Presenting: My 25th annual (!) weird news roundup, a Top 10 countdown of the past year’s silliest or most ironic local news stories. You’ll find it in my Friday column.
I’ve intended to return to the subject of “Don Quixote,” in part to use some comments from a literature prof that came in after my deadline for the original column in November. And then last week brought a surprise. A San Bernardino councilmember who didn’t want to take the oath of office on a Bible borrowed my copy of “Don Quixote” to use instead. Yes, really. I write about that, as well as more prosaic reactions to the novel, in my Wednesday column.
Riverside is near to getting a $2.6 million grant to link six statues and multiple sites downtown into a Civil Rights Walk via pavement markings and wayfinding signs, an effort city leaders compare to Boston’s Freedom Trail. I write about that in my Christmas Day column — because the news never stops. (You might recall I wrote about the statues one year ago, so I have a special interest in them.)
In San Bernardino, Helen Tran, the city’s first AAPI mayor, and only the third woman to hold the post, took the oath of office Wednesday while holding her 4-year-old son. I was there to witness the joy at the changing of the guard. I write about it for Friday’s column.
I drove to LA on Sunday for a little outing. Hadn’t realized it was also the last day of the World Cup. It wasn’t quite like a Super Bowl Sunday, when I look for fun alternative things to do, but it was a little like that anyway. What the heck, I turned it into a column.
In a rarity, I attended a council meeting in Riverside, only my third to date. I was there for one particular item. Instead, I found myself entranced by a different one, and about an unlikely subject, speed bumps. But who doesn’t have an opinion on speed bumps, right? So it became the topic of my Sunday column.
I’m recovered from my mild case of COVID — although I could use a nap. (Couldn’t we all?) Many of you responded by email, phone or social media to my column last Friday about it, including a few “never-hadders.” I excerpt some of your comments in this Friday’s column. Stay safe out there!
I head out to Moreno Valley to see a big change on the feuding City Council, including a new, 27-year-old mayor leading the city of 217,000. There’s the usual inspirational words, low comedy and short-lived expressions of goodwill to be found, and I was there to jot them down for my Wednesday column.
Katie Roberts was a law enforcement pioneer as Ontario’s first policewoman. Her original uniform: skirt, hat and pumps. But she persevered, rising through the ranks to retire as captain. She was laid to rest Tuesday. I pay tribute in my Sunday column.
I escaped COVID for nearly three years until testing positive this week. Well, it was a nice run. I write about it in my Friday column and mention all the events I would have attended the past few days. Now you know why my Wednesday column was absent.