December 2008 Archives

I'm a big fan of Mix Bowl Cafe, a Thai restaurant in Pomona, as some of you know (because I see you there). Finishing up a long-range project, I recently ate the only four menu items, out of 144, that I hadn't tried. Why did I eat every item on the menu? Because it was there.

You can read that piece Friday. In the meantime, you can read the menu online, which is accompanied by an achingly slow slide show of photos of the colorful restaurant. You can also read reviews on Yelp. They run the gamut from love-it to hate-it but average out to 3.5 stars out of 5, which is about right.

This is the biggest 2008 I've seen. And after the up-and-down year we've had, maybe the location (on North Garey Avenue in Pomona) is appropriate somehow.

Readers with sharp memories may recall a fanciful column of mine from New Year's Day 2006 consisting of an imagined (duh) dialogue among various Inland Valley statuary. You can read that one by clicking below.

Wednesday's column is a New Year's Eve reprise of that strange idea. I'll be interested to hear whether people like it or think it's the biggest waste of space since, well, whatever my last column was.

This is old news, I'm afraid, but I only now heard about it: Old Baldy Brewing Co., 271 N. 2nd Ave. in downtown Upland, is out of business.

It's been a long time since I'd been there, but the bar, which opened circa 1994, became a mainstay of downtown. I first visited in '98 or so. Something of a dive, although less so than the Sea Cove used to be, Old Baldy had decent grub besides brewing its own beer, which was good enough to win some awards. The bar occasionally hosted bands or standup. Some co-workers saw rising band Abe Vigoda there a few months back.

A friend used to live in the apartments above the brewery, which was cause for envy, although he said it was no picnic trying to sleep anytime before 2 a.m.

Comments on Yelp shed some light on the bar's history. Its MySpace page indicates the place was taken over earlier this year by the former Margarita Beach owner, who planned to change the name to 2nd Avenue Saloon. I stopped by last night and saw by the sign in the window that the alcohol license transfer to that new name is pending.

(The street, btw, was about as devoid as life as I've seen it, although there is a bar virtually next door to Old Baldy named Dallison's that looked lively. I have a sneaking suspicion the D is a joke on the D'Uplanders banquet hall across the street.)

As we belatedly bid farewell to Old Baldy Brewing Co., anyone have any comments about or memories to share concerning its decor, its characters, its owners, etc.?

Reader Gene Harvey phoned to tell me KFI-AM quoted from my Top 10 strange news of 2008 column, attributing the countdown simply to the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, yours truly not being a household name. Well, nice of KFI to let me speak for the entire newspaper, I guess.

Harvey said the station referenced items 10 (the road rage chaplain), 9 (Ontario confusion) and then jumped to No. 1 (Thanksgiving at Condit Elementary).

"Too bad they didn't mention your name. That would have been kind of fun," Harvey said.

Yes (sob!), it would have.

This week's restaurant: Tokyo Wako, 4480 Ontario Mills Parkway (at Franklin), Ontario.

This teppan grill restaurant is in a minimall on the south side of the Mills. A fire pit near the entrance provides a place to warm up if you're waiting to be seated. I don't know if that's ever the case in this economy: A friend and I were seated immediately on a Tuesday night around 8 p.m. and the restaurant was mostly empty.

The interior, however, is enormous: a large sushi bar and dining area as well as a large teppanyaki room. And it's lovely too, even if the koi "river" (a la Tokyo Tokyo) was dry.

The special is worth trying: For $29.95, two can have the full teppan experience with both chicken and steak, plus soup, salad and rice. The results were pretty good, too.

But one has to ask: What is the point? Benihana does the exact same thing. And I mean the exact same thing. The grill seating, the soup, the salad, the shrimp appetizer, the vegetables (zucchini, onion, mushrooms and bean sprouts), it's awfully familiar. Ditto with the chef's tricks, which mostly involve randomly knocking various implements and containers against the edge of the grill, and making the de rigeur onion volcano.

The food at Tokyo Wako was fine, the decor was a cut above Benihana and you can probably be seated faster. But how about a bit more wako?

View the menu here.

There are a series of columns I always do at year's end, and one of them is a countdown of the Inland Valley's Top 10 strange news stories. Feel free to mull over the possibilities as you await Sunday's column. I believe the same issue may include my annual compilation of the year's most interesting quotes.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Friday column. This one has items about "Magic Christmas Tree" (see below), last week's L.A. Philharmonic concert in Pomona, the Ontario council and Tom Waits. That's more varied than Santa's bag of goodies. Ho ho ho and Merry Christmas.

NPR and Slate teamed up for a feature titled "The Best Merry Scary Christmas Movies," the capper of which was "Magic Christmas Tree," an ultra-low budget movie from 1964 described by reporter Marc Jordan Legan as an example of "deeply rich bad cinema."

"Shot in lovely La Verne, Calif.," Legan says, the movie "looks like it was made for about 12 bucks."

The plot involves a boy who rescues a cat from a tree for a woman reputed to be a witch. He falls, hits his head and the movie suddenly, a la "Wizard of Oz," switches from B&W to color. The witch gives him a ring with a secret compartment holding a magic seed that, if planted "beneath the wishbone of a Thanksgiving turkey in the dark of the moon," will become "a magic Christmas tree."

Soon, the magic Christmas tree indeed appears. "And of course, since it's magic, it can talk!" Legan enthuses. But, he wonders, why does it have "the voice of an irritated antiques dealer"?

Be that as it may, the movie takes an even stranger turn when the boy wanders into the woods and is accosted by a burly giant, who nearly kidnaps the boy. ("Suddenly 'Magic Christmas Tree' turns into 'Deliverance,'" Legan says.) The boy escapes and promises never to be greedy again. Gosh, how heartwarming.

Legan advises showing "Magic Christmas Tree" toward the end of a holiday party if guests won't take the hint to leave.

Perhaps, but now I really want to see "Magic Christmas Tree." Listen to the NPR story's audio and then watch the video here.

Thanks to readers Don J. and Eric, we also have a 9-minute YouTube clip. Eric advises to let the thing load and then skip ahead to 5:15, when we get four straight minutes of La Verne circa 1964. I see signs for Mellin's, a cafe named Pat's and something that looks like Millions, plus the Fire Department.

Can any longtime La Verne residents clue us in about the route taken and the landmarks seen?

At Trader Joe's in Claremont, there's a "wish tree": a Christmas tree decorated with tags on which customers have penned their Christmas wish. I think Yoko Ono (of all people) may have created the idea: She had a wish tree in Old Town Pasadena earlier this year.

The wishes on the Claremont tree are alternately funny, sweet, poignant and greedy. I stood there Monday evening jotting them all down and in Wednesday's column I present virtually all of them for your edification and amusement.

The store on South Garey * is scheduled to close tonight. I was there Saturday, snapping up more DVD bargains. The price then was 60 percent off, which was set to rise to 70 percent on Sunday and 80 percent today.

Pickings were becoming slim on Saturday -- which is part of the fun in these things -- but I got the first season of "Saturday Night Live" for $20 (regularly $50) and the ninth season of "Seinfeld" for $16 (regularly $40). I also picked up a few $10 movies for $4, including the last copy of "Million Dollar Baby," and "I'm Not There" for $8.80 rather than $21.

If you have a fan of "24" on your shopping list, there were multiple seasons still available Saturday, more than of any other TV series. Jack Bauer apparently isn't as hot as he used to be.

The store's address is 2735 S. Towne -- strangely, since the main entrance is off Garey.

I was reminded, however, that chasing discounts can be fruitless. I already wrote about excitedly buying seasons 4 to 6 of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" for 40 percent off, or $20.99 rather than $34.99. Since then most copies were sold, so it's not like I acted too rashly. But I saw all the seasons at Rhino Records on Saturday for $20 each, new.

Just when I'd stopped kicking myself -- besides saving 99 cents each, I'd rather have given my dough to a local store anyway -- I saw Sunday's circular for Best Buy, which is pricing every season at $17.50.

Oh well. Even $20.99 is pretty cheap, isn't it?

Chino Hills' new Council Chambers seats more than 100 and has overflow seating for another 50 or so, plus plenty of standing room. A sign gives the maximum capacity as 214.

City spokeswoman Denise Cattern told me the room is available for rent, and I know who ought to rent it out: Pomona. Its cramped chambers are half the size of Chino Hills' -- even though Pomona has twice the population.

Even a moderately attended meeting like Dec. 15's filled the room in Pomona, forcing some to watch on TV from the lobby.

Someday I'd like to know why Pomona's '60s leaders, visionaries in many ways, approved such a puny room. Even Montclair has a larger meeting space, I think. It's hard to believe Pomona's space was adequate even in 1968, not to mention looking ahead to future growth.

Not only is the room small, but the rows of seats are closer to each other than in a movie theater. It's all but impossible for anyone to squeeze into a row without everyone else standing up or moving into the aisle for them to pass. People must have been shorter in the '60s.

(Remodeling wouldn't seem to be an option. With a round building, you can't really add on.)

However, the exterior is kinda cool, even if the reflecting pool around the building's perimeter was replaced years ago with plants. I like the Pomona Civic Center complex quite a bit -- the architect was Welton Becket -- with its City Hall, Council Chambers, Library, Courthouse, Police and Fire stations and Health Center.

But the council-meeting seating, it must be said, is perhaps the Inland Valley's least comfortable.

This week's restaurant: Connal's, 1226 W. 7th St. (at Mountain), Upland.

Connal's, which opened Dec. 11, took over the building that housed Mi Taco, a beloved Mexican drive-thru, from 1966 until early 2007. Readers reacted with shock and horror when I broke the news of its passing. I had no idea. When a reader passed along the recipe for the signature dish, the Matador Salad, clipped and saved from an old Daily Report food page, nearly 200 people wrote me requesting a copy.

Connal's is an interesting story itself, which I will share in Sunday's column. In brief, it was founded in 1958 in Pasadena and the Upland location is the first expansion in its 50-year existence.

The menu is enormous for a drive-thru burger joint, highlighted by burgers, grinders (or subs, if you prefer), salads, Mexican dishes, hot sandwiches, dinner plates, hot dogs and ice cream. They have flavored sodas, floats, freezes and shakes, including specialty flavors such as pineapple-banana and chocolate-peanut butter. I count 204 items in all.

I went in for lunch during Monday's downpour. The counterwoman was exceptionally polite; this wasn't the robotic service one tends to get. I had a tuna melt ($4.39), onion rings ($2.99) and small drink ($1.29).

It was a decent tuna melt, wrapped in paper and cut in half. The onion rings came on a plate, piled high. I ate probably a dozen, which to me is more than enough onion rings for any normal person, and then counted how many I was throwing out: 14.

Last year, I tried the Connal's in Pasadena and had a burger and fries. The serving of fries was similarly generous, and again, at least half went in the trash. Tip: One serving of fries or onion rings would serve two people, or even three or four.

The Upland interior is white tile, with red accents; it's vaguely In-N-Outish, except the twin archways separating the counter from the small seating area -- six booths, five tables -- remain, charmingly, from the Mi Taco days. There's some nostalgia kitsch on the walls. The exterior is now painted white, and cleaned up, but Connal's still looks a lot like Mi Taco. Which itself looked like a Taco Bell, even though it wasn't.

Nice to have a bit of Pasadena out in Upland.

You can view the menu on the Connal's website.

"Read David Allen" this week became "Laugh With David Allen." (Let's see what Charles Bentley can do with that phrase.) Better "Laugh With" than "Laugh At," I have to say.

When I took this photo Thursday morning, I heard an amplified voice say, "Good job, David Allen." I turned but saw nothing. Was it my imagination?

Later in the day, an Ontario police acquaintance phoned to ask if I'd thought it was the voice of God. It was him, speaking through his car's loudspeaker as he drove by. Except he really said, "Get a job, David Allen."

He then asked me if I was doing a comedy show at the Granada or something. Nope, they're just giving me a free plug. Again.

Let me return the favor by noting the venue's "Rock for Tots" concert tonight from 6 to 11 p.m., featuring eight local bands. Admission is $5 plus an unwrapped toy. The toys will be given to the police and fire departments for their toy drive, venue operator Dave Perez says.

You think Pomona's got political intrigue? Well, it does, of course. But Ontario is giving Pomona a run for its money. It's just that Ontario's electeds are quieter.

Tuesday's council meeting seemed like a low-key affair, without dissension. I suspect the high school students in the audience for class credit were bored. What was really going on, however, was fascinating. And juvenile.

Read Friday's column for the full story, or at least as much of it as yours truly could dope out.

Jim Strodtbeck, Ontario's redevelopment director, is retiring, it was announced at Tuesday's council meeting. Which makes this as good a time as any to share a Strodtbeck story.

I know he's a reader; once or twice I've bumped into him on his lunch hour, eating solo and reading a book, as I ate solo and read a New Yorker.

A few weeks ago, he approached me before a council meeting, opened his briefcase and handed me Larry McMurtry's new memoir, "Books," about his life as a bookstore owner and bookhunter. Strodtbeck said he hadn't known who to give the book to once he'd finished but then thought of me. "I've marked a particular section for you," he said slyly.

The back flap was used to mark a page in which McMurtry talked about finding a rare copy of "Moby-Dick." (You may recall that I read the book earlier this year.)

As McMurtry tells it, the British edition of "Moby-Dick" had always been published in three volumes, and a certain editor, one Charles Reade, had been tasked with reducing the novel by two-thirds to fit into one book. The copy McMurtry viewed was Reade's working copy, the book he had marked up with passages for deletion.

Such deletions began on the first page.

"Charles Reade was not a man to be intimidated by a mere American classic," McMurtry wrote.

"He began his editorial work by drawing a bold line through 'Call me Ishmael.' "

Now that's editing.

Thanks for the laugh, Jim, and enjoy retirement.

I was reading on our RC Now blog that the "Stud Muffins" authors appeared Tuesday morning on KTLA's morning news show. Good for them! Co-author Judi Guizado of Rancho Cucamonga is a longtime friend of this blog, as well as of my column. The book is a collection of muffin recipes paired with beefcake photos, hence the clever title.

I immediately went to her blog, Judi's Journal, hoping she'd written about the KTLA gig, but no such luck; the last entry is from a month ago. But it's about a KLOS radio appearance, which can't be that different.

Judi's a very funny writer and it's way past time I found an excuse to link to her blog. Especially since she was kind enough, in her blog roll, to put a link to my blog near a link to Dave Barry's blog. I feel funnier just by the association. (Hers might be the world's only blog that links to both Dave Barry and Martha Stewart.)

There were no TV cameras at Monday's Pomona council meeting, but an L.A. Times reporter and photographer were present, and so were two bloggers. You can read the bloggers' accounts here and here. And you can read my account on Wednesday.

In line Sunday at the Claremont Laemmle 5 to see "Slumdog Millionaire," I heard the older guy in front of me request a ticket to the new Kristin Scott Thomas flick, as follows:

Man: "One for 'I've Loved You So Long.'"

Male employee in booth: "What?"

Man, louder: "'I've Loved You So Long'!"

Add your possible comebacks below. I'll start: "Thanks. Now, what movie would you like to see?"

Circuit City in Pomona continues its everything-must-go sale. On Sunday, the store was looking a little bare of TVs, cameras and such. I suspect the store will close within days.

DVDs were 40 percent off and that section was seeing plenty of action. If you're a fan of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," at least one set from each season was available, at $20.99 rather than $34.99. They were stocked in depth on seasons 4 and 6. (I bought 4 to 6, the only ones I needed, and also seasons 2 and 3 of "Arrested Development.")

There's also plenty of copies of "Seinfeld" season 9 at $23.99 rather than $39.99. But on that one, I'm holding off until the sale gets to 50 percent. It's the only set I need, but it wasn't a good year.

I've written here and in my column about the demise of the Comic Bookie, the longtime Claremont comic book emporium. But owner Chris Peterson is back with a new venture: a pop culture and comics show in the Claremont Packing House, scheduled for Saturday.

He calls it the Los Angeles Comic Con -- at least, as he puts it, "until somebody gives us grief about it." The name was available, so why not? Visit the website, www.losangelescomic-con.com.

"We're hoping to pull in the L.A. crowd as well as the Inland Empire and Orange County," Peterson said.

The Packing House is letting him and co-organizer Erik von Wodtke use most of the common area in the complex, both inside and out, giving them space for approximately 28 vendor booths. As of Friday they had 16 confirmed vendors, filling the entire indoor area, a pretty good start. The Claremont Forum is helping underwrite the show.

Peterson said that vendors include Chino's Comic Madness, several back-issue sellers, the Claremont gaming store Gameology and himself, whose 200-square-foot space will be reminiscent of his former 700-square-foot shop, which closed in October.

Danny Miki, a Marvel Comics artist, will be at the show from 11 a.m. to noon.

Peterson has a four-month deal at the Packing House and hopes to put on shows the third Saturday of each month. He hopes the show grows to include movie previews and more guests. In the meantime, the first show sounds like fun. Admission is free, so what have we got to lose?

"It's just before Christmas. Get your shopping done, get something to eat and get your geek on," Peterson advises.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Claremont Packing House, on First Street a block west of Indian Hill Boulevard.

Now playing at Claremont's Laemmle 5: Perhaps the artiest lineup yet. This week's movies are "Slumdog Millionaire," "Milk," "Australia," "A Christmas Tale" (from France, starring Catherine Deneuve) and "I've Loved You So Long" (also from France, starring Kristin Scott Thomas).

If you want Laemmle to play sophisticated fare in Claremont, this would be a good week to vote with your pocketbook.

While word was beginning to spread Tuesday afternoon about the Pomona police chief's ouster, I was obliviously driving to Chino Hills for a tour of the city's new City Hall.

Well, it needed to be seen at some point. Especially for me, as a critic of sorts of Council Chambers, having visited so many of them. The room is quite impressive, with plenty of seating and a dais that must be seen to be believed.

The press, by the way, is given a nook with a table and leather chairs. As a self-hating newspaperman, I couldn't bring myself to sit there. It was too nice. I sat in the audience with the hoi polloi; maybe I can work myself up to the luxury seating next visit.

Behind the Council Chambers is a sophisticated audio-visual control room, with a sound mixing board, a recording booth and joystick controls of the chambers' cameras. (Perplexingly, despite all the gear, meetings are still not broadcast live.)

Rather than the cameras on tripods, each trailing cords, that they had in the old Council Chambers, the new room has four hidden cameras. "They're HD," Cattern whispered.

I hope council members are ready for their closeup.

Look for more about my tour, and the novelty of a City Hall next to an outdoor mall, on Sunday.

This week's restaurant: La Parolaccia, 201 N. Indian Hill Blvd. (at 2nd), Claremont.

This is the newest restaurant in the Village Expansion, an "osteria Italiana" (with a second location in Long Beach) whose name is said to translate, amusingly, as "bad language." The restaurant, which opened a couple of months ago, took off immediately -- the place always seems to be jumping -- and I finally visited with a friend Thursday evening. We made reservations for 7 p.m. and reservations turned out to be a good idea, as even on a Thursday the restaurant was almost full.

They have a selection of pizzas cooked in a wood-burning oven, some with unusual ingredients such as eggplant, smoked salmon, yellow squash and goat cheese. Pastas include ravioli, linguine and fettucine, often with pesto, olive oil or other non-marinara treatments.

We had the Napoletana pizza ($12.50) with tomato sauce, mozzarella, capers, black olives and anchovies, and the linguine con i frutti di mare ($18.50), with fresh seafood. The latter was essentially a bowl of seafood (scallops, shrimp, clams, etc.) with a dollop of linguine and was quite good. The pizza, after I got past my unrealistic expectations that it would be as creative as Pizzeria Mozza's in L.A., proved quite good as well, thin and crisp.

For dessert, the waitress recommended bread pudding ($9), which came with a scoop of gelato. She was on the money.

The meal didn't proceed without hiccups: Perhaps the waitress hadn't understood your soft-spoken blogger's order, because we got a different linguine; it was returned and out came the right one, except, kitchen's fault, they forgot to add the pasta. But this was quickly remedied and we were charged for the initial, mistaken dish, which was $4.75 cheaper, leaving nothing to object to.

I'd rank La Parolaccia among the valley's better Italian restaurants, given the creative menu, but would like to reserve special praise for the location and atmosphere. Tables are close together, but not too close, so you get a friendly buzz from a roomful of people unseparated by booths or partitions. Service was friendly and prompt.

And from the exterior, the enormous windows show off people having a good time, in close proximity to a sidewalk, busy street and movie theater. It's both urban and urbane. As a pedestrian I've seen other passersby cast an envious glance inside or closely examine the menu posted outside. La Parolaccia seems like a restaurant in Pasadena, not Claremont. I'm glad it's here instead.

Jesus is back, and Ontario has him. No, he's not coming to the Citizens Business Bank Arena. Mixing with the masses, he's downtown on Euclid Avenue in the annual Nativity display, a tradition for 49 years, where you can see him for free.

The figure takes the place of one stolen in 2005 from the final scene, depicting the adult Jesus.

I also have a Pomona update and -- why not? -- a James Bond update. Look for all this in Friday's paper.

I get discouraged by L.A.'s inconvenient public transit and the decades it will take to remedy it. Then again, even the limited range of options offers fertile ground to explore.

On Sunday a friend and I took Metrolink from Pomona to Union Station and via Red Line subway 1) saw "Frost/Nixon" at the Cinerama Dome, the only theater in town showing it, and 2) ate at one of food critic Jonathan Gold's "LA 99" restaurants, Bahn Thung.

The movie, playing a short walk from the Hollywood and Vine station, is terrific. The food, across the street from the Vermont and Santa Monica station, ditto.

No. 34, the crispy rice salad, was a riot of contrasting textures and tastes. No. 98, pla lui suan, a trout under mixed herbs, and No. 108, gang omp, a Thai curry, were exemplary too. The restaurant is unprepossessing but the food was more creative than Inland Valley Thai places.

Afterward we took the Red Line to the Vermont and Sunset stop to walk around Thai Town a few minutes before going back to Union Station to catch the 7:45 train home.

This was the first time I'd ever gotten off at the two Vermont stops. There are several more stations I've never seen, and I should.

It's not that I don't drive, but rather, as Bartleby the scrivener put it, I would prefer not to. Nice to be reminded that, even if most of L.A. is rail-less, there are still riches within reach for urban explorers from the distant suburbs.

After the news about Pomona Police Chief Joe Romero being ousted, I thought I'd better write something now rather than wait for Friday. And so I did. Look for that special column Thursday.

And here I thought Ontario was becoming more vicious and political than Pomona. Well, like I always say, never count Pomona out.

Now playing at the Granada, 303 N. Euclid Ave., Ontario: a free plug. Thanks, guys.

Pomona swore in Elliott Rothman as mayor Saturday in a ceremony in the council chambers.

Among other comments, the former District 5 councilman thanked supporters -- including Tim Saunders, who is likely to be appointed to Rothman's empty council seat -- and said smooth streets, clean neighborhoods and safe schools will be his goal.

"You're all going to have a nice place to live," Rothman told the audience. "And you're all going to say, 'I'm proud to live in Pomona.' "

Even those District 5 residents who insist they live in Phillips Ranch?

Look for that and more in Wednesday's column.

A large pit on Pomona's West Second Street downtown was dug for a condo project by Watt Development Co. early this year, and that's as far as the project got before the housing market crashed. Some think the pit, which takes up half a square block, is an eyesore and would rather see it filled and turned into a sculpture garden.

At lunch Monday I was reading a Talk of the Town item in the Dec. 8 New Yorker about NYC's own construction pits. Let me quote the relevant portion:

"What will become of the pits? Can we turn them into half-wild swimming holes, like the granite quarries of New England? Ring them with barbed wire and convert them into debtors' prisons or internment camps for the culprits who structured synthetic C.D.O.s? They'd make excellent ha-has, for livery horses or livestock. Corn mazes. Extreme-cockfighting arenas. Or perhaps they could serve, over time, as urban tar pits, entrapping and preserving in garbage and white brick dust the occasional unlucky passerby for the scientific edification of future generations, if there turn out to be any. Or they could become parking lots.

"Vacant space tends to remain vacant, in anticipation of an upswing. Tax policy, inertia, and the eternal belief that things will get better (profitable) again usually trump civic dreams of pocket parks or stickball fields."

An extreme-cockfighting arena has merit, though.

Walking through the tunnel in L.A.'s Union Station on Sunday night, I saw a poster-like advertisement for a downtown condo project. Alongside photos and text was the above phrase, paired with a phone number, which was enticing for all the wrong reasons.

Who doesn't secretly wish to view models?

On Saturday afternoon, I went to Pomona to bear mute witness to the swearing in of the new mayor, Elliott Rothman. The Council Chambers were packed, with more people spilling into the lobby and outside. Afterward there was cake and the chance to catch up with people I hadn't seen in a while. More on the ceremony in Wednesday's column.

After a late lunch downtown, I went to the Circuit City on South Garey that's closing. I snagged two Christmas presents on the cheap and several CDs for myself at 40 percent off.

Like I said, a gala day.

You know of singer Tom Waits? If not, you can skim his Wikipedia page.

Legend has it the cult favorite was born in Pomona; more specifically, legend has it he was born in a taxicab in Pomona. Is any of it true? Learn the results of my hard-hitting historical inquiry in Sunday's column.

This week's restaurant: Dickey's Barbecue Pit, 9670 Haven Ave. (at Trademark), Rancho Cucamonga.

Dickey's opened recently in one of the new buildings just north of the aloft hotel at Haven and Fourth. It's in the same modern-minimalist style as the hotel with steel and big windows. The interior is done in orange, burgundy and chocolate; you order at the counter and everything looks clean and shiny.

Of course, a purist will argue that barbecue should only be consumed in a shack with a corrugated tin roof and a smoker out back that looks like a piece of a steam locomotive. I can empathize, and you are hereby directed to Red Hill BBQ, across town but a world away in ambience.

But back to Dickey's, which if it has a barbecue pit, as the name indicates, it's probably tasteful and scrubbed clean twice daily. They have six meats -- brisket, Polish sausage, pork ribs and the like -- and prices are for a sandwich with zero, one or two sides or for a plate with two sides and one, two or three meats.

I got the pulled pork sandwich with two sides ($8.59): cole slaw and mac and cheese. The meal arrived switfly. Some would say the pulled park was too fine in texture, and perhaps that a 4-oz. portion was too small. But I enjoyed it, and with the two sides, it made for a filling meal. It's convenient to our office and I would go back.

Drinks come in one size only, in a yellow plastic 32-oz. cup, for $1.99.

Free with each meal are pickles -- serve yourself from a giant jar -- and soft-serve ice cream, a nice touch. And kids eat free on Sundays.

Dickey's is a family-run chain started in Dallas in 1941, according to its website. The original Mr. Dickey probably never guessed his descendants would one day have a restaurant in Cucamonga.

The Ontario City Council is no Ontario-Montclair School Board in the excitement department, but Tuesday's council meeting showed that the traditional honeymoon period after an election lasted minutes, not months.

The swearing-in of one new member, Debra Dorst-Porada, seems to have emboldened councilmen Jim Bowman and Alan Wapner, who have been in the minority the past few months. They made moves that night to assert themselves and turn the tables on Mayor Paul Leon and Councilwoman Sheila Mautz, who suddenly seem to be standing on shaky ground.

Toward meeting's end, Dorst-Porada declared cheerfully, "I think we're going to have a really great four years."

Leon and Mautz were probably thinking of that Lone Ranger joke that ends: "What do you mean 'we,' kemosabe?"

Cold Stone Creamery in Claremont's westside-of-Indian-Hill development (the name for which nobody can agree on) closed Sunday, the latest in a string of failures there that includes children's clothing store Chloe and Hunter and women's clothier Peyton Grey.

(Tally for Men, meanwhile, has had a "going out of business" sale since last spring. It's like a hammy death scene that goes on and on.)

Loraine Ong, the high school student in the Cold Stone ice cream flavor contest, alerted me to the store's closing. It certainly puts a crimp in her strategy, but she's shifted her "home store" to the location by the Edwards 14 theaters on Ontario's Mountain Avenue.

To help her out, I had gone to Cold Stone on Sunday for a Heath Wave. There was no indication it was the store's last day.

The bright side of this is that Bert and Rocky's won. That's the locally owned ice cream shop that's a fixture at Yale and Bonita just two blocks from Cold Stone. I prefer Bert and Rocky's anyway so I'm glad if only one store could survive, it's that one.

Some businesses in Village West/Village Square/Village Expansion appear to be thriving, by the way. Jamba Juice, Coffee Bean and La Parolaccia seem perpetually busy, Le Pain and Kazama are never empty and around 4 p.m. Sunday there was, hearteningly, a line of 20 people outside the Laemmle theater ticket window.

Meetings are planned tonight in Upland (5 to 7:30 p.m. at the Carnegie Library, 123 D St.) and Thursday in Rancho Cucamonga (5 to 7:30 p.m. at the Brulte Senior Center, 11200 Base Line Road) to show off the two possible routes -- here's a map -- for the light-rail train from Montclair to Ontario airport.

Meanwhile, of course, the train line is nowhere near Montclair. Here's the current, post-Measure R timeline for getting the train from Pasadena to Azusa.

Hot on the heels of a new car wash on Towne Avenue, Pomona city officials recently celebrated the opening of another mega-development: a new 7-Eleven. It's on Temple Avenue near the Shiloh Inn.

(The PR firm for 7-Eleven sent us an announcement locating the store in Whittier, but 3111 W. Temple is in Pomona, sorry.)

The freeway-close convenience store opened Nov. 20. I imagine that right after the ribbon-cutting, it was declared blighted.

A reader who asks not to be identified sent me a funny anecdote after a recent column in which a reader mentioned her "elevator" ride to the top of the St. Louis Arch. It's not strictly an elevator, this second reader says, since going up in an arch isn't a vertical ride. True. He continues:

"Which brings me to the story of my family's visit years ago when our children were still kids. My wife is claustrophobic. I knew that, but didn't realize the extent of her claustrophobia until that day. I purchased five tickets for the ride without consulting her, then, unwisely, insisted we had paid for the ride and had to ride to the top.

"So she, the three kids and I squeezed into this tiny little cage. In order to stay horizontal as the shaft curved, the cage ratcheted every few seconds. My wife hung on for dear life. Unfortunately, I was on one side of her, and the only thing she had to hang onto on that side was my thigh. Every time the cage ratcheted to stay level, she squeezed my thigh. Forty years later, I still have bruises on that thigh.

"But that's not the end of the story. When we got to the top, she announced that there was no way she would get back in that contraption to ride back down. So I convinced a security guard that she needed to take the steps down. He opened a door and showed us the steps."

Let me interrupt to note that the Arch is 630 feet tall at its highest point.

"She took one look at the steps, and decided that her acrophobia was worse than her claustrophobia, so she would ride back down.

"I have been married for a half century, and would like to continue to be. So, if you can print this story anonymously, I would really appreciate it. Otherwise, I hope you have a spare bedroom, because I am going to need a place to sleep."

Since I don't have a spare bedroom, you can see why I'm leaving him anonymous.

Deciding to see the whole Paul Vincent Avila saga through, I attended Monday's special Ontario-Montclair School Board meeting, at which censuring him would be discussed, and was glad I did: It was crazy. You can read the results on Wednesday. I think they're planning to run the column on Page 1.

After the meeting, David Campio, the newly appointed member, quipped: "This is the best show in town. My uncles don't believe it. I tell people, you have to just come and see it."

You do. But perhaps my column will be an acceptable substitute.

A portion of White Avenue in Pomona near Fairplex was closed in 2004 for filming of a scene in "Herbie: Fully Loaded" with Lindsay Lohan. Now ol' Number 53 itself, the car used in the movie, is on display at the NHRA Motorsports Museum at Fairplex.

Go on Wednesday during the monthly cruise night from 3 to 8 p.m. and admission is free. If you haven't been to the museum, this would be a good time to go.

I highly recommend the place and I'm not even a gearhead. I like seeing all the vintage hot rods, helmets, photos, magazines and other memorabilia, all displayed in a hushed, reverent setting, like precious artifacts. The NHRA got its start in Pomona and it's a coup for the city to have the museum.

The museum is at Fairplex Gate 1, 1101 W. McKinley Ave., a bit west of White. The phone number is (909) 622-2133 and the website is www.museum.nhra.com. Vrooom!

Clay Brewington of North Carolina sent the above photo and writes:

"Can anyone identify the man in white in the attached photo circa 1946-1947? Is this George T. Lamberth, owner of George's Garage?

"The man on the left in overalls is Woodrow Brewington (deceased), an auto mechanic formerly of North Carolina. Woodrow Brewington worked for George T. Lamberth, owner of George's Garage (1944-1962), originally at 193 E. 5th Street, Pomona. George's wife
was Zora J. Lamberth (deceased). Lamberth and dates for George's Garage information source is Bruce Guter, a Pomona Public Library archivist.

"I lived in Pomona in 1946-1947. Woodrow Brewington was my father. Any available information will be appreciated."

His e-mail address: ClayBrewington@aol.com.

Even if we can't answer Clay's question about who's posing with his father, that's a heck of a jalopy on the right, isn't it?

A few years ago I debunked the myth (promulgated in several biographies) that Jim Morrison of the Doors lived in Claremont while growing up; he actually lived briefly in Clairemont, the San Diego neighborhood. Claremont is a bit landlocked for a Navy family.

There's another, lesser-known myth that L. Frank Baum, author of "The Wizard of Oz," owned an orange grove in Claremont. Reader Dave Null asked me the question after finding a passing reference to Baum's alleged grove in the book "Orange Empire" by Douglas Cazaux Sackman.

A more definitive word comes from Katharine Rogers' bio "L. Frank Baum: Creator of Oz," in which she states: "The Baum sons soon followed their parents to Southern California ... Robert had graduated in engineering from Cornell, and he married Edna Ducker, whom the Baums had known at Macatawa since she was 14. Shortly afterward, Robert and Edna established an orange ranch in Claremont, about 50 miles from Hollywood."

I checked with Ginger Elliott of Claremont Heritage, the historical society. She replied: "You are correct. Robert Baum lived here and was a very successful citrus rancher and head of the Claremont School Board -- I have seen a few diplomas from CHS (Claremont High School) with his signature. I do not think that his father ever lived here -- but my real estate agent 30 years ago told me the story!"

These myths die hard. Especially when claiming the author of "The Wizard of Oz" as a past resident is so much more impressive-sounding than claiming his son!

For the record, L. Frank Baum died in 1919 and is buried in Glendale.