It was June and Frank Condon called me, asking if I would read the stage directions for the last play of his career as artistic director of River Stage. I held the phone out, looking bewildered, then brought it back to my head and said, “Yes.” One week: seven days of intense rehearsal, getting a play, called "The Little Mermaid is Not for Children" by San Fransiscan playwright Alina Trowbridge, that had never been staged and had only just been written onto its feet, reading the characters and getting a feel for what was happening in these peoples’ lives. Piece of cake, right? When the day finally rolled around for the first reading, where everyone sits down and reads through the play out

Though it seems like an Onion story at first glance, downtown Sacramento's first ever mermaid tank may soon be constructed. Developers now await $8.6 million in funds from the City of Sacramento for the proposed construction of a pizza joint ("Pizza Rock"), a nightclub ("Frisky Rhythm") and a bar with a live mermaid tank ("Dive Bar"). Tuesday, the City Council will hear arguments supporting and opposing the project, brought about when the City of Sacramento sold its interests in the Sheraton Hotel to local developer David Taylor, of David Taylor Interests Inc., promising to set aside some of the proceeds for future David Taylor Interests construction projects like this one. Taylor was app