SAD NEWS… Her friends recall her as “witty, wise and original,” and they shared the news that on Jan. 23, writer, peace activist and vintage KAZU “Wildebeest Woman” host Kedron Bryson died following a short and valiant fight against bone cancer. “She was one of the most interesting and creative people I have ever known in my life,” says Steve Kane, who many will remember as the host of “Dr. Feelgood’s Rock and Roll Hospital” on KAZU. “She was a brain and very witty and sharp and funny.” Adds local writer and cycling activist Mari Lynch, “Her humor and spirit were such a joy to be around.” Bryson, 63, was helped through her final days by her son Max Carter and local friends Elaine Giampietro, Betsy Hill and Amy Brooks. Plans for a spring memorial are in the works.

RODENT REVENGE… It’s not just raccoons wreaking havoc on Carmel residents anymore. When a squirrel gets squirrelly, it can purportedly do $27,729.13 worth of damage. That’s according to a lawsuit filed by Mary Brinton, who is suing her landlord, Estates on the Bay, for showing her Rio Vista Drive home while she was away on a “protracted vacation” and then forgetting to close the door. It was already too late when someone noticed, and inadvertently locked a squirrel inside for a week. Said squirrel, while “seeking its freedom, literally” severed a water line to the ice maker, broke china and chewed electrical cords, rugs, cushions, screens, wood trim and telephone lines, says the suit. Brinton’s lawyer describes the squirrel as “frustrated,” but Squid thinks the squirrel was just enjoying itself. The city of Carmel website says, “Add readily accessible trash cans… and you’ve got the raccoon equivalent of a Hilton.”

SARANOIA… Squid wishes everyone could just get along. But bombastic political gadfly Margaret Serna Bonetti has taken to Facebook to decry the shootings of Arizona Rep. Garbrielle Giffords and 19 others – and to challenge Sarah Palin to a verbal girlfight. Bonetti, a former Salinas Union High School District trustee and failed Salinas mayoral candidate, says in a post she welcomes a “one-on-one conversation with Palin” and invites her to meet in an open forum. She posits that hate speech by Palin and Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachmann, “incite angry Americans to take up arms… we must not allow the media to turn this into a debate on mental illness.” Squid is relieved Bonetti has such a firm grasp on the First Amendment, what the media can and can’t do and what constitutes mental illness. Says one of Bonetti’s followers, “You have too much class to be associated with [Palin].” Maybe, maybe not. But they certainly share a gift for broadcasting half-baked ideas.