Thanksgiving Weekend Open Thread

Blog readership patterns are something we watch with great interest here at Weber County Forum. Blog traffic tends to follow a predictable ebb and flow, with readership steadily increasing on Mondays through Thursdays, and then gradually tapering off on Fridays through Sundays. Absent important breaking news, long holidays such as the current Thanksgiving one, even more strongly exhibit the weekend tendency. This is due in part, we think, to the fact that local print news agencies, upon whom we often depend as providers of topic-springboards, tend to operate with limited holiday staffs, and thus reduce news coverage during these extended periods. Another factor, we think, is that a fair-sized segment of our readership inexplicably find other things to do on weekends and holidays besides blogging, a state of affairs we franky find difficult to comprehend and also deem borderline horrifying, here within the first decade of our brave new 21st-centuryt cyber-society.

Our web statistics also reveal however that we have a core segment of dedicated readers who continue to log in daily, regardless of the condition of the calendar. We've even heard from several of them via email. "Post something new," they beseech us. And it is for those dedicated and hard-core gentle readers that we now resist the impulse to take the rest of the weekend off, and have instead decided to establish now a new Thanksgiving weekend open thread.

We invite our readers once again to chime in on whatever topics suit their fancy, and consider this thread wide open. Your humble blogmeister will be distracted this afternoon, watching his alma mater (Utah) battling the evil BYU juggernaut. We doubt we'll post anything new today, unless our beloved Utah Utes somehow miraculously defy the punters' odds.

Just to get things rolling, however, we're linking three items found whilst googling:

First, it seems that Emerald City employees will be receiving an unexpected pecuniary bonus, just in time for Christmas. We don't know whether this is a good thing or not. Perhaps our gentle readers will share their own takes on this:

City health plan pays off -- Ogden city employees to get $307,138 in bonuses

Next, our readers will recall that we made a great fuss a few weeks ago, about the Emerald City Council's failure and refusal to provide application materials submitted by the five finalists for the recent vacancy on the City Council. The Standard-Examiner was irked enough about denial of its GRAMA request, that it unleashed its media lawyer, it appears. Today's Dave Greiling column informs us today that the impasse has been at least partly resolved, with the voluntary production of materials on another three of the five candidates. We thus invite our readers' comments on the latest posture in this matter. Should the Std-Ex continue to press Emerald City authorities for the release of the other yet-undisclosed candidate information (John Thompson,) or should the Std-Ex just let the whole matter slide from here on?

In the end, Ogden comes through on public access issue

Finally, we link a thought-provocative Michael Moore piece from the L.A. Times, which reflects upon the aftermath of the November 7 election. Like him or not, I believe we can all agree that Mr. Moore makes a few pretty danged good points. Or can we?

Michael Moore's pledge - The liberal filmmaker extends an olive branch to disheartened conservatives (Free registration required)

The floor is open, and we're leaving the lights on while we prepare to occupy our trusty barca-lounger, to obsess over this afternoon's BYU-Utah "Holy War."

Don't let the cat get your tongues.

Update 11/26/06 10:55 a.m. MT: One of our sharp-eyed readers got this morning's Standard-Examiner story right in the lower comments thread:

"I just read the Standard-Examiner this morning, city recieves less than expected on settlement from Shupe Williams fire. Doug Stephens says they will have to cut back in other areas to make up the difference.

When are the Council going to relize that this is the same phoney cost estimates always submitted by the Mayor and his croneys. This is so typical of Matt Godfrey and his little over paid bunch of minions."

Keep in mind that this morning's reported half-million dollar shortfall operates in addition to another half-million dollars by which the RDA fell short, when it last January activated a $3 million credit line in anticipation of the originally-expected Shupe Williams $2.5 million insurance settlement.

Of course Boss Godfrey is completely unfazed by all this. And we just loved this Boss Godfrey quote: "'We are not caught in a deficit situation,' he (Godfrey) said Friday. He didn’t provide any details."

That's a million buck shortfall, gentle readers. Have no fear. Be assurred that Boss Godfrey can pull chump-change like that out of his ass, if he needs to. All hail the ever-unruffled Boss Godfrey.

"God save us from God-Free," other more prudent Emerald City citizens wail, as they check their calenders and bleakly observe that the next municipal election/Godfrey referendum remains still nearly a year down the road.