If the vote to ban gay marriage in California did anything for the conservative Christian movement, it confirmed that they have just enough political clout to get by in a blue state. It clearly boosted San Jose’s Values Advocacy Council, which worked hard to pass Prop. 8 in the November election. The group isn’t stopping there.

Sometimes, even bleak economic times like this, the Grinch doesn’t have a chance. Just ask Leannette M. Spence, assistant vice president and personal banker at the Bank of America in Cambrian Park. Last week, Spence had a customer who accidentally left her card in the bank’s ATM. When the customer called in to cancel it, she learned that a $200 cash withdrawal had been made at the same ATM immediately after she left, which led to all kinds of anxiety on her part: was there a way to track down who stole it? Could she get the money back in time for Christmas?

Apparently the New England Patriots worked up an appetite Sunday while demolishing the Raiders 49-26, so the following day, they drove down to San Jose to pay a visit to Morton’s Steakhouse. Lucky for the old guys on the team, it was “rookie night,” which means the newbies had to pick up the tab. And what a tab. A tipster informs Fly that the bill came to $30,000.

Since there just aren’t enough documentaries about 19th-century Mexican banditos who were hung in San Jose, resident author and publisher Charlie Trujillo decided to begin making one. The scalawag under discussion is every local historian’s favorite forgotten troublemaker, Tiburcio Vasquez, who rampaged across California during the post–Gold Rush era.

Ruminations on the Enigma Variations

I’m still a bit wound up from the election, Luis Valdez’s magnificent performance at the Mexican Heritage Plaza recently, and the afterglow of our wonderful mariachi festival. The election has definitely captured a mood of optimism and the determination to keep our hand on the plow and fix the mess we’re in.

Lately, I’ve been in a writing mood, which only became more insistent after I turned on the car radio the other night and found myself listening to English composer Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations. On the long drives home from San Jose, especially after evening gigs where I have to be the host and “on” for the evening, I always turn on the radio for the drive back and listen either to the classical station or show tunes or Sinatra.  If I’m lucky, I get to hear something new that catches my imagination, which helps me to stay alert.