Going Dotty in San Diego

An old doting fool, with one foot already in the grave.
Plutarch, Greek philosopher

“The Dot and the Line,” a 1965 animated film about a love triangle between a dot, a line, and a squiggle. This Academy Award-winning film was directed by Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble. The story is of the nice but boring Line, whose romantic yearnings for the Dot are thwarted by the wild, hippie-like Squiggle. The Line decides to reform its ways, learns to bend a bit, and eventually wins the interest of the fickle Dot by forming various organized patterns such as squares, circles, parallelograms, assorted polyhedrons, and other symmetrical designs.

Stay with The Misanthrope here a moment.

Jump to 2004, the boring line is no longer nice, but mean and petty. The hippie-like surf-shop San Diego mayoral candidate and Councilwoman Donna Frye lost her lead in a still undecided race. The mean-minded straight-line Republican election workers declared many of the write-it ballots invalid because in addition to writing in Frye’s name, one must also color in the darling dot for the vote to count.

The Misanthrope believes the line should be drawn on this, another Republican flim flam. However, if the citizens of San Diego raise their voices, possibly the lines will straighten up toward more ethical behavior and graciously accept the outcome. A high probability exists that Frye may prevail through legal means by contesting the arbitrary and petty rules the county registrar is using. November 30 is another hearing to determine whether the dot is needed or if squiggly lines that spell out Donna Frey will count.