Traveling can be a contact sport. This was especially true on a recent flight from Lima to Cusco that was marked by turbulence followed by a silent vow that if I were to survive the flight, I would become a better person.
Well, here we go.
How do you know you’re ready to go on vacation? (Either go on vacation or return from vacation.) Something breaks.
It’s time for serious reform at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
I was returning from a business trip and my short layover was in LAX. He was standing in front of me in a short line on the tarmac. We were waiting to board our flight to Bakersfield.
Ten and a half years ago, sorting through the day's mail, I would often marvel at the number of let-me-sell-your-home postcards from real estate agents. We were surely half-millionaires on paper, I remember thinking, because our nothing-special suburban house had, apparently and quite sudden…
Reader: I just got through reading your excellent article about the "hip-hop hero" at Starbucks ("No cape, but hip-hop hero took on machete man anyway," Robert Price, Sept. 13). I was just wondering, if Blaine or another Starbucks customer had had a concealed carry permit and took care of th…
So this is what a machete can do to a man.
What's the fastest way for a Kern County Sheriff's deputy to get a raise these days? Answer: Get hired by the Bakersfield Police Department.
Put down that old vinyl record and put your shoes on. Is the car gassed up? Good. Print out this article, open up Google maps and take this tour, which we have plucked from the pages of Robert Price's 2015 book, "The Bakersfield Sound: How a Generation of Displaced Okies Revolutionized Ameri…
The dominant narrative about Bakersfield is often inaccurate, and at the very least, incomplete. There’s a richer depth to the people that were born and nurtured here. Our history is full of fascinating and innovative individuals. Unfortunately, we don’t hear, repeat and internalize these st…
On paper, Tatiana Matta looks like the latest sacrificial lamb to be brought to slaughter at the hands of an invincible Republican congressman from Bakersfield. No Democrat has come close to winning the seat she seeks in 42 years. How is Matta, a political newcomer, going to be any different?
Reader: How can you report the news about Tejon Ranch's wonderful new L'Oreal distribution center ("L'Oreal and Tejon Ranch agree to deal to bring distribution center to Kern County," Aug. 17) without saying how many warehouse bays there will be for how many trucks a day? Did anyone permitti…
Summer road trips may have changed over the years, but they still have a place in American childhood. I can report this because I just hit the road with my sister and my two nephews, ages 10 and 7, for 11 days through five states.
Some of you older readers may remember me when I worked for Vince Clerou running the gun department at Clerou's sporting goods store on downtown 18th street.
Last week the California Legislature wrapped up another two-year session, so it’s time to start counting the wins and losses.
What a difference a few degrees makes. Under 100 during the day, under 70 at night. Six degrees can be the difference between hope and despair. The difference between crisp and sloppy.
One day in the early 1980s a 20-something named Teresa Romero arrived in Los Angeles from Mexico on a temporary visa.
It's Labor Day weekend, and as you read this I am marinating in a coat of SPF 40 on a sandy beach, warily eyeing circling seagulls. I am trying to achieve a zen that clears the mind of anything related to work or reality in general, but in fact I am worrying that if I don't leave early enoug…
Reader: After seeing the Aug. 25 headline, "Central Valley officials join push to end California oil production," I was shocked at what would be a near-apocalyptic economic shift for Kern County.
Mexicali is not closing down, going away or breaking our collective hearts, which, in the case of Mexicali, lie not far from our collective stomachs.
A week ago, I had a cortisone shot in my left knee. For now, like the heat, the pain has magically disappeared. I’m considering becoming a drug addict.
When Amazon's 2.5 million-square-foot distribution center opens perhaps 15 months from now, right across the road from the William M. Thomas Terminal at Meadows Field, several things, almost all of them good, will have transpired.
The teenage boys, including me, were all on one side of the living room. The teenage girls were all grouped on the other side of the room, giggling and pointing at the shy guys. Music was playing but no one was dancing.
A woman called last week on behalf of her 90-year-old mother.
What if they threw an election and nobody ran? Taxpayers would save a lot of money, that's what. The savings would come at a different kind of cost, though.
“I think the washing machine is leaking,” Sue said.
Reader: After seeing The Californian join the Destroy Trump Media in downplaying the news of Mollie Tibbetts, the young Iowa woman who was allegedly murdered by an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, by relegating it to an Aug. 22 digest item, it is understandable that greater coverage would…
Pope Francis, guided by the Holy Spirit, knows how to shake us up.
My former boss John Arthur emailed:
Where does time go? The older I get, the faster it goes by. It seems like only a few months ago that I was shooting the dove opening day with two of my sons, and one grandson.
If it seems like the process of electing people to serve in government and education is a never-ending process, it's because it is. The political season is worse than the NBA season; at least basketball players take a couple of months off to lounge on tropical beaches. Politicians are always…
“Our County was built on Tariffs, and Tariffs are now leading us to great new Trade Deals – as opposed to the horrible and unfair Trade Deals that I inherited as your President. Other Countries should not be allowed to come in and steal the wealth of our great U.S.A. No longer!”
A friend showed up to coffee with a knife. I respected her before but gave her a wider berth than usual. There could be a reason somebody brings a knife to coffee but you want to make sure that reason isn’t you.
By their own admission, city leaders say McFarland is more of a town rather than a city, and it's a long way from being your typical suburb.
Last week 10 immigration reform activists brought their case to the Hanford home of U.S. Rep. David Valadao.
On the second to last day of vacation, I thought I saw a woman crossing the street with her left breast resting nonchalantly on the outside of her snow white blouse.
Reader: Sorry to see our Bakersfield paper go off the anti-Trump cliff with the other 300-plus lemming national papers this past Thursday ("Our View: Media here for the people," Aug. 15). If 10 of your friends call you a jerk, maybe you're a jerk. Likewise, if tens of millions of people call…
This one got to me. I was sitting at the table Thursday morning when the group text came from Sue: “RESPECT ❤️ 😢RIP Aretha.”
Exactly a week ago I asked readers to suggest what we might want to portray of ourselves to the rest of America.
All three chairs on the barbershop side of Reyna's Beauty Salon were occupied. Three young barbers cropped the necks of three young customers, and a fourth waited his turn. Everyone in this Lamont barbershop had a vote, I announced. "Pretend you're the school board. How does Lamont High Scho…
Reader: One only has to look at the front-page headlines in your Aug. 4 edition to know we've fallen full-bore into a feel-good generation. "Mini-Con brings out inner superheroes," "How not to recycle," and of world-shatteringly importance, "City seeks funds for proposed bike path along Fria…
Back in 1972 I had recently sold my tire store on the Garces circle and was in-between occupations. For years I had thought about giving shooting lessons across the country, so I decided this would be a good time to try.
My daughter and her fiancé have brought a message back from Sri Lanka, where they have been living and working: The trash problem is out-of-control. The litter of the world reaches faraway beaches, and chokes the oceans in between. My daughter describes waves of plastic refuse in the sea, so…
We may be our own worse enemies. We're certainly our own worst critics.
Who should be responsible when a public utility company’s equipment causes a wildfire: the investors who own that utility or California taxpayers, homeowners and ratepayers?
She was sitting alone on a lounge chair in the hotel pool area.
Listen to people discuss the City of Bakersfield's proposed sales tax increase and you're liable to hear complaints about employee pension obligations and other assorted government screwups and inefficiencies. If we're going to talk about taxes, that's all fair game for debate.
Reader: Bob Price's leftist view is obvious in his obsequious defense of Supervisor Leticia Perez's misdemeanor charge as an overreach by the DA ("Why is Perez's case different? Onus is on DA's office," July 25). His political leanings are at variance with any moral values his father, a chap…
The only thing to do on a hot summer day is see “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.” The movie is touching, funny, entertaining and no doubt a lot of fancy people won’t like it.
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