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Shari Rightmer calls it her Forrest Gump moment.
Don’t read this before 7 a.m. Sleep in — it’s Sunday. Sleep in, catch up and heal. You need it like a cat needs a pant leg.
Reader: It’s very obvious the new owners of TBC are anti-oil, anti-Bakersfield and anti-Kern County. When an oil leak in McKittrick is front-page news ("Governor promises balanced approach after touring McKittrick-area oil leak," July 25) I have to think newsworthy stories are not their focus.
Bakersfield is a hot place, an oceanless place and a place with more than its share of August-loving mosquitoes, but a good place, too.
The Kern River Valley has one of the most severe opioid problems in California. One particularly stricken burg in the area, Wofford Heights, has an opioid overdose rate five times the national average.
Cop Tales are true stories as told by law enforcement officers from all over the country. The stories are told in the first person. The actual officer’s initials follow each story.
As she has done nearly every weekday for the past several years, Lorraine Hernandez sat next to me on the stationary bike at 24 Hour Fitness last Monday to begin her workout. After some morning small talk, and almost as though she were asking me to pass the sugar, she said, “I’m jumping out …
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Kern County's days as a capital of crude oil production are numbered. California is seeing to that. Bakersfield hasn't reached the end of that road but we can see the T intersection ahead in the distance.
How many passwords do I have? I’m not sure. I’d rather not think about it except there is no not thinking about passwords unless you want to jump on an ice floe and drift toward the sunset.
As I age, I am learning in a personal way about all the things that can go wrong with the human body as it progresses through its time on planet Earth. Take knees, for example. The marvelously complex knee is the largest joint in the human body, joining the thigh bone, or femur, to the calf …
Reader: Your criticism of Rep. Kevin McCarthy was disappointing ("McCarthy's tired talking points on gun violence," Aug. 7).
We’re like jerky in August. Leathery, cooked all the way through and lightly salted on the outside.
Most of my readers will remember the times in past columns that I have mentioned the name of one of my closest friends for almost 60 years, Ron Hurlbert.
Batteries. I have them everywhere. Upstairs in the top left desk drawer, downstairs in the sideboard and scattered behind the votive candles in the laundry room.
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Three years ago, in the wake of yet another mass shooting, a reader submitted an op-ed commentary to The Californian that laid out his thoughts on this national scourge.
My Chromebook died over the weekend. Computers are like dogs. Usually, they get sick over the weekend when the only remedy is the weekend vet at double the price.
The charming little Kern County mountain town of Tehachapi has one and only one big box store: A Kmart on West Tehachapi Boulevard. At the moment, anyway.
Let’s say you are driving on a four-lane road. There are two cars ahead of you, one beside you, and two behind you. Studies say chances are high one of the six cars has no automobile insurance. Not “too little” automobile insurance. None, zero, zilch.
The text was terse: “My windshield shattered as we drove on Union this morning. The car is at Esther’s and the key is in the mailbox.”
Reader: As Will Rogers used to say, “All I know is what I read in the newspapers.” I imagine he did get a lot of useful information in the 1920s and '30s and this info was a good source for his humor. But today, thank God, we have social media, the internet and other venues that supply a gre…
My father-in-law John is one heck of a guy. He’s told me that himself. And if he hadn’t, his wife, Bev, known by appreciative family members as the saint, would confirm it.
Ken Burns may be the smartest person I’ve ever met but it’s not like we’re super good friends. We shook hands. He couldn’t pick me out of a one-person lineup, but I could him, even if he were flanked by Rhodes Scholars and astrophysicists.
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One day 20 years ago, a slightly flustered UPS driver asked Margaret Hoover for directions. She’d seen him drive past her house three times already, so she wasn’t surprised when he stopped. “So,” he said, trying to get his bearings. “This is 621 Walnut Drive?”
Cop Tales are true stories as told by law enforcement officers from all over the country. The stories are told in the First Person. The actual officer’s initials follow each story.
A couple of hard hitting issues directly impacting millions of people in the country, state and in Kern County came to light recently both involving bad and good news.
During a recent visit to Mammoth to see my mother, she dropped a box of Milton's Multi-Grain crackers in the kitchen. She lost her grip on the rectangular package and it fell, dislodging five or six crackers which skittered and broke on the floor.
Reader: So the Big Enchilada for The Californian gives his journalistic take on Jose ("Who killed audacious, driven Jose Arredondo, and why?," July 21). A large portion is dedicated to salacious speculation — based on unsubstantiated rumors started by other, green-with-envy car dealers.
“‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’
I grabbed the frozen cinnamon raisin bagel from the freezer and tapped it on the counter. The bagel was as hard as a hockey puck. Good thing we have a big, powerful Whirlpool microwave that has been a source of pride since it was installed six years ago.
Some years ago during the Ken Barnes Open Skeet Championships, a friend of mine, Robert Burnham and I were talking about old waterfowl hunts we had been on.
When Matty Roberts invited his Facebook audience to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," he accomplished several things:
Somebody called me an idiot recently. Had it been a friend, I would have understood and perhaps even agreed with him, but he was a stranger, so there were questions.
The grandiose, arched entrance into the Cabo Real Golf Club resort community has no gates.
The repair man walked into our living room this morning to fix our refrigerator. It was Thursday and our first day back from our annual Wavehog Central Coast beach camping trip. Ice chest, camping chairs and canopies littered our entryway and living room. I asked him to please be careful and…
Cop Tales are true stories as told by law enforcement officers from all over the country. The stories are told in the first person. The actual officer’s initials follow each story.
He’s way too modest to think I’d write about him, but I’m not waiting until he’s dead. As fit and healthy as he is, he will probably outlive me and I will have lost my chance altogether.
Reader: I see that Bakersfield College has closed the Latinx gap ("Bakersfield College earns Student Success award," July 17). The article uses the term "Latinx," which I'm reading as "Lah-teenks." I think this ought to be explained to us. My guess is that the term is intended to replace the…
After completing Bakersfield High School in 2011, Daniela Miramontes was anxious to go to college. She earned grades good enough to get into Cal State Bakersfield, but there was a major hurdle. She had no money, and as an undocumented student her chances of obtaining financial aid from publi…
People were inspired by Joe Seay, they admired him and some were afraid of him. Brothers Mike and Ron Valenti wrote about Seay’s life and recent passing.
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Mr. and Mrs. Waddell couldn't have known it at the time, but the sight of their 2-year-old son Willard atop the 30-foot-tall windmill that pumped water for their southeastern Nebraska farm was a glimpse into the future.
There is tough, there is Bakersfield tough and then there was Joe Seay.
Two important groups will find this story relevant to their daily lives:
Cop Tales are true stories as told by law enforcement officers from all over the country. The stories are told in the first person. The actual officer’s initials follow each story.
Forty years is a good run. Forty is enough to span two generations of parents, thousands of children and produce a parade of memories.
Reader: I was born and raised in Bakersfield. I am 77 years old. In his article, Steven Mayer ("Some tried to burn him out, but 'Uncle' Larry still in Oildale 50 years on," July 12) stated that 50 years ago there was a sign telling colored people to leave Oildale by sundown.
If you know me, you may not believe that I would ever write these words, but I have become a fan of Kim Kardashian. Believe me: It’s a shock to me, too. I have never had any interest in Keeping Up with the Kardashians, although pop culture news is often so salted with references to the Karda…
Most of my readers realize that I do not claim to be a fisherman. I have only written a couple of columns about this activity over the months.
The Bakersfield City Council is about to embark on an undertaking that will determine the city's direction like no other single decision in recent memory: Finding the right person to call the shots.
I’m in love. Not romantic love, not leave-your-wife love, but Lord, am-I-impressed-love.
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