Arnold Schwarzenegger. Gary Coleman. Larry Flynt. Gallagher, the watermelon man.

In California, a new group of people stepped up last week to offer their candidacies for public office. The men are among a few hundred seeking the governor's seat in that West Coast state, in the midst of a vitriolic campaign to recall the state's Democratic governor.

How bizarre: an actor, a child TV performer, a pornographer, a one-note comic who befouls his audience. In the apparent belief that voters will take them seriously, they ask that the affairs of state be turned over to them. It is celebrity, run amok.

What a sad irony it is that, on the same day last week the estimable Bill Bulger announced his decision to leave public service, these four celebrities, and perhaps scores more like them, announce their entries into politics.

And so, in this third year of the new millennium, style replaces substance, celebrity trumps thoughtful good works. The clowns seek to run the circus.

Have we become a people unable to consider complex questions? Do we not want people of substance serving in public office? Have glitz and glamour replaced depth and decency as the measure of worth in the public discussion of issues? Have politics and public service been reduced to a place where only the wealthy and the shameless dare to become candidates?

There was a time, and not long ago, when politics was considered a worthwhile endeavor. "Ask not what your country can do for you &endash; ask what you can do for your country," John Kennedy said in his inaugural address. Public service was a noble calling, an important and compelling career decision. Bring good people into public service, and the public will be better served. It was a formula that worked.

Lamentably, public service today is mocked and disparaged. As fewer people of quality deign to enter the public arena, fewer people bother to vote. Half the population ignores presidential elections, many elective offices go unchallenged, and the burgeoning MTV generation largely doesn't even bother to register to vote. It is not a good time for the republic.

- Ed Forry

More Left Coast Misery

We are in our least-favorite time of the baseball season. This week, our hometown team is playing a couple of series in California and Washington, and we are reminded again that the late-night TV broadcasts of West Coast games are something to avoid&endash;at all costs.

The mid-August slump is underway, the would-be clutch hitters aren't getting the job done, and worry weighs heavily on Red Sox Nation.

We thought we learned the lesson years ago to avoid the temptation to watch the games from the coast. After a tiring day at work, who needs to stay up till 1 a.m. to watch another loss in Oakland or Seattle? Why stay up that late, only to go to bed annoyed, again?

Our hometown team may yet reverse itself, and go on to make the playoffs. But these days, this week, are most often the worst of the entire season. Here's a firm resolution to divert our attention from these games this week, in the hopes that when we wake up next Monday, things will prove to have been not so bad.

- E.F.