SMALL-TIME HEADLINES … elsewhere in today’s paper you’ll read a consensus view from very intelligent people as to the top local news stories of 2011 … and, since Davis is easily the Most Relevant City in America, I figure most, if not all, of our top 10 should be the top 10 in the country — or even internationally — as well …

I do sometimes wonder if these top 10 lists are skewed toward stories that happened most recently and are thus fresh in the memories of those voting … I mean, while the campus pepper-spraying incident was the runaway winner as top local story of the year, would it have earned that honor had it happened last January? … probably so, but it might not have been unanimous …

Certainly, as our No. 1 story, though, it must at least have been in the worldwide top 10, no? … well, I checked as many new sources as I could and so far we don’t even have an honorable mention … turns out “Officer Pike” is not a household name outside Yolo County … neither are Linda Katehi or Nathan Brown … the worldwide consensus is that the death of Osama bin Laden is miles ahead of pepper-spraying students on the UC Davis Quad, and it’s hard to disagree with that assessment …

Occupy Wall Street does make the top 10 on most lists, but Occupy Dutton Hall doesn’t … nor does the move to destroy once and for all the historic Central Park bathrooms … now, had those bathrooms been in New York’s Central Park, no doubt it would have made the list ….

STAY TUNED … the Above-Pictured Columnist’s much-anticipated and incredibly accurate predictions for 2012 will appear in Sunday’s paper … and never mind that his prediction of a 10.2 earthquake hitting Davis at precisely 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 1 may hinder the delivery of Sunday’s newspaper …

THE READERS ALWAYS WRITE … why Mike in Decatur, Conn., is reading my stuff I don’t know, but I think it’s safe to say he’s not a fan … commenting on my piece the other day imploring the voters of Davis to elect “interesting and entertaining” City Council members come June 5, Mike claims “The media is part of the problem. That would include you, Hannity, Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Sharpton, et all. You are all full of yourselves, with only one goal in mind: money.” …

Yep, you called it, Mike … those of us in small-town journalism are in it for the cold, hard cash … “But have fun, I’m sure the voters of Davis will fulfill your request to vote in some real freaks to the City Council.” … on that we can agree, my friend … and a Happy New Year to you, too …

FIRST AMENDMENT ALERT … quick, someone notify the ACLU … while waiting for an appointment at the publicly financed UC Davis Medical Center, one Davis resident (see photo above) was offered a copy of the Watchtower … interesting reading, to say the least …

EVEN MORE READERS WRITING … as per my suggestion that we remove the ugly black fence surrounding the $75,000 worth of art on the Massive East Area Tank, one anonymous writer comments: “They don’t dare take down the wall because they know there are many more artists lurking who are armed with spray paint.” … my point precisely … most of them would have done the job for free … and based on the artwork on the various railroad boxcars that rumble through town, they would have done a fine job of it, too …

— Reach Bob Dunning at [email protected]

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