In case no one ever says it again, I am going to restate for the record exactly what Gold Rush Ranch is proposed to be - by its developer, on official planning documents.

I promise to do that fairly shortly.

But first, I caution readers to be unsurprised when this description does not match any of the following:

- a savior for the Sutter Creek Fire Department

- a savior for the Sutter Creek Police Department

- a way to solve Sutter Creek wastewater problems

- a beneficial use for Amador Water Agency water so the county will not lose any of its allotment from the Mokelumne River

- a font of uncontrollable auto traffic

- Amador's fatal knuckling under to big developer interests

- unjustified mega-profit, instead of a reasonable profit, from development, or

- a nice new golf course for linksters bored with Castle Oaks and Mace Meadow.

In fact, Gold Rush Ranch officially is proposed to be a group of houses - for people to live in.

In my five months here, dozens of people have mentioned Gold Rush Ranch and not one has called it what in fact it is proposed to be.

Now of course, developer Bill Bunce, who's a nice guy, doesn't either think of his project in terms of how it's proposed - he thinks of it as money in the bank. That's to be expected, it's not a surprise - but let's add it anyway as the ninth member of the list of fallacious or poetical references that are being made around Amador County - references to a whole by one of its parts or aspects, to a substance by one of its accidental properties.

I'm surprised at the length of this list of common failures to call a spade a spade.

What these failures obscure, perhaps intentionally in some cases, is the question of what the need is or isn't for Gold Rush Ranch as precisely what it is proposed to be - a group of houses for people to live in.

The premise - obscured as I said - is that people will need to, or want to and in fact will buy these houses in great numbers to live in.

Unquestionably, a need exists for inexpensive housing. Does one exist for luxury housing? Not currently.

But it's worthwhile to suggest that even though there's no reason to suppose California forever will be stuck in an economic crash, there's equally little reason to suppose that things in California will eventually become just as they were up to 2005 - unabashed consumerism, value placed on luxury, real-estate booms, etc. After all, to suppose that would presuppose that no lesson is being learned by just about all of us from these unexpected, yet gruelingly tough times. And, as tough to teach as people might be, I doubt that no one is learning anything.

Maybe there's a couple of more metaphors for Gold Rush Ranch that need to be added to the list.

One might be, "An idea whose time has come." But another might be, "An idea whose time has come, and gone."