Here’s your chance to see “City Lights” and “Blood and Sand” with organ accompaniment. Also: the Pomona Concert Band’s 75th anniversary concert is Sunday, with me as emcee, and more about comics, including Avengers #101, all in my Friday column.
Monthly Archives: April 2022
Column: Phooey on this flu
Bewilderingly, I’m on Day 10 of the flu. By now I’m mostly fine, but it’s proving stubborn. Have you had the flu this season, or thought you had COVID when you didn’t? I write another column from home for Wednesday.
Column: Book purge takes a page from Marie Kondo
Inspired by reader Doug Evans, who did a major overhaul of his book collection, I cleared my own shelves, took a fresh look at everything and found myself dumping a surprising number of books. I write about this in Sunday’s column. It’s a spiritual sequel to Friday’s, where I mentioned that one goal for 2022 is to end up owning less.
Column: Mixup sends musician figures packing
I owned a series of five metal figures of musicians for 20 years and sometimes wondered if they were cool, as I’d thought originally, or cheesy. Recently I gave them away, by accident. I write about that in Friday’s latest from-home column.
Some backstory: This incident actually happened in late December, which may stretch the definition of “a few weeks ago” in the column. (To be fair, when I wrote it this week, I was thinking this had taken place in February, until realizing otherwise.) The situation had seemed amusing enough to make a column out of, but I didn’t get around to it until now, while sick at home. Whether it was worth writing or whether we’d all have been better off without it, that’s not for me to say, but I hope the former!
Column: At age 8, Avengers comic was confusing, not exciting
Stuck at home sick, I pulled myself together enough to write a column on a passion of mine: comic books. Namely how, 50 years ago this month, I bought my first Marvel comic. Did I like it? Not exactly. Eventually, though, I became a fan. That’s the subject of my Wednesday column.
Column: Baby giraffe (aww) boosts Living Desert Zoo
On vacation, I visit Palm Desert’s Living Desert Zoo, a fantastic place. Have you been? I didn’t get to see Cole, the baby giraffe, but I have pictures and info anyway. That’s the subject of my Sunday column.
Column: Here’s what to expect at Easter on the mountain
The sunrise service on Mount Rubidoux is back after two years off. I give a brief history of its unusual start in 1909 and ask the pastor what it’s like at the oldest continuous Easter sunrise service in the United States. Also: two trauma doctors from San Bernardino County’s public hospital are now also reserve police officers in Fontana, and the Joshua tree is part of a good news/bad news scenario, all in my (good?) Friday column.
Column: Trip brings on the heat (and the anchovies)
I return to Palm Springs, where I eat salads, walk around, see some sights and follow up on reader tips. My visit last week unfortunately coincided with the SoCal heatwave. On the plus side, I felt comfortable in early April in a T-shirt and shorts, even at night. Here’s how I spent my time, as recounted in my Wednesday column.
Column: For his quarter century, readers offer their two cents
After I wrote about my 25th anniversary at the Daily Bulletin, readers responded. I excerpt many of the responses, and reply myself, in Sunday’s column. (To keep things from getting self-aggrandizing, I snipped out most of the specific compliments. And thankfully, nobody wrote to tell me to hurry up and retire. Whew!)
Column: From the mailbag: trains, stations, desert towns
Readers react to recent column topics, namely transit history, Union Station, Joshua Tree, and I react back, in my Friday column.