If increased use of soap, toothpaste and deodorant was your New Year’s Resolution, you might be from Berkeley, California…

We’re used to people being at the ridiculous end of Politically Correct when we hear “California.” But in Utah last week, the Canyons School District decided to overturn a vote for the new Draper High School’s mascot because the word “may be offensive to some women.” Other news reports are more specific, saying the word “might be seen as offensive to middle-aged women.”

Yes, Cougars.

If subsequent reports are correct, Draper, Utah must be full of sexually aggressive, middle-aged women seeking relationships with men up to the age of 24.

Amusingly, Brigham Young University’s mascot is the Cougar. When considering the Mormonism & Polygamy bit, I suppose the BYU Sugar Daddies might’ve been more appropriate.

Sources: Salt Lake City’s Fox 13, Yahoo! Sports

     Southern California never gets much in the way of rain.  At least, not in the way that the rest of the country gets it.  For the most part, “rain” to SoCal is pretty much considered “heavy fog,” or “drizzle” in an extreme case.  But over the last few days, they’ve experienced a normal, every-day, East Coast sort of rain which has caused numerous traffic accidents, evacuation planning and mass hysteria.

     I remember a particular rain back in the early 90’s which would have been considered a “light shower” to Knoxville.  However, the occurrence in SoCal was so foreign that it prompted numerous news reports.
     A local radio show — the station and location escapes me at the present — did a spoof news report about the incident.
     “Sir, can you tell me what happened here?” asked the fake reported.
     “Yeah, man, like… There was all this water in the air?”
     “Yes?”
     “Then it landed…”

     The specific storm included up to an inch of accumulation, thunder, lightning, and winds in excess of five miles per hour.  A woman on Rodeo Drive experienced water so deep that it reached nearly half way up her stiletto heel.  The State of California was immediately contacted to compensate her for the trauma.

     But the devastation of nearly twenty years ago was not restricted simply to California.  Thousand of activists flooded then-President George H.W. Bush’s office with demands that he take control of the disaster, which left Southern California’s homeless population demoralized and wet.
     Much like Hurricane Katrina, which left nearly one million homeless without homes, nearby Nevada was subsequently inundated with an influx of storm survivors trying to find their beloved boxes.

     I only hope that the events of past are not repeated during this crippling catastrophe, and that FEMA will respond accordingly in their attempts to offer shelter to the millions affected by this light rain.