nd Opal Pickles, and their family and friends, now appears on the Gazette-Times’ daily comics page.

The switch occurred on Monday, and I was going to write a note for that day’s paper, but I simply forgot about it. Sorry.

“Pickles” moves into the slot that was occupied by “Crankshaft,” but “Crankshaft” fans need

not despair just yet: I’ve moved that strip into the classified section of the G-T, where it will appear with old “Peanuts” strips.

I know there are “Crankshaft” fans out there, since every time I’ve written in this space about how I should shake up the comics page, I hear from you. For the time being, my plan is to keep the strip in the G-T print edition — even though, for my money, “Pickles” is a much funnier strip.

And you need no introduction to “Pickles,” which has run for years with our Sunday comics.

I’m not

done tinkering with the comics page this year, by the way. I’m looking at a relatively new strip, “Cul de Sac,” which I might test in the spot now being held by … gasp! … “For Better or For Worse,” which is essentially in rerun status anyway. And I’ve always thought that Corvallis, such a dog-crazy town, would love a strip I’ve been watching for a few years called “Red and Rover.”

Do you have any favorite comic strips I should look at? Or are there strips that we’re currently running that I should dump? Let me know. Send me an email or a postcard or give me a call.

Some of you thought that this was a clever postmodern editing touch on our part, considering the nature of

the story. (The Steely

Dan song “The Last Mall,” about a shopping spree to stock up for apocalypse, has a similar closing, ending a note or two before you think it should.)

Alas, no such luck with this error: This was just a boneheaded editing mistake on our part.

Here are the missing paragraphs, and a little bit of context to set them up:

Leading into the missing paragraphs, the story is discussing the likelihood of devastating solar storms.

Here are the missing paragraphs:

However, NASA has said that such storms

do occur on the sun approximately every 11 years, with the next cycle occurring around 2012-13. Though most are benign, 2012 doomsayers point to a National Academy of Sciences report issued in 2008 that warned of a severe solar storm blindsiding the Earth someday, causing a calamity through geomagnetic surges that could knock out power and communications across wide areas.

Meanwhile, scientists complain, the Earth faces a much more likely threat: climate change. And there are, of course, other slow-moving disasters looming.

“There are real crises in the world,” said (John) Hall, (a sociologist) at UC Davis. “There’s the environmental crisis. There’s the threat of terrorism. There’s the economic crisis. There are political upheavals. And in a way, this [2012 phenomenon] is a great distraction for people. And how odd it is that real events that we might be able to do something about are having disastrous effects, and people focus their attention on an event that isn’t going to happen.”

Click here for a link to the original Los Angeles Times story.

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Here’s a sneak peek at my Sunday column. (The column, by the way, has a new name — “Think Too Much,” which, if you’re curious, is the title of two separate Paul Simon songs. You can find both songs on Simon’s underrated 1983 album “Hearts and Bones.”)

But enough about Simon. Here’s the Sunday column, inspired by a meeting we held recently with Jim Patterson, Corvallis’ new city manager:

The Jim Patterson era at Corvallis City Hall begins Monday, when he officially starts his new job as the city manager.

Judging from an hour-long session the Gazette-Times’ cialis online editorial board had recently with Patterson, my guess is that we’re in for a lively few years.

Oh, there’s certainly enough going on already with city government these days to keep it interesting, but Patterson – who came across as smart and funny and quite willing to speak his own mind – seems certain to add some spice to the mix.

At the very least, it seems likely that the outgoing and occasionally brash Patterson will make for an interesting contrast with his predecessor, Jon Nelson, who did quietly outstanding work in

the job over a remarkable 18-year run. That’s not a mark that seems likely to be broken any time soon – well, at least for 18 years. It could be that Patterson will eventually prove to be too much of a lightning rod to match Nelson’s mark, but we’ll see.

In fact, our chat with Patterson prompted some idle musings about whether the City Council – which made the decision to hire him – consciously (or subconsciously) set out to find somebody with a personality that stood in stark contrast to Nelson’s.

But that, as Orson Welles once said in a completely different context, may just be “dollar-book Freud,” idle psychological speculation.

What seems beyond speculation is that Patterson, who comes from a similar job in Sherwood, is relishing the chance to use his status as the new kid on the City Hall block to ask some tough questions about Corvallis and how its city government operates. We might see some folks in government squirm a bit.

Some of the rest of us might get a chance to squirm as well.

And, even though Patterson vowed that he’d be asking a lot of questions and listening carefully to the responses, my guess is it won’t take him too long to start to say what he thinks. “These times that we’re operating in call for very direct communication,” he said – but he emphasized that the communication needs to be respectful.

That sounds like someone who’s done his homework on Corvallis.

It was clear that he wants to be comfortable that city government is operating as efficiently as possible before he starts making the case that taxpayers should pay more for city services.

It also was clear that he’s not convinced by those who argue for no growth in Corvallis: “It’s the way you go about growing” that makes the difference, he said.

But, he added, it’s important that these discussions and debates rise up from a common foundation:

“We need to be able to first agree on what we agree on,” he said. “We all want what’s best for Corvallis.”

Now, that REALLY sounds like someone who’s done his homework on Corvallis.

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We’re delighted to bring Candice Ruud back to the G-T newsroom. Candice served with distinction as an intern here a couple of summ

ers ago and has since excelled

at internships at The Oregonian and Newsday on Long Island.

She came to Corvallis originally to study at Oregon State University, so she knows Corvallis and the university — both important advantages for a reporter covering these beats.

Candice replaces Nancy Raskauskas, who left the G-T to work at OSU, creating social media for the University Housing and Dining Services division.

We’ll miss Nancy. But we’re thrilled to have Candice back in the newsroom, and I think she’s taking over the beat at an especially interesting time — and not just because she starts at about the same time as the new city manager, Jim Patterson. But, judging by our editorial board conversation with Patterson on Thursday, he’s going to add some juice to what already is a juicy beat.

Candice Ruud at work Thursday in the G-T's newsroom.

(Check out Candice’s story in Friday’s paper for more about that conversation.)

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Some more details about that Sunday, Oct. 30 concert at which the Corvallis-OSU Symphony Orchestra will play music from the “Harry Potter” movies have come to light:

Along with the music, the concert will feature the reading of eight letters from Potter fans to various characters in the books and movies — and the orchestra has put out a call for those letters.

So, Potter fans, sharpen your pencils and ponder this question: If you had a chance to speak to one of the characters from the books, what would you

say?

The writers of winning letters will win free tickets to the 3 p.m. concert, a $10 value.

Letters should be original work of 500 words or less, addressed to one of the following characters from the Potter books and movies: Harry Potter, Luna Lovegood, Professor McGonagall, Professor Trelawny, Dumbledore or Mr. Ollivander, the wand maker.

Letters must be submitted by email and received by 5 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 21.

They can be sent to this email address: halloweenwithharry@gmail.com

For more information on the “Halloween with Harry” concert and preconcert activities for ticket holders, visit the website cosusymphony.org

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Here’s a sneak preview of Sunday’s column:

Ah, the end of summer, and the criminal life is easy, or so it says in the Gazette-Times’ “Crime

Watch” column.

You may have noticed a couple of seemingly related items among the recent burglaries chronicled in the Crime Watch: In both burglaries, a scofflaw apparently entered an unlocked residence and scurried away with an electric fan of some sort. Judging by our Crime Watch entries – which, granted, may be incomplete cheap viagra – the electric fans were the only object stolen in each case.

Now, I know it’s been hot lately, but this kind of criminal behavior boggles the mind. What could these criminals be thinking? That they could really launch their careers as criminal masterminds, if only they weren’t so darned hot?

Or maybe it’s even more random than that: Perhaps our criminal masterminds are wandering down the street, notice a fan helping to pull some cool night air into an overheated house or apartment, and say to themselves: “Say, that looks comfortable. Gosh, if only I had a fan of my own, I could cool down my place. Hey, that window is open.”

Because, of course, the window is open – otherwise, how could it be pulling cool air into the house, right? And, as our police would remind us, burglaries are crimes of opportunity.

And heat.

But random theft of electric fans isn’t the only criminal activity with an end-of-summer twist.

This is, of course, the time of year when normally law-abiding citizens skulk around their neighborhoods in an attempt to dump their zucchinis on the porches of unsuspecting neighbors – people who moved to the mid-valley precisely to escape this kind of lawlessness. (Technically, national “Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day” was Aug. 8, but the cool spring and summer has delayed the harvest. And, yes, that actually is a day. Look it up.)

Trespassing, of course, is a horrible crime – and it’s made all the more horrible when ordinary citizens awaken in the morning, drenched with sweat because their fans have been stolen during the night, to find (cue Bernard Herrmann’s shrieking violins, a la “Psycho”) a massive zucchini or two sitting unceremoniously next to their newspaper on the porch.

To add insult to injury, that day’s paper almost certainly will contain some sort of “Crime Watch” item about some idiot crime. And so the vicious downward cycle of late-summer crime continues to stalk our fair city.

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