Recently in Around Claremont Category

The new Super King market, and its surrounding Claremont Promenade center off the 10 Freeway at Indian Hill Boulevard in Claremont, has a super-sized sign, seen here in an eastbound view. (Thank goodness traffic was light as I slowed to snap this through my windshield.)

Although the Super King sign may appear more super than the Norms' sign installed last year, the dimensions show there's no contest. Norms is 99 feet high while Super King's is a mere (ahem) 80 feet.

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.

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.

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.

A Harvey Mudd College senior, Palmer Mebane, has won the 2011 World Puzzle Championship in Hungary, which the school says makes him the first American winner in 12 years. He beat a seven-time champ from Germany. Mudd's writeup is here.

Mebane doesn't do crosswords but rather logic puzzles. You can find a bunch on his blog. I took a look at a couple and my brain almost exploded. Thankfully I averted my eyes in time.

Fifty years ago, a foursome from Pomona College competed on "GE College Bowl," a TV quiz show based in NYC and hosted by Allen Ludden, and beat all comers. The college's alumni magazine has a retrospective here. An excerpt:

"They returned home to campus acclaim, with hundreds gathered to watch as Pomona College President E. Wilson Lyon greeted them in a public ceremony ... Pomona's own press releases proudly noted that ours was the first team from beyond the Eastern Seaboard to win all five matches on the show."

It wasn't snow out my window this morning in Claremont below Foothill Boulevard, but it was white. Frost? Ice? Whatever it's officially called, I haven't seen it close up in years.

Here's some of it on my windshield; scatterings were also on my roof and under the landscaping. It was a co-o-o-old night, with heavy rain last evening -- the perfect conditions to turn wet stuff into crunchy stuff.

Did you have any where you are?

A student practices guitar by a fountain at Pomona College last week. He must be all right because the statuary seems to be dancing.

They're calling Saturday "ZIP Code Day" in Claremont, when its 91711 ZIP code will become literal on 9-17-11. An overview of the day's multitude of events will appear in my Friday column. Here's the link to the Celebrate91711.com website with a full calendar of events -- and there are a lot of fun ones, especially a community photo at 5:30 p.m. in front of the Claremont Depot.

As one who has devoted study to the significance of the number 47 to Pomona College, I was tickled recently to receive that number at a restaurant and place it in a stand to receive my order. As numbers go, 47 has more gravitas than most.

Unaware of the awesome power of 47? You can read about it here, in more detail here and about the new clock-chiming tradition here.

Click below to read my own version of 47.

A real estate listing for 257 Oak Park Drive in Claremont bills the house as "the Childhood Home of Legendary Musician Frank Zappa!" Own it for $360,000, reputation included.

The Zappa family lived there beginning about 1959, according to my own research, when Frank was already 18. The family had briefly rented a nearby home on St. Augustine Avenue after relocating from Lancaster. After a few years on West Oak Park Drive the Zappas moved to Palo Verde Street in Montclair before moving away in 1968.

Thanks to the indefatigable, and aptly named, Bob House for forwarding the listing.

The video of Max Brooks' commencement speech at Pitzer College on June 2 has been posted by the university to YouTube. It's entertaining and unconventional, as you might expect from the author of "The Zombie Survival Guide," a 1994 alumnus.

Fair warning: Hearing the son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft talk about his post-graduation struggle with "adversity" might be a little hard to take.

For Sunday's column item about the new Norms restaurant sign in Claremont at the Indian Hill exit of the 10 Freeway, I needed a photo to illustrate the sign's height. I shot a few from Auto Center Drive, seen above, and from across Indian Hill Boulevard.

Unsatisfied with the results, though, I took my life in my hands and tried a few from the freeway itself. I headed west and pulled over onto the shoulder for this slightly askew shot out my window.

Exiting at Towne, I turned around to head east on the 10 and, near the Indian Hill exit, pulled over to the shoulder for this shot, below, through my windshield.

Continuing down the exit ramp and then up the onramp eastbound, I pulled over to the shoulder, leaned out the window and shot the one above that also includes the Hotel Claremont sign.

I don't know if all this was worth it, but these attempts ought to get the idea across: It's a tall sign. And my pulse rate was likewise elevated.

The Friends of the Claremont Library will hold its semi-annual book sale at the Claremont Library from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. both Friday and Saturday. The library is at 208 N. Harvard Ave.

Says book sale chairwoman Barbara Musselman in her email to me: "We would appreciate any mention that you might make in your wonderful newspaper column and on your blog!"

Flattery will get you everywhere, Friends of the Claremont Library.

(Except the newspaper, but that's only because i forgot about your event until a few hours after deadline Thursday.)

The intersection of Harrison Avenue and Indian Hill Boulevard in Claremont is finishing up a revamp. The turn lane west, accessible from southbound Indian Hill, is being closed off and converted into green space. A year or two ago, the turn lane east, accessible from northbound Indian Hill, was closed off for the same purpose.

I don't know if these were good ideas from a traffic flow standpoint, but City Hall must think so. At any rate, the porkchop-shaped green space on the east side is nice, albeit small, and probably welcome to pedestrians.

There's a bench, a water fountain, grass, a sidewalk, mature trees that were part of the previous median and parkway, and a sculpture. Presumably similar amenities will be part of the new west side work.

By the way, the horse sculpture on the eastside green space was recently returned to sculptor Barbara Beretich and a new piece put in. It's titled "Patricia," perhaps impishly (um, unless it's a good likeness?), and it's by Christina Cassaro.

One reader calls it "a weird white plastic thingy." What can i say? I like it. (And it's probably not plastic, although i didn't handle it to find out.)

The view in the second photo is on the east side of Indian Hill, looking northwest, with "Patricia" in the foreground and the construction work on the west side in the background.

These signs went up a few days ago at the former So Fresh Salads and More location at 101 N. Indian Hill Blvd., Claremont. Here's the store's website, still under construction.

New York Times columnist and author David Brooks will speak at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Scripps College's Garrison Theater, 231 E. 10th St. Brooks is described as "a prominent voice of conservative politics in the United States and keen observer of the American way of life" by Scripps.

He's the author of "Bobos in Paradise" and "On Paradise Drive: How We Live Now (And Always Have) in the Future Tense." His next book, "The Social Animal: the Inner Roots of Character and Achievement," will be released in March.

The event is free and a book-signing will follow.

Did you know the Claremont farmers market is 15 years old this year? It dates to 1996, as I learned from the market's new website. View the site here.

The Farmers and Artisans Market, the official name, takes place each Sunday, rain or shine, in the Claremont Village, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Vehicle traffic is barred from one block of Second Street, between Indian Hill Boulevard and Yale Avenue, for the market, in which more than 100 vendors, either growers or artisans, take part.

It's a lively street scene each week.

The market sponsor is the nonprofit Claremont Forum, a community organization that runs the Prison Library Project and various health and wellness classes.

As for the website, "There is new market information, vendor updates, photos and a new market blog," volunteer Rachel McDonnell tells me. "The website will be updated frequently and I hope it becomes a resource for local residents."

There's a fat cat around Claremont, and I don't mean a rich guy. According to the Courier's Police Blotter, a dentist's office last month phoned police after a patient brought in a large wild cat, described as possibly a leopard.

"Police checked out the situation," the Courier reported, "and discovered the animal was just a large house cat."

A large house cat that could use a lap band.

Side issue: Who brings a cat of any size with them to the dentist?

Devoted readers (with sterling memories) may recall that in July 2008, I wondered in this space what I might have meant by writing "Towne house" on my dry-erase board of ideas sometime previously. Readers posted their guesses. In the midst of that, I remembered. But I never quite got around to explaining.

What I meant was a house built circa 2004 on land left over from 210 Freeway construction in Claremont. This house popped up on Towne Avenue next to the eastbound offramp. All that separates the house from the freeway ramp is a picket fence, a walking path and a sound wall.

I found the house's construction there ironic, as a proposal for apartments a few yards northeast at Towne and Base Line, right next to the westbound offramp, drew such ire that it was dropped.

My attempts to photograph the Towne house proved problematic. On one weekend in May 2009 I shot photos that, upon later inspection, didn't give a good view. It was harder to get the freeway and the house in a photo than I'd imagined.

It was a year before I tried again. (Procrastinating was easier than parking and wandering around on foot near a freeway overpass on my personal time.) These photos worked out better but I set the whole project aside, unsure of the point.

Well, for anyone who still cares, here are a couple of those tardy photos, and this tardy explanation. And yes, "Towne house" is off my whiteboard.

Not only was Tuesday's groundbreaking in Claremont my first such ceremony on paved ground, I'd never attended one so close to a train station. I stepped out of the speech tent to grab a photo as a Metrolink train pulled into the depot a few yards away. Read about the event and the coming affordable-housing project in my Friday column.

I've always wondered why, traditionally, wig shops are concentrated on Hollywood Boulevard, always with bewigged rows of foam heads in the window, such as in the photo above.

Then, disconcertingly, a wig shop opened a few weeks ago on Bonita and Yale avenues in Claremont, seen below. It's just east of the ice cream shop.

A question I never thought I'd ask: Is Claremont the new Hollywood?

A storefront at 2nd and Yale in the Village, previously occupied by a short-lived children's clothing store, now bears a sign promising Cocoa Bakery. A friend saw a man taping up the sign Monday evening. The interior is completely bare, so I wouldn't start lining up for bread or anything. The family-owned bakery has one other location, in La Puente.

The Village is already home to Some Crust Bakery and Le Pain Quotidien.

The former Rich's frozen food plant on West 1st Street in Claremont has been abandoned. City Hall says the plant closed in April. I only noticed its absence last weekend on my way to the Laemmle theater when I noticed the sign on the plant's Oberlin side was newly gone. That's the Packing House in the background. Read more about Rich's in my Friday column.

I don't know if Cracked the magazine is still around, but Cracked has a website. And this video, in which four friends sit around a diner and dissect the implications and contradictions of "Back to the Future," is pretty funny. Not only that, but the diner happens to be the Village Grille in Claremont. Watch the video here.

I walked on Yale Avenue past Claremont's Cheese Cave on Monday afternoon and saw that not only is the butcher-block paper down -- and all the poems -- but there were people inside. A sign outside said it was a private party and that the business would open at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

A restored 1927 steam locomotive blew through the Inland Valley on Saturday and again on Sunday, a special run between L.A. and San Bernardino to celebrate the latter's bicentennial. I got the above photo on Saturday morning in Claremont as the former Santa Fe 3751 headed east, at high speed. Woo-woo!

A couple of dozen people, including families with children, turned out to greet it. Members of the San Bernardino Railroad Historical Society, which bought, restored and operated the train, waved from the rear platform.

The Chasing Steel blog by Joe Perry of Ontario has some impressive photos of the beast at rest.

Conscious Claremont actually debuted last November, but an e-mail from the writer last week was the first I'd heard of it. Topics are mostly local politics, especially ones with a financial angle (logical for a writer with a degree in business economics and accounting), and the tone is less hectoring than the Claremont Insider.

The anonymous blogger grew up in Claremont, moved to L.A. for college and returned six years ago, meaning he or she is probably on the sunny side of 30.

The first post, from Nov. 3, titled "raison d'être," consists entirely of a quote from Clint Eastwood, presumably about why he ran for mayor of Carmel:

"It's making sure that the words 'public servant' are not forgotten. That's why I did it. 'Cause I thought, I don't need this. The fact that I didn't need it made me think I could do more. It's the people who need it that I'm suspect of."

The chain of 24-hour diners is opening its first Inland Valley location on Indian Hill Boulevard in Claremont immediately south of the 10 Freeway. The closest of 17 Norm's are in West Covina and Riverside. Here's the Wikipedia page and here's the official website.

Chili's used to be on this site but was demolished circa 2005 for a Claremont Toyota expansion that didn't take. I'd say Norm's is a step up from Chili's, and not only from a novelty standpoint, but your mileage may vary.

Pomona College was founded in Pomona in 1887 and decamped to Claremont the following year, while keeping the Pomona name -- a decision that's led to decades of confusion.

Here it is: "Pomona College Lament."

Good news isn't always what it seems
Especially when it outdoes your wildest dreams
That occurred in '88 when Claremont won
A Pomona College that had just begun

The Congregational Church had the ambition
To establish a much lauded university tradition
They started Pomona College at White and Mission
While they looked for real estate acquisition

Southern Pacific had connected LA and Berdoo
So passengers then could ride straight through
Hotels had popped up all along the line
But then real estate took a devastating decline

In the Claremont Village, the former All Ways Travel storefront (Yale between Bonita and Fourth) is being converted into the Cheese Cave, a frommage-centric shop. While the space is being renovated, butcher block paper covers the windows. But those windows have also become the best site for poetry outside the Folk Music Center down the street.

First the owners put up a self-penned poem about their venture, above. Then, it appears, a would-be customer responded with a second poem, which is now displayed alongside the first, at right.

Click on the images to see larger, readable versions. (Sorry about the glare that obscures a few words of the shop's poem.)

Here's a treat. This note came in a while back from ex-Claremonter Debra MacLaughlan-Dumes:

"My husband and I like to watch DVDs of old TV shows from the 1950s-1970s, often with the hope of seeing some local scene in the background. We watched an episode of 'The Fugitive' last night called 'Echo of a Nightmare' which aired Jan. 25, 1966."

The episode was filmed in downtown Claremont!

Going above and beyond, MacLaughlan-Dumes e-mailed screen shots of various freeze-framed images that showed recognizable Village landmarks. For the sake of comparison, I took photos in the same locations 44 years later.

The photos are paired below (to the best of my sizing ability), reading left to right. Click on any photo to see a larger version.

1) The first two are on Harvard Avenue looking south from Bonita. At least mine is; I think that's where the original is oriented. I declined to stand in the middle of the intersection for my photo.

2) These two are shot from the SE corner of Harvard and 2nd. My version depicts today's Boon Companion toy store (SW corner, to the left in photo) and City Hall (NE corner). What was on the SW corner in 1966?

3) Speaking of the SE corner of Harvard and 2nd, that's the lovely Post Office. If you've never been inside, go in and look at the Milford Zornes mural that wraps around the lobby.

4) This is the sidewalk looking north from in front of the Post Office toward Shelton Park on the NE corner. David Janssen (1931-1980) was unavailable, but a Claremont fixture, the little old lady, wandered into the frame.

5) The NW corner of Harvard and Bonita had the Sugar Bowl, a soda fountain and candy store. Today it's Unique Jewelry and Gifts.

And here's an interior of the Sugar Bowl, unduplicatable today. Anyone seen this episode, remember the filming or want to reflect on any of these places?

The "Says You!" syndicated radio game show taped two episodes at Claremont's Bridges Auditorium on Saturday. Yours truly was there. Read about the show in Wednesday's column.

While checking a few facts about the Pomona College trivia referenced in the show's questions, I found this fun links page from the college about various bits of "Pomoniana": the mystery of 47, the sagehen mascot, Ski-Beach Day, etc. Check it out.

I finally got around to photographing Claremont's second (who knew?) air raid siren. Click here to see the updated "Air raid!" post. And thanks to the readers who brought it to my attention. Clearly I don't spend enough time west of Indian Hill...

Making the Internet rounds is a very funny "save the date" video for the October 2010 wedding of Jeff Wong and Erin Martin, made as a parody of trailers for big-budget movies. The couple met at the Claremont Colleges. According to their website, they met in 2000 when he was an engineering student at Harvey Mudd and she was majoring in psychology at Scripps. Awwww.

The video prompted pieces on CBS' "Early Show," NBC Channel 4 and Huffington Post. I heard about it from reader Don J.

Just when you thought it was safe to use the Internet, the valley's most feared blog is back. After an absence of five months, the Claremont Insider resumed daily posting on Monday, smacking around the usual suspects (Oliver Chi, Ellen Taylor, the 400) as if nothing had changed.

As we regular readers might expect from a blog that beats the drum for transparency from behind the curtain of anonymity, there was no explanation for its death or its (pre-Easter) resurrection. C'mon, Insider, we were hoping for some insider gossip!

Well, there was a tongue-in-cheek allusion to the situation at the end of the first post, which was about the storm: "The commotion is enough to wake the dead, or even the e-dead."

Kim Peek, 58, a savant who inspired the title character in the Oscar-winning movie "Rain Man," died Dec. 19 of a heart attack. Screenwriter Barry Morrow is pictured at left with Peek. (Unlike Dustin Hoffman's character, who repetitively talked about his "excellent driving skills," Peek had limited motor skills.)

My understanding is that Morrow lived in Claremont when he wrote the screenplay. I don't know if he's still around town or not.

This sign is in the window of Tattle Tails, a children's clothing store on Yale Avenue in Claremont that closed at the end of December after 15 years. The owners obviously kept a stiff upper lip.

The owners seem to be planning on a rebirth. The sign on the store's door reads: "Join us! for the grand re-opening February 2012."

I was stepping off a Metrolink train in Claremont a little after 7 p.m. Saturday when what to my wondering eyes did appear but a gaily lighted train with music and costumed characters performing for families on the other side of the other set of tracks.

This would be the Metrolink Holiday Toy Express that hits our local cities this time of year. I'd heard about it but never saw it before. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. The train also stopped in Montclair, Upland and Baldwin Park that night.

A Pomona College senior is at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, blogging. Grace Vermeer is writing about her experience at COP15 on the college's Environmental Analysis Program website, www.dispatches.pomonaea.org.

The opening day ceremony "began with a video full of activist imagery -- scared children running from climate change induced floods and storms, their teddy bears falling in their wake," Vermeer writes, eyes rolling.

She finds the protesters "a bit obnoxious" and the delegates seemingly more interested in networking than working. She's not crazy about the "Hopenhagen" slogan promoted by the city's mayor: "Just because it rhymes doesn't mean it's clever."

President Obama is scheduled to arrive today and we'll see how Vermeer takes it all in.

She's there with Pomona senior Dawn Bickett, Scripps senior Elizabeth DeGori, two University of Texas students and Pomona political professor Richard Worthington, all granted observer status as a research, nongovernmental organization.

The conference began Monday and ends Dec. 18. The purpose is to come up with a global climate change agreement to replace the Kyoto protocol, which expires in 2012.

Located across Yale Avenue from each other in the Village are two new stores that sound like they sell healthy food, but actually sell clothing. Even in a recession, the Yuppification of Claremont continues.

Lois Sicking of Upland showed me a BMW Mini E, a vehicle she was test-driving as an engineer with the state Air Resources Board. It's a zero-emission, all-electric car, much like the Mini Cooper in style but with no engine. We're on Second Street in Claremont near Starbucks.

The "gas" tank, with its "No Fuel" symbol, is where the car is plugged into standard household current for a recharge. Starting the car, which Sicking is doing below, involves pressing a button.

The car makes no noise. In fact, automakers are wondering if they should add a noise feature because pedestrians never hear the car coming. (I imagine one day we'll be buying ringtones for our cars.)

You can read more about the car in Friday's column.

When the Rhino Records store in Westwood closed in early 2006, I wrote a column to explain the history of the Rhino store in Claremont. Briefly, Mark Leviton, a friend of Rhino founder Richard Foos, opened the Claremont store in October 1974 under Foos' ownership.

Foos sold the Claremont store in 1976 and it continues as an independent operation today, with no connection to the record label of the same name, which was also founded by Foos.

At the time my piece appeared, Rhino's current proprietors weren't cognizant of the store's history. Based on the "about us" section of their website, they quickly forgot. Their motto "Independent since 1976" continues to appear on their website and on T-shirts. Oops. Since businesses tend to overestimate how long they've been around, not underestimate it, maybe Rhino is just being modest.

I recently spent an hour going through 1974 issues of the Claremont Courier on microfilm, hoping to find a feature about the store's launch.

Well, no such story seems to exist -- I went through the issues page by page from August through mid-November -- but I did find something: one lone ad for the store on Oct. 19, 1974. Hey, that's 35 years ago today!

So, while no one seems to know the date the store opened, this is as good a time as any to wish Rhino Records a happy 35th anniversary. Even if they don't know it.

Above is that ad at roughly original size, to the right is (why not?) the page it appeared on and at bottom is a current photo of the store's original location, what was then 269 W. 2nd St., a house between City Hall and the Pizza N Such building; Leviton told me the store occupied half of the space (he didn't remember which half).

Later it moved to Yale Avenue, first to what is now Viva Madrid and, in 1991, to the former Bentley's Market location. It remains there today, thriving as the only full-service indie music store in the Inland Valley. Even if it no longer sells cassettes and 8-tracks.

Front lawn at 7th and Indian Hill, Claremont.

A community reading program in Claremont centers on Steve Lopez's book "The Soloist" and is being promoted via yard signs around town -- although you could be forgiven for thinking the signs are promoting the author and L.A. Times columnist's electoral ambitions, given their front-lawn company.

"Is there a school board election going on in Claremont?" Lopez asked Sunday during an appearance at Claremont's Little Bridges Hall of Music, which was attended by more than 300 people.

A colleague at the Times lives in Claremont and, Lopez said, informed him: "Your name is on signs in lawns all over Claremont. There's an election going on. It looks like you're running for mayor or school board."

Lopez, who lives in L.A., said he asked about his electoral prospects and got no response.

Well! As a Claremont resident and fellow columnist, I would be pleased to welcome Lopez to town and even help usher him into office with my vote.

Is there a dogcatcher position available?

The Claremont Insider, a city-centric blog that debuted way back in 2005, featured almost-daily posts, some of great length, making it perhaps the most active Inland Valley blog.

Thus, the span of time since its most recent post, Aug. 6, is raising eyebrows.

Reader Tom Lamb says:

"Being the great investigative reporter that you are, I am turning to you for information as to what has happened to the Claremont Insider. As you probably know, the last posted blog was dated August 6th. It would certainly diminish the fun if it has gone away."

And reader Tom Meader asks simply:

"Any ideas as to what is, or, is not, happening?"

Afraid not. I e-mailed Claremont Buzz, the blog's contact, a couple of weeks back and got no response, which also doesn't bode well for the blog's status.

Perhaps ironically, the Aug. 6 post, about the defunct Claremont trolley, is headlined "Out of Sight but not Out of Mind."

From the Insider's inaugural post of May 8, 2005:

"We'll report on the stories behind the stories. We'll take you behind the scenes and show you the side of Claremont that doesn't seem to make it into the papers. We'll bring you the REAL Claremont, warts and all, rather than the sanitized, air-brushed official version."

The magazine, that is. Here's the link to a recent feature on the town with recommendations of things to see and places to eat.

Some Crust Bakery in the Claremont Village has its own style, not only with the muffins and coffee but with the counter help and the customers.

I was there Tuesday morning and asked what muffins they had.

The matter-of-fact reply: "We have cranberry harvest, a mystery muffin no one can identify, and pumpkin."

I went with cranberry harvest.

Seated at the counter, with a view onto Yale Avenue, I overheard a conversation a couple of stools away between two strangers. A man with a pile of paperwork in front of him asked the man next to him with the laptop what he does.

The laptop man, wearing a friendly expression and a broad-brimmed hat, explained that he's a retired English professor who writes short stories.

"What are you in?" the writer asked.

"I'm in plastics," the man said.

"Plastics?" the writer said, smiling. "That was the big joke in the '60s after 'The Graduate.'"

Nodding, the plastics man said sagely: "I know a lot of people who got into plastics because of it."

At Some Crust, it's always one only-in-Claremont moment after another.

Some people think Claremont only sells expensive frou-frou items. But according to City Manager Jeff Parker's weekly report (kindly forwarded by reader Phil Carty), City Hall is now pushing a consumer product at a rock-bottom price.

"The City has FREE rocks that have been collected from the Padua Avenue Park project site during the grading process," Parker writes, "and Claremont residents are invited to pick up the reclaimed rock."

Claremont residents only, eh? Ha ha, you Uplanders will have to look elsewhere for your free rock.

As if the benefits of free rocks weren't obvious, Parker puts an environmental spin on the deal:

"These materials will not only make an attractive addition to your garden or landscape, but also reduce waste while promoting increased sustainability and utilization of local resources."

Now how much would you pay? Unless you're anti-sustainability, visit the lot in the 4100 block of Padua Avenue.

It's the Mimulus aurantiacus, or Sticky Monkey Flower, "easily found in our local foothills in abundance and in a variety of colors, yellow to orange to red," according to the report to the City Council.

The idea of a city flower came from the Claremont Community Foundation as a way to celebrate its 20th anniversary. The foundation plans to distribute Monkey Flower seed packets. Six possible city flowers were identified by Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont, all California natives, and the Monkey Flower was its top choice.

Unafraid to make the tough decisions, the City Council named it Claremont's official flower at Tuesday's meeting.

The only other Inland Valley city flower I'm aware of is Ontario's Charlotte Armstrong Rose. The rose was named for the wife of the founder of Armstrong Nursery, which began in Ontario circa 1889.

Various Claremont parks are the sites for a family friendly, and free, film series this summer, sponsored by those cineastes over at the Claremont Police Department, who sponsor the movies and serve hot dogs, chips and sodas. No wonder police officers are our friends.

The events start at 6:30 p.m. with food and games for the kids; the movies start at dusk. The remaining movies:

Thursday, Blaisdell Park: "Firehouse Dog."

Tuesday, July 28, Larkin Park: "Sandlot."

(Which is a great movie, btw.)

Thursday, July 30, June Vail Park: "Open Season 2."

Tuesday, Aug. 4, Memorial Park: "Night at the Museum 2."

That night is the last in the series and coincides with National Night Out. The first 750 guests get free In-N-Out burgers. Oh, yes, police officers ARE our friends.

A poignant YouTube video (under a minute long) of the much-maligned Claremont Trolley (RIP) can be seen here. Keep a hanky handy.

I'm not much on parades, unless I'm the grand marshal of course, but Claremont always has an entertaining July 4th parade. Since I ran out of room in Wednesday's column to note some of my favorite moments, let me belatedly mention them here.

The Goddess of Pomona clad in a white gown and a laurel rode on an electric cart from Pomona College. But don't ask me to explain why a boombox was playing "Sweet Home Alabama."

Friends of the Bernard Field Station carried signs on sticks for various plant species. Go, coastal sage scrub!

The Claremont Ukelele Club played lilting tunes on the namesake instrument while riding in a flatbed truck. The truck, for obscure reasons, dragged an 8-foot papier mache turkey on a wheeled platform with a wordy placard I couldn't see well from the sidewalk, although it seemed anti-military. Did anyone see it or get what it was about?

Less obscurely, a vehicle for a senior housing development carried several seniors blowing bubbles with bubble fluid and wands. A placard on the side read "Claremont Manor Rocks." Perhaps in no other era would even a retirement community be said to rock.

Loud applause greeted parade entries for gay marriage, peace and an end to the death penalty. You don't see that stuff in Upland.

But where were the Claremont Grammarians, who rode in the last few parades in a panel truck decorated with placards like "I Before E" and "Don't Use Contractions"?

The elaborately named T. Willard Hunter, one of Claremont's biggest and grandest characters, died Monday night. (Tony Krickl of the Claremont Courier got it first.)

Hunter is best known for having started the Speakers Corner segment of the Fourth of July festivities in Memorial Park in which anyone is allotted 10 minutes to speak on any subject they choose. But he was also a frequent contributor to the Courier and the Bulletin, wrote a few books and spoke all over the country.

He also founded the annual Labor Day Walk from the San Gabriel Mission to Olvera Street in 1981, L.A.'s 200th birthday, to commemorate the city's founding. The nine-mile walk follows the path of the city's first settlers.

You can read more about him in the Bulletin on Thursday and in my column Friday. Here's a photo of him holding forth (Fourth?) at a previous Speakers Corner.

Know him, ever meet him or ever hear him? Post a comment below. He was one of a kind.

Last September I ran a photo here of two dueling signs on Indian Hill Boulevard on Claremont: a business named Colonics, and an adjacent business named A Fire Within.

An update: A Fire Within, which was a pottery studio, has closed. In this case of fire vs. water, water seems to have triumphed.

I knew Tasty Bagel was in trouble from a recent Claremont Courier article (not online), and now a friend who works nearby reports that the bagel shop has closed. She liked the $1 coffee.

Tasty Bagel was in the Sprouts center (formerly Ralphs) on Foothill Boulevard and had been in business since the late 1970s or early 1980s.

I'm sorry to note the passing of Casa Flores, a florist and nursery on Yale Avenue in the Claremont Village, across from Rhino Records.

Casa Flores closed sometime in April after many years in business. It was there when I moved to Claremont in 1999 and seemed like a fixture.

I suppose I dropped the ball on this one, but you know how it is -- there's more material out there than I have time to pursue. Actually, you'd think this is what the Claremont Courier is for, but they never wrote about its closing either.

Update: All I can find about Casa Flores online is that it was "family owned and operated since 1932." Wow! Now it's yet another of the useful Village shops of the past that's gone, probably to be replaced by a salon or an organic dog biscuit store.

Anyone have any experiences with Casa Flores or information about the owners?

Darth Vader and an Imperial Stormtrooper trod the Claremont Village last Saturday as part of the monthly Edge of L.A. Comic Con at the Packing House.

The pair rode the trolley, which is soon to go the way of the Death Star (photo from the Claremont Insider blog), and briefly took the stage at Rhino Records during its Record Store Day promotion (photo courtesy of Rhino).

No, they didn't perform Meco's "Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band."

Pomona College is hosting a panel discussion today (sorry for the late notice) with the subject "Veritaserum: The Truth About Harry Potter."

No, it's not one of those Potter-is-satanic deals. From the announcement:

"The Pomona Student Union and a panel of Pomona College professors Heather McWilliams (Politics), Oona Eisenstadt (Religious Studies) and Kathleen Fitzpatrick (English) will address the philosophical, political and theological questions that the beloved Harry Potter series poses, such as:

"What does finite life mean in the context of ghosts and live paintings?

"Why is religion absent from the text?

"Does the process of sorting parallel segregation?

"Why is power considered evil?

"What are the ethics of house elves and slavery?"

Hmmmm (cue the stroking of long wizard-like beard). Sounds intriguing, and surely the wonkiness will be leavened by wackiness. The details: 4:15 to 5:45 p.m., Rose Hills Theatre in the Smith Campus Center, 170 E. 6th St., Claremont.

The Los Angeles Comic Con *, which debuted in December in (ahem) Claremont -- leading me to think of it as the "Los Angeles" Comic Con -- worked out well enough they're having a second one this Saturday.

Co-founder Chris Peterson said more than 400 people checked out the Dec. 20 show at the Packing House, 532 W. 1st St. The event is expected to continue on the third Saturday of each month.

The Dec. 20 show had a well-known Marvel artist, a half-dozen vendors selling back issue comics, one vendor selling board games and one or two selling merchandise I couldn't readily classify. (You know how it is at vendor shows: Sometimes you just walk past quickly, trying not to make eye contact.)

All in all, the show was no Frank and Son, the Industry collectibles warehouse, but it's cool that it's here, and the venue is a good one. I spent about 30 minutes and $30. My one regret is that I missed the fan dressed as Zatanna.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and admission is free. For details: www.losangelescomic-con.com.

* On Friday organizers announced an improved name: Edge of L.A. Comic Con.

At Trader Joe's in Claremont, there's a "wish tree": a Christmas tree decorated with tags on which customers have penned their Christmas wish. I think Yoko Ono (of all people) may have created the idea: She had a wish tree in Old Town Pasadena earlier this year.

The wishes on the Claremont tree are alternately funny, sweet, poignant and greedy. I stood there Monday evening jotting them all down and in Wednesday's column I present virtually all of them for your edification and amusement.

In line Sunday at the Claremont Laemmle 5 to see "Slumdog Millionaire," I heard the older guy in front of me request a ticket to the new Kristin Scott Thomas flick, as follows:

Man: "One for 'I've Loved You So Long.'"

Male employee in booth: "What?"

Man, louder: "'I've Loved You So Long'!"

Add your possible comebacks below. I'll start: "Thanks. Now, what movie would you like to see?"

I've written here and in my column about the demise of the Comic Bookie, the longtime Claremont comic book emporium. But owner Chris Peterson is back with a new venture: a pop culture and comics show in the Claremont Packing House, scheduled for Saturday.

He calls it the Los Angeles Comic Con -- at least, as he puts it, "until somebody gives us grief about it." The name was available, so why not? Visit the website, www.losangelescomic-con.com.

"We're hoping to pull in the L.A. crowd as well as the Inland Empire and Orange County," Peterson said.

The Packing House is letting him and co-organizer Erik von Wodtke use most of the common area in the complex, both inside and out, giving them space for approximately 28 vendor booths. As of Friday they had 16 confirmed vendors, filling the entire indoor area, a pretty good start. The Claremont Forum is helping underwrite the show.

Peterson said that vendors include Chino's Comic Madness, several back-issue sellers, the Claremont gaming store Gameology and himself, whose 200-square-foot space will be reminiscent of his former 700-square-foot shop, which closed in October.

Danny Miki, a Marvel Comics artist, will be at the show from 11 a.m. to noon.

Peterson has a four-month deal at the Packing House and hopes to put on shows the third Saturday of each month. He hopes the show grows to include movie previews and more guests. In the meantime, the first show sounds like fun. Admission is free, so what have we got to lose?

"It's just before Christmas. Get your shopping done, get something to eat and get your geek on," Peterson advises.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Claremont Packing House, on First Street a block west of Indian Hill Boulevard.

Now playing at Claremont's Laemmle 5: Perhaps the artiest lineup yet. This week's movies are "Slumdog Millionaire," "Milk," "Australia," "A Christmas Tale" (from France, starring Catherine Deneuve) and "I've Loved You So Long" (also from France, starring Kristin Scott Thomas).

If you want Laemmle to play sophisticated fare in Claremont, this would be a good week to vote with your pocketbook.

Cold Stone Creamery in Claremont's westside-of-Indian-Hill development (the name for which nobody can agree on) closed Sunday, the latest in a string of failures there that includes children's clothing store Chloe and Hunter and women's clothier Peyton Grey.

(Tally for Men, meanwhile, has had a "going out of business" sale since last spring. It's like a hammy death scene that goes on and on.)

Loraine Ong, the high school student in the Cold Stone ice cream flavor contest, alerted me to the store's closing. It certainly puts a crimp in her strategy, but she's shifted her "home store" to the location by the Edwards 14 theaters on Ontario's Mountain Avenue.

To help her out, I had gone to Cold Stone on Sunday for a Heath Wave. There was no indication it was the store's last day.

The bright side of this is that Bert and Rocky's won. That's the locally owned ice cream shop that's a fixture at Yale and Bonita just two blocks from Cold Stone. I prefer Bert and Rocky's anyway so I'm glad if only one store could survive, it's that one.

Some businesses in Village West/Village Square/Village Expansion appear to be thriving, by the way. Jamba Juice, Coffee Bean and La Parolaccia seem perpetually busy, Le Pain and Kazama are never empty and around 4 p.m. Sunday there was, hearteningly, a line of 20 people outside the Laemmle theater ticket window.

A few years ago I debunked the myth (promulgated in several biographies) that Jim Morrison of the Doors lived in Claremont while growing up; he actually lived briefly in Clairemont, the San Diego neighborhood. Claremont is a bit landlocked for a Navy family.

There's another, lesser-known myth that L. Frank Baum, author of "The Wizard of Oz," owned an orange grove in Claremont. Reader Dave Null asked me the question after finding a passing reference to Baum's alleged grove in the book "Orange Empire" by Douglas Cazaux Sackman.

A more definitive word comes from Katharine Rogers' bio "L. Frank Baum: Creator of Oz," in which she states: "The Baum sons soon followed their parents to Southern California ... Robert had graduated in engineering from Cornell, and he married Edna Ducker, whom the Baums had known at Macatawa since she was 14. Shortly afterward, Robert and Edna established an orange ranch in Claremont, about 50 miles from Hollywood."

I checked with Ginger Elliott of Claremont Heritage, the historical society. She replied: "You are correct. Robert Baum lived here and was a very successful citrus rancher and head of the Claremont School Board -- I have seen a few diplomas from CHS (Claremont High School) with his signature. I do not think that his father ever lived here -- but my real estate agent 30 years ago told me the story!"

These myths die hard. Especially when claiming the author of "The Wizard of Oz" as a past resident is so much more impressive-sounding than claiming his son!

For the record, L. Frank Baum died in 1919 and is buried in Glendale.

Visitors to Claremont's downtown Village with its lively pedestrian and cafe scene can't help but notice the working-age people who can be spotted not working at hours when nearly everyone else is. Who are these under-employed people lounging over endless cups of coffee at late morning or mid-afternoon?

It's one of the mysteries of Claremont, up there with how some Village stores stay in business, year after year, despite having seemingly no customers, never-changing window displays and, in at least one case I can think of (Kalter's), virtually never being open.

This week, as noted previously, I'm taking a few days off -- while still blogging, obviously. Wednesday morning, after a dental appointment, I took my newspapers to the public square in Village West and sat at a table under an umbrella with a Jamba Juice drink from about 10:30 to 11:30. A very pleasant, sunny day.

At some point, of course, it occurred to me: For one morning, I was one of those Village suspects. So were the dozen or so other people around me.

OK, but all these Village characters can't be on a staycation, can they?

Claremont has a trolley, or at least a trolley-like conveyance, which began service Thursday after a dedication ceremony. Yours truly was there. So were city officials, each of whom made remarks. Councilman Corey Calaycay kept his brief.

"To mirror the words of William Mulholland when he opened the Los Angeles Aqueduct, 'There it is. Ride it,'" Calaycay quipped.

Calaycay voted against the trolley, worried about the cost, but told me his attitude is, now that we've made the investment, Claremont should get the most of it.

In her own remarks, Councilwoman Linda Elderkin said the service's virtues are that it's both "an important economic development tool" and "incredibly cute." Not even the $700 billion bailout can make both those claims.

I talk about the "trolley" in Friday's column. Side note: Apparently the vehicle makes all four stops automatically, but there is also a bell cord, which can be pulled to indicate a stop. But it's suspended near the roof and can't be reached without standing. What's the deal with that?

The Comic Bookie in Claremont is closing Friday after 18 years, a fact noted on this blog a while back. The store is also the subject of Wednesday's column.

Owner Chris Peterson and I had a long chat Monday afternoon about the genesis of his store, its evolution and the factors forcing him to close. It surprised me to learn just how precarious his finances had been for a number of years. He's a relaxed guy and hid his stress well.

I also learned that he had retail experience as a Music Plus manager, mostly in the La Verne store, during the 1980s. That's why he was so good at customer service.

He takes some of the blame for the Bookie's demise, referring to the point when he stopped carrying new comics. That cut his expenses, but not surprisingly, he also lost customers, some of whom never came back even when he did carry new issues again.

In retrospect, he wishes he'd sold the store at its height. He'd hoped to sell in recent months but was unable to find a buyer: "A lot of people want to own a comic shop. Not too many people have the money to buy a comic shop."

Some of the factors that did him in are afflicting all comic shops.

"The comic shop as a paradigm worked because it was so unique," Peterson explained. Unsold stock could be sold at a markup as "back issues." That was stores' lifeblood. But few fans today collect back issues, many opting for paperback reprints, which are sold at chain bookstores, or online, at a discount.

In a business climate like that, greeting customers by name, as Peterson did, can only take you so far.

Peterson isn't sure of his next move but may go into teaching. This was a relief to me. After hearing that he'd been involved in records and comics, two dying industries, I was worried he'd go into newspapers.

Comic Bookie is at 1420 N. Claremont Blvd., Suite 203 B, Claremont -- but only through Friday.

Some of you will remember the days when comic books could be found at newsstands, supermarkets, convenience stores, candy stores and the like. In an earlier era, they were ubiquitous.

These days, other than a few in a spinner rack at the Montclair Borders, individual comics can be found only at comics specialty shops, of which there are very few. The entire Inland Valley has just four such stores, in Chino, Claremont, Pomona and Rancho Cucamonga.

Scratch Claremont. After 18 years, many spent in the Old Schoolhouse before a move to cheaper quarters in a business park, the Comic Bookie is closing up shop.

The last day is scheduled to be Oct. 31. Owner Chris Peterson sent out an e-mail to his regular customers this week announcing the end, saying sales aren't even covering his expenses.

He's in the midst of sales to clear out his stock -- admittedly, the prospect of discount pricing cushions the blow to cost-conscious comics fans (i.e., all of them) -- but it'll be a sad day when the shop closes. Not least among the reasons is Peterson's friendly manner, which endeared him to West End comics fans.

He liked us too, as his message makes clear:

"I cannot express how much I appreciate all of the great customers who have helped keep CB alive over the last 18 years! I will deeply miss doing business, and shooting the breeze, with you all. I feel very lucky to have spent the better part of the last 2 decades being your local 'Comic Book Guy.' But, things change, and it looks like it's time to move on."

His store is at 1420 N. Claremont Blvd., Suite 203B, Claremont; (909) 399-0228.

James Fallows, a national correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly, spoke Tuesday evening at Claremont McKenna College's Athenaeum on foreign policy and America's challenges.

For yours truly, one challenge was grasping the erudite Fallows' arguments; for Fallows, the greatest challenge was getting to the point. (He spent a fair amount of time outlining how his talk would go instead of just, you know, talking.)

Here are his four ideas for the post-Bush era, as best I can summarize them:

* We have a window of opportunity to remake ourselves and put our house in order not seen since the post-World War II era. We should think big.

* We should reconsider what measures are worth taking to defend ourselves after 9/11 and what ones undermine our society.

* We should focus on how can America best remain attractive to the world through the power of our example through such traditional American strengths as opportunity, innovation, openness, equality and trust.

* We should take a world leadership role in slowing global warming and energy use.

"If it's possible to scare up $700 billion over a weekend to avert a financial crisis, it would take a lot less to make a significant difference in climate change," Fallows said.

The former Carter speechwriter has been living in China for two years and said that nation is very poor, its army focused on Tibet rather than us, and its citizens largely positive about America.

His only partisan comment was to repeat something a Chinese financial official told him in a recent interview. Noting that the U.S. criticizes China's one-party system while extoling the virtues of our two-party system, the official said that after the American disasters under Bush, putting another Republican in the White House will make us look like hypocrites when we say our democratic system fosters accountability.

Fallows encouraged students, who made up much of the audience, to live abroad for a year before age 30 to gain a better understanding of the world. His final words were addressed to them: "Go forth and save us."

OK, that part I understood perfectly.

I went to the Claremont Museum of Art on Saturday evening for the opening reception for "The Passerby Museum" exhibit, in which objects that could fit into a sandwich bag were collected from passersby in the Village and at Pitzer College. The collection was a recent column topic.

Among the items added since I'd written about it:

* An extinguished cigarette and handwritten note reading "Hope it's my last."

* An apple core, beginning to brown.

* A Costco shopping list that included this item: "TP (?)." I wonder what the deciding factor was.

* An Aug. 24 Angels vs. Twins ticket.

The community-driven exhibit is "an intriguing way to get people into the museum who might not otherwise come," executive director William Moreno told me.

In the first gallery space, the walls are covered floor to ceiling with pinned-up Passerby Museum sandwich bags, not just the nearly 300 from Claremont but hundreds from previous stops in Cuba, Spain, Canada and New York City, each city identified near the ceiling in bold letters.

Now that its name is alongside Havana, Mexico City and New York City, has obscure Claremont suddenly vaulted among the great cities of the world?

Well, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada isn't all that well known either, and it's represented, co-curator Nicolas Dumit Estevez pointed out when I brought it up. But he saw my point and thought that when the "Claremont, California" items are shown in other cities -- San Antonio, Texas, is the likely next stop, sometime next year -- the unfamiliar name might spark curiosity.

"When people see 'Claremont,' I think they'll want to look it up on a map, don't you?" Estevez said.

I do.

In the meantime, see the exhibit at the museum through Dec. 28. The first Friday of the month, admission is free.

When I wrote about getting the name of my newspaper into Steve Harvey's L.A. Times column 82 times, I joked that I really ought to get some kind of kickback from the Bulletin's marketing department.

This prompted our marketing department to give me a $15 gift card from Cold Stone Creamery with a note reading: "Here's your kickback." Hey, I'll take what I can get.

Frankly, I'm not a fan of Cold Stone, Marble Slab and the like where they pull taffy-like ice cream out of a bin, toss it on a slab, add the "mix-ins" of your choice (Cap'n Crunch, M&M's, etc.) and massage the whole mass with paddles. I like my ice cream straight.

However, I'd recently read in our paper (story no longer available online) and in the Courier about a Claremont High junior, Loraine Ong, who created a Cold Stone flavor for the Claremont location as part of a national contest.

Heath Wave, as it's called, has French vanilla ice cream, Heath bars, a brownie and chocolate sauce. That sounded worth trying.

So on Monday after dinner I used $5.59 of my $15 to get a dish at the store, 101 N. Indian Hill Blvd. in the Village Expansion. Heath Wave isn't on the menu -- and the official promotion recently ended -- but the scooper knew what it was and how to make it. The result was quite tasty.

Or as Ong described her flavor to the Courier: "It's smooth, crunchy and chewy."

Mmmm...smooth, crunchy and chewy.

It was no Elvis Special, the peanut butter and banana flavor at Bert and Rocky's, but what is? If Heath Wave sounds like something you'd like, go for it. And raise a spoon to Loraine Ong. I raised one for our marketing department, too, but that's just me.

What should we call the Village Expansion west of Indian Hill Boulevard? The Claremont Courier had an online poll that overwhelmingly backed the dark horse name Village West. Some ideas got only one vote.

In response, a man named Bill Rook and his coffee club friends at 42nd Street Bagel in Claremont came up with a list of Names That Did Not Get a Vote.

Among them:

* Village Idiot Square

* The Packing House Lemon Center

* Budget Breaker Restaurant Row

* How Do I Break My Lease Commons

* No Indie Art Film Plaza

And, in reference to the frozen food manufacturing plant still operating next to the boutique hotel:

* Rich Foods Entertainment Plaza.

No votes? I'd give mine to that one.

I've been taking "The Distant Land of My Father" to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Claremont on weekends to have some focused time to read it, and also get out of the heat. After almost three weeks, I'm three-quarters of the way through and am enjoying it.

On Sunday I ran into my friend Vince Turner there, held up the book and noted that it had been chosen by the Claremont: On the Same Page people for everyone in town to read.

Turner, his finger on the pulse of Claremont as always, took a more practical approach.

Instead of foisting a 400-page novel on a time-pressed public, he said, "They should just pick a magazine for everyone to leaf through."

Claremont: On the Same Newsstand?

Claremont's Laemmle 5 movie theater has been open a year and some change -- it debuted July 27, 2007 -- and I'm wondering who among you has been there and what you think of it.

I'm hoping to write a column about it in the very near future, possibly Sunday, and would like your feedback in advance on the theater's existence, pricing, mix of films, etc.

In a blow to West End pie lovers, the Bakers Square restaurant in Claremont has closed. The location, at 710 S. Indian Hill Blvd., just above the 10 Freeway, was among 56 Bakers Square and Village Inn locations across the U.S. that closed after their parent company filed bankruptcy.

A total of 343 of the two restaurants remain in business, including the Bakers Square at 1401 Foothill Blvd. (at Wheeler) in La Verne. So there's that comfort.

Still, the Claremont location will be missed by some. "I really liked their strawberry/pineapple/coconut pie. . . .sigh. . ." reader Joanne Boyajian laments.

I'm more a Flo's and Corky's man myself, or even Marie Callender's, but I passed by the Claremont Bakers Square frequently and it will be a little sad not to see it there.

I dropped into Rhino Records on Saturday for the festivities, managing to miss the in-store bands who performed earlier and later. Too bad, as during the noon set by the soul-inflected Eli "Paperboy" Reed and the True Loves, an incident occurred.

"Local town color Ray Collins (of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention) interrupted their set to tell them that they sounded great, but the horns were too loud," general manager Dennis Callaci said. "I don't think that is going to happen in the aisles of a Circuit City anytime soon."

At least Collins didn't say they needed more cowbell.

Despite missing that scene, I shopped happily, traded some discs and enjoyed the day's 10 percent discount. So did everyone else: It was Rhino's busiest day of 2008.

I picked up Van Morrison's new CD, "Keep It Simple," which is the best I've heard from him in 20 years. My other purchases, which I haven't had a chance to play yet, are CDs by new bands Vampire Weekend and Los Campesinos and best-ofs from bluesman Jimmy Reed and R&B singer Ruth Brown.

Courtesy of a link from the Claremont Insider blog, here's a charming blog post by a visitor from Occidental College about the amazing food selections at the Claremont Colleges.

Love the bullet point list.

I've eaten at a couple of the Claremont Colleges cafeterias and likewise found the food tasty and plentiful, its range and depth impressive and kind of hilarious. I missed Sushi Day, though.

Reader Shirley Wofford of Montclair posted this note recently on an entry from December. I'll share it here so that people will see it:

"I have been going to Claremont every Wednesday, because the Laemmle Theaters gives seniors the best deal going.

"Fortunately for me, I am still healthy enough to make the trek from the Metrolink Station."

I can see the problem here: Since Claremont doesn't charge for parking, a visitor can't pay for the privilege of parking for an extended period, and with signs limiting the garage to three hours, there's likewise no obvious place to park for an extended period. Even lunch and a movie is longer than three hours.

That said, Shirley is going to have to get over her garage-phobia. Actually, the roof of the parking garage is for all-day parking, so you ought to try that next time, Shirley. Added bonus: It's usually less crowded up there. Also, I believe by evening, or late afternoon, it's possible to park anywhere in the garage for an extended period; a sign is posted to that effect at the entrance.

Incidentally, I met Shirley at the Metrolink Station one day a couple of years ago while heading to L.A. on the first late-night Saturday train. She's a big Metrolink fan. Few people would think to get from, say, Montclair to Claremont by train, but I imagine it's a pleasant little trip.

* Shirley also posted a related comment, on trying to park in the Metrolink parking lot, on another entry, which you can read here.

Responding to my column last Friday on the planned Claremont Trolley to ferry people around the Village, reader Ken Rowland says that while the trolley doesn't seem worthwhile to him, he does like Mayor Peter Yao's earlier talk of a pedestrian bridge over Indian Hill Boulevard to connect to old and new Villages.

Rowland visited Tacoma, Wash., and admired the Glass Bridge there, a structure designed by artist and Tacoma native Dale Chihuly that leads to the Museum of Glass. Artworks are displayed along the path.

Says Rowland:

"My thought was that the local art colony, located in Claremont -- both in the old village and in the village west -- would have a place to prime visitors for things to come as they cross through this novel bridge. I have no idea of cost but the $886K noted (for 3 year trial) for a 'free' tram system seems like it would be a recurring cost, as opposed to a lesser ongoing cost of maintaining an overcrossing."

Well, it does look nice, and perhaps it's adaptable to Claremont, although I remain skeptical.

Note that the Tacoma bridge is 500 feet long and "soars 70 feet into the air," linking downtown and the waterfront. After being narrowed a couple of years back to make crossing the street on foot more inviting, Indian Hill is only three lanes wide. Still. give Rowland credit for thinking imaginatively.

Just catching up on some news after my mini-vacation. Did you read where a drug deal gone wrong in Old Town Pasadena resulted in a shocking (but non-fatal) shooting by a suspect from ... Claremont?

Oh, Claremont. Must you export your drug and crime problems to peaceful communities?

Reader Dave Null of Claremont writes:

"I know that you are always looking for unusual stories. I am a distance student in the MBA (Masters in Business Administration) program at Blekinge Tekniska Högskola in Sweden.

"I am a retired professor from Cal Poly Pomona and already have PhD, JD and LLM degrees, but I am now a finance and administrative officer for the Civil Air Patrol, the Auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, so I need some more training in accounting and management."

The problem with taking university classes in Sweden from California is you miss out on those famous Swedish meatballs and stewardesses.

Tonight you can see Ontario bluesman John Harrelson at The Press in Claremont, no cover charge. (Actually, you can see John Harrelson at The Press plenty of nights, seated at the bar, for no cover charge, but tonight he'll be on stage performing. Capeesh?)

Harrelson, the subject of a column of mine a couple of years back, always puts on a fun show. As he promotes it in his e-mail announcement of the show: "Hear true stories about people you know -- See the 'candle trick.'"

Ah, yes, the candle trick. What Harrelson does is finish his first set with some crowd-pleasing antics on guitar. He plays behind his head. He plays behind his back. And he lays his guitar on the nearest table, using a candle holder as a capo to play slide guitar. It must be seen to be believed.

In fact, you can see it on YouTube right here.

That's John Harrelson and His Fantastic Band at The Press, 129 Harvard Ave., Claremont, starting at 10 p.m.

Here's a note from reader Sharon Williams in response to Sunday's column on the Claremont Village Expansion, and with a holiday theme yet:

"Dear Mr. Allen,

"Sharon Williams, Parent and PFA Member."

Looks like the real Claremont is alive and well, its heart, shall we say, expansive.

Barring a natural disaster, or for that matter an unnatural disaster, Sunday's column will be about Claremont's downtown Village Expansion, which is mostly open for business.

Unlike Victoria Gardens, say, which opened all at once, Claremont's expanded downtown has rolled out over a period of weeks, a store here, a restaurant there, with walkways and streets opening as construction ends. Which may be why you don't know the Expansion is open, because there was no big splash.

Just curious: Have you been, and if so, what are your impressions?