to vote the same two back into those positions the next time, it can.
-
Dec 8, 2023 | 
lagunabeachindy.com | Michael Ray
Lysanne Ray Sebastian, my niece, was a waterwoman and a stud. She swam before she walked, was a star on the Corona del Mar High School swim team, and then was a varsity member of the USD’s rowing team. But it was after graduation that she found her true love, outrigger paddling at the Newport Aquatic Center (NAC). We’re talking about outriggers like the kind the Polynesians used for thousands of years; they have long, thin hulls for speed and a side pontoon for stability.
-
Nov 17, 2023 | 
lagunabeachindy.com | Michael Ray
As I was walking into Vons’s supermarket in north Laguna, a woman named Christine Kelton stopped me and asked my name. When I told her, she asked if I wrote columns for this newspaper. I said yes, and she told me she loved my writing and wished those obnoxious people who keep writing paranoid-dribble criticisms would stop. Of course, I was flattered (writers can never be flattered enough), and since I was searching for an idea for a new column, I asked her if she had one. She immediately said yes.
-
Oct 6, 2023 | 
lagunabeachindy.com | Michael Ray
In a move that can only be described as a stroke of comedic genius, the city of Laguna Beach decided to tackle the issue of overcrowded tourist parking head-on. With a mischievous twinkle in their eyes, the city council replaced the parking lot at the Village Entrance with a new one that had a staggering 100 fewer parking stalls. This was a few years ago when Village Laguna aficionado and councilmember Toni Iseman ran the joint, and they played a great practical joke on all of us.
-
Sep 15, 2023 | 
lagunabeachindy.com | Michael Ray
Councilmember George Weiss just cost Laguna Beach $500,000, and Village Laguna is celebrating. Why? I posit that Village Laguna disliked our city manager, Shohreh Dupuis, because they opposed her policies and wanted her to quit or be fired, and councilmember Weiss was their hitman. To get there, he (they) created such a “hostile working environment” for Dupuis that it became intolerable, and she quit, but not before the city handed her that $500,000 not to sue.
-
Aug 11, 2023 | 
lagunabeachindy.com | Michael Ray
This column proposes a new Village Entrance opposite the Festival of the Arts site. This proposal may be controversial to some, but its benefits far outweigh any possible downside. First, build a 300-400 car parking structure with one end anchored by the Digester, which would become a stairwell. Set the structure against the side of the Digester hill, and mask its front and sides with extensive landscaping cascading down the sides of the structure.
-
Jul 28, 2023 | 
lagunabeachindy.com | Michael Ray
Saint MarinaDateline: Amaliapolis, Greece. Amaliapolis is a village within the Pagasetic Gulf on the east coast of Greece. The Gulf is giant, roughly round and some 26 miles across, the same distance as from Laguna to Catalina Island. In earlier days, the Gulf was a main point of commerce (fishing, olives), trade (from all over the Mediterranean) and military (defense, raiding). Athens is a four-hour drive and probably a day’s sail.
