Ever have a fly get in the house and it just keeps buzzing your ear. It could fly just about anywhere else, but nooo your ear is the place to be. So then you get obsessed with swatting it. You drop everything, you pick up an old magazine and you’re flailing around to smash it. Maybe you even get it eventually, depending on your dexterity. But, chances are, the only benefit is losing some calories.

Lately, a (gad)fly’s been buzzing us here at the Pilot, regularly taking pot shots. I was about to try to swat him when I got some very sage advice from our attorney. It’s time-tested advice: Pick your battles.

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OK, here’s my blog-version of Andy Rooney. The topic? Things that really bug me lately.

I went to Boomer’s in Fountain Valley last night with Mona and it started out OK. We started off with some sort of racing video game, got in a couple of games of air hockey and then, well, most of the darned games didn’t work. Now, I’ve driven past that joint a thousand times on my way to work, saw the signs for go-karts and miniature golf and thought, “One of these days I have to check that out.” I’m not big on video games so the go-karts are the main draw there, and now that I’m the “homeless golfer,” I have to work on my golf game.

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Wednesday’s Town Hall meeting/campaign rally with President Obama at the Costa Mesa fairgrounds surely had the usual worshipful energy one would expect with a room full of partisans, but not everyone here found it so inviting.

As I chronicled in the dead-tree version of the Pilot yesterday, Assemblyman Van Tran was invited to the event and even flew down from Sacramento to attend it but was turned away at the door. And Obama, while recognizing dignitaries at the fairgrounds, made special mention of his office’s gaffe in failing to get out an invitation to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher.

This left Tran’s spokesman Dave Everett understandably miffed and wondering if the White House was just playing partisan games. I understand how he feels, but I have trouble believing it.

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