The Mission Inn Foundation nonprofit can no longer lead tours of the Mission Inn after its legal beef with the hotel ended badly, but it’s now offering three tours daily of the hotel’s perimeter. I go on the first. (I’m the only one there, meaning I have the undisputed title of first to take the tour.) I write about the tour, the dispute and the hotel in my Wednesday column.

I’d been meaning for a few months now to comment on the dispute and had some silly jokes about it stored away. Finally, I found a way to use them!

Julia Morgan’s design for Riverside’s YWCA, now the Riverside Art Museum, is the focus of an exhibit at the museum. Contemplated improvements for the museum are also part of the exhibit. Also: more items about Riverside plus Mick Jagger’s shout-out to San Bernardino, all in my Sunday column.

By happenstance, it came to my attention a few days ago that the Riverside tradition of having the city fireworks show take place on Mount Rubidoux began in 1964 — making this the unheralded 60th anniversary. I’d already thought I ought to attend sometime, so suddenly I decided this was the year. Where many people watch is Evergreen cemetery, an official viewing spot. Off I went. Read about what it was like in my Sunday column.

Calvin Trillin, the New Yorker writer, was briefly a regular at Riverside’s Zacatecas Cafe in 1978-79. He came to the city to report about Casa Blanca and about smog and was introduced to the restaurant by a P-E reporter. They ate there every day for a week. I pull together the threads of a curious piece of local history for my Friday column. This has been in the works since April — whew!

People told fond, funny stories about Mel Opotowsky, longtime P-E managing editor, at his memorial service. I never worked with him, but he was a legend. And in San Bernardino news, City Hall took the unusual step of commenting on the firing of its finance director, and politico Jim Penman told a joke during a council meeting’s public comment period. I squeeze all that into my Wednesday column.

Cesar Pelli not only designed two buildings in downtown San Bernardino in the 1970s, he designed the Humanities Building at UC Riverside in the 1990s. A professor who oversaw the project tells me about it. That’s my Wednesday column, which ends with a brIEfly item about the late aviator Dick Rutan, who was born in Loma Linda and was honored in 2021 in Riverside.

Writer Rachel Stark talked about her debut novel, “Perris, California,” at Riverside’s Culver Center for the Arts on Wednesday with fellow writers Susan Straight and Alex Espinoza. All three talked about setting fiction in the IE, a long way from the consciousness of New York publishing houses. Stark grew up in Perris and incorporates real places into her novel. Also: the Mission Inn gets (more) recognition. That’s my Friday column.

People turned out to the library in droves for a recent talk about Zacatecas Cafe, an icon of Riverside’s eastside, in business for six decades. Also: a Riverside man’s 90th birthday was marked in a nationally syndicated jumble puzzle. And a notable Ontario native returns for an estate sale at his childhood home. Read all about it in my Sunday column.

I attend a Riverside City Council meeting, during which outgoing council members popped off at the public, new members were sworn in (and immediately undid the previous council’s last action), and Councilmember Chuck Conder participated remotely while using a “Muppet Show” background. Also: an IE-wide history festival takes place Saturday in San Bernardino, I personally vouch for a problem detailed in our On the Road traffic column and Claremont shows up as a “Jeopardy” clue. All this is in my Friday column.

Juan Bautista de Anza rode through Riverside and crossed the Santa Ana River on March 20-21, 1774, 250 years ago last week. He was the first non-native to document a visit to the future Inland Empire. I visit sites associated with him, including a statue in Newman Park, for my Sunday column. I’d heard of De Anza, and you probably have too, but I hadn’t understood who he was or his significance until now.