archives

Goin' to the Final 4.

As in the men's national college basketball championship in San Antonio this weekend: Kansas, UCLA, North Carolina and Memphis.

Some folks consider it the premier sporting event in America because it embodies so many basic American values: tribes; underdogs; passion; heartbreak; joy; teamwork; fun.

I've been to the Super Bowl. To the Summer Olympic Games. To the national championship college football game. To NBA playoff games. But never to my favorite sports event of all--the Final 4.

It's an eternal verity that crooks steal things that are especially valuable. The item of choice these days seems to be gasoline or diesel fuel. It's becoming the crime du jour for today's crooks, as Merced County Sheriff Mark Pazin would say. Thieves will go to great lengths to steal diesel fuel, as evidenced by a report from the Merced County Sheriff's Department, Sometime over the past two weekends, someone broke into a construction site in the Santa Nella area and stole diesel fuel from two bucket loaders parked there. The first weekend they stole 60 gallons of fuel, and 170 gallons on the second visit. At more than $4 a gallon, that's getting close to $1,000 worth of purloined fuel.