I've been hoping these academic bureaucrats eventually will come up with something that will be positive for their students, and I've been keeping my fingers solemnly crossed that they won't follow in the Draconian tenor that's been established in this state by its authoritative governor, Generalissimo Gavin Newsom.

This is a guy who in one fell swoop shut down most of the California economy that is larger than Great Britain's and the fifth largest in the world, because of the Pandemic and has caused thousands of businesses to shut down permanently and disrupted the lives of millions of people, many irreparably.

Yet, a person who works for the LBUSD has informed me that a colleague attended a meeting on Tuesday [June 16] in which she was told by three members of the LBUSD, Business Services Administrator Alan Reising, Director of Operations Jose De La Mora and Area Custodial Manager (Elementary Schools) Francelia Wilbert, that the Long Beach school system is seriously considering that elementary students -- kindergarten to fifth grade -- will during the school year:

(A) Be kept secluded in their classrooms without access to playground activity.

(B) Be kept secluded in their classrooms without access to the cafeteria.

(C) Be kept secluded in their classrooms without access to auditorium activities.

(D) Be kept secluded in their classrooms without access to the typical social interplay that is so vital to the development of children at that tender age.

I doubt that such lunacy will prevail because I've heard Dr. Jill Baker drone on and on and on ad nauseam about how much she adores her beloved students and I'm sure she never would dare subject them to such a cruel policy.

I mean, there's a greater chance of my being struck by a meteor from the ether than kids between 5 and 10 coming down with the Coronavirus.

If such nonsense is instituted in the Long Beach elementary schools and I had a kids at that age, I'd enroll them in a private school not hamstrung by such bureaucratic idiocy faster than I can say, well, Jill Baker...

Mr. Morris was aghast when Mr. Pook, founder of the Long Beach Grand Prix, struck a deal with Stroh's thereby eliminating Budweiser from the Grand Prix premises.

Mr. Morris didn't exactly take such proscription silently because he was a good friend of local Budweiser distributor, the late Whitey Littlefield. Mr. Morris blistered Mr. Pook in the media and, of course, Mr. Pook, not exactly a shrinking violet himself, responded with verbal fusillades.

Blessedly, Messrs. Morris and Pook settled their differences in a slightly more gentlemanly manner -- spewing nothing more harmful than vitriolic rhetoric at each other.

Mr. Morris, the Pine Avenue restaurant pioneer and Legends creator, also had many well-publicized donnybrooks with such Long Beach City Managers of yesteryear as Jim Hankla, Henry Taboada and Jerry Miller.

He took more punches from these guys -- Mr. Morris referred to them as the Unholy Trinity -- than Joe Frazier did from George Foreman, but he somehow withstood the onslaught to even win a lawsuit against Taboada and has survived to operate a popular Alamitos Bay establishment called the Boathouse.

And now in recent times has come the Great Naples Real Estate Feud among the old Arcadia High baseball star, Keith Muirhead, the Michelle Pfeiffer lookalike, Sue LaBounty and the one-time standout waiter at the late and lamented Belmont Shore Italian restaurant, Ragazzi's, Spencer Snyder.

Mr. Snyder is the newcomer of this group -- and, oh, has he made his presence felt in recent years with a marketing blitz unprecedented in Long Beach real estate history -- billboards on 2nd street, ads adorning super market carts, Spencer Snyder Group signage everywhere featuring its leader's smiling visage.

I once spent two weeks in Syria, and the then dictator of the country, the late Hafez al-Assad, had less pictures of himself adorning the city -- and, believe me, there were plenty of them -- than Spencer Snyder has had in Long Beach.

Mr. Muirhead and Ms. LaBounty long have been dominant figures in the Naples market -- they also have been quite active in Belmont Shore and the Peninsula -- and have become quite wealthy from their countless sales.

The two have remained friendly despite their vying for the same customers, but neither evinces deep affection for Mr. Snyder, who certainly isn't out to win a popularity contest.

For years, Keith Muirhead circulated a calendar at the end of the year with old black-and-white Naples photos in it, and, yep, Spencer Snyder came out with the same. Muirhead and Snyder now have dueling Holiday Season calendars!

Ms. LaBounty's most impressive marketing tool is her wonderfully choreographed brochures showing her many seven-figure properties. I doubt there is a real estate agent in the country that has better ones, nor do I doubt if there is one who employs her very own private chef, Big Mike O'Toole.

I have no idea who will emerge victorious in this little real estate competition, but I do know none of the combatants ever will be in need of monetary assistance.