‘God of War’

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Everybody in Claremont is supposed to be reading Marisa Silver’s “The God of War,” a 2005 coming-of-age story set at the Salton Sea. (its lead character is a 12-year-old boy named Ares, who was the god of war in Greek mythology.)

Friends of the Claremont Library is promoting this for its fourth annual “Claremont: On the Same Page” effort. Check here for a schedule of events relating to the book, including an appearance by Silver herself.

Signs around town, such as this one at Yale and Fourth, promote the effort. That’s me holding the book (with its price sticker from Powell’s Books in Portland).

Have you read “The God of War”? I finished it last week, and liked it.

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Clifton’s Cafeteria sold

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The venerable downtown L.A. cafeteria, one of my favorite stops and perhaps one of yours too, has been sold — but despite the end of almost 80 years of family ownership, it may not be such a bad thing. The new owner promises to keep the ambience and comfort food while making better use of the upstairs and restoring the exterior. I’ll keep my fingers crossed. Read the L.A. Times story here — and check out this amazing panorama of the interior.

Feel free to post a comment here about Clifton’s.

A tray at Clifton’s Cafeteria, shot in November 2009.

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3 years of blogging

A couple of blog milestones passed recently without my mentioning them. First, Sept. 12 was this blog’s third anniversary. Yep, we debuted in cyberspace on Sept. 12, 2007. This is the 1,088th post. Whew!

Meanwhile, uni-named reader David recently left the 5,000th published comment. (In full: “Sonic has a ‘happy hour’ every day. Half-priced drinks and slushes from 2pm-4pm.” Truly epic, wasn’t it?)

Thanks to all for reading and contributing!

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Good evening, ladies and germs

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In advance of tonight’s Pomona City Council meeting, let me point out that a hand sanitizer was recently installed in the lobby of the Council Chambers. Either the place is awash in germs, or Pomona is trying to clean up city government, one palm at a time.

If they are, let’s give them a hand — or two.

Photo: Jennifer Cappuccio Maher

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Restaurant of the Week: Sonic Drive-In

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Sonic Drive-In, 11370 4th St. (at Milliken), Rancho Cucamonga

Sonic Drive-In opened its first Inland Valley location in June across from Ontario Mills — it’s in Rancho Cucamonga, as only the south side of 4th Street is in Ontario — and the place proved an immediate hit. There’s a drive-thru, a drive-in with car hop service (!) and patio seating, but no indoor seating.

I went on a recent evening with a friend whose family is from Oklahoma, where Sonic is based. Sonic, Dairy Queen and Braum’s ice cream are ubiquitous regional chains in Oklahoma and Texas, he says, comparing their popularity to In N Out here.

He’s become a regular at this Sonic. I’d never been to one. (Our RC Now blog beat me there.)

We grabbed the only available drive-in slot. We got footlong Coney dogs with chili, mustard and onion as combos with tater tots rather than fries and cherry limeades ($5.69 for a medium combo, $6.19 for a large).

Ordering is done via speaker and perhaps 10 minutes later the food was delivered by a young man on in-line skates. Pleasant service.

The food was okay, nothing special, and the whole thing is, let’s face it, a watered-down version of the “Happy Days” experience.

That said, even this pale version is fun, and the options (tater tots, Coney dogs, various limeades) are a break from the fast-food norm. And Sonic is open until midnight Monday to Thursday and until 1 a.m. Friday through Sunday.

Have you tried Sonic?

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Meet me at … the Toyota tower?

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Photo of original clock tower from Charles Phoenix’s “Cruising the Pomona Valley”

The L.A. County Fair’s clock tower, erected in 1952, was taken out before the 2005 Fair due to termite damage and replaced by a temporary tower on stilts. This year’s clock, in roughly the same spot but part of a Toyota sales area, is a stubbier version, almost invisible to passersby.

The expression “Meet me at the clock tower” has probably been retired. Visitors will have to arrange to meet somewhere else, or just wander around aimlessly.

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News ape

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It used to say “Newspaper,” but this recycling container at Portland International Airport, shot during my summer vacation, seems to be missing some letters. Ever since, I’ve thought of myself as a news ape.

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Millard Sheets in Westways

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Above, the former Home Savings branch at Sunset and Vine, Hollywood, shot during a recent visit.

In its September issue, Westways ran a nice piece on the Home Savings bank branches designed by Millard Sheets. Who was Sheets? He was born in Pomona, later lived in Claremont, taught at Scripps College, ran the Fine Arts Exhibition at the L.A. County Fair and, as the story points out, was part of the “California school” of artists who painted native subjects in the ’30s and ’40s. You can read it here.

On a related note, my Sunday column is about Sheets’ son, Tony, and his stewardship of the fair’s Millard Sheets Center for the Arts and of his father’s legacy.

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