Last week county supervisors passed an ordinance requiring A, B or C grades be posted in the windows of local restaurants after inspections by the county's environmental health department.  The new letter grades will start appearing in restaurants in January.  Some other California communities already have similar systems in place.

What do you think?  Would you feel safer seeing how a restaurant graded out before eating there?  Would you rather not know?

Depending on who you ask,  downtown Bakersfield is either blighted and neglected or on its way to becoming a vibrant arts and entertainment district.
What do you think?
Are the recent renovations and openings of the Nile Theater as a bar and nightclub and Capistrano’s as a bar and restaurant a sign of better times ahead?
Is downtown improving?  How would you propose making it better and bringing more people downtown?

What will be the hot toys this holiday season?  The T.M.X. Elmo (who has laughing fits and slaps his knee) has already sold out at many stores.  Other hot toys this season are expected to include Barbie and her 12 dancing princesses (could you have any more princesses?), Bratz dolls pimped out with diamonds (how about that bling?), a life-sized animatronic pony (not making this up) and a new Nintendo game console that allows kids to wave around the remote to match action on the screen (like hitting a ball on the screen with an imaginary tennis racket or pretending to slap your real world brother across the face).

What have your kids started asking for?  Will they get socks again for Christmas this year?  Maybe only grandmas do that.  Have toys gone too far, got too expensive and complicated?  During my first birthday party I unwrapped all my presents and spent the rest of the time playing with the wrapping paper.  Is Santa Claus real?

China Bistro opened its second location in Bakersfield on Coffee Road near the new WinCo Foods grocery store about two weeks ago and there are plans for a third location in the northeast.  The Marketplace location has been perennially honored as a favorite local Chinese restaurant in Californian reader's polls and often has lines stretching out the front door.

What is it about China Bistro that locals love?  Is it the heaping quantities of food, the relatively low prices or the quick assembly-line service?   I am partial to the Orange Chicken with rice and soy sauce (I'm not the most adventuresome of eaters).  What are your favorite China Bistro dishes?

For the second year in a row Valley Plaza will open early the day after Thanksgiving this year (Nov. 24).  After opening at 2 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving last year, the mall plans to open at 1 a.m. this year.  Some even camped outside overnight in the parking lot waiting for the doors to open while watching big screen TVs, listening to music and getting free food and coffee samples.
What do you think?  Is 1 a.m. too early to shop?  Would you get up that early to shop or stay up overnight waiting to shop that early?  What possesses people to do this?  Is it about getting better deals (deeper discounts for those who show up before normal business hours) or just the novelty?