If you've seen the current television ads being run by the California Travel and Tourism Commission, you're forgiven for thinking the state is urging people to come here to look for work.

And for wondering what our governor is smoking.

It opens with a woman sitting in a deck chair in the sunshine, tall cool drink at hand. She says “people think life in California is a lot of work ... no, people think life in California is one big vacation. It's really a lot of work.”

And then we get shots of golf players keeping score and telling us they're just a lot of pencil pushers, surfers saying they have a lot of board meetings, a woman getting some kind of skin treatment noting that it's a dirty job, people around a campfire claiming they burn the midnight oil.

You get the idea. California sounds like just heaps of fun, even in the same sentence with work. We who live here know working here probably does beat winter in Nebraska or the hurricane season back east.

But there are too many people here not working, too many people here who are homeless, too many budgets being cut and teachers getting layoff slips.

It ends with a guy saying, “So if California seems like your kind of work ... ” and Arnie and Maria asking “When can you start?”

Can the combined wisdom of the minds in the governor's office and the California Travel and Tourism Commission possibly not understand what they've said?

If you haven't caught it on TV, you can see the commercial at www.visitcalifornia.com/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home.

The state Employment Development Department reported in January that California's jobless rate jumped to 5.9 percent in January, while the nationwide rate was 5.4 percent.

"We're headed for probably a sharper slowdown than any of us expected two months ago," said Stephen Levy, director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto, adding that it could tilt into a "mild recession," the Los Angeles Times reported.

So how about we all drop a note to Arnie and suggest that commercial needs a little rethinking? Maybe something along the lines of “Y'all come for a visit, just a short one, we know you've got a busy life back home, but we'd love to see you for a little while if you can spare a few days, maybe a week.”

You can send it with a form at http://gov.ca.gov/interact.

Maria's Web site indicates she prefers snail mail or a phone call or fax. (So quaint.)

First Lady Maria Shriver

State Capitol Building

Sacramento, CA 95814

Phone: (916) 445-2841

Fax: (916) 445-4633

Probably it would be best to start off with something besides “What the hell are you people thinking?” But that certainly is tempting.

E-mail Sophie Annan Jensen at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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