Tlk 2 me, in 160 characters or less please

OMG, teens like 2 TXT a lot. More than half of all teens text on a daily basis, according to a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The average teen sends and/or receives 50 texts per day and more than a third of them top triple digits each day, according to a story in The San Francisco Chronicle. My 15-year-old son helps skew the numbers upward, sending and receiving thousands of texts each month. As of this evening, he has sent or received 7,601 messages since last month's bill. When I heard that number I wanted to LOL. It hasn't been a month since that last bill, so he's averaging at least 253 texts per day. Assuming he is awake 15 hours per day, that's an average of 16 per hour or .28 per minute. I hardly have .28 thoughts per minute throughout the day, much less .28 things I want to text to or receive from someone. But that's the dominant form of communication for today's teens. If I want to reach my children to tell them or ask them or remind them of something, more often than not I'll send them a text. My wife and I communicate by text if we're otherwise occupied. Even my parents, who are retired, are texting machines. It's new the way to send birthday wishes and grocery lists. It's a great way to tell my baseball team about rainouts. Forget sending out invitations to a party. I'll send a text. If a person is not a close enough acquaintance to be listed on my cell phone, they probably won't be on my invite list. 2 bad 4 them, I guess.

How about we try to party together?

Thursday was national Tea Party day in the United States, as angry and disaffected (mostly Republican) citizens chose tax deadline day to complain about being over-taxed and under-happy about our perceived slide into socialism. I'm all for peaceful public protest, as it is one of our greatest rights in this country. I was pretty upset myself this week as I had to cut a check to the IRS and the franchise tax board on top of the check for my tax preparer's work. It had been years since my wife and I didn't get a refund, and we didn't like it. I'm not happy with the economy or the uber-partisan nature of Washington, D.C. politics. People are labeled as either a big-government liberal or an anti-Obama conservative -- pick a side, pick a corner. I'm not scared of my government. I'm not happy with it, but I want it to work. Protesters who want to "throw them all out" aren't coming up with alternative plans or inspirational leaders. They are playing on people's fears and forgetting that just two years ago our economy was on the verge of collapse after years of stagnation. Are things better now? It sure doesn't feel like it, but hoping for the failure of the current president is only hoping for the failure of our country. Tea Partiers are well within their rights to be mad with the government and protest against it. It's great that they are working to engage a disaffected citizenry. I only hope that they work for positive change with positive ideas and positive leaders. The Tea Party movement is an only-in-America effort that can lead to needed change if handled responsibly. A little tea is a welcome change of pace. Too much and we're drowning in partisanship. That's not the type of change we need.

Liz and Larry, sitting in a tree

I certainly am no marriage expert, but I know it can be complicated and wonderful at the same time. That complexity makes me wonder how anyone can do it multiple times. Like Larry King and Elizabeth Taylor-type multiple times. In the least surprising marriage news of the year, Larry King filed for divorce today from his seventh wife. I don't own seven pairs of jeans, much less have seven ex-wives. Taylor this week denied rumors that she was heading toward her ninth marriage -- at age 78. Or, as I like to look at it, she's still on the market, just like Jennifer Aniston, only four decades older. My parents will celebrate their 42nd wedding anniversary next month. My 17th anniversary is less than two months away. That's enough complexity for me. One suggestion for the 70-something celebrity marriage addicts: Larry and Liz, I know a single, 70-something person who'd be perfect for you. They probably won't ask for a pre-nup and they wouldn't be marrying you for fame, because they've already got it. I've heard the 16th time is the charm.

Pee fees take flight

Howard Stern had it right the other day: He said that airlines are adding on so many fees that the next step will likely be to charge passengers extra if they want a trained pilot on their flight. I don't fly that often -- maybe once every two years -- so these fees don't have a huge impact on me. But if some of these ideas catch on, I may stick to ground transportation. Ryanair, a European budget airline, made headlines recently when it announced that it plans to charge passengers for using the bathroom on flights. So within two years, flyers will have to pay about $1.50 to enter the latrine in-flight. Or, they can plan ahead and where adult diapers and save the hassle. Would I pay to use the toilet? If you gotta go, you gotta go; so yes. But I would not want to sit near the front or the back of the plane, near the bathroom, for fear I would be hassled for spare change by a lady crossing her legs to avoid having an accident.

Bedell story brings the media

The town has been buzzing with media from around the region, the state and the nation since last night's news broke that the man who shot security personnel at the Pentagon was from Hollister. From KCBA television crews camped outside the gate at Ridgemark, the country club where John Patrick Bedell apparently lived, to the massive CNN satellite truck parked on Fourth Street near the county courthouse, our quiet town hasn't seen such media activity in some time. KGO of San Francisco called the Free Lance newsroom requesting an interview with the editor, KRON-4 from The City sent a truck down here, trying to find a place to park near the local media outlets. Sheriff Curtis Hill gave two press conferences: one at 12:30 and another at 3 to accommodate the East Coast media's 6 p.m. newscast needs. In the combined Free Lance/Pinnacle newsroom, the story had the staff scrambling since last night. From calls to sources to a visit by Bedell's brother, who dropped off a family statement, to research on the Internet, it was the kind of breaking news that just doesn't happen around here very much. Hollister typically is in the news for one of three things: earthquakes, bikers or some sort of tragedy, which, thankfully doesn't happen too often. The national media will move from the story over the next 24 hours, as that's how the news cycle runs. Locally, Hollister's newspapers will continue to follow the story as they prepare next week's editions, looking to dig a little deeper into the life and motivations of a troubled man that by all accounts came from a loving family.

Family time ... shocking

This just in: Within 10 minutes, my entire four-person family will be together under the same roof, eating dinner together and then sitting in front of the fireplace on a chilly, rainy night. Not front-page news stuff, but news nonetheless. With a freshman playing high school baseball (read: practices or games every day but Sunday, even when it's raining) and an eighth-grader winding up his school and travel basketball seasons and beginning his spring league baseball season and with Dad coaching all of the eighth-grader's teams, nights like these are rare and therefore special. My boys don't know what to do with themselves when they aren't busy, though nights like these are cherished in our family. Spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner; all four of us settling on the couch in front of the fire for some American Idol; it's the modern version of Leave it to Beaver. Enough writing, it's family time.

'Staches for STAR

My column in this week's edition of The Pinnacle discusses a novel approach a San Benito High School English teacher came up with to raise awareness about the need for students to well on the standardized STAR test; by having teachers sport moustaches. The "Staches for STAR" campaign, the brainchild of Mario Ferrito, calls on all male faculty -- at least those who are able to -- to grow a moustache ahead of the STAR test in April. The thinking is that students will start wondering why teachers suddenly have moustaches and that will lead to discussions about the value of the STAR exam, which not only measures students learning but is one of the criteria the state uses to determine if a school is successful or not. Click here for a link to Ferrito's 'Staches for STAR homepage, which also has links to Facebook and Photo Bucket sites where the teacher moustaches can be viewed in all their glory. And, yes, female teachers are encouraged to participate. They don't have to stop waxing, though. Ferrito has a sign with a built-in moustache with which female teachers can pose for a photo. (drawing courtesy of A_of_Doom's Photostream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/a_of_doom/2923734341/)