Letter of the week

Isn’t Newport-Mesa school board member Wendy Leece just the cutest

little thing?

With her churlish, little-girl stance on zero tolerance in our

schools, doesn’t she just conjure up almost-forgotten images of Shirley

Temple in “The Little Colonel”?

Can’t you just see the plucky Leece standing with her hands on her

hips and giving us all a stern, pouty look as she lectures us in her Good

Ship Lollipop-voice on “postmodern liberalism?” What an adorable phrase!

Of course, all the adults in the room are chuckling a bit to

themselves because they all know our own little Curly Top has no idea

what she just said and couldn’t define it if she had to (now don’t any

grown-ups spoil the fun and tell the lil’ darlin’ that it doesn’t mean

anything!) but that’s part of her charm.

What could be more adorable than a precocious 50-something-year-old

using such big words when her favorite books just have pictures in them?

Why, and then our own Littlest Rebel struts up to some cantankerous

Lionel Barrymore-like trustee and shakes her little finger in his face

while warning of some “slippery slope” he’s headed for and how,

by-golly-by-gosh, we need to send a “powerful message to kids” out there

because she may have a few animal crackers in her soup.

But gee willikers, she’s a pretty tough cookie anyway even if her face

is all beet red and her lower lip is starting to tremble a little and

she’s just about ready to cry.

Oh, my! Doesn’t it warm your heart?

Isn’t our Little Miss Bright Eyes just adorable? Can’t you just hardly

stand it?

DAVID LANSING

Newport Beach