Rhoades Less Traveled:

Oy, I thought. This is going to get ugly.

Pilot Publisher Tom Johnson and I sipping drinks with a slew of Measure B opponents days after the measure passed and weeks after a Pilot editorial endorsed it?

Understand, that editorial doesn’t mean I pine away for Measure B. To tell you the truth, I don’t give a rip if they build a new city hall on Avocado Avenue next to the library or at the end of the Newport Beach Pier.

I’m a newspaper editor who recreates — and takes a studied interest in — Newport Beach but doesn’t have the coin to live there. I live in Fullerton. So I’m not exactly losing sleep over the issue.

Try telling that to politicos and activists. And I’m not just talking about opponents of Measure B; I’m talking about folks whose tastes run the gamut on all manner of Newport-Mesa fare.

Judging by more than a few phone calls I’ve received, some of them swear we editors spend a good portion of our days scheming how to get this or that passed or shot down. What do they take us for? A bunch of Karl Roves?

But back to the scene at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel bar following Mayor Ed Selich’s speech at the Speak Up event on a recent Friday night.

Councilman Keith Curry was there. So were Barry and Debbie Allen, Hugh Logan, Karen Tringali, Mike Henn and many others. Opponents, mostly, of Measure B. Selich, also a B opponent, is more shrewd than I am; he walked by but didn’t sit. Matter of fact, every time I caught him in my periphery he was moving.

Bully to him because it did get heated, starting with, you guessed it, the B word.

Bowl. As in Super Bowl. Johnson calls it the best ever. I rank it No. 3. Barry complained the media under-reported the superb exploits of the New York Giants offensive line. Also: The refs robbed the Packers in the NFC championship game. Logan told anyone within earshot he hates the Giants. Selich scrambled around the room like Eli Manning on the lam.

I tell you, we were more animated than a Bradshaw/Long/Johnson halftime report.

The debate over Measure B? Sacked. At least for a night.

BRADY RHOADES is the Daily Pilot’s managing editor. He may be reached at [email protected] or at (714) 966-4607.