And you thought the comedy battle between Sarah Palin and Tina Fey was entertaining. Apparently, a similar witty repartee is shaping up between WGHS’ principal Shannon McGee and and junior Charley Guptill.

Here’s the opening sortie from Charley at last year’s Thursdays at the Theater “Clean Comedy” festival:

Willow Glen High Junior Charley Guptill throws out a few 3-pointers toward Principal McGee at last year’s Thursday at the Theater Clean Comedy show. Here are the highlights:

Ms. McGee rebounds and says “Game On!” - Thursday Oct. 16th.

Clean Comedy — Thursday, Oct 16, 2008
Time: 7:00pm-8:00pm
Prices: $7 General Admission / $6 Students-Seniors / $25 Family
Tickets are sold at the door only
Where: Willow Glen Little Theater

In addition to McGee and Guptill, the official headliner is comedian Tim Lee. All three will be joined by two other local high school students. Proceeds benefit the Willow Glen Middle and High School music programs. Hilarity will undoubtedly ensue.

Well, not exactly 10,000 individuals … but it’s very impressive nonetheless:

SeniorNet Willows to Hit a Milestone

On Saturday, October 4, when SeniorNet Willows has computer class registration for the upcoming session, it will sign-up its 10,000th student for class. This Learning Center began in March, 1994 and since then has gone on to have 10,000 students take a class from the program.

To celebrate this event, we will give student number 10,000 a free SeniorNet membership and a year’s worth of free classes at SeniorNet Willows.

So, if you have been looking for a reason to take a computer class, here is another one.

SeniorNet’s Willow Glen “Cyberschool” sign-up for the next session will be held this Saturday, October 4, beginning at 9:00 am at the Willows Senior Center. Prospective students can enroll for all classes except the “Intro to Computers” classes (registration for the Intro class begins Saturday at 10:30 a.m)

Topics offered this session include primers on Photoshop Elements,word processing, genealogy searches, Windows XP, Google searches, email, file management, digital photography, and iPods & iTunes. They also offer something called the “Best of Internet” … which undoubtedly includes WGx, right?

Oops. WGx meant to publish a bit more proactively on the topic, since one of our WG neighbors wrote about World Car Free Day on his website. Gary Wiens from San Jose Metblogs tells the story:

On Monday September 22, people from around the world get together to celebrate a day without cars. With gas prices at an all time high, Carfree Day is the perfect time to leave your car at home and get around your neighborhood and the region by foot, bike, bus, and train or by sharing the ride.

Only WGx was admittedly asleep at the wheel, due to another busy Monday in real life. To make amends, you’re invited to consider the story of a transplanted Willow Glen family now living in Amsterdam, where car-free day was apparently Sunday … and was legally mandated. Bet that would’ve impressed Gary …

The WG Library has only been open a few weeks, but it is already hugely successful in one key area: Fund Raising!

In a thank you letter mailed to donors earlier this month, the San Jose Public Library Foundation celebrated an incredible milestone:

The outpouring of support from the Willow Glen community for this library has been amazing. Thanks to contributions from residents, businesses, and community groups, more than $300,000 has been raised to date! These news funds will be used to augment existing library collections, acquire new language materials and multimedia resources, upgrade technology, and enhance the teen learning centers and children’s areas in the library.

Local residents initially had concerns that the collection might suffer since the bond measure funds supported the construction of the library, rather than the lots of new books and materials. Clearly, the community has come through.

Today, of course, marks the seventh anniversary of the September 11 attacks in 2001, and the date continues to be one of reverence across the country. Yesterday, WGx reader James Hegg emailed his hopes for respectful flag-waving across our neighborhood: (more…)

OK. Aside from completely throwing in the towel, WGx isn’t sure what to do anymore. And neither, apparently is WG’s own taxi-driving roving reporter Joann Landers.

In the past few days, she has filed two completely separate reports on two completely different accidents — both at the exact same intersection: Combine a curving two-lane road with an unofficial commuter cut-through, and the intersection of Hamilton/Pine & Hicks Avenue has been quite unsafe this past week.

Via her San Jose Metblogs website, Joann published pictures of a pedestrian accident on August 30:

A gentleman walking with his wife … was hit in the crosswalk, when a woman driving a white Toyota made a left turn from Hicks on to Pine. The gentleman, bleeding profusely from a head wound, was taken to the hospital via ambulance.

Another accident on September 4 included two cars, with one ending up upside down. Joann again published pictures.

Hey! Slow Down! … Here’s to safe week of driving in Willow Glen!

It may be a shocking headline … but the enemy is us.

Following the tragic death of a middle school bike-rider last June – run over by a parent picking up her own child from the same school – this year’s school opening week comes with an urgent safety message: Slow down!

The full court press comes from many sources, including the SJ Mercury News, bicycle safety training from SJPD, this week’s WG Resident, and SJUSD Superintendent Don Iglesias. Iglesias used a prerecorded voicemail message to remind parents to slow down and be safe:

I want to ask you to make safety a high priority for your child and all the other children who attend your neighborhood school. School zones are busy and hectic particularly at beginning and end of the school day. Please model safe behavior, so that all of our kids can have a safe journey to and from school
… There’s nothing more precious than the life of our children.

In an ironic development first “uncovered” by WGx, well-intentioned citizens across WG have been turned into criminals! … Either that or they are avoiding suspicion by canceling “Produce Exchanges” that had been planned between neighbors.

The growing – and suddenly illegal – trend of swapping backyard-grown fruits and and vegetables seemed like a good idea at the time, but is now under fire from the Santa Clara County Department of Agriculture: “Home gardeners within the quarantine zone are not allowed to move fresh produce or plants from their properties.” The non-fermented vegetable prohibition is the result of a quarantine in place to protect commercial farms from the Light Brown Apple Moth.

Just to make things more confusing, not all of the vegetable swapping options are verboten. Community gardens and school life labs are exempt from the sharing ban. Kevin O’Day from the County explains, via the WGNA eList:

… I think what may be a source of confusion on this topic are the provisions for those with plots at school or community gardens. These sites operate under a compliance agreement, are trapped and they receive a regulatory inspection on a 30-day cycle. Because of these safeguards, harvested produce is allowed to move freely out from the community gardens within the quarantine zone. This protocol is similar to that used for commercial growers with fields within the regulated area.

Thus, tonight’s exchange planned on Settle Avenue has been canceled.

And now the once-great idea will whither on the vine, along with some really great tasting tomatoes.

The Fire Station 6/37 debate – which needs a snappy nickname if you ask WGx – migrates in a less dramatic direction this week, with the publication of a City Council memo signed by Pierluigi Oliverio, Judy Chirco, and Mayor Chuck Reed.

Oliverio distributed the memo to community stakeholders late last week, and it will be addressed by the SJ City Council Rules Committee this Wednesday, August 20:

Please see the attached memo … requesting (1). that the San Jose City Council remove the potential sale of Fire House 6 from the budget and 5-year forecast (2). adopt a policy regarding selling, consolidating or closing any fire house in the city. Further, any sale, closure and/or consolidation will include using scientific data and extensive community outreach and council approval before a decision of selling, closing or consolidating a fire house is placed in the budget.

As many of you have been aware, the city placed the sale of Fire House 6 (located on the corner of Minnesota and Cherry Avenues in Willow Glen), in the City of San Jose budget last year without making the community or councilmember aware of their actions. Because the public safety bond money has been spent, the city wanted to sell Fire House 6 to help pay for construction costs for the new Fire Station even though current response data from the San Jose Fire Department does not warrant closing Fire House 6.

Following discussion by the Rules Committee, the idea of a new policy will be presented for council consideration at its regular meeting at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, September 9, 2008.

The issue of fire station closures and capital budgets for new stations was the primary agenda item at last week’s WG Neighborhood Association meeting. Although the WGNA obviously leans toward opposing the closing of Station #6, they have yet to publish an official stance.

Everyone at the Music in the Glen finale last Thursday witnessed a tragic human drama, as one of the Kiwanis volunteers experienced a scary seizure while staffing the event.

Fortunately, paramedics were on the scene as part of the planned celebration, and others were able to respond almost immediately.

A WG community member recalls the moment on her weblog:

As we were ordering, the old Kiwanis Club man serving the food, began to collapse, his brain, you could see was being attacked — aneurysm? stroke? He fell to the ground right in front of me, shaking violently from the seizures that overcame him. I was horrified, frozen.

I couldn’t move back and I couldn’t move forward, I was trying to stay calm for the kids and people scurried to his side. …

The fire trucks and ambulance came and the music finally stopped. We all stood there stunned. The kids all wanted stickers from the fire fighters. The EMT was calling out, “Hurry!”

Samantha Fein had originally shared the event through the Twitter microblog system, and followed up with her full thoughts on Friday.

Of course, our thoughts and prayers are all with the injured man.