Congratulations! This has been the only circulated print of any kind that I have ever written a letter to. First of all, did you, the editor, even graduate from high school with a passing grade in English? I don’t mean “English as a Second Language”, but tried and true grammatical rules of the language we in the USA hold so dear: English. On page 2 of the January 1 thru January 8, 2015 edition, your weekly print states that, “sparkling wines and champagne should be drunk year round”. Let’s hope they’re not driving or sitting in a car with access to the ignition keys while these beverages are “drunk”. (The English lesson today is that only humans and some animals can get drunk. A beverage is always drank. Shame on you for calling yourself an editor.) Next, in this southern California place the inhabitants like to call the “central coast”, why are they worried about Phillips 66 bringing in oil by rail when Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant sits in the backyard? Has every one of the pompous, overly-spoiled, self appointed do-gooders finally lost it? Has the “drunk” wines taken control of their “drank” head? Please, stop worrying about Phillips when the water situation is out of control and wine grapes are grown with “open arms” from the “drank” community. SLO county has always been and will always be in Southern California along with LA, etc. The reason is not only geographical, being south of our capitol, it is mainly mental; the residents here think like a southern California person and not like a person from north of Sacramento. Get off your high horse. Your property is overinflated, your mindset that of “stick in butt drank” people, and you deserve no water at all because the county can’t manager what it has. You have no water! Stop raising avocados, and wine grapes, and other water needy crops. Get the “drank” people out of your politics and schools and maybe, just maybe, SLO county will not be considered “Southern California” by the rest of the state. My soap box is retired.

Executive ed. note: Tori, I’m honored that New Times is the recipient of your first-ever letter to the editor. And I’ll burn my high school diploma now, because I finally made a mistake after receiving a passing grade in English in the late ’90s. Please note that I didn’t want to accidentally edit a grammatical mistake into your letter, so I left it as-is.

-- Tori Eccles - Los Osos