How Davey saved California

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 06/20/2002 | Debra Saunders

[Pokey78]

ONCE THERE WAS a little offshore oil platform named Davey the Derrick.

Davey was shiny and new and proud.

Oil company executives loved Davey because he extracted barrels of oil every day off the California coast.

Little children waved at Davey as their parents drove on the Pacific Coast Highway. They listened raptly as their fathers explained that without Davey the family station wagon couldn't run.

[daviddennis]

I gotta admit, I like this one.

When I lived in Santa Barbara, I used to love the twinkling lights on the oil derricks off the coast. They gave context to the stunning view I had from my little second floor apartment.

There hasn't been a major oil spill since that Santa Barbara event, has there? And that was in the 60s or 70s if my memory serves.

I wonder what Bill Simon thinks of this in view of his current drilling stance; more oil drilling might be better than the gut-wrenching tax increase it would otherwise take to balance the budget.

Ironically enough, people would just call him a "slave to big oil" if he let Davey have kids. But Gray Davis would be praised for his statesmanlike compromise if he did the same.

Life ain't fair, eh?

D

[toupsie]

Man, I didn't know that people in San Francisco were so dumb that the local newspaper has to use 1st grade reading comprehension levels to communicate to them. Wow!

[mvpel]

Never been to San Francisco, I take it?

[Myrddin]

Man, I didn't know that people in San Francisco were so dumb that the local newspaper has to use 1st grade reading comprehension levels to communicate to them.

You are too generous. There are California high school "graduates" in California that can't read or comprehend that cute little story. Had it been published in Los Angeles or further south, the failure to have a companion Spanish version might have exacerbated the failure to communicate.

[socal_parrot]

I take it they don't use sarcasm where you live?

[monkeyshine]

The personification worked on me. I felt bad for poor abused Davey.