December 2011 Archives

I've been out from work sick the past three days, which means no column today or Sunday. I hope to be back at it next week. My annual roundup of my favorite Inland Valley quotes of 2011 will be in the paper Saturday and I'll link to that here once it's online.

Oh, and happy New Year!

Windy C's Chicago Hot Dogs, 140 S. Mountain Ave. (at 8th), Upland

Upland is now home to two independent, non-Wienerschnitzel, non-Jody Maroni hot dog joints, which I believe is two more than any other city in the valley. Johnson's arrived this fall. Windy C's has been around for 15 years.

It's a dinky place with 11 seats in a storefront by a Rubio's and in the same center as Fresh & Easy and Dollar Tree. A brief experiment with a second location downtown (on C, appropriately) failed, but the Mountain storefront continues.

I've been there a few times over the years. I don't have any experience with Chicago hot dogs, so I can't say how this place measures up. Chicago dogs are loaded up with too many condiments for my taste anyway. But I went in again recently for a Wrigley ($7.39 as a combo with soda and fries), which comes with sauerkraut, mustard, cheese and a pickle slice on a steamed bun. I liked it.

Other dogs have Windy City-friendly names like Rush Street and Comiskey, and they also serve chili, corn, Polish dogs and Italian beef. There's a signed photo on the wall from Richard Daley, who presumably signed the photo in the City of Broad Shoulders rather than the City of Gracious Living.

Windy C's uses Vienna beef dogs, which owner Freddy Johnson says is more authentic than the red hots at Johnson's. (Note how the competing place's name is also his own name. That's gotta smart.) Signs proclaim that Vienna beef is the official dog of the Sox and Cubs.

Now, about the service. A lot of people hate it here. As one Yelper put it: "I believe the owner is at his wit's end and has the attitude that he's super fed up with your BS even though you've never met him before." Overall the place gets 1.5 stars. The New Diner blog didn't like it either. Two reviews on Trip Advisor are brutal, with one comparing Johnson to "Seinfeld's" Soup Nazi and other other saying the owner laughed at his complaint.

Johnson is abrupt and that obviously rubs a lot of people the wrong way, although from my observation over a lunch hour he has friendlier interplay with customers he knows. People always wonder how he can stay in business, but the New Diner asked that question in 2005, and you'll notice Windy C's is still hanging tough. People who aren't on the Internet must be made of sterner stuff.

Books acquired: "Obsolete: An Encyclopedia of Once-Common Things Passing Us By," Anna Jane Grossman; "The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick," Pamela Jackson and Jonathan Lethem, eds.

Books read: "The Definitive Prince Valiant Companion," Brian M. Kane; "Vineland," Thomas Pynchon; "Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson's Lost Masterpiece," Domenic Priore.

To finish off 2011, I read three books in December to bring my total to an even 60. (A complete list will appear here soon.) After hitting 35 before July 1, I concluded to aim for 60 rather than 70 and get in some longer books. For December, that meant finishing a very wordy book about the "Prince Valiant" comic strip, a dense 400-page novel and, as lagniappe, a volume about the Beach Boys' unreleased-until-2011 "Smile" album.

"Prince Valiant Companion": I was expecting a more user-friendly guide to the Prince Valiant universe, one that would compile every known Foster interview or contain thoughtful analysis. The actual book is for the uber-fan, which I thought I was until laboring to read the 60 pages of tiny type recounting every PV adventure, 1937-2009. OK, and some of the interviews later in the book were interesting, but for diehards only. Also, the synopses are laden with typos uncorrected in the 17 years since the first edition. Is this really "definitive"?

"Vineland": This novel by the famously reclusive Pynchon was published in 1990, 17 years after his previous book, "Gravity's Rainbow," and was deemed a disappointment on that score. The plotting is untidy, the sentences twisty, but I liked it. Any novel that tries to make sense of the '60s from a Reagan-era perspective yet also makes room for ninjas and a cameo by Godzilla is all right by me. Also, loved the tossed-off names, such as More is Less, "a discount store for larger-size women."

"Smile": This is a book about the famously unreleased 1967 album by the Beach Boys, which was rerecorded by Brian Wilson in 2004 to great acclaim; the original 1967 tapes finally came out late this year. I almost gave up on this book on page 2 due to the writing. (For one thing, a quote by Van Dyke Parks on page 1 describing someone as "a gyro, gear-loose kind of a fella" shows Priore didn't get Parks' reference to the Disney mad-inventor character Gyro Gearloose.) But I'm glad I kept going because there was worthwhile info and analysis about "Smile" and Beach Boy internal dynamics amidst the fanboy worship.

I'm reading several other books with an eye toward a boffo start for 2012. Seventy is a possibility.

As for where the above books came from, "Valiant" was bought this year at Comics Factory in Pasadena, "Vineland" was a birthday gift in 2010 (hi, Mason!) and "Smile" was bought at Rhino Records a couple of years ago.

What were you reading in December?

Wednesday's column (read it here) is my annual Top 10 countdown of the year's oddest local news stories.

This bus shelter ad in Ontario seems to boast of bringing a child to term a month early, at first blush (to use the term literally). But it's really about completing some sort of medical degree. Seen at Vineyard Avenue and D Street.

I believe the insurance lizard was telling us he was "in Ontario" before he was rudely interrupted by a banner. Seen on Vineyard Avenue at D Street.

The manger scene along the Euclid Avenue median in Ontario makes a nice image for today, don't you think?

Meanwhile, Sunday's column, about a particularly inspired Ontario council meeting, can be read here.

Not much point in penning a Restaurant of the Week for Dec. 23, although if you were planning to get a burrito or Thai food this weekend and needed my guidance, my apologies. Instead, let's look back at 2011.

I wrote about visits to 39 restaurants, and to my knowledge only one of them (Buckboard BBQ) later closed. Then there was Freddie Mae's, which closed after my meal but before I could write it up. Hiccups like that, plus vacations and special features like this, kept me from writing 52 RoWs in 52 weeks.

I hit at least one restaurant in every city of our coverage area, from Fontana to Chino Hills.

Among the highlights: Magic Lamp, Pho Ha, Senor Baja, Babylon, Eureka, Corner Deli, The Deli, Roberta's Village Inn, The Heights, Red Chilli House, Nara, Sabor Mexicano and Molly's Souper. None of my meals was terrible or inedible, although lunches at 2nd on 2nd St. and Zeke's came close.

It's too much trouble to look all those up and link to them, but if you'd like to read or reread them, that's what the search function is for, as well as our city-by-city category listings. I'd encourage you to make use of both.

Where did you have a memorably good or bad meal in the Inland Valley in 2011?

Screen shot courtesy Greg Schmauss

Friday's column (read it here) follows up my Dec. 2 column about how the Outdoor Man store on the sitcom "Last Man Standing" is based on Rancho Cucamonga's Bass Pro Shops.

One of the background actors on that series is Greg Schmauss of Rancho Cucamonga. He's one of the store employees who has no dialogue but fills space in the background. Schmauss supplied the above photo -- he's the one at left, with Tim Allen -- and told me about working on the show. Imagine, two Cucamonga connections to one sitcom.

So no one feels left out, Friday's column also has a clutch of Valley Vignettes and other items from around the valley.

Photo by Kristine Suminski

This front-yard Christmas lights "runway" combines with a message aimed at the city of L.A., which owns Ontario International Airport. Even more pointedly, the whole thing decorates the house of Ontario Mayor pro tem Debra Dorst Porada. She's had the runway in past Christmases, but this year it fit perfectly with the message.

Now, can the message be read from airplanes overhead...?

Wednesday's column (read it here) is a reflection on my year in electrons -- namely, how I got my first cell phone in January and later bought a couple of other electronic devices, as well as recently signing up for Twitter. It answers the occasional reader question of "what do you think of your cell phone?" and also craftily advertises my Facebook page, Twitter account and this blog.

Oh, yeah: Twitter. I rolled this out slowly and until Wednesday's column have promoted it only via FB and in the fine print at the end of my column. You can find my account at @DavidAllen909.

All the writers and editors at the ol' IVDB have been encouraged to sign up, so I decided to get with the program early(ish) rather than hold out. Wish I'd taken the plunge a couple of years ago, actually.

My Facebook page, btw, now has a name (long, because "David Allen" was taken): DavidAllencolumnist.

You're encouraged to check out either or both, if you're so inclined, and especially if you already use Twitter or FB.

How's your own personal face-off with life circa 2011 going? Are you embracing, running away, holding it at bay, or what?

At a stoplight in Ontario recently, I spotted this security company's van and snapped this picture. Unusual slogan. I wonder what the "7,000 teeth" part means? Is it one tooth per volt?

What follows is a passage from Bill Bryson's "In a Sunburned Country," a travel narrative about Australia, published in 2000 and which I recently read. (The text below was all one paragraph and for ease of reading here I've taken the liberty to break it up.)

Bryson is writing about being an American in a foreign land, but his comments are applicable, I think, to anyone traveling anywhere:

"I bought a morning newspaper and found my way into a cafe. It always amazes me how seldom visitors bother with local papers. Personally I can think of nothing more exciting -- certainly nothing you could do in a public place with a cup of coffee -- than to read newspapers from a part of the world you know almost nothing about.

"I love above all to venture into the color supplements and see what's fashionable for the beach in this part of the world, what's new for the kitchen, what I might get for my money if I had A$400,000 and a reason to live in Dubbo or Woolloomooloo. There is something about all this that feels privileged, almost illicit, like going through a stranger's drawers. Where else can you get this much pleasure for a handful of coins?"

Sunday's column (read it here) is about Chino Hills' new bowling alley, Chaparral 300. It's due to open later this week, although they've been saying that for a while now (the website says it will open in November).

I got an advance look at the lanes last Wednesday. That's me above on the left, bowling with Mayor Art Bennett. The photo is by Peter Rogers, a councilman. I had some high-powered company.

Note how the lights along the gutters track the progress of the balls. Fancy.

Friday's column (read it here) has items on the pending retirement of Ontario's mild-mannered fire chief, a claim for damages in Chino Hills stemming from a friendly greeting and other news.

Tio's Mexican Food, 12953 Sierra Lakes Parkway (at Sierra Avenue), Fontana

Hungry and driving back to Ontario from San Bernardino on the 210 recently, I exited at Sierra to look for a lunch spot.

I was delighted to see a sign for Tio's on a building backing up to the offramp. Pay dirt.

Tio's has two locations in Rancho Cucamonga and serves pretty decent Mexican basics, quickly, cheaply and in moderately snazzy environs, much as Felipe's used to do.

The Fontana location is in the same mold. Despite its shopping center locale and order-at-the-counter ethos, the dining room has some tiled tables (and some not), moody lighting, dark wood and non-cheesy decor. It's almost homey. The "about" page of the chain's website says they try to impart some of the feel of the founding family's native state of Zacatecas, Mexico.

I went for the tilapia special, a mere $6.99, which was advertised twice near the cash register, once as a "daily special," the other as a "yearly special." What's that about? The clerk laughed and said they'd been serving the dish for so long, they'd decided to joke about it.

A piece of grilled fish, rice, beans, a little salad, plus tortillas, chips and salsa arrived at my table a few minutes later. No complaints, and a lot of food for the dough. If Fontana's too far, there are Tio's at 7305 Day Creek Blvd. (at Base Line) and at 10451 Lemon Ave. (at Haven) in Rancho Cucamonga, not to mention 19009 Van Buren Blvd. in Riverside.

A picture on this blog of snow in Upland in January 1949 (see it here) was seen by Steve Graves of Northern California, who was poking around online to confirm memories of a childhood snow he witnessed in Chino that was probably the same year.

I'll let him tell it.

"I lived at the Boys Republic at the time. My father was director. I recall awaking in the morning and seeing snow across the entire valley to Mt. Baldy. There was a layer of dark smoke from the smudge pots laying across Pomona and the foothills.

"I think I was in the first grade. The other staff children at the Boys Republic took two days off school and played in the snow. It lasted well during the two days and didn't begin melting in earnest until the second day. Sledding the Chino hills was quite fun, as I recall; great snowmen as well. I wish I had a picture of the view from BR to Mt. Baldy across the valley. It was white as far as the eye could see.

"Do you have any resources that I might review to refresh my memories of that event? I know you mention microfilm at the library but I am now far from the valley.

"Thanks for your consideration. By the way, I was interested to see posts by Bob House. I knew his son at Claremont HS and Bob at Cal Poly and from the Claremont area."

Bob who? Just kidding. As for the snow, if anyone has a photo of the event in question, send it over and I'll post it here. I'm wondering if Boys Republic might have such photos.

Ice cream lovers who like the Handel's in Upland will be thrilled, and maybe chilled, to learn one is coming to Rancho Cucamonga. I spotted this the other day in the Trader Joe's center at Haven and 19th.

Reader Elizabeth Rynear emailed a couple of days later after seeing the same sign. She said the shop will replace a failed frozen yogurt place.

"So, now we have a Farrell's coming and a Handel's as well," she summed up. "God help my waistline!"

Wednesday's column (read it here) is about Monday's Upland City Council meeting. It's also about a dream I had about an Upland City Council meeting. It's sort of about two meetings, except one didn't happen. So as council meeting columns go, it's a little unusual. Let me know what you think.

Photo by Jill Carol via A.S. Ashley

Your humble servant and KPCC-FM's Steve Julian shared a ride in a 1957 Chevy Bel-Air during the Pomona Christmas Parade on Saturday. Between David Allen and Steve Julian, that's two men and four first names. We are first name hogs.

Steve is a Pomona native, as you may recall from my column on him in September.

"The last time I was in the parade was in the '60s. I was with the Cub Scouts," Steve told me before the parade began.

I wore my getup from my 2007 grand marshal turn, as well as my 2009 parade appearance: a fedora with a card reading "Press" in the band, a jacket and a skinny tie. It's important to fulfill people's idea of what a newspaperman is. Also, a hat comes in handy.

We balanced ourselves as best we could atop the convertible while its driver and owner, Elaine Francisco, pulled into the queue of parade entries. We waved to people on both sides of the street as the parade slowly made its way up Gibbs, along Second and down Park.

Children are the most enthusiastic. They have no clue who you are, but they're excited to wave and be waved to. One little girl walked close to our car during a pause, read our names silently off the sign on our car and said, "Hi, David and Steve!"

The sign also said "News Media." It might have been good PR for our profession to have two of its representatives smiling and waving in a feel-good event. See, we don't bite! Come talk to us! Now tell us everything you know.

As our car passed the parade station, we were announced this way: "News media! Without them, no one would know it's happening." That was great. Moments later, those trailing "news media" were announced: "council members."

"As it should be," Steve joked.

There didn't seem to be a lot of NPR listeners along the parade route (some were likely in the parade), but Steve saw a couple of people who remembered from his Pomona days. He said he had a blast, as did I.

Few Daily Bulletin readers were along the route either. Some folks did shout a greeting, very much appreciated, and I saw some familiar faces.

Not everyone was a fan. "Hey, Allen," one surly guy said. "Good thing I forgot my rotten fruit. Way to impersonate a newsman."

Ho ho ho.

Photo by me from the backseat

"Eak"? I hope this doesn't mean someone saw a mouse at the Sycamore Inn. But if they did, at least it's "prime." Photo by Gino Filippi.

Sunday's column (read it here) leads off with a comment on the now-infamous L.A. public housing chief who lives in Rancho Cucamonga, followed by items on the Pomona City Council, cultural events of note, a flubbed sign on the 60 Freeway and driving to the OC on surface streets.

Sabor Mexicano, 180 E. 6th St. (at Garey), Pomona

Sabor is across Garey from City Hall and the Library and ensconced behind a vacuum cleaner repair shop. But -- capsule review -- it doesn't suck.

I'd been to Sabor Mexicano ("Flavors of Mexico") a couple of times five years ago for dinner before council meetings, but the kitchen tended to take longer than I had. It's not a taqueria, it's a real sitdown restaurant. Casting about for a place to meet a friend recently, I remembered Sabor and that it served food from a couple of regions of Mexico poorly represented in restaurants.

Imagine my delight in rediscovering that one of them is Mexico City, which I visited early in 2011 on vacation. When I inquired in print after my return about Distrito Federal-style food locally, nobody mentioned Sabor.

The menu has sections for the DF and Oaxaca, as well as offering tortas, mariscos, jugos and licuados. (A mural outside the restaurant depicts a map of Mexico with Oaxaca pinpointed.)

The DF section (comida estilo Distrito Federal) has alambres, quesadillas, huaraches, gorditas, sopes, pambasos and cemotas poblanas, plus tacos and burritos. Admittedly, I didn't know what some of these were, and many seemed like variations of the same item, but at least it was something.

I went with a quesadilla with squash blossoms (top right), which was familiar. The quesadilla was long, more of an oval than the circular U.S. version, and the squash blossoms were much like mushrooms. (I had a burrito with squash blossoms on the street in the DF, and a homemade quesadilla at my friends' apartment; this was a melding of the two and pleasingly reminiscent of each.)

My friend had a huarache with cactus and beans (bottom right), holding the cheese and onions. A huarache is a sandal-shaped thick piece of fried masa with toppings. She pronounced it "quite tasty." For beverages, she had a horchata and I had a watermelon drink. Our items were $5 to $6; exact prices forgotten.

Service was friendly and bilingual. Windows surround the restaurant on two sides and let in plenty of afternoon sunlight. A telenovela played on the TV. Life could be worse.

Friday's column (read it here) is about Wednesday's dedication ceremony in Rancho Cucamonga for the completion of the Pacific Electric Trail. That was accomplished in part thanks to the new bridge over Foothill Boulevard, replacing the narrow, 1929 bridge that was removed last year.

The rendering above is what one side of the bridge will look like in a far future era when we're all using jetpacks. Note the cutouts of the states through which Route 66 passes, a nice touch.

In the photo below, I'm on the dirt embankment on the south side of Foothill after crossing the bridge, looking at the Illinois-themed imagery imprinted on the abutment. I'm writing down "windmill, hills, oak tree." Photographer Thomas Cordova snapped the picture because it looked like I was conducting an interview with empty air. Click on the thumbnail for a larger image of...nothing.

Chaffey High School in Ontario has been performing Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom of the Opera" musical in a production that its theater department is calling "lavish" and which, based on the video, seems really to be lavish.

The show ends Sunday. Remaining performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday, all at 7 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. Admission: $13. A heckuva lot cheaper than Broadway. Performances are in Gardiner Spring Auditorium, 211 W. 5th St.

Saturday brings the Pomona Christmas Parade, which will wind through downtown from 10 a.m. to noon. Now, you might be going to see boxer Sugar Shane Mosley, the grand marshal, or to see the marching bands, drill teams, community floats or veterans. (You probably aren't going to see the politicians, but as in any self-respecting parade, they'll be there.)

But don't forget that yours truly and KPCC-FM "Morning Edition" host Steve Julian, who is a Pomona native, will be there too. We're set to share a ride in a vehicle with a sign that will brand us as "news media." Don't hold that against us! Come out and wave to us. We'll wave back.

Wednesday's column (read it here) is my third annual look at some of the new book collections of classic newspaper comic strips. My feeling is, what better place to highlight such collections than in a newspaper? If anyone's going to care, it ought to be us. Anyway, this is the first year I've thought to include a photo. The book that's open, which reprints "Captain Easy," is 11-by-15, so use that as a scale to judge the others.

"Only in So Cal," remarks Rancho Cucamonga reader Bob Terry about his photo. It's his wife's car and their tree.

A Rastafarian ("Great Jah") was parked next to me in the shopping center at Haven and Base Line in Rancho Cucamonga at lunchtime Monday, mon.

Probably hard to tell at this size, but this Claremont banner reproduces a Christmas-themed citrus crate label that reads "College Heights Orange Association." This would date to Claremont's citrus past. A nice touch. Seen at the Metrolink station.

Sunday's column (read it here) is led by word that Ontario's Grinder Haven sandwich shop, a fixture on Holt Boulevard since 1958, is still in operation despite the loss of its tenant. We also round up a series of (literally) striking incidents in Upland, some of the wishes hanging on ULV's Wish Tree and news about Pomona's Christmas Parade next Saturday.

Today's column (read it here) is in part about how Rancho Cucamonga's Bass Pro Shops is body-doubling for the fictional Outdoor Man store in the Tim Allen sitcom "Last Man Standing."

Nara Japanese Restaurant, 3277 Grand Ave. (at Peyton), Chino Hills

Chino Hills has a fair number of sushi bars. Nara is the oldest, opening in 1996, which in Chino Hills terms is practically the dawn of time (cityhood was in 1991). Like everything else in Chino Hills, Nara is in a shopping center, this one across Peyton from the Shoppes. The sign reads, generically, Japanese Restaurant, a hint that the sign was a way to introduce the pioneering restaurant to a skittish city.

Inside, the feel is much more promising: small, intimate, quiet on a Tuesday evening despite the presence of several diners. It's arranged such that you could have a semi-private meal here even though the space is about the size of your living room.

I sat at the sushi bar and had a nice meal with sushi off the regular menu and off the specials board. Live scallops ($7.50) came from a shell pried open in front of me; black cod ($8.50, pictured top right) and Oregon albacore tuna ($7.50) were both tasty; and the salmon skin cut roll ($4.95, pictured below right), one of my standard orders, arrived in larger rolls than I've usually seen it. It was intricately prepared, the skin crisped in an oven.

Ojiya and Rokuan are other above-average Japanese restaurants in Chino Hills that I've tried. It would take a more expert diner than me to rank them, but Nara wouldn't seem out of place in their company.

Books acquired: "The House That Sam Built," the Huntington Library; "Common Ground: Ceramics in Southern California 1945-1975," AMOCA; "Aldo Casanova: A Retrospective," Scripps College; "This Shape We're In," Jonathan Lethem; "The Tomb," "Tales From the Cthulhu Mythos Vol. 2," H.P. Lovecraft; "Take My Picture Gary Leonard"; "Louise de la Valliere," "The Man in the Iron Mask," Alexandre Dumas.

Books read: "The Sheltering Sky," Paul Bowles; "In a Sunburned Country," Bill Bryson; "Golden Apples of the Sun," Ray Bradbury.

November was a sunny month around the ol' reading log. Glancing at the titles, we had sky, sun and sunburns. Luckily we were wearing sunscreen as we read.

"The Sheltering Sky" is the month's literary effort, a 20th century classic about a trio of expatriate, bohemian New Yorkers who circa WWII travel to the Sahara and gradually lose themselves in its immensity and foreignness. I admire the 1990 movie version and finally got around to reading the novel, which is better, although kind of existential and depressing.

"In a Sunburned Country," by contrast, was cheerful throughout. A travel narrative by Bill Bryson, who's made a career of such books, this concerns Australia, which he argues persuasively, and often hilariously, is a wonderland that deserves to be better known. He layers in recent and ancient history, chats up the locals, visits lots of museums and an equal number of pubs and details many of the creatures that can kill you (there are loads). One of my favorite books of the year.

"Golden Apples of the Sun" is a 1953 story collection by my boy Ray Bradbury, one of his first, and the first to incorporate some of his mainstream fiction alongside the fantastic stuff. "A Sound of Thunder," "The Flying Machine" and "The Fog Horn" are three of his best and most famous stories. Most of the rest are awfully good too. I've read "Golden Apples" before, but I was a wee lad at the time, so it was nice to return to this, especially after all the time I spent a couple of years ago reading all his recent, often subpar stuff.

"Sky" was bought at Borders Montclair circa 2009, "Sunburned" was pressed into my hands by Darlene Scalf (hi Darlene!) and "Apples" is my beat-up, secondhand copy bought in Illinois circa the mid-'70s.

This brings me to 57 books for the year. This morning I finished No. 58, I'm one-third of the way through a difficult novel that will be No. 59 and I expect to squeeze in something else as No. 60 before year's end.

What are the rest of you (Hugh, Doug, Will, John, the absent Paula, etc.) reading?