Oscar, Oscar ---- but not for my father

By: CHRIS TRIBBEY - Staff Writer | Friday, February 23, 2007 10:56 PM PST ∞

Tomorrow will be a sad day for the Tribbey family, specifically my father.

Because of my employment with the North County Times, he and all of the Tribbey family are disqualified from entering the newspaper's Academy Awards pick 'em contest.

The news was devastating. Ralph considers it the biggest injustice since "Saving Private Ryan" lost out on the Best Picture award to "Shakespeare In Love." He's been entering the contest for more than a decade, back when the newspaper was the Times Advocate, and has always come up short. Being a former movie industry executive, you'd think he would have won before. And he would have had a great shot this year, what with no clear-cut front-runner to sweep all the top categories. The contest winner may only have to get a half-dozen correct.

But instead of competing against hundreds of other subscribers on Sunday, he'll only be competing against the rest of the family.

It's OK, pops. If I win the in-house employee contest, you can have my movie tickets.

Calling all carts: Check out Sunday's Escondido edition of the North County Times for an update on the city's law that threatens business owners with fines and jail time if their shopping carts are found off their property.

While the city reports the ordinance is showing positive effects, I can't help but feel this is the wrong way to go about it, in the exact opposite way the city's failed anti-illegal immigrant rental ordinance was the wrong way to go about it.

Before, the city should have been trying to go after those who hire illegal immigrants ---- a la Vista ---- instead of landlords. Now, they've taken a decidedly anti-business stance by going after store owners rather than the people stealing the shopping carts.

It's hard to argue against the ordinance if it works. But if I'm a small-business owner who's being fined and jailed for someone else's theft, relocating to San Marcos looks like an attractive option.

They'll all be laughing: Watch or read the news this last week, and you'd think only three things were relevant in the world: Britney in rehab, Anna Nicole's decomposing corpse, and the weather.

People may actually care about the third, but how much coverage is too much? I mean, turn on the local news and you'd think we were expecting the storm of the century. We weren't innocent either: Our banner front-page headline predicted a downpour Friday. Be glad you held off on building an ark for your family, as it was mostly sunny all day.

Right now, someone, somewhere in Lake Tahoe (2 feet of snow, more predicted today) is reading our paper online. And laughing at us.

Chris Tribbey is the city editor of the Escondido and Poway editions of the North County Times. He can reached at (760) 739-6673 or ctribbey@nctimes.com.