Short Takes (December 08, 2004)

Chilly chambers

Even after enduring the rhetoric of campaign season, more heated debate might have been nice at the Menlo Park City Council meeting on November 30.

A busted boiler left the chambers positively arctic and its inhabitants shivering. One city official kept on a woolen coat throughout the meeting, and a hapless reporter tried to scribble notes while wearing gloves.

City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden (who confessed, "I could not feel my feet") said repairmen had been called. Quickly.
Putting leg-stubble into perspective

The outbreak of nasty infected sores among women patronizing some Santa Clara County nail salons has led health officials to advise women against shaving their legs before going to get a pedicure. Because tiny cuts caused by shaving can lead to infections from bacteria lurking in whirlpool foot baths, it's safest to stay hairy 'til after your toes are polished. The aesthetic woes of unshaven legs pale in comparison with the unsightliness of boils and open lesions on one's feet and legs.
Everybody loves Filoli

According to the travel page of Gay.com, a Web site whose target audience and theme is self-explanatory, Woodside is home to "one of the true must-see attractions on the Peninsula."

Is it the cowboys at the Pioneer, the kitsch at Buck's restaurant, the men in uniform of the Mounted Patrol?

Nope, it's Filoli that merits a mention as one of the few Peninsula places to visit highlighted in the article on San Jose and Silicon Valley. The story calls it a "magnificent estate, a 1916 Georgian-style mansion on 16 acres of gardens," but maddeningly, fails to mention why it's being singled out for Gay.com readers. The only indication in the story is a note that the mansion's exteriors doubled as the Carrington estate on the campy 1980s primetime soap Dynasty.

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