Wasted one perfectly good your mom joke and for what?

And here I spent all that time thinking of a really witty, biting, original joke about the coach confusing the hippo with his mother. A wasted your mom/ mother in law joke! Why, why Steve Crosby (Chargers special teams coach)?!



It turns out that the old "there's a Hippo in my pool because of the raging wild fires taking over San Diego, isn't that HILARIOUS" story is a FAKE! From the North County Times:


Crosby, a world-class prankster, couldn't resist his comedic moment. And before long, his tale was on the road to becoming an urban legend."I was just trying to loosen everyone up,'' Crosby said Friday. "It was during the fires, and everyone was worried about their houses and everything.''Crosby and his wife, Lisa, live near the Wild Animal Park. Close enough, one can surmise, for their backyard to offer an oasis if any wildlife escaped.So with his special-teams players listening, Crosby told of the hippo that slipped out of the Wild Animal Park through a charred wall, smashed through Crosby's backyard and took residence in his pool.



But with a little digging (or say, "reporting" as those OLD school people do) one could find out that: "We don't have hippopotamus at the Wild Animal Park,'' park spokesperson Yadira Galindo said. "That is the key."


HA, fact checking, calling for a comment, checking on the story before running with it, OLD SCHOOL.

Uh Oh SDGE part Deux

Previously on Uh Oh SDG&E: The California State Fire Agency blamed sparking power lines for the start of some wildfires in San Diego. Lawsuits were explored. Reader Owen B wrote an interesting comment in response to the news. We waited...

And now the North County Times explores the (possible) fallout from the revelations. Who is to blame?

As tempting as it is to assign blame, a spark is just one factor in any fire. Without hurricane-strength Santa Ana winds, the fire would never have spread at the speed it did. Combined with drought conditions and high temperatures, a brush fire that would normally only burn a few acres became a wildfire that burned a whole county. Those factors are beyond the control of SDG&E.That's not to say there aren't things that SDG&E should do to improve its fire prevention efforts. Although an expensive option, putting power lines underground may make sense in some areas. The utility could also start switching out old wood utility poles with steel ones. This is already being done as the utility replaces poles destroyed by the most recent fires.SDG&E should also start sharing an extensive database it uses to keep tabs on 386,000 trees (adjacent to its 18,000 miles of powerlines) with CalFire and other authorities. This was something recommended six years ago, but CalFire claims it doesn't have access to that information.

Or we can just listen to My San Diego reader OwenB: When wind velocity reaches a certain degree where power lines become endangered from falling trees the power company has the ability to turn off the power to specifically targeted areas by simply turning a switch in their control center. The same switch cam turn the power back on. Prior to restoring power the company has the ability to test the line for falling trees easily and quickly from the same switching stations.

Preach it, teach it...