Well, here we go.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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…

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…

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…

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…

Grace Vallejo checked her phone as she stood up to leave for her next appointment.

Congressman Kevin McCarthy leads a double life.

Reader: This is Don Hall of Don Hall Jewelers just calling to say, what an outstanding article by Steven Mayer on the return of the Japanese-American lieutenant colonel's medals ("Yard sale purchase yields trove of military medals," July 21). Steve really hit the nail on the head. I grew up …

Fifth District Supervisor Leticia Perez, charged with criminal conflict of interest, joins a long list of local government officials, elected and appointed, who have been accused of breaching campaign laws, financial disclosure requirements or ethics standards over the years.

Well, this is unnecessary. And mighty curious.

Reader: Are you out of your minds to run this on the front page of the paper? And as the section-front headline ("Trump heads to Putin summit with no clear goal — and worries that he’ll make concessions," July 14).

A jury will ultimately decide whether Kern County Supervisor Leticia Perez, married to a pot-industry lobbyist, inappropriately cast the lone vote against an ordinance to ban commercial cannabis sales last October.

One measure of a city's economic prowess, and thus its place in the American landscape, is its access by air to and from the world beyond its borders. By that measure, Bakersfield ranks somewhere between Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and Bismarck, N.D. That is to say, just a few notches above irrelevance.

Reader: Very nice write-up on Bakersfield's Lonnie Shelton ("Everyone wanted a piece of Lonnie Shelton, and he delivered," Robert Price, July 11). I have fond memories of Lonnie when we played together at South High School on the JV basketball team. I was the starting point guard, with margi…

It must be nice to be wanted the way Lonnie Shelton was wanted. Everybody needed something from the big-hearted, big-talented kid from Foothill High School, it seemed. And he obliged them as best he could, even if it meant double duty.

Reader: I read with interest the printing of the Declaration of Independence in your July 4 paper. At the bottom of the document that we Americans so cherish are the signatures of the 56 men who signed it. Men who were putting their own lives in peril by virtue of their signatures as they we…

Reader: What never ceases to amaze me is how the 5th Column, once known as the 4th Estate, constantly attacks the majority of its readers and the businesses that employ and advertise.

Who is Kevin McCarthy working for? The answer ought to be obvious. The people of the 23rd Congressional District, of course — the folks who keep sending him back to the House of Representatives with dominating victory after dominating victory.

I have been crowned king.

Reader: Some 45 years ago I delivered The Californian as a young teen. Virtually every day for two years the front page was dominated by Watergate.

Reader: Once again, good sir, some folks are making a mountain out of a molehill with "reverse parking" or, in the parlance of all the tens of thousands of drivers in the oil and gas industry who have used this mandatory safety technique successfully for many years, "First Move Forward" park…

When Bakersfield said goodbye to Harvey Hall and Mary K. Shell, two former mayors with distinctive places in local history, the city lost, within a scant 25 days, more than just two colorful characters.

A handwritten note-to-self is taped to a shelf in Gino Valpredo's tiny office in the back of the deli at Luigi's, the east Bakersfield dining institution.

I'm an excellent driver. One of several attributes I share with Rain Man.

Reader: The world is a darker place without the likes of Charles Krauthammer and his contemporary, Christopher Hitchens. A sad day for engaged conversation.

Republican Cynthia Zimmer defeated liberal Scott Spielman in Tuesday's race for Kern County District Attorney. Do I have that right?

Don’t call her Hannah Best. Hannah is now Hannah Hamm, and it’s more than a new name. It’s the symbol of a new sense of belonging and a new direction.

Reader: My family has lived in Bakersfield since 1972, and over that time I have watched the content of The Californian slowly become rather indistinguishable from the San Francisco Chronicle. Nowhere was this more apparent than your coverage of the "1000 Flags" display honoring Memorial Day.

Cynthia Zimmer, locked in what would appear to be a close race with office colleague Scott Spielman for Kern County District Attorney, received some 11th-hour help this week that may not have been all that helpful after all: television commercials endorsing her candidacy that appeared to vio…

Another week, another round of allegations about Brandon Martin's fitness-slash-eligibility for the Kern County Superior Court bench.

Reader: A fair response to Greg Billinger ("Is pointing out Trump's homecoming 'choreography' fake-newsy?," Sound Off, May 19). But I get the point he was trying to make (about Hallie Jackson's alleged focus on the event's staged nature in her story for NBC about the three prisoners' release…

Allow me to call attention to the two men listed on your Kern County sample ballot as running for Superior Court judge. Specifically, the two vying for the open District 10 seat.