SQUIDFRY 07.08.21: Number Two

NUMBER TWO… For Fourth of July, Squid considered loading Squid’s bulldog, Rosco P. Coltrane, into the old jalopy for a ride down the coast. But traffic on Highway 1 was so slow that Squid and Rosco went home to eat ice cream and scroll through Instagram to look at other people’s road trips instead.

Turns out, according to Pentagon Motor Group’s analysis of 7 million hashtags (seriously, who has the time for this?), Big Sur “has been named one of the world’s most beautiful road trips.” Not just because it’s pretty (duh) but because they have data – those hashtags! – to prove it. It’s the second-most-photographed road per mile, after only Great Ocean Road in Australia. With 5,226 pics per mile, it’s a spot that “travelers can tick off their bucket lists without leaving their car,” per Pentagon’s announcement.

So let’s get this straight: Put a highly trafficked road on a list of the most trafficked roads, encouraging more people to bring more cars to it and not even get out of their cars?

No doubt some people in the tourism industry like the idea of rating No. 2 on any global tourism list, and would rather be No. 1. Squid hasn’t seen any promotional material yet from the Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau on the pics-per-mile front, but Squid did see on their website a helpful guide to July Fourth festivities. There, in the “Important Notices” section, were rules about fireworks (only safe-and-sane, only from 10am-10pm), a phone number to call to report illegal fireworks to MPPD… wait, what? That’s Monterey Park Police Department, as in Monterey Park, the Southern California city more than 300 miles away. At least that’s a little closer than Jebel Hafeet in the UAE (4,840 pics per mile, #3).

PREACH IT… Squid long ago perfected the art of multitasking, thanks to all those tentacles. Writing while noshing popcorn while tweeting? Easy. County Supervisor Luis Alejo similarly seems to have taken to Twitter as an all-the-time communication tool, with his stream of #BreakingNews updates and constant tweeting during Board of Supervisors meetings (making Squid wonder, is he paying attention?).

Squid was surprised to see Alejo’s account go dark, given that he’s one of the few electeds who seems capable of using social media. Then came the supervisor’s triumphant return on June 29, after nine days with no tweets: “My account was compromised and Twitter is very slow to get an account restored!! [Angry faces] But I’m back at least!!!”

And indeed he is back, busily getting out updates with ALL CAPS, use of excessive exclamation points!!! and of course a video of himself, in this case congratulating Building Healthy Communities on its 10th anniversary, but maybe also because Alejo wanted to make sure he #Hasn’tBeenForgotten.