MERCY, MERCY … last week in a 58-0 loss to perennial statewide football power Grant, the overmatched Davis High School Blue Devils were subjected to something called “running time” in the second half of the game … in other words, the clock moves into hyperspeed and doesn’t stop for anything in order to cut down on the number of plays and keep the score “respectable” …

As I understand it, this is by rule and kicks in automatically when one team falls 40 or more points behind … it’s similar to baseball’s “mercy rule,” which generally comes into play when one team trails by 10 runs or more … while I realize the kind-hearted intent behind both rules is to prevent further humiliation to the losing team, high school kids aren’t stupid … they also have a lot of pride, no matter what the scoreboard says …

I’d be willing to bet they’d rather play a complete game and take whatever lumps come their way than to have the outcome altered in such a manner … both running time and the mercy rule, by shortening or ending a game prematurely, rob the reserves on both the winning and losing teams of a valuable opportunity for playing time … in close games, many kids never get to play … in runaway games like this, usually both benches get emptied … these kids deserve to play the game straight away, unaltered, when their chance for action finally arrives …

WASTE NOT … my friend Anne is one of those conscientious Davisites who writes to say “For the past several years, I have had my every-other-month water bill paid electronically from my checking account.” … good for you, Anne, but at this point I’m not willing to give those folks any of my personal information …

“I set up this arrangement with the city of Davis. I still receive in the mail every other month a hard copy of my water bill (with ever-increasing costs.) Curiously, I always receive an envelope to be used for mailing in my payment.” … which makes no sense since it’s already being withdrawn automatically from your checking account … maybe the city is hoping you’ll forget about the automatic payment arrangement and mail them a “donation” …

“I am always puzzled as to why I receive this extra piece of paper (the envelope) since I do not mail in my payment. If city staff decides to begin billing us monthly for water and sewer services (foolishly thinking, as you have so wisely pointed out, that a monthly bill will be easier for ratepayers to stomach), then I will receive this useless envelope 12 times per year instead of six.” … maybe you could put them in a pretty box and hold an envelope-only garage sale and make some money …

“I am not sure how many ratepayers are enrolled in the electronic payment system. If there are 16,000 ratepayers and 25 percent of them are enrolled, that equates to 4,000 wasted envelopes each billing cycle.” … which means when we go to monthly billing in the near future, we’ll be wasting nearly 50,000 envelopes a year … hey, an envelope here and an envelope there and pretty soon you’re talking about real money unless you’re buying them at Costco …

“I am not sure how many trees that is.” … I can tell you exactly … it’s enough trees to make 50,000 envelopes … actually 48,000, given that we apparently have envelopes to burn …

BEWITCHED IN WINTERS … I was intrigued by the story in this very paper about a Haunted Forest just outside Winters that’s open to the public at 10 bucks a pop … according to one of the organizers, “Picture yourself in a dark, isolated forest. The setting is so real and spooky: the sounds, the dark, the trees, the dirt, the smell. Just that alone frightens people and then you add the haunting and it’s an experience never to be forgotten.” …

If this haunted forest was in Woodland, now that would be scary …

— Reach Bob Dunning at [email protected]

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