Short Takes Short Takes (March 02, 2005)

Toot-toot-tootsie, goodbye?

Just how much time has Atherton Councilman Jim Janz been devoting to train-related issues? According to Bill Conwell, Atherton's mayor, "His wife Kathy told me if they ever get a divorce, it will be because of all the train meetings."
Does Steve Jobs know about this?

Hundreds of electronic books in audio and text formats are now available for downloading through the Peninsula Library System, free with a library card. Popular fiction, self-help and other titles can now be read on your phone or Pocket PC or listened to on an MP3 player, as long as it's not the hugely popular Apple iPod.

Apparently, the e-book collection is built on the Microsoft Windows Media Player framework and is incompatible with iPods.

The online collection is available through the San Mateo County Library's Web site, smcl.org.
Where there's smoke ...

In an unusual criminal act, someone apparently entered an unlocked vehicle on Stanford Avenue in West Menlo Park, smoked several cigarettes while rifling through the glove box and then decamped. The next morning, the car's non-smoking owner discovered the distinctive odor permeating in the upholstery and found several cigarette butts in the ashtray.
And the curmudgeon award goes to ...

... the Menlo Park resident who heard about a proposal to ban ice cream trucks near Hillview Middle School and retorted, "I think they ought to extend the ban to include the entire city of Menlo Park."
Quote of the week

"Wild parrots on Telegraph Hill? Whatever happened to the brothel?" -- A livid woman shouting outside the Guild Theatre in Menlo Park on February 19. Apparently, she wanted to see "Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids," and not the currently playing "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill."

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