Mysterious Bumper Stickers Appear in Olivenhain

Bumper stickers reading “Swat the Fly!” have turned up recently in Olivenhain. Their meaning is not immediately apparent. Olivenhainians have been speculating:

“Well, since the bumper stickers first showed up in Olivenhain where there are lots of horses that attract flies,” said Frank Kimball, “I suppose the message is ‘Let’s get rid of the horse flies.’”

“I heard there’s been an unusually heavy invasion of fruit flies,” said Val Sereno. “I don’t know if that’s only in Olivenhain, but if it is, maybe that’s what the bumper stickers are about.”

“Probably about 10 years ago,” said Olivia Grove, “there were bumper stickers that said ‘Dump Stocks’. They weren’t investment advice, and they weren’t only on Olivenhain cars. Back then a lot of Encinitas people wanted to get rid of a mayor named Stocks. Bumper stickers are often political. That’s my guess for ‘Swat the Fly!’, but the connection is vague.”

Local Man Practices Dangerous Hobby

Perhaps you’ve seen balanced columns of rounded stones standing upright on Encinitas beaches. People select beach stones by size, shape and color and carefully stack them two or even three feet high in what can be called works of art.

The stone stackers stand or squat alongside their creations so they avoid injury in case of a collapse. In other words, they don’t sit and straddle the column as they stack.

The man in the photo above is not stacking beach stones, but he’s using similar techniques — with one notable exception. He’s straddling his growing stone column and risking collapse onto a vital area. The man is living dangerously.

To avoid grave injury, public health professionals recommend not straddling the column while stacking stones.

Fruit Fly Don’t Bother Me

Many Encinitas residents have reported invasions of fruit flies in their kitchens and pantries. Perhaps better known as Drosophila melanogaster, fruit flies are attracted to unrefrigerated produce. They enter homes as undetected adults or eggs on store-bought or homegrown produce.

Fruit flies look like miniature versions of house flies. Although not as quick as house flies at evading swats, their life cycle is shorter, and their reproduction is faster and more abundant. Fruit flies also hide better than house flies because they’re so small. These factors help fruit flies persist. 

Any victim of a fruit fly invasion who thinks he or she has rid the kitchen and pantry environment of the flies will usually find lingering specimens.

Scientists use fruit flies for biological research in genetics, physiology, microbial pathogenesis, and life history evolution. The flies are used in research due to their rapid life cycle, relatively simple genetics (only four pairs of chromosomes), and large number of offspring per generation. Through 2017, five Nobel Prizes have been awarded to drosophilists for their work with fruit flies.

Although seen as pests, fruit flies have made significant contributions to humankind.

Fruit fly porn, with watcher.

Encinitas Reserves Affordable Housing for Rich Investors

Scrooge McDuck and Milburn Pennybags were among the rich investors who bought affordable housing units in Encinitas with the city’s approval.

The city must give equal opportunity when considering approval of affordable housing sales. It is bound by law to consider rich investors as well as qualified low-income applicants.

The city’s Equity Committee, which is run with unimpeachable integrity by Mayor Catherine Blakespear and Councilwoman Kellie Hinze, approved affordable housing sales to McDuck and Pennybags, among others.

“After all,” said Blakespear, “rich outsiders like McDuck and Pennybags invest in equities, which is what our Equity Committee is all about.”

Striving to meet the state’s affordable housing mandate, the city encourages developers to build 15 to 20% of its projects as affordable units that match Housing and Urban Development (HUD) income figures.

To complete the circle, the affordable units must be rented by or sold to low or very low income earners. Despite having many applicants who qualified to buy units by virtue of their income, the city instead approved sales to rich investors. State law requires those investors to rent the units to qualified renters at HUD’s affordable rates for at least 55 years.

Monitoring for compliance has been weak, enabling investors like McDuck and Pennybags to make off with sacks of cash.