I hadn’t checked the FCB for a while, since it’s been mostly dormant for months, but I thought to do so Monday. I was greeted by a fresh post from last Friday that the blog is shutting down. Headline of the farewell post: “The End.”

The blog began in late 2006 and covered Pasadena to Claremont, linking to or excerpting news articles and presenting rumor and opinion. Its founders, who were anonymous, called themselves Centinel and Publius, after the writers of the Federalist Papers. (Eye roll from LA Observed here.)

The blog kicked up some controversy. Accusations about the then-Pomona city manager led the city attorney to try to shut down the blog by sending a cease-and-desist letter.

FCB was popular, claiming in April 2008 to have received 10,000 comments — with one of mine the 10,000th.

I wrote: “My blog recently topped 1,000 comments, so the FC Blog must be 10 times better! Congratulations on the milestone.” (Co-founder Centinel promised to “find some way to reward Mr. Allen,” but never did.)

FCB folded in late 2008, a demise blamed on a server meltdown, then returned that December. Centinel wrote: “…we’re back in action and ready to do what we do best: make unfounded accusations, piss off local officials, and imply that local government is going to hell in a handbasket.”

But the return quickly fizzled. By mid-2009, FCB promised to resume daily posting in mid-August, which never happened.

In Friday’s post, referring to the blog’s long-absent founders, contributor The Real Zajac notes that “the enigmatic Centinel and Publius no longer return even my email. Technological problems with the server software impare even my power to post this goodbye. Were I an administrator I could continue this struggle myself. But, as I sit, I deem it time to throw in the towel once and for all.”

A moment of silence, please, as the towel flutters to the ground.

Continuing a long streak, I didn’t watch the Super Bowl. (However, having visited New Orleans post-Katrina, it was cool to know the previously hapless team had made the championship and had everyone there tossing around their giddy “Who dat?” catchphrase. I was happy to hear later that they’d won.)

I decided to take advantage of everyone watching the game to go to Ikea in West Covina.

There was noticeably less traffic on the 10, but to my surprise, Ikea’s garage seemed as full as normal for a Sunday, and the store was thronged with shoppers. In the cafeteria, all the window seats were taken, the ones with the view of the 10 and the hills.

Several TVs in the store were tuned to the Super Bowl. Two guys were seated on a sofa in one of the living room setups, watching the game on a big screen almost as comfortably as if they were at home. (Hmm. Did the store replace its usual fake TVs with real TVs for the day?)

Perhaps the sort of people who shop at Ikea aren’t (mostly) the sort who watch the Super Bowl. I dunno. As I maneuvered around all these non-Bowl watchers, I kept mentally asking them: Who dat? Who dat? Who dat?…