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Whatever happened to the decorum and civility at graduation ceremonies?
Reporter transported back to Mesozoic Era in fun dinosaur show at Rabobank Arena
Latest Charles Manson prison photo
The navel fluff phenomenon explained
Today's youth more into music than sex
Cancel Christmas: The date's all wrong, say scientists
Smile, it's good for me
You know the economy sucks when ...
GM boss pleads poverty, eats at Quiznos
Depressing Christmas cards
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As a cancer patient, I'm going to ignore new studies that link bacon, sausage, lunch meat and red meat to cancer. What's next? Sex isn't good for you either? Besides, I always distrust these statistical studies that assign risk to habits which may or may not cause cancer or other ills in themselves.  Who knows why I got cancer?  Could be oogling too many women.  Why isn't that kind of thing studied? Nonetheless, I'm duty bound to report that these latest extensive...
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posted by talkofthetown on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 at 02:09 PM
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The other day while I was at home sick, the Today Show had a segment on how much cleavage is okay at work. The prevailing opinion was none, although some thought just a little shouldn't interfere too much. The idea is co-workers should be looking at women in the eye, not in the chest. Men and other women notice such curves and either are distracted or judgmental, the tv talkers said. I am aware of one woman in a mostly woman workplace who was proud of what she paid for and liked...
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posted by talkofthetown on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 03:46 PM
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My favorite day of the year growing up and being a parent to my kids is Halloween. Visiting people in my neighborhood in costumes to get a bag of treats is just a wonderful night. Back in the day, I wouldn't come home as a kid until I filled up a whole brown grocery bag full of candy. And chatting with neighbors as I took my kids out when they were young was great. That's my Americana view of how Halloween should be. But there are a few annoying things about Halloween as it is...
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posted by talkofthetown on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 10:37 AM
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Sometimes you do have to ask, What would Jesus do? And Jesus wouldn't carry picket signs at a dead soldier's funeral in order to protest gays or other perceived ills of America. Because Jesus would have more compassion for the soldier's family in their raw feelings of grief. That's why I think Shirley Phelps-Roper and the rest of the Phelps family and followers from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan. are not angels sent to rescue us. Shirley's brother, Jonathan Phelps, put this...
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posted by talkofthetown on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 06:44 AM
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It's not new, but some parents in Bakersfield are a bit distressed about military recruiters calling their teens and popping a big question: "Want to join the military?" We heard from some parents who didn't like the practice, or worried it could be a scam. So we checked it out. U.S. Army Capt. Brent Ivester said a list of high school juniors and seniors who are eligible for the military must be provided by any public school that receives federal funding. The mandate,...
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Topics: bakersfield, Politics, Military, Schools
posted by talkofthetown on Friday, October 26, 2007 at 05:07 PM
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Some Californian readers wrote in complaining about an ad for Mexican celebration Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and the celebration itself, with one reader likening the festivities to "some voodoo ceremony that's practiced in some third-world country like Mexico." Now, ignoring for a moment the latent racism behind such a comment, do you regard Dia de los Muertos as a hallowed tradition or a controversial "voodoo ceremony." And is an altar to the dead that much...
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posted by talkofthetown on Friday, October 26, 2007 at 08:45 AM
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A city committee will discuss today whether Bakersfield should opt for mandatory recycling (blue wheelie bins for everyone) in exchange for $1.5 million in grant money. The cost for you and me would be about $40 a year and we'd have to put our cans, bottles and tins and stuff in the bin for big trucks to pick up from the curb. Now, call me Al Gore's pet polar bear, but I don't have a problem with this. Forty bucks a year to make the world a better place seems like a good deal. Would you...
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posted by talkofthetown on Thursday, October 25, 2007 at 10:49 AM
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Looks like Kevin McCarthy has helped restore a tribute to some soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The post office in Paso Robles had put up some pictures of local soldiers, until someone complained about it being 'pro war.' So they took it down. Apparently McCarthy's office got hundreds of calls and eventually the congressman called in the postmaster general's office. Now the display is back up.
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posted by talkofthetown on Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 09:06 AM
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Rowdy teen behavior at the La Mina on H Street (directly opposite BHS) has forced the owners to ban kids from going there during certain hours without adult supervision. I drive by there every now and then on my lunch hour and it always looks a bit crazy. Do you think the owners are out of line for imposing strict restrictions on these kids, or are they simply exercising their right to refuse service to anyone they chose? — Andrew Mockett
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posted by talkofthetown on Monday, October 22, 2007 at 04:15 PM
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The United States will soon merge with Mexico and Canada into a massive North American Union with 440 million people throughout the hemisphere. Instead of dollars we'll be using ameros. Don't panic though, because the story from Gannett News Services is merely outlining the vision of a small but vocal group of bloggers, activists and border security hardliners. All three governments dismiss the idea, but a series of private meetings by top leaders and a sweeping effort to rewrite...
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posted by talkofthetown on Monday, October 22, 2007 at 11:07 AM
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A new government report says screeners at LAX (that would the the Los Angeles International Airport) missed 75 percent of the fake bombs that undercover agents brought to their stations. How comforting. Chicago's O'Hare missed them 60 percent of the time, but San Francisco, which uses a private firm as opposed to Transportation Security Administration employees, missed only 20 percent. But they get that toothpaste tube every time, I'll bet. Posted by Steve E. Swenson
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posted by talkofthetown on Thursday, October 18, 2007 at 10:29 AM
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Okay, the above headline is a bit cynical and overstated on the spouse part, but love your money is good advice. This is in the context of getting a divorce. Reporter Kathy Chu of USA Today has written a story on how to avoid a financial wreck in a divorce. She has lots of good advice in the story on home ownership, credit cards, power of attorneys, wills and other matters. I think the main road to financial ruin is declaring war on the spouse and hiring attorneys to mess with the...
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posted by talkofthetown on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 at 11:39 AM
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Gee, you pay $3,000 for a dog, as tv star Ellen Degeneres did, and you think this entitles you to any rights? In stories you can't make up, a pet rescue agency called Mutts and Moms snatched away a dog that Ellen gave to a good home because the dog didn't get along with Ellen's cats. Seems that the rescue agency doesn't allow people who adopt to give an animal away to a good home. So they took it back. Ellen, who has gained a reputation as an animal lover (and has tv commercials to...
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posted by talkofthetown on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at 11:24 AM
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For the past couple years we've had playgrounds bursting into flames and public outcry at the unknown perpetrators. Folks were rightly incensed at seeing childrens' playgrounds destroyed. We did a poll a while back asking folks what should happen to the guilty parties and nearly 60 percent said no punishment was too severe. Only a small number of folks argued it was just minor mischief. Now it turns out at least one park district has been covering the playgrounds with wood chips that...
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posted by talkofthetown on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at 10:27 AM
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The details reek. John and Barbara Blair were coming out of their Old Stockdale neighborhood on Fairway Drive Sunday night as they've done thousands of times. They could have been any of us. But at 5:30 p.m. Sunday night, they went out into the path of two men racing each other, police said. Barbara, 60, died. Her husband, who up until just recently was general manager of BW Implement Co. in Buttonwillow, was taken to the hospital in critical condition. Racing on Stockdale...
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posted by talkofthetown on Monday, October 15, 2007 at 10:55 AM
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Hey, anyone out there have a horror story to tell about getting caught in the Interstate 5 crash/fire/congestion mess down south? Have any thoughts about which of the alternate routes to and from Los Angeles are best? Anybody facing -- and dreading -- a commute from here to the southland tomorrow morning? Please share your thoughts here and/or if you're willing to be interviewed by a reporter, call Jenny Shearer at 395-7234 or e-mail her at jshearer@bakersfield.com.
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posted by talkofthetown on Sunday, October 14, 2007 at 03:10 PM
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The above phrase is in a story about Enemybook, a new program on Facebook that allows people to list who they don't like. Maybe, I should blog about the concept of fronting out people you don't like.  The story doesn't address libel issues, but the real deal is, who has time to spend on people you don't like? But I'm more interested in this online friendships deal. We have those right here on this site. Anyone can ask to be your friend and if you are so inclined, you can...
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posted by talkofthetown on Friday, October 12, 2007 at 02:14 PM
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Holding her 9-month-old daughter in her arms, Delissa Fulce didn't have to take much time to think of what she wants from city parks. "I would like to see restrooms in every park," she said. Some parks, such as Westwold Park near her home, don't have restrooms, which makes park-going with small children hard. And shade, she said -- either trees or shade structures, especially over the small swings for the littlest kids and their moms. "I feel like the city's doing a great...
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posted by talkofthetown on Friday, October 12, 2007 at 10:10 AM
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“There are opportunity costs when we spend so much time carefully grooming how we look on the Web. Given how much time we already devote to entertaining ourselves with technology, it is at least worth asking if the time we spend on social networking sites is well spent. By investing so much energy into improving how we present ourselves online, we might be missing opportunities to genuinely improve ourselves.” The preceding paragraph is from a Christian Science Monitor...
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posted by talkofthetown on Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 02:34 PM
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Is it religion or is it history? Supporters of a move to hang posters stating “In God We Trust” in every Kern High School District classroom say it’s history and patriotism and in no way religious. According to the Californian article which will be published in tomorrow (Wednesday's) paper, it’s a line straight from the playbook of the conservative Christian group American Family Association that would supply the posters. “A word of wisdom to the wise: The...
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posted by talkofthetown on Tuesday, October 9, 2007 at 03:16 PM
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A Reno television station broadcast a story on Monday of a U.S. veteran who cut down a U.S. flag flying above a Reno bar because he said the Mexican flag flying above it made it an illegal display. “I took this flag down in honor of my country with a knife from the U.S. Army,” veteran Jim Broussard told KRNV-TV. On Wednesday, Reno police and the American Civil Liberties Union said it is not illegal to fly another flag above the American flag. Do you think what the veteran did...
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posted by talkofthetown on Friday, October 5, 2007 at 11:23 AM
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Work is well under way on a construction project on Oswell Street between Auburn Street and almost as far south as College Avenue. This is my neighborhood. My Target. My PetSmart. My El Pollo Loco. My Home Depot. My Hallmark store. My home. And when I can't get to the places I want to go, I get impatient! Now I understand the need for construction. I also appreciate that it will be a lot better road when all the work is finished. That's a good reminder to me to be patient. But...
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Topics: bakersfield, traffic, roads, quality of life
posted by talkofthetown on Tuesday, October 2, 2007 at 10:46 AM
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