Several weeks ago, I was on a flight from South Dakota to Denver. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the Mount Rushmore State for work these days and was headed home from another brief visit. I struck up a conversation with the woman sitting next to me. Her name was Nancy.
A year ago, I bought a 13-pack of 100 percent cotton, blue Van Heusen men's fine handkerchiefs.
For an 18-year-old, Tony Garcia has a lot on his plate. Last year, when he was a student at Arvin High School, one of the football coaches noticed he could kick a soccer ball with distance and accuracy. As a defender for the school's soccer team, he could clear the ball and kick it further d…
The ball is soaring in the air, spinning toward the net and the question is, will Bakersfield score or come up with a big fat zero?
Two years ago, Mimi's Cafe was a highly visible fixture in the commercial strip of California Avenue immediately west of Highway 99. The well-loved (considering it's a chain) restaurant was a magnet for lunch traffic, owing to its appealing menu and prominent location.
Reader: I don't understand how TBC Media can endorse Mike Williams for the Kern High School District Board of Trustees, and I would like you to help me understand. A year ago Mike was angry with The Californian because you guys printed an opinion he didn't like so he threatened to pull the p…
When the women warriors who fought for equal voting rights saw the 19th Amendment become law, they probably did not imagine that 98 years later, we’d still be slogging though the swamp of sexism. But we are. Female folks, please realize that our vote matters more than ever this November.
The garage fridge finally died. It was in hospice for months and last week, we said goodbye. Services will be private and limited to me and the two dogs who mourn its passing because they knew the fridge as a repository of chicken scraps, spaghetti and meatball leftovers and rib bones.
My South High School 50th reunion website reads in part:
The column on selling Mexicali West, (the family will continue to operate the Mexicali on 18th Street), elicited this response from Rhonda Brady:
Young citizens of voting age need to understand their rights and responsibilities in this democracy thing, and I’m always happy to give them a little shove in the right direction.
Craig Buckey is more popular than usual Thursdays at 3 p.m. when he picks up 50 chocolate and vanilla milkshakes from Dewar’s and then passes them out to the BHS varsity football team in the parking lot in front of the locker and weight rooms. On Thursdays, Buckey could run for president.
We've all heard about the fake news that propagandists in Russia, Macedonia, Romania and elsewhere dropped into America's scarcely regulated social media network in the run-up to the 2016 election.
After filling up at the station on the corner of 23rd and F across from McDonalds, I locked the Jeep and went inside the store to buy a water. A tank of gas, a bottle of ice-cold Smart Water, what else did I need?
Last winter I received a phone call from one of my friends in Southern California, Jake Brower.
Not a single vote has been cast in the closely watched race for 4th District Kern County supervisor, but Delano Mayor Grace Vallejo has a big lead in the second-most important measure of electoral success — money.
Today, the Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies 5-2 to clinch the division title. It took every bit of the 163 nail-chewing games, but they prevailed. Pop the champagne, don the victory caps and above all, give thanks to the baseball gods who do not always cooperate.
Is it murder if somebody deserves it and I thought about it on Machu Picchu? Rather than calling it murder, which can be prone to misunderstanding and hurt feelings, maybe we could consider it human sacrifice in the Incan tradition of purification.
They were perhaps 500 feet apart when the shooting started: Three Bakersfield women, each unknown to the other two, at the same outdoor concert. Then, in that instant, they became forever bound by a shared horror: the same blind panic, the same logic-stifling terror, the same stark awareness…
Reader: This Ramon Escobar, who is suspected of the killings and severe beatings of homeless people in Southern California, is not from Houston, he’s from El Salvador. He is an illegal alien invader who, by the way, had been previously deported at least five times.
My reaction to the recent reports of the university professor who accused a Supreme Court nominee of decades-ago sexual assault: You can do that?
For dinner, I chose one of my best black shirts. The short-sleeved kind, one size too small, the sort that delivers an impression of fitness. Black focuses the attention on the black shirt rather than on a white, lumpy face.
This fall Californians will vote on dozens of very important, semi-important and marginally important political races and issues. They will, for example, elect a governor, reconstitute the state's Congressional delegation and decide whether to fund an $8.9 billion water bond.
Recently, Sue found a shoebox full of letters. The box was buried under an avalanche of scrapbooks, children’s art and photo collages mounted on white poster paper celebrating important birthdays. The letters were postmarked between 1980 to 1982.
David Couch is hoping voters in the newly formed 4th district Kern County Board of Supervisors will look kindly toward his record in public office.
Dick Taylor joined the Marines at a difficult time. Not because the U.S. military was putting its finest in harm's way, as it must sometimes do. The fighting in Vietnam had ended.
Recently, we went to Peru. Our seats from LAX to Lima were near the front. The flight was two-thirds full, which meant it could be open season for seat poaching.
Reader: Reference is made to Robert Price's Sept. 19 column, "It’s not easy to admit you’re a victim of sexual assault.” While the main theme of the piece is easy to identify, consistent with the headline — and well argued by Price, as usual in his works — there is an underlying theme that, …
If you’re a Catholic in these difficult times, it’s a good bet that your non-Catholic friends are asking you: “Why do you stay?”
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.
During all the years I was shooting competition skeet during the 1960s and 70s, I had heard about a great shoot that was held every year in Chicago called the Great Western.
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.
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