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Relay for Life -- Bakersfield a leader Lay off the old people, you NFL bruisers Scratching and rubbing, good feelings Female-only buses in Mexico City, but not Bakersfield A $200,000 ride to space, how nice How healthy are your dogs? Mother gives up newborn to Bakersfield fire station A $2,000 puppy stolen in Oildale How much of a hassle are fog delays? Fog, the thing I like least about Bakersfield July 06 August 06 September 06 October 06 November 06 December 06 January 07 February 07 March 07 April 07 May 07 June 07 July 07 August 07 September 07 October 07 November 07 December 07 January 08 February 08 March 08 April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 June 06 May 06 April 06 March 06 February 06 January 06 December 05 November 05 October 05 September 05 Blog RollAsk The Californian Editorials Entertainment Eye of Bakersfield Faith Forum Fired Up! Inside Sports Neighbors Right Thinking Sound Off Talk of the Town 
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On the cover of the classified section of today's newspaper are two Cavalier King Charles Spaniel pups selling for $1,600 EACH!
I obviously haven't been paying attention to dog prices lately.
If you look inside the classifieds you will see dogs for sale at up to $3,000 each. And that price is tagged to an English Bull Dog. Who would pay that much for a pudgy dog full of wrinkles?
Last time I bought a dog was a purebred cocker spaniel at the pound — $35. Today pound dogs cost...
First, somebody had the frilly idea of having men wear earrings.Now, there's a market for a male nanny — "manny" as it were.A story by Brigid Schulte of the Washington Post details all this — pointing out that Hollywood stars Britney Spears, Gwyneth Paltrow and Rosie O'Donnell all have one. Seems that actress Elizabeth Hurley is on the hunt for a good one. Well, I will fantasize about being her man, but not her manny.Am I saying this professional caring for kids is...
I am not a heavy alcohol drinker. The reason is it hurts.I buy a 12-pack of beer and it usually lasts me one to two months.A new study says light drinking appears to be good for you.This University of Florida study says people who have one to seven drinks per week were 30 percent less likely to develop heart disease over six years. They were also less likely to die of any cause.Other studies have similar findings. Heavy drinkers and alcoholics, on the other hand, are likely to die of...
Janet Driskell of Lake Isabella was going to take me to lunch.She was going to use a small part of $100,000 she won in a Canadian lottery. She got a $2,900 cashier's check in the mail payable on the Country Federal Credit Union in MacCleeny, Fla.She was supposed to wait 4 days and then wire $2,000 to Canada to pay for taxes on her winnings. (A pretty cheap tax bill if she really won $100,000).But Janet never entered the Canadian lottery. Still, she was thinking, "Maybe I did and I didn't...
Forget about the squiggle or the slogan, this heat is ruining our reputation.Temperatures of 101 or 102 are okay. After all, it's dry heat.But this muggy heat of 105-plus is just assaultive and oppressive. People passing through here think Bakersfield is just horrid. And our air conditioning bills are even worse — hundreds of dollars a month.I'm cool with that message. That Bakersfield has more good weather than most places can be our dirty little secret.I don't want people moving...
On Saturday, my bride and I decided to go to the beach. It was 109 and for us, the first day all summer that the beach was on the must-do list.We had everything except a beach umbrella. Five stores later, both in Bakersfield and Oxnard, we still didn't have a beach umbrella.The lady at the Rite-Aid in Oxnard explained why — "Our summer was over weeks ago."Retail's summer may have been over, but I'm anticipating a few more trips to the beach before my summer is over.Now I...
You can tell when you have arrived — organizations start to publish surveys about you. The Pew Internet & American Life Project has done just that about bloggers — people who write web logs. It turns out I'm one of those people.And so is anyone else, including a growing number of people on The Californian's website, who write their own blogs.More than half of bloggers are younger than 30, and a majority use their blogs as a mode of creative expression, the survey...
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is just one of millions of women who I do not feel comfortable enough with to give a back rub.She reacted a bit strongly when President Bush rubbed her shoulders at the G-8 Summit.Women do that when strangers touch them, especially without asking first. And people who do such touching are really displaying their power. That is also resented. There are whole groups of women who I wouldn't even think of rubbing their shoulders. Heads of state, nuns, bosses...
The Marketplace has gotten in the news lately because a few unruly teens have been arrested for fighting or disturbing the peace.Managers for the popular center and the police were going to meet to see what can be done — especially on Friday nights — when large crowds of teens hang out among the fountains, movies, ice cream places, restaurants and stores.I also hang out at the Marketplace because my bride and I get the senior discount for the movies. Lots of teens are there on...
We are looking for such people to personalize the awful conflict that is going on over there. If you know of someone would you e-mail me or Shellie Branco at sswenson@bakersfield.com or sbranco@bakersfield.com
People do stupid things, but so-called "cool parents" who provide alcohol to minors not only put their kids in danger, but everyone else too.The city is considering toughening its ordinance to make such parents pay civil penalties. In my personal life, I know two sets of parents who have done this — one a lawyer, the other an insurance person. I can't think of two professions who should be more aware of the dangers of providing alcohol to kids than those.The excuse:...
If Jim Burke ever wanted to be mayor of Bakersfield, it was his for the taking.In my 28 years in this town, there is not more than a handful of people who were more respected than he was. And that's because he always respected others. He always took the time to listen and respond in a caring way.He died Monday at the age of 80.The last time I had a personal encounter with him was in October, 2003, when a sinkhole trapped several vehicles in and around his lot. Ann Savage, a credit department...
Kern County has its share of family owned businesses that have been around for years.A sampling includes:The Bakersfield Californian 1897Dewar’s 1909Karpe Real Estate Center 1926Smith’s Bakeries 1945Would you add any others to the list?Does it matter to you that a business is family owned rather than a corporate clone?Posted by Steve E. Swenson
Charles Stuart Platkin, also known as the Diet Detective, provided a full report on the phenomenon know as gas.The nice word is flatulance. Pre-teens have other words for it.Turns out most people pass gas 10 to 20 times a day. I don't keep track, but that seems about right.Platkin noted that "most people" includes women. I'm glad he did that. Most men, I think, believe women don't do anything so undignified.Gas, Platkin reports, comes from undigested sugars that pass into the colon...
What the heck is this world coming to?Apparently there are swimsuit manufacturers who cover up all the good parts of a woman.They, according to a Washington Post story by Robin Givhan, are called WholesomeWear swimsuits. A picture is attached to the above link.The purported swimsuits are like a short-sleeve, nearly-to-the-knee wet suits, covered by a shapeless jumper. I've seen parochial uniforms with more pizazz than that.So what's your take? Are you in favor of giving women funny tan lines...
Three Bakersfield people are donating their bone marrow to try to save three lives.The California manager of the National Marrow Doner Program is call this "the summer of Bakersfield heroes."They include Doug Black, Catherine Finch and Brad Sturm.Black got his name on the list after being one of thousands who registered with the Naitonal Marrow Donor Program six years ago to try to help a young leukemia patient named Mikella McAuley.Mikella did not survive, but Black is trying to...
I'm guessing here, but I think people who trash up city and county parks need a little housecleaning at their homes too.Trash in the parks is a constant problem that small legions of city and county employees try to keep under control.But Californian reporter Julianna Crisalli reports in teh July 14 edition that on a recent Monday at Yokuts Park, a large shard of glass stuck out of the children's sandbox right after the grass was cut and the park was cleaned.Some parents are concerned not...
Washington Post reporter Amy Joyce wrote a story, inspired by the movie, "The Devil Wears Prada," about crass, rude and self-absorbed bosses who trample on employees for a living.The story says a Monster poll found that 70 percent of workers think they have a "toxic boss" much like the Meryl Streep character in the movie.Can that be true? Only 70 percent?I had one here. He's gone now. (I live by the motto 'Don't let the bastards get you down' and I have survived many...
We all have these small world stories.I was in Vegas with my union goon buddies and we decided to check out the Venetian. Great place. I'm taking the gondola ride when I take my bride to Vegas next.As we walk out a door on the Saturday night when the strip was wall to wall people, I run into my neice from Lacey, Wa. Odds against that are phenomenal.Another time my car broke down in Shaver Lake. Stopped in at the bar to await help and sat next to a neighbor of a good friend of mine from...
This will teach me to go out and get married and then go to Vegas to play union goon and golf -- everything has changed on The Californian's website.It seems that instead of having just Californian's blog's on our home page, we've set it up so that anyone can be a blogger and the Californian's group just gets in the queue. I've gone from feeling special to just part of the crowd.The idea is everyone is as important as anyone of us here so that now everyone is a blogger. Do you like this new...
On Wednesday, my editor was explaining this whacky new blog system we have and pointed out there was a fly on my computer screen.I gave it a quick back hand and extinguished its life.But the point is, the rather large fly somehow made it up to the third floor of the Californian building. That's very unusual.Not that we don't have stinky things up here which would attract flies, but somehow they never get to our little world. Just then, another editor (they are like flies around here) says...
Hi everyone.I'm just now back from my wedding cruise and honeymoon on the Inside Passage to Alaska.I won't bore you with all the details (though some of the details wouldn't be boring at all), but it was wonderful, spectacular and romantic.Like a proud parent of a newborn, we tell everyone about it.Not everyone greets our happy nuptuals as a happy event.At the golf course yesterday, a man told me, "Well, that was a big mistake to get married."There's some credence to that view. My...
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