January 2012 Archives

Wednesday's column (read it here) is a profile of Besse Fogle, the 98-year-old Rancho Cucamonga woman who used to own and run the St. Charles Grill in Pomona. I wrote about the restaurant recently, but Fogle is worth her own column. So, she got one.

The official Set ONTario Free logo is above, designed by Ontario City Hall in support of its campaign to reclaim LA/Ontario International Airport.

Below is a response by Len Talan, who posted it on my Facebook page with the crack, "What the Set ONTario Free campaign is really about." He's a Venice resident whose page lists himself as a fan of LAX. I like the rats that replace the bird in flight.

Reader Judy Gallegos writes with a question:

"Hey David -- love your site! I grew up in Glendora in the 70s, and now live in the Midwest, so your site is a nice cure for homesickness.

"Thanks for your help and keep up the good work!!"

I've heard vague whispers about this restaurant, said to have been located at Indian Hill and San Jose, but didn't have a name to attach. By coincidence, I was just accepted as a member of the Facebook page Growing Up in Montclair, Calif. (tingle!) (even though I didn't grow up in Montclair) and Tim Corvin just posted a photo there of the Railroader, locating it on Indian Hill in Claremont.

Must be the same place. I borrowed the photo for this blog post.

But that's all I know. Can anyone tell us more about The Railroader?

Sunday's column (read it here) includes items on a slate of classic piracy films coming to the Ontario library's movie nights in February, the "Celebrity Wife Swap" episode that featured Ontario and others named David Allen to whom I was alerted by readers.

Above, "Burning Bridges"

Three performance-art pieces by noted artists took place Jan. 21 at Pomona College. I attended the Judy Chicago and James Turrell flares-and/or-fireworks things at Merritt Field and Bridges Auditorium but skipped the John White indoor-football thing, which predictably was cited by the LA Times as the best of the three. Oh well.

You can watch 2-minute videos of the performances here.

Le Bistro, 121 W. Foothill Blvd. (at Euclid), Upland

You can find Italian food anywhere and no one thinks anything of it, but French food remains rare despite decades of work by Julia Child.

Le Bistro, which opened in late 2011, is one of only two French restaurants in the Inland Valley (the other is La Creperie in Chino), but in a way, it's not all that new. The same family had Cafe Provencal, The Blackboard and La Cheminee, all in Upland, Montclair or Ontario. Now a new generation has launched Le Bistro in the Vons center.

As the bistro name suggests, this is a nice but relatively casual spot. Formerly a budget Italian place where you ordered at the counter, the interior has been classed up with black tablecloths, better furniture, dimmed lighting and servers, but there are flat screen TVs in the corners and the kitchen is still open, with the former occupant's pizza oven still in service.

The dinner menu has pizzas, pastas, steaks and salads, with sandwiches and crepes at lunch and daily specials at either mealtime.

I ate dinner there recently, opting for the French staple coq au vin ($23), which is two pieces of chicken in wine sauce with sauteed vegetables and croquettes. I liked it. I also ordered a side salad ($6.50), which was fine but hardly worth the money. Overall, though, a very good meal, although the dinner was a splurge for me. (I'm more of a $5-$15 fella.)

I returned for lunch, ordering another staple, the croque monsieur ($9), essentially a hot ham and cheese sandwich, pressed, which comes with either fries or virtually the same salad I ordered at dinner. A satisfying lunch. Entrees at lunch range from $9 to $13, which is more in my price range.

It's early yet, but Le Bistro is already one of the Inland Valley's finer restaurants and is well worth a try. The restaurant doesn't seem to have a website, but the menu is posted in the window. And if you don't want a crepe or chocolate fondant cake for dessert, there's a Cold Stone Creamery next door.

Montclair's Bowlium Lanes opened in 1958 at 4666 Holt Blvd., just west of Monte Vista Avenue, and the oldest surviving bowling alley in the Inland Valley is still setting 'em up.

The 32-lane bowling center recently gained a new, snazzier sign (see above). It's a far cry from the astonishing sign (see below) that lured motorists from 1958 until its demolition in 1999, but it's better than the two bland monument signs that filled in in the interim.

Friday's column (read it here) has more about the signs and also about Shakey's Pizza down the street, Montclair's oldest restaurant.

This photo from the Pitzer College archives shows a group of Pitzer students lined up to see a double feature of musicals. Note the "Cooled by Refrigeration" sign. The theater, at Bonita and Harvard avenues, was popular in the 1950s and '60s is now Harvard Square Cafe and adjoining shops. Photo by Arthur Dubinsky; contributed by Stephanie Estrada.

Here's a link to the Cinema Treasures page about the Village Theatre.

But only if you want to travel back in time. Reader Eric Scherer found an eBay listing for a Pomona Tile sample kit and case said to date to "1910s/20s." Fixed price: $661.98.

(Of course, if you're going to travel back in time after your purchase, why buy it at 2012 prices?)

Pomona Tile used to be a very important business around town. Scherer also found a heavily illustrated blog post about the company's "Distinguished Designer" series in which Millard Sheets, Saul Bass and other famous names were commissioned to design tiles. Some great images for you midcentury-modern design mavens.

From the Tile Heritage newsletter, 2007:

"Pomona Tile was founded in 1923 by Judson Clark and was acquired within its first year by R.J. Schroeder, who maintained the offices and factory at Third and Reservoir Streets in Pomona, California. The company specialized initially in unglazed ceramic mosaics, but by the end of the decade both ceramic floor and wall tiles were produced.

"The height of production came in the mid-1950s when Drew Schroeder took over the reins from his father. But competition was intense, and despite the broadening of its product lines, the company began losing its grip by the early-sixties.

"American Olean acquired Pomona in 1966 providing the backing and leadership to introduce Pomona Stone and the colorful Caribbean line. AO sold the company to Huntington Tile in 1976, ending over 50 years of Pomona tile production."

Wednesday's column (read it here) recounts the high- and lowlights of Monday's Upland City Council meeting. Example:

When the public comment period began, an unusual thing occurred.

"Be Positive"

Sometimes they make it too easy for me. Read the column for more.

I'm late with this, but it's worth noting here anyway that regal R&B singer Etta James, who died Friday at age 73, spent her last decades in Riverside, a surprise to many who first saw that fact in her obituaries.

She moved there in the 1980s from south L.A. for a better life for her and her family, a common theme in those who move inland.

We've still got her music, such as her iconic song "At Last," seen in the video above in a filmed performance. Still, not only is James' death a loss to the world, the Inland Empire has lost its queen.

Evidently it's today, Jan. 23, because that makes 1-2-3 and that's how easy it is to make pie, or so says the American Pie Council. Me, I've got an upset tummy today after a bad meal yesterday. You'll have to celebrate the day without me. Sob!

This epicurean epigram is painted inside Classy Cafe in Rancho Cucamonga.

Sunday's column (read it here) is my take on Ontario's newly aggressive effort to persuade L.A. to give up control of LA/Ontario International Airport.

Phillys Best, 4320 E. Mills Circle Road (at Milliken), Ontario; also 4047 Grand Ave. (at Pipeline), Chino; and 806 E. Arrow Hwy. (at 57), San Dimas

Phillys Best (note shameful lack of apostrophe) is a chain of cheesesteak shops with 20 locations in SoCal, including three in the Inland Valley (see above). Because the number is so limited, Phillys Best qualifies under my ground rules here of focusing on mom and pop or relatively scarce chain restaurants.

I've been to the Phillys Best on the periphery of Ontario Mills a few times over the years. They have a range of steak sandwiches, hoagies, burgers and chicken sandwiches.

I visited this week for a mushroom steak with cheese ($7.50). It's a hearty sandwich and like the others is served on a soft Amoroso brand roll from Philadelphia. I see in the fine print that the cheese is American and that you can substitute provolone or Wiz, as in Cheez Wiz, which cheesesteak-wise is technically more authentic, albeit disgusting.

They have above-average fries ($2) and, for people with East Coast tastes, Wise brand chips, Tastykakes and Frank's Soda. The decor is sparse but includes boards listing Philly natives and Philly trivia and a blowup aerial photo of the city.

I haven't been to Philadelphia and can't judge how the cheesesteaks here compare, but they taste pretty good to me, and the result seems a lot more Philly than, say, Sbarro is to N.Y. If you've been, what do you think?

Friday's column (read it here) kicks off with news of a series of experimental art pieces at Pomona College on Saturday, tied in with the Pacific Standard Time initiative. They involve, as I wrote, "football, flares and fireworks." The official description is here. Then I write about a Milford Zornes painting exhibit in Rancho Cucamonga (that website is here) and present a few news and notes from around the valley. What are you waiting for? Just read the darned thing.

Back in August I posted here about a visit to the L.A. Times lobby, where among the historical items on display are a linotype machine and the last page set with hot type, only with explanatory plaques reversed -- the hot type page plaque reading "This is a linotype machine..." and the linotype machine plaque reading "This is the last plate of hot type set at the Los Angeles Times..." How long had this been wrong, I wondered?

Well, I went downtown last Friday on a day off to visit the City Hall observation deck, which is only accessible on business days. (Highly recommended, by the way.) While in the neighborhood, I decided to pop into the Times lobby to see if the plaques had been fixed.

They had. See photos!

I'll share credit with the LAObserved blog, which picked up on my item -- gratifying headline: "Times wrong about its own museum, says columnist" -- and gave it a much wider audience, evidently including whoever at the Times needed to know. Nice job, and schoolchildren and other visitors should no longer leave their educational visit more confused than when they entered.

There is no sign posted saying "The Times regrets the error." But I'm sure they do.

Why is it called the Globe Lobby? Its centerpiece, below, should make that clear.

ABC's "Celebrity Wife Swap" isn't my typical TV viewing (my typical TV viewing is to leave the set off) but Tuesday's episode involved Ontario, so why not?

Former child actress Tina Yothers, who played Jennifer Keaton on "Family Ties," lives in south Ontario. She swapped households with actress Niecy Nash of "Reno 911," "Dancing With the Stars" and "Clean House," who lives in Northridge.

I'd never heard of either of them or watched either series, so some of the voyeur factor was lost on me. Anyway, the alleged "country" aspects of Ontario (!) are played up, and life in similarly suburban Northridge is presented as glamorous.

Nash thinks she's a diva, Yothers thinks she's normal, and hijinx ensue. Somehow, though, Nash comes off as a better mother. She's more open-minded than Yothers, willing to take a different approach to parenting based on Yothers' suggestions, whereas Yothers didn't want to hear it about her own kids. Kind of interesting.

If you've got 43 minutes to kill, you can watch the episode here.

Photo: Jason Merritt/FilmMagic

Wednesday's column (read it here) is about Red Hill Coffee Shop, the beloved breakfast spot in Rancho Cucamonga. This was one of those columns that wasn't planned, although as an occasional customer I'd hoped to write about the place sometime. It just happened, as my column explains.

Above, owner Jim Moffatt yuks it up with a couple of regulars on Tuesday. The interior is so small you see about half of it in the photo.

The restaurant is at 8111 Foothill Blvd. (at Grove). A link to the KTLA video mentioned in my column appears a couple of posts down, but I'll repeat the link here.

On Foothill Boulevard just east of Towne Avenue in Claremont, some agency, rather than replace the faded sign pointing to the 10 Freeway, simply posted a nice new one several feet behind the old one. I guess sign removal must be done by a different agency.

Rancho Cucamonga breakfast staple Red Hill Coffee Shop was featured on KTLA's morning news on Sunday. See the 3-minute video here. Chris Burrous claims he finished his two enormous pancakes, but we don't see video proof.

The old St. Charles Grill restaurant in Pomona is the subject of Sunday's column (read it here). An earlier blog post prompted a few reader comments.

During my recent tour of the building, my eye was caught by vintage photos taped to the mirror behind the bar. (The blue at the corners is tape.)

One, reproduced above, was a fuller version of an exterior photo that appeared cropped and with less detail on my blog. I love the St. Charles sign. The smaller window sign at the right reads "Chicken Dinners" and I believe the one at the left says "Steak Dinners."

Below that is a fresh photo. Although the signs are gone, naturally, the exterior looks swankier today than it did whenever the photo was shot, perhaps after a remodeling somewhere along the line obscured some of the details.

The other piece on the mirror was a postcard, dated 1938, of the "annex," as the bar was apparently known. It would be the area under the "Cocktails" sign in the top photo. Both sides of the postcard are reproduced below. Note how the word "patronage" was mistakenly substituted for "patrons." But nobody's perfect.

The bar is largely intact, but there was too much clutter for a decent photo.

Fattoush Mediterranean Cuisine, 428 Auto Center Drive (at Indian Hill), Claremont

Debuting in December 2011, Fattoush is next to the new Super King market. The two of them add a welcome touch of the Mediterranean to the neighborhood.

My friend had the mezza platter ($14, pictured above), a sampling of appetizers, which has, clockwise from left, tabbouli, falafel, spinach pie, grape leaves, hummus and baba ganouj. I sampled them myself and we agreed they were all good to very good. The tabbouli, which appeared to have been made moments before, was especially fresh and tasty.

I had the shawarma combo ($12.50, pictured below), which had beef and chicken with tahini sauce, garlic dip and a house salad. Pita bread for both of us was also delivered in a basket. The beef and chicken were both marinated and flavorful. The salad, which can be ordered separately, was okay but nothing special.

My friend, who's Turkish and knows the food, really liked Fattoush and wants to go back. I would eat there again too.

The interior is modern and minimalist, with parquet floors, two-tone walls and subtle pink lighting near the ceiling, evidently a hipster touch. They have table service and you get actual silverware and plates. The menu is more ambitious than the restaurant appears to have originally planned; a copy handed out to my friend before the opening had more sandwiches and fewer entrees, and everything was $1 or $2 cheaper.

Now you can get shrimp kabobs ($18) and lamb chops ($20). But you can also get a rotisserie chicken sandwich for $5.59.

The restaurant's website can be viewed here and the menu here.

Friday's column (read it here) expresses some thoughts on the demise of redevelopment, particularly in Ontario and Rancho Cucamonga, offering a splash of reality for some pro-redevelopment local officials. Also, I reflect on the passing of Claremont's Judy Wright.

If you have a long MLK holiday weekend, enjoy it. I'll be taking Friday off -- and Metrolinking it to L.A. -- but back at my desk Monday.

An amusing piece in Mother Jones is about the journalistic chops of Tintin, the boy reporter in Belgian comic books who is now immortalized in a movie.

Writes Dave Gilson: "If Tintin's supposed to be a reporter, why don't we see him writing up his big story at the end of the movie? For that matter, why don't we see him ever doing anything vaguely resembling journalism?"

The full piece can be read here.

Spam comments occasionally show up on this blog, but only for a few hours until I see them and delete 'em. The only readers who see them are the ones who haunt the "Recent Comments" area for the latest comments.

Why should those readers have all the fun? I've collected most the spams of the past few weeks that relate to loans and compiled them below for your reading pleasure. I love the English-as-a-second-language phrasing, especially the way they put "the" in front of "loan."

* All people deserve wealthy life and personal loans or just sba loan can make it better. Just because people's freedom is grounded on money state.

* It is well known that money makes people disembarrass. But how to act if one has no cash? The one way is to try to get the mortgage loans and collateral loan.

* If you are willing to buy real estate, you would have to receive the mortgage loans. Moreover, my brother usually utilizes a financial loan, which supposes to be the most rapid.

* That is perfect that we are able to get the business loans and it opens completely new opportunities.

* Various people in every country receive the home loans in different banks, because this is fast and easy.

* I took my first mortgage loans when I was very young and this helped my family very much. Nevertheless, I need the short term loan over again.

* I took 1 st personal loans when I was a teenager and it aided my business very much. But, I need the credit loan also.

* If you are in the corner and have got no money to get out from that point, you will have to receive the personal loans. Because it should aid you unquestionably. I get student loan every year and feel myself OK because of it.

* One acknowledges that today's life is very expensive, but we require money for various things and not every person earns big sums money. Therefore to receive fast loans or consolidation loans should be a right solution.

* When you are in a not good position and have got no cash to move out from that, you would require to take the business loans. Because that will help you for sure. I take commercial loan every year and feel myself OK just because of it.

* Cars and houses are not cheap and not everybody can buy it. However, credit loans are invented to aid different people in such situations.

* Cars and houses are expensive and not every person is able to buy it. Nevertheless, business loans are created to support people in such kind of situations.

* This is well known that money can make us independent. But what to do when one does not have money? The one way only is to try to get the mortgage loans or student loan.

* That's good that people are able to receive the loan moreover, this opens up new opportunities.

* I opine that to receive the personal loans from banks you should have a great reason. However, once I've got a term loan, just because I wanted to buy a house.

* That is known that cash can make us autonomous. But how to act if someone doesn't have money? The one way is to get the personal loans and commercial loan.

* Do you acknowledge that it is correct time to receive the credit loans, which can help you.

* I strictly recommend not to hold back until you earn enough money to buy all you need! You can take the home loans or short term loan and feel yourself comfortable.

* The loans are useful for people, which want to ground their own business. As a fact, this is very comfortable to get a financial loan.

I don't know if compiling these comments was the right solution, but I feel myself OK just because of it, and feel myself comfortable too. Please, do not take the personal loan, even if it is fast and easy and you are very young. Thank you.

Wednesday's column (read it here) is about the first Upland City Council meeting of the new year. Suffice it to say the council did not let me down.

In Chino Hills, the Council Chambers has an alcove with a press table reserved for us and the Chino Champion, with three swanky ergonomic chairs, two nameplates and, best of all, a "Quiet Please, Reporters at Work" sign. Ha ha! Boy, I'd love to have one of those for my desk.

Hey, pipe down, Chino Hillsians! We're workin' here! (At the Dec. 13 meeting, mostly I was reading "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov, but a respectful silence was still called for.)

Incidentally, at the same meeting, the press table afforded an excellent view of two women wearing hats.

Claremont historian Judy Wright died early Saturday. A former mayor, Wright had been ill for six months but went into cardiac arrest Jan. 1 and was in a coma this past week before being removed from the respirator, according to Karen Rosenthal, a friend and another past mayor.

"It is a huge loss for the community," Rosenthal told me via email. "The flags at city facilities will be flown at half-staff until further notice."

Wright published "Claremont: A Pictorial History" and "Claremont Women: 1887-1950" and was the go-to person for facts and context about local history -- enough so that in my Sunday column I publicly (and innocently) asked for her help regarding the golf carts that used to ply the city's streets. She read this blog and my column and was always there if I needed her. I'm sorry she won't be there any longer.

The Courier's announcement of her death can be read here.

Sunday's column (read it here) is about my annual New Year's ritual of clearing my desk and reporting on some of what I find. I should have taken a before photo. Maybe next year!

Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour, 10742 Foothill Blvd. (at Aspen), Rancho Cucamonga

Farrell's means a lot to many longtime Inland Valley residents who marked birthdays and other occasions at the Montclair Plaza ice cream parlor, which operated through the 1970s and into the mid-1980s before folding like other locations after a disastrous buyout. Now the chain is back, with SoCal restaurants in Rancho Cucamonga, Brea, Mission Viejo and Santa Clarita, with more in the works. Here's its website.

Me, I was a Farrell's newbie when I showed up for lunch recently with two Farrell's fans, my friends Dave and Rose Linck of Rancho Cucamonga. They grew up on the place and had already been to the Rancho location twice, once for Rose's birthday. (She wasn't asked to stand on a chair.)

In fact, Rose wrote several letters in recent years to Farrell's suggesting they take over the closed Romano's Macaroni Grill, advice that Farrell's took. They should give her free ice cream for life or something.

The restaurant has been completely made over. After a short wait even at 1 p.m. for a table, we were seated. We were among the few adults not accompanied by children. It's a festive atmosphere, the Chuck E Cheese of ice cream. Every few minutes a siren would blare and employees, dressed in straw boaters and vests, would gather around a table and sing happy birthday while the child stood on a chair. They've revived all the old traditions, including the Zoo and the Pig Trough ice cream platters.

I got a half BLT with chicken noodle soup and fries ($7.79), Rose had chicken strips known as Cock-a-Doodle Dippers ($8) and Dave had the Gastronomicaldelicatessenepicurean's Delight (whew!), a cold cut combo with fries ($10.59).

Surprisingly, this was all pretty good. My BLT, for example, used a better grade of bacon that you'll find almost anywhere else and the soup tasted fresh. The others were impressed by their meals too.

For dessert, we each got hot fudge or hot butterscotch sundaes, the single-scoop versions available if you get a meal ($3.29), and it was delicious, as you'd hope. Including the $2.79 vanilla Coke I got from the soda fountain, my tab was $17, a couple of bucks more than I'd have preferred, but fine given the quality of the food and the attentiveness of the service.

Would I go back, though? Maybe, but it's hard to imagine when I would. (Other than if any friends choose Farrell's for their own birthday, which one is threatening to do.) I don't think I would go even for my own birthday (when you get a free sundae), although I reserve the right to change my mind.

It's evidently a good facsimile of the old Farrell's, a parent would probably not be disappointed by the food and a kid would probably love it. But unless you're a retired fireman who misses the sound of a siren going off every few minutes, or deaf, this is not a place many adults could endure. Nostalgists, of course, will want to try it, and should.

Friday's column (read it here) leads off with an item on the death of Marcia Fredendall Warren, a lifelong Pomona resident who documented the history of the Fox Theater. Not only facts about its dimensions, cost, planning, openings and remodelings, but her personal connection to the theater dating to the 1930s. Then there's an item about an Ontario man who paid it forward and a plug for my blog. Of course, you already read my blog, bless your hearts, so you can skip that part.

I see more movies than the average person (21 in 2011) but not as many as some of my friends. Other than some of the superhero movies, my tastes run to the indie side, and even a lot of those pass me by.

I haven't seen most of the awards-bait films, from "Moneyball" earlier in the year to "The Artist" or "Melancholia" or "Iron Lady" or even "The Descendants," which unlike the others is actually playing in the 909. Also, you would have to pay me to see "War Horse."

Take this list, my fifth annual, as one man's moviegoing rather than some sort of comprehensive list. And what is that list?

My top 10, in roughly descending order:

The Adjustment Bureau, My Afternoons With Margueritte, Midnight in Paris, The Women on the Sixth Floor, The Hedgehog, Bill Cunningham New York, Win Win, 50/50, The King's Speech and Beginners.

(Yes, I know "The King's Speech" is technically a 2010 movie, but like most people I saw it in 2011. Also, my absolute favorite of the year wasn't a new movie but a re-release of 1984's The Green Ray ((Le Rayon Vert)), a French film by Eric Rohmer. I decided not to count that since it wasn't a new movie.)

Rounding out my year's 21 movies, my next 11 would run something like this: Captain America, Project Nim, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Jane Eyre, Point Blank, Contagion, Drive, Young Adult, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Page One: Inside the New York Times and Thor.

I liked "Apes" but it didn't have the zest of the older ones. The last Potter movie was fine and I know a lot of people loved it, but I'm tired of the whole thing.

What were your own favorites, or stinkers, of 2011?

Mateys, the only Long John Silver's Seafood Shoppe in the Inland Valley has pulled up the plank. Montclair's location, 9379 Central Ave., closed Dec. 31.

"The property that includes the restaurant is currently in escrow," reports Steve Lustro, Montclair's community development director.

Arrrrrr.

The Montclair location opened in 1978, according to building records. I ate there once, maybe twice, but have been to other Long John Silver's -- named for the pirate in "Treasure Island" -- in my time. Founded in Kentucky in 1969, they may have been more common in the Midwest, where I'm from, than out here.

According to Wikipedia: "Earlier restaurants were known for their Cape Cod-style buildings, blue roofs, small steeples, and nautically-themed decorations such as seats made to look like nautical flags. Most early restaurants also featured separate entrance and exit doors, a corridor-like waiting line area, food heaters that were transparent so customers could see the food waiting to be served, and a bell by the exit which customers could 'ring if we did it well.' Many of these buildings had dock-like walkways lined with pilings and thick ropes that wrapped around the building exterior."

According to the chain's store locator, the only remaining Silver's in the Inland Empire are San Bernardino, Riverside, Redlands and Victorville. To the west, you'd have to drive to Norwalk.

The pirate craze seems to have passed the pirate eatery by. Someone at headquarters should walk the plank over this.

Anyone have any memories of this location, or others?

In 2011 I read an even 60 books, a personal best, for whatever that's worth. That bests 2009's 58 and 2010's 52, the year I began reading more intensively. Below is my 2011 list, in order, from January to December. Wednesday's column (read it here) is about about my year in reading.

Mostly I read fiction, from literary to pulp, mysteries and science fiction, but there was also a smattering of nonfiction. Some authors got repeat books onto my reading list: two by Nick Hornby, three each by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Sax Rohmer, Mark Twain and the pseudonymous William Arrow, four by Philip K. Dick and five by Harlan Ellison. Many others show up only once, but that doesn't mean I might not love them.

1. "Tarzan of the Apes," Edgar Rice Burroughs
2. "The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu," Sax Rohmer
3. "A Tapestry of Life: The World of Millard Sheets," Janet Blake and Tony Sheets
4. "The Polysyllabic Spree," Nick Hornby
5. "Bright Orange for the Shroud," John D. MacDonald
6. "Exploring Form: John Edward Svenson, An American Sculptor," David Svenson
7, 8, 9. "Return to the Planet of the Apes Nos. 1, 2 and 3," William Arrow
10. "The Return of Tarzan," Edgar Rice Burroughs
11. "The Return of Sherlock Holmes," A. Conan Doyle
12. "The Return of Fu Manchu," Sax Rohmer
13. "The Turn of the Screw," Henry James
14. "They Live," Jonathan Lethem
15. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?," Philip K. Dick
16. "Blade Runner, A Story of the Future," Les Martin
17. "Web of the City," Harlan Ellison
18. "There's a Country in My Cellar," Russell Baker
19. "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court," Mark Twain
20. "California Crazy and Beyond," Jim Heimann
21. "The Computer Connection," Alfred Bester
22. "Comic Book Culture," Ron Goulart
23. "Confessions of a Crap Artist," Philip K. Dick
24. "A Case of Conscience," James Blish
25. "Counter Culture: The American Coffee Shop Waitress," Candacy A. Taylor
26. "10 Minute Clutter Control Room by Room," Skye Alexander
27. "The Batcave Companion," Michael Eury and Michael Kronenberg
28. "The Book of Philip K. Dick," Philip K. Dick
29. "The Hand of Fu Manchu," Sax Rohmer
30. "The Beasts of Tarzan," Edgar Rick Burroughs
31. "All Yesterdays' Parties: The Velvet Underground in Print 1966-1971," Clinton Heylin
32. "The Drawn Blank Series," Bob Dylan
33. "The Rough Guide to the Velvet Underground," Peter Hogan
34. "Captain Blood," Rafael Sabatini
35. "A Touch of Infinity," Harlan Ellison
36. "Run for the Stars/Echoes of Thunder," Harlan Ellison/Jack Dann, Jack C. Haldeman
37. "The Deadly Streets," Harlan Ellison
38. "Off Ramp: Adventures and Heartache in the American Elsewhere," Hank Stuever
39. "Roadside America," John Margolies
40. "The Verse by the Side of the Road," Frank Rowsome Jr.
41. "Lonely Avenue," Nick Hornby
42. "Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)," Tom Vanderbilt
43. "Highway 61 Revisited," Mark Polizzotti
44. "Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock," Sammy Hagar
45. "Blood's a Rover," Harlan Ellison
46. "Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb," Philip K. Dick
47. "Red Harvest," Dashiell Hammett
48. "Into the Beautiful North," Luis Alberto Urrea
49. "Maps and Legends: Reading and Writing Across the Borderlands," Michael Chabon
50. "The Innocents Abroad," Mark Twain
51. "Short Stories," Mark Twain
52. "Supreme Courtship," Christopher Buckley
53. "Stan's Soapbox: The Collection," Stan Lee
54. "Dave Barry in Cyberspace," Dave Barry
55. "The Sheltering Sky," Paul Bowles
56. "In a Sunburned Country," Bill Bryson
57. "Golden Apples of the Sun," Ray Bradbury
58. "The Definitive Prince Valiant Companion," Brian M. Kane
59. "Vineland," Thomas Pynchon
60. "Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson's Lost Masterpiece," Domenic Priore

First, good wishes to all of you as we enter 2012. Now, does anyone want to express any wishes -- fanciful, idealistic or realistic -- for the Inland Valley this year? Or, if you choose, simply for yourself?