I take a look at the local races on the Nov. 8 ballot and note the most interesting, starting with Ontario, where an awful lot of people want to be elected to something, including three members of the same family. That’s my Wednesday column.

Friday’s column is shorter than usual, for good or bad: I wrote up a bunch of items but had to go home sick before I could come up with a topper. But, since they mostly couldn’t wait, and the show must go on, you get eight brief items and nothing else.

I’m writing this Friday morning from my desk, a sign I’ve recovered enough to get back to work. Onward to Sunday’s column!

In our office’s move last fall, I found a 1998 Daily Bulletin and was entranced by the movie ads. Like supermarket and help wanted ads, movie ads have migrated away from newspapers in whole or in part. These 18-year-old ads are of interest because many of the theaters don’t exist anymore. I don’t know the fate or status of them all, but the Mountain Green 4, for instance, is a Michael’s craft store. Click on the images for a more readable view.

In 1966, Nancy and Ronald Reagan campaigned for an hour at the L.A. County Fair. I have information and a photo from that, as well as other visits by her or them, in Friday’s column, followed by four Culture Corner items and a Valley Vignette.

Wednesday’s column begins with reader reactions to my column last month about my colonoscopy and continues with items about two locals who competed on “American Idol” and “Cake Wars” and cultural events in Ontario, Claremont and San Dimas.

My annual countdown of the strangest local news stories of the year appears in my Wednesday column.

How do I come up with them? I clip and save stories from the Bulletin, and occasionally other papers, throughout the year in a folder labeled “Weird stories of [year],” then sift through them in late December. There were 29 stories in all, some of them from my columns — although none of the 10 selections ended up being anything I’d written about. My choices and the rankings are somewhat random, but if the stories got a lot of attention, they move up in the countdown.

A UC Irvine professor of physics and astronomy, Michael Dennin, makes a compelling case for Santa having superheroic powers, such as the ability to bend space and time and shift shape to slide down chimneys. But Dennin admits Santa doesn’t have any arch-foes. Does the Grinch count? Thanks to Roy Rivenburg for the video.

In a special Saturday column, I struggle to understand the news out of San Bernardino. My questions probably mirror yours.

Sunday’s column starts with an item about punning business names and continues with news nuggets from Chino and about Pomona.

Sunday’s column assesses the election defeats in the above-named cities, then presents three cultural notes and three Chino items.