Is there anything we like about our Wet Hot IE Summers? I throw the question out to you readers with hopes you’re not too lethargic to answer. Plus: Robert Towne, the late screenwriter, attended Pomona College; it’s my fourth anniversary in the P-E and fifth in The Sun; a reader offers some math humor regarding the “29!” sculpture; and the NYT’s “What You Get” feature once again includes Riverside. All this is in my Wednesday column.
An ancient Palmer’s oak was born before the end of the Ice Age and has survived 13,000 years in what is now Jurupa Valley. Development is planned near it and that has advocates worried. I hike out to see the oak for my Friday column.
In my latest column: Items about three current art shows in Riverside, an East LA restaurant named for artist Rufino Tamayo, more about Chinese restaurants in Rancho Cucamonga, a Claremont man’s appearance in National Geographic, a MoVal’s man ‘60s encounter with Karen Valentine, two corrections involving Palm Springs and Claremont, and a farewell to a Chino Hills character. All that is in my Friday desk-clearing (really, Google doc-clearing) column.
In California’s new population estimates, the Inland Empire kept growing. I list the 15 IE cities above 100,000, up from 14, and offer other perspectives in my number-crunchin’ Sunday column.
I managed to write both this column and Friday’s on Wednesday, with some touch-ups Thursday morning before leaving town for a long weekend in Palm Springs.
John Oliver wisecracks about Murrieta PD being chastised by Lego, which he calls a “pro-cop toy franchise.” Also: my day last Friday was hectic, but rewarding. And a famed LA pastor had Pomona Valley ties. All this is in my Wednesday column.
Rite Aid is closing 22 stores in California, including seven in the IE. (Or eight, if Needles is IE.) Plus, the figure “$2.5 million” is repeatedly invoked at a San Bernardino council meeting, it’s my 27th anniversary at the newspaper, two chances are coming up to meet me for my 60th birthday, and a Riverside judge’s ruling in a high-profile vandalism case is unusual. All this is in my Sunday column.
Three U.S. presidents, future or past, called the Inland Empire home: LBJ, Eisenhower and Ford. Also: news that former Kmart and Sears stores in Riverside may be turned into apartments has me wondering what’s next; more about late newspaper owner Mel Hodell; two public appearances by me take place this week; and Twentynine Palms makes Westways. All this fills up my Wednesday column.
Peter Schickele, a.k.a. classical-music parodist PDQ Bach, performed several times in the region, including in Claremont, Riverside and San Bernardino. Also, four more items from around the IE, all in my Friday column.
For my last column of 2023, I present some items that hadn’t made previous columns this year: reader emails, observations and loose-end tying. (None of this was pre-written, alas, just notes or emails.) My theory was that a slow news week, and light readership week, was a good time to slip them into print before moving on. That’s my Sunday column. There will be more on Wednesday. Before then, though: Happy New Year!
My 26th annual (!) countdown of the year’s weirdest local news is presented in my Friday column.