GENERATION NAP… While Squid enjoys a night on the town as much as any cephalopod, Squid doesn’t stay out as late as Squid used to. Squid is usually curled up on the couch by midnight with Squid’s beloved mess of an English bulldog, Rosco P. Coltrane.
So Squid’s a bit surprised by the recent controversy surrounding Monterey’s Bull and Bear Whiskey Bar and Taphouse, formerly known as The Mucky Duck, which is under scrutiny for the high number of police calls to the bar in 2014.
In December, the city Planning Commission voted to force the bar to close at 1am for three months, a decision appealed by owners Anthony and Alex Buich. As City Council considered the appeal Feb. 17, Monterey Police Lt. Marty Hart took to the microphone to answer questions.
Councilwoman Libby Downey was the first to seek clarification: “I’ve also been told that a lot of Salinas gang people come over here because they close the bars at 12 in Salinas, so that gives the gang people time to get over her and partake of this particular place,” she said. “I also heard that the music was pretty much geared toward gang music.”
What? Squid thought. Is the Bull and Bear blasting narcocorridos?
“I don’t know if I would agree to that,” Lt. Hart said. “It’s Top 40 music.”
FIFTY SHADES OF BEIGE… Just to be clear, Squid’s not trying to pick on Monterey, but it can be tough to resist at times, because Squid loves the city so. And when Squid saw the new public bathroom installed Feb. 20 in Monterey’s Simoneau Plaza, resistance became futile.
Squid was initially thrilled by the city’s plans when it announced last year the new bathroom would be a “Portland Loo,” an innovative stainless steel bathroom designed by the namesake city. Not only would the transit plaza finally get a much needed facility, it would be sleek, graffiti-proof and indestructible.
Then Squid saw the city’s announcement on its website, which touts that the normally slate-colored loo is the first in the state “to be specially color-coded to meet the request of the Architectural Review Committee.”
Yes, that extra-specially coded color is beige, baby, beige. Did Squid miss some kind of memo dictating that Monterey be awash in a sea of beige beigeness? Has anyone from the ARC seen the charmingly colorful villages of Cinque Terre, Italy? Or for that matter, even traveled to Mexico? Why has the city chosen to fixate on a color distinguished only by its lack of personality? Is “Monterey beige” a thing?
On a hunch, Squid Googled it: You can pick up a “Monterey beige” rug at Home Depot.