Several months ago, I suggested that the city of Atascadero was much like a person with braces. We don’t look that good at the moment, but once the braces are removed, we’ll look stunning.

I think that humans are probably the messiest in all the animal kingdom. Judging from the debris you see littering our highways, a growing number of people seem to think it is OK to simply throw their trash out the window.

Like everyone else, I’m down to the wire on my Christmas shopping.

I love watching Atascadero’s numerous lakes fill with water.

I never cease to be amused by the luminaries who have had some connection with Atascadero, from baseball great Jackie Robinson, who coached young boys here in 1941, to cowboy star Roy Rogers and his wife, Dale Evans, who stopped by to visit a cousin, or when Jack Dempsey and his wife stayed a night in the Atascadero Inn in the 1930s.

One of my credit card companies notified me by mail that I could get a lower rate on my card if I would use it more.

This week Atascadero residents celebrate the 96th anniversary of the founding of their city by Edward Gardner Lewis.

Hackers crippled the city’s Web site Monday in what officials there called a destructive online attack. Traffic on www .atascadero.org halted about 3:30 p.m. after a gamers’ organization believed to have originated in Poland changed the design and logos on the site.

During World War II an unknown person hung a sign on the marble statue that graced the median between the city hall and high school hill that read: "Three wives fighting over an apartment."

Kermit King Elementary School closed its gates Thursday after a bobcat was spotted on a neighboring hillside. A nearby homeowner called the school and the Department of Fish and Game after spotting the cat early Thursday morning, about 50 meters from the school. Wildlife is uncommon in the area, said school clerk Debbie Perry.