Public Eye

Word on the Doo Dah street is that the Pasadena Doo Dah Parade’s 2008 Thorny Rose Selection Committee, a highly confidential and eclectic panel of community observers, has narrowed its choices for this year's award to a short list of three.

The eighth-annual award, whose selectors are protected by parade organizers Tom Coston and Patty Hurley's motto "Secrecy Beyond Reason," begins as a free-for-all with submissions from all observers. Today, the votes are being cast from among these three: the entire Falun Gong organization, Pasadena Pundit blogger Wayne Lusvardi and Pasadena political consultant Martin Truitt.

How does one win? By being the most "painfully unwavering" pain in town over the past year. Former winners include our own Chuck Cherniss, former editor of the Star-News and longtime columnist; former Councilman and now CofC boss man Paul Little -- twice!, during his obstinate Gold Line board days; the late former City Council gadfly Roy Begley, who lobbied for jitneys instead of mass transit, and whose fantastic antics (he often dressed as Gen. George C. Patton) won't be remembered by those who only started paying attention to Pasadena politics in recent years; and school board gadfly Mary Dee Romney.

It's a dubious honor, but an honor nonetheless. If the winner doesn't choose to ride in the parade, Tom and Patty ride them in effigy anyway.

The Thorny Rose betting line here on Colorado Boulevard for the big job, coming up Sunday, Jan. 20 at 11:30 a.m. in Old Pas, to which time the usually-in-the-fall event has been rescheduled? Subcomandante Truitt in a cakewalk. Falun Gong's too big, and too self-immolating to pass local fire codes; Wayne's name is not as well known to the casual observer; Martin is just plain everywhere.