PICK YOUR POISON … choice seems to have gone out the window in the first Pro-Choice City in America as the city of Davis seeks to add fluoride to every single drop of that precious Sacramento River water we just agreed to bring to our faucets and sprinklers and toilets … it’s interesting that the city waited until after the $113 million surface water project squeaked past the voters before springing the fluoridation plan on us …

Given that some of the surface water project’s most ardent supporters are now just as passionately opposing fluoridation of our water supply, it’s no wonder the city waited until after the election to threaten us all with death by tooth decay if we don’t see things their way … had Davis voters been told in January that Sacramento River water would arrive fully fluoridated whether we like it or not, there’s not one chance in a hundred that the surface water project would have prevailed at the ballot box …

DÉJÀ VU … we’ve actually done this fluoridation tango before … as reported in the April 21, 1960, edition of the weekly Davis Enterprise ($3 per year/delivered by mail), “Measure B — Flouridation — was defeated by the narrow margin of 1,076 ‘for’ and 1,108 ‘against.’ ” … narrow margin? … heck, a 32-vote cushion was a landslide in those days … this would be the same city election that brought straight-talking Norm Woodbury to the council and the mayor’s seat …

Woodbury lived right across the street from us in Oeste (rhymes with “toasty”) Manor and had perfect teeth, as I remember … no need for fluoride in his neighborhood … then again, given that a mere 17 votes could have reversed the verdict and given me fluoride in my Davis drinking water for the past 53 years, I plan to find out who those 17 people are and sue them for all the dental bills I’ve had to pay over that same time span …

WHILE WE’RE MESSING WITH THE WATER SUPPLY … given that high cholesterol kills more people than tooth decay, some folks are suggesting — only half tongue-in-cheek — that while we’re at it, let’s put Lipitor in the water supply as well … clean arteries and strong teeth … now that ought to land us on the Nightly News …

IT MUST BE SPRING … the highlight of the spring social season in Davis, the 22nd annual Pence Gallery Garden Tour, takes place Sunday from noon to 5 p.m., this year at a variety of homes and gardens in El Macero … according to Natalie Nelson, director of the Pence Gallery, “We have invited eight local artists who are skilled at painting outside, or en plein air, to capture different scenic views.” … (in East Davis, this form of art is known as “plain air” and is usually performed with spray paint) …

If you’ve never made this tour in its previous 21 years, make it this time … in addition to seeing some incredibly creative gardens, you’ll also learn about such plants as blue plumbago, abutilon, callistemon, emerald gaiety, aeonium, arctostophalus, alstroemeria, xylosma, pittosporum and dwarf agapanthus … interpreters will be available along the way to aid the botanically challenged … special guest appearances are promised by Chris Evert, Dolly Parton, Queen Elizabeth, St. Patrick, John F. Kennedy, Princess Di and Pope John III …

For tickets to this special annual event, contact the Pence Gallery at 530-758-3370 or online at pencegallery.org … on a Sunday afternoon just outside the Davis city limits, it doesn’t get any better than this …

— Reach Bob Dunning at [email protected]

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