So, I go to a movie Saturday night. I have some friends in Waupaca and we always meet in Stevens Point, since that's half way between us. We don't get to see each other as often as we'd like, so we do a lot of catching up. We also like to pretend we're the cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and make fun of what we see on screen, if it's bad. And we're pop culture geeks so we talk about the actors, directors, special effects, etc. On top of that, my cell phone went off. I told the caller I'd call her back.

Still, a man sitting directly in front of me turned around at the end of the last trailer and said, "OK, let's keep the comments to ourselves now that the movie is starting." I said "Yea, we planned on it once the movie started." After hearing the exchange, the group behind us (all adults) actually made several comments about the movie during the movie.

Superfun surf and small-town vibe greets the 2005 Surfline Seal Beach ...

For the sixth time in the past seven years, conditions and a collective effort came together to pull off another great year for the Surfline Seal Beach Surfing Championships on the north side of the Seal Beach Pier. Thousands of dollars were raised for local charities and non-profit groups including the Surfrider Foundation, Seal Beach Junior Lifeguards, and other organizations.

Local surfers, the Seal Beach Lifeguards, Surfline.com, and many local surf shops and businesses resurrected the annual local championships in 1999 after a 20-year hiatus. "This is a great way for all of us to give back to the community, and especially to the kids," said Sean Collins, President and chief Forecaster of Surfline, also a three-time winner of the event stretching back to the early 70's.

The North County Times welcomes submissions to the Community Forum ...

Discussions of national or international issues are welcome ONLY if you make a significant, explicit connection to North San Diego County in the text of your essay.

* e-mailed to opinion@nctimes.com as text pasted in the body of an e-mail. Other acceptable but less desirable means of submission include: mail to Community Forum, Opinion desk, North County Times, 207 E. Pennsylvania Ave., Escondido, CA 92025; and FAX to (760) 745-3769.

All entries must be accompanied by a phone number which we will call before publishing the submission. Also, send a brief biographical sketch of the author, including any information about you that relates to the subject discussed in your submission. The biographical information won't count against the 500-word limit.

We reserve the right to publish or not publish any submissions to the Community Forum.

Letters to the Editor (Feb. 22)

It was the sense of contradiction in several statements that had me rereading parts of the headline Feb. 16 article "Councilors to revisit tax ideas."Councilor Bill York wants a City Council committee to look at proposals geared to bring more money into the city's coffers.In one paragraph Councilor York states that "the city is heavily reliant on property tax revenues" and "the cost of providing services is growing faster than property tax revenues are increasing. This is likely to be exacerbated by the recent downturn in the real estate market."But then, in the very next paragraph, is the statement, "The inquiry comes on the heels of a Feb. 7 decision by the city budget commission to spend $1.2 million of a budget surplus on new programs."Huh?Which is it? Do we not have enough money to fund current programs or do we have a surplus which is going to be thrown at new programs?When public officials make statements like this it's little wonder that the people view attempts to levy new fees or increase taxes with extreme suspicion.Kudos to members of the Corvallis-Benton Chamber Coalition in urging the city budget commission to put aside the surplus for possibly difficult times ahead.I think a majority of the city's business owners would also welcome seeing the surplus put aside instead of getting hit with a business license fee at a time when things may be just as difficult for them as it may be for the city.Dan Watkins, CorvallisCourtesy will keep roads safer for allSnorting bulls in human form are never attractive.

Internet Top U.S. Spy Drafting Plan to Increase Surveillance of Email ...

Worse, U.S. lawmakers are continually dragging their feet, and he thinks that the policy of tweaking 30-year-old laws is insufficient. "If we don't update FISA, the nation is significantly at risk," said McConnell. He noted that the NSA's monitoring capabilities dropped by 70 percent when federal judges entered a secret ruling that required warrants for intercepting traffic that "incidentally flowed" into domestic computer systems.

McConnell thinks that recent efforts, like the stopgap Protect America Act of 2007, are merely lukewarm.

Meet the oldest Wings, Chris Chelios and Dominik Hasek

Born: Jan. 25, 1962, in Chicago.

Career playoffs: 63 victories, 47 losses, 14 shutouts, with a 1.99 goals-against average and .926 save percentage in 115 games or 7,110 minutes.

Links to help you waste away '08

Way to strike while the iron was hot, AMC.

- This YouTube clip that Mike in Minny sent along deserves its own section: It's a 1995 "SportsCenter" piece about the lottery teams trying to figure out whether they should gamble on Kevin Garnett.