An Ontario couple, Alan and Judi Wapner, spent May 2 to 31 visiting all 30 major league ballparks, seeing a game per day before traveling to the next city for the next game. Sounds exhausting, but also quite an experience. Their quest is the subject of my Friday column.
In Wednesday’s column, I visit San Francisco, where I watch the Giants, climb stairs, browse for books, eat well, gaze at gardens and reject the doom spiral narrative for the city. It’s troubled, but it’s still a great place. (The headline will make more sense when you see the accompanying photo.)
When in Palm Springs a few weeks ago, I checked out the new bookstore I’d been told had opened. Its name: The Best Bookstore in Palm Springs. It’s also, to be technical, the only bookstore in Palm Springs. But it’s pretty good on its own merits. Read about the store and its origins in my Sunday column.
The Ontario-born publicist for “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” shares a couple of stories with me after the movie’s mention here. Also: Pomona is seen in “The Last Thing He Told Me,” a Pomona librarian retires, modest (but not that helpful) insights into the “Lisa from Temecula” character’s origins are revealed, a further local angle involving the National Trust for Historic Preservation is presented and examples of Pomona history trivia are compiled. All this in my Friday column. Now how much would you pay?
“Based on a True Story” mentioned Pomona the other day, says a reader from Claremont, who adds that a similar series, “Rookie Feds,” mentioned Claremont. Also: Jimmy Carter once dissed in print a speech written by an aide from Redlands, a West Covina resident confirms what the mayor of Riverside said about the gratitude of Koreans to America, two readers praise Dan Bernstein, I note my upcoming anniversary and request feedback (which I hope I will not regret) and a Pomona man’s dining habits are remembered. All this in my Wednesday column.
And btw, I’m on vacation, but I wrote three columns ahead to avoid depriving anyone! And also to use up some material.
The Cheech, the Latino art museum in Riverside, marks its first anniversary this weekend. I attended Friday’s private event that kicked off a weekend of activities (which continue Sunday). The museum drew 131,000 its first year, well above projections. I offer an overview of the museum and its impact in my Sunday column.
Shelley Stoody was a colorful figure who’s been all but forgotten, an industrialist in Whittier who loved aviation, astronomy and cattle breeding, among other pursuits. He spent his last years on a ranch in Chino Hills, where he met his end in outrageous fashion. I attended a talk about Stoody’s life and death at a Chino Hills Historical Society meeting Monday and write about that in my Friday column.
The retired Press-Enterprise columnist (32 years on the job) has a memoir that focuses on his sideline and passion of music-making. He toted a trombone to his book talk Saturday. I was in the audience. Also: some humorously dispiriting comments are overheard at the book talk, and a farewell to a former colleague who died last month. Yes, it’s a newspaper column about newspapers (and columns).
The famed San Bernardino restaurant, in business since 1937, is one of 25 legacy restaurants around the nation to get a $40,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation for exterior upgrades. I visit for my Sunday column.
San Dimas’ Circle K was not literally in “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” as the scenes involving the San Dimas Circle K were filmed in Tempe, Arizona. But people around town, and visitors, did like that the city had a Circle K for a loose connection with the popular film franchise. Tragically, it’s no longer in business. I write about that, as well as about an upcoming Chino Hills talk about an unusual entrepreneur, one who had a connection to cartoonist Carl Barks, in my Friday column.