Mugging for the Sun Post

"Face time" is a good thing.

I guess that's what I've been doing at Manteca City Council meetings since last March - getting them used to my extraordinarily handsome visage. Really, the purpose was so the recipients of my many letters and emails would know who the sender was. Of course, the delivery of the 82-page illustrated "Valentines" helped somewhat.

Just enough visibility so the Sun Post newspaper took notice of these City Hall shenanigans and sent a reporter, Cheryl Winkelman, and photographer, Ike Dodson, to my home for an interview and mug shots. (I should have paid more attention to how high up the yard light pole Ike climbed for the panoramic aerial shots.) A brief story is likely to appear in this Friday's edition (2/27/09) about my year-long campaign to obtain REAL information on TLC Catering and the FALSE foundation of it's presence on the neighboring property. Even a small, pictureless article would go a looong way toward lending me some credibility.

Also of great benefit would be a reporting of Lynda Allen's intimidation tactics in refusing to cooperate with Cheryl on the story. Yesterday - with a "heads up" warning from me - Cheryl and Ike suffered the same fate as Ben Marrone, also of the Sun Post, last July 2008. Little Ms. Allen verbally attacked them with threats of police calls and the coarsest swearing. (I really, really, really wanted to call her bluff and dial the police number for her to make the call.) Her small, yappy dog, Rufus, was at her feet, no doubt being trained by soaking up the actions and personality of his owner.

The ferocity of her verbal assault has twice driven the press off her driveway in under a minute. It was the identical one-way "communication style" this not-so-nice neighbor used on me two times before. In February 2008 it was just the two of us; the set-to in March 2008 took place in front of a Manteca police officer. Four times in one year Ms. Allen has been given the opportunity to make a good impression on people who knew nothing about her business. So much for telling her side of this unbelievable story. And forget any "face time" for her... I'm sure Ike would not want to break his camera for that mug shot.

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