I attend a Rancho Cucamonga City Council meeting (my first since 2019) to see what the council would do with the vacant seat left by the death of Sam Spagnolo. (Spoiler alert: See headline.) Some fun or wacky stuff took place too, as tends to happen at council meetings. It’s the subject of my Friday column.

The 35-year firefighter and 18-year councilman in Rancho Cucamonga was mourned Thursday. I attended the funeral and mingled afterward, where I got a funny item. I also plug my Saturday book stop in Ontario and a Sunday event in Pomona, all in Friday’s column.

The class has produced directors of opera and ballet, plus a TV news meteorologist. Also, two Inland Empire spots for frozen custard are listed, the Dodger fan base around St. Louis is characterized as “annoyingly large,” a new angle to Rancho Cucamonga’s cityhood is offered, local references in the new movie “The Guilty” are cited, and a rap supergroup is headed to Ontario. All that is in my Wednesday column.

Friday’s column begins with an unexpected local angle to a national story and continues with a Pomona joke from a 1950s “Burns and Allen Show” episode, more about Inland Empire nonfiction books and a short item with a 909 slant from Alaska.

I revisit the topic of Cucamonga mentions in old cartoons by pivoting to Jack Benny, who probably did it first. A Riverside reader shares her interactions with the artist Magu. And I highlight what the mayor of LA once did for the IE. All that is in Wednesday’s column, as I begin a post-vacation catch-up.

Bugs Bunny and friends made jokes now and then about Cucamonga — sparingly, but memorably. I once compiled a list of six references. But now two more have come to my attention, so I go through the whole thing again, for completeness’ sake. That’s the subject of my Wednesday column.

And, as noted at the end, I’m on vacation, returning to your newspaper/news site on July 4.

With the head of Filippi Winery wanting to retire, the future of the winery and the property is in question. The city of Rancho Cucamonga, which owns the land, is seeking developers to operate the winery and add complementary uses, including a hotel, restaurants and more. That’s the subject of Sunday’s slightly newsy column.

On a lark, I write about a woman in Rancho Cucamonga whose orange tree has some mighty large oranges. (It doesn’t have any larks.) Also, more reader jokes about Rancho Cucamonga, while we’re on the subject, and a short farewell to a bookstore owner in Pomona, all in Friday’s column.

Gathering together some odds and ends, I share reader responses to recent columns on Rancho Cucamonga’s name, drive-in theaters, the Harada House and more, all in Wednesday’s column.

Following up on my recent column on Rancho Cucamonga’s first mayor, I return to the topic of how the city with the funny name got its funny name. That is Wednesday’s Christmas Eve Eve column.