Joe Biden clinches Pennsylvania and becomes president elect, the return of pets to the White House (German Shepherds Major and Chamo) and the world loses Jeopardy host Alex Trebek to pancreatic cancer

Welcome to Bakersfield Observed. Our mission is to celebrate life in Kern County by focusing on newsmakers and events and the local characters who make this community such a special place. The views expressed here are strictly my own and do not represent any other company or publication.

 * ... ELECTION: Joe Biden is now the president-elect following one of the closest elections in American history which saw a record number of votes. All of the ballots are not yet in but Biden hit the magic

number in electoral votes when he won Pennsylvania on Saturday. In his acceptance speech Biden vowed to be a president for all Americans, regardless of party. Most Republicans I know were disappointed but resigned to a Biden presidency. Others, in fact perhaps most Republicans I know, are more fearful of vice president-elect Kamala Harris and their perception of her as "too far left" should something happen to Biden and she rises to the presidency. Dr. Brij Bhambi of Centric Health called Biden's acceptance speech "powerful and well worded that met the moment." Pastor Angelo Frazier of Riverlakes Community Church had this to say: "Yes, convictions are not based on polls, politics or focus groups, regardless of the outcome of the elections, it is this country we are fighting for... we must fight the good fight with honor, integrity and truth. It is the founding principles in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution that we uphold for all people and parties. The lust for power must never trump the triumph of love! We are all Americans now and we will be afterward. Let's rolll." Both Bhambi and Frazier are regular commentators on The Richard Beene Show on KERN Newstalk 96.1 FM. Frazier appears Mondays and Bhambi Fridays.

 * ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "If civil war starts, I ain't running! Cause I'm fat, that's why."

 * ... FIRST DOGS: The election of Joe Biden will do one thing we can all agree on: it will be good to see pets back in the White House. Joe and wife Jill have two German shepherds, Major and Champ, and the president is quite fond of dog kisses, we are told. In the pictures below are Major and Champ along with another yellow lab that a voter named ... Joe Biden.

 * ... ALEX TREBEK: We lost Alex Trebek, the longtime host of the popular game show "Jeopardy!" who died Sunday after a bout with pancreatic cancer. Trebek, 80, served a year with the cancer (the odds of surviving a second year with pancreatic cancer are just 7 percent) but recently took a turn for the worse and died Sunday. Trebek's connection with Kern County was strong, thanks in part to Sheri Horn-Bunk of the Taft College Foundation. When Horn-Bunk discovered that Trebek once joked he might attend Taft College to study oil drilling in retirement she reached out to him to appear at the West Kern Petroleum Summit. He did, graciously, and later funded a scholarship there. My wife and I were guests of Horn-Bunks last January when we went to Burbank to watch the filming of Jeopardy! where Trebek greeted us with warmth and charm. He was one of a kind and he will be missed.

 * ... MEMORIES: Check out this old picture of a motorcycle club in Kern County back in the day.

Is California ready for the ARkStorm, a period of rain and flooding of near biblical proportions? Scientists say we are over due. That and more on Alex Trebek and the Bakersfield Racquet Club hosts its annual pro open

Monday, March 11, 2019

 Welcome to Bakersfield Observed. Our mission is to celebrate life in Kern County by focusing on newsmakers and events and the local characters who make this such a special to live. Send your tips to rsbeene@yahoo.com.

 * ... ARKSTORM: If you are running out of things to worry about, boy do I have something for

you. Climate scientists are now warning that California could be on the verge of another "ARkStorm," a devastating period of rain and flooding that could leave the entire state under water with trillions of dollars in damages. A severe ARkStorm “is estimated to produce precipitation that in many places exceeds levels only experienced on average once every 500 to 1,000 years,” a 2011 government report states. The last time we experienced an ARkStorm was in December 1861 and January 1862 when the state was inundated with non-stop rainstorms for 43 straight days. The storm overwhelmed Sacramento, “turning the Sacramento Valley into an inland sea” and forcing California’s government to temporarily relocate to San Francisco.

 * ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "Imagine going to the gym and not posting about it."

 * ... EVA SCHLOSS: Once again anti-Semitism is on the rise, not only in the United States but across the world. It has even infected the Democratic Party (77 percent of Jews identify themselves as Democrats) which cannot seem to find the courage to censure a freshman congresswoman from Minnesota who clearly speaks in anti-Semitic dog whistles. All this to explain why it is important you attend an evening with Eva Schloss this Tuesday at the Fox Theater, where the 90-year-old step sister of Anne Frank will recount her own harrowing ordeal at the Auschwitz death camp where Anne Frank and her family were also taken. There are a few tickets left (check the Fox website for availability) for this important evening with a Holocaust survivor.

 * ... ALEX TREBEK: The outpouring of love for Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek continues, particularly among his fans at Taft College where Trebek helped fund an engineering scholarship in his name. Bob Hampton, a longtime Taft College booster, even went so far to share his anti-cancer drink that helped him overcome two bouts with cancer. Trebek, 78, has been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

 * ... TENNIS OPEN: "Players from around the globe have descended on Bakersfield this week for the 6th annual U.S. Tennis Association's Men's Futures Pro Tournament at the Bakersfield Racquet Club. Qualifying begins Monday, culminating with championship weekend March 16 and 17, where American Tennis Professionals will compete for a $25,000 purse in our own backyard. Some of the best players have come through this tournament where Bakersfield's hospitality makes it a favorite on the circuit. Access to top-flight players on their way up the rankings any place else might cost hundreds of dollars per seat. Admission to the Bakersfield Tennis Open is free.

 * ... MEMORIES: A shot of old 19th Street.

The generosity of Alex Trebek to Taft College, the top 500 most polluted cities in the world exclude North America, and Dennis Quaid stops by for a cocktail at Uricchios

Friday, March 8, 2019

 Welcome to Bakersfield Observed. Our mission is to celebrate life in Kern County by focusing on newsmakers and events and the local characters who make this such a special to live. Send your tips to rsbeene@yahoo.com.

 * ... ALEX TREBEK: The news from Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek that he is suffering from Stage 4

pancreatic cancer stunned America, but few know if his personal connection and his generosity to Taft College. It was five years ago that Sheri Horn-Bunk, head of the Taft College Foundation, read on the Huffington Post that Trebek joked he wanted to take a course in oil exploration at Taft College once he retired. Calls were made and Trebek ended up speaking at the West Kern Petroleum Summit in 2015, introducing Oklahoma oil baron T. Boone Pickens. In honor of his appearance the college started an oil engineer's scholarship in his name, and he promptly sent Horn-Bunk a check for $10,000 to endow it.

 * ... POLLUTED CITIES: I ran across a list of the world's top 500 most polluted cities, and guess what? The United States, and in fact Canada, did not have a single city on the list. Does that mean we are free of pollution? Certainly not, but it does point to the lunacy of mounting a  all-out effort on climate change here while the rest of the world does nothing. Consider: of the top 10 most polluted cities, nine are in India. Of the top 100, fully 57 of them are in China. Mexico and several Central American counties - Guatemala, Colombia, Peru and Costa Rica - made the list far down but no U.S. or Canadian cities made the list.

 * ... DID YOU KNOW? Did you know that upwards of 70 percent of the incoming freshmen at CSUB enter college deficient in both basic math and English.

 * ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "If Morgan Freeman was narrating my life story, I bet he'd be tired of repeating 'He's still eating' all the time."

 * ... SPOTTED AT URICCHIO'S: Well look who was spotted at Uricchios the other day, none other than actor Dennis Quaid. Word was that Quaid was here, along with country singer Tanya Tucker, to record music at a local recording studio.

 * ... MEMORIES: How about this old postcard featuring fishing on the Kern River?

 * ... MORE MEMORIES: And how about this advertisement for the Padre Hotel in 1962:

Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek sends $10,000 to Taft College to fund a scholarship, downtown Bakersfield gets some love from a travel writer and the Bakersfield Californian Foundation gives out $275,000 in grants

 * ... TREBEK: Alex Trebek, the popular host of the long-running game show Jeopardy!, has developed a love affair of sorts with Taft College. Trebek has long had a fascination with oil and gas production, and in October he showed up as the emcee of the West Kern Petroleum Summit

sponsored by the Taft College Foundation. Trebek politely declined to be paid for his appearance, and instead foundation director Sheri Horn Bunk promised to create an engineering scholarship in his name. What happened next? Bunk said Trebek sent a check for $10,000 to help fund the scholarship, which Bunk called totally unexpected. "His letter to me asked if I found a good text book on drilling for oil please send that to him," she said. "The gift was unsolicited and this is one I will always remember." What's next? Trebek told Bunk he planned to return to Taft, this time to take up skydiving.

 * ... VALENTINE: A travel writer from the Sacramento Bee spent some time in Bakersfield recently, and his story cast us in a pretty good light. The piece was devoted to downtown and some of our iconic buildings and businesses: the Fox Theater, the Kress Building, the Woolworth building, the antique malls and the Padre Hotel. Said the writer: "Yet there is an undeniable charm to downtown Bakersfield’s fossilized, late-1950s feel. If you want modern conveniences – an Applebee’s and an Apple store; a Chipotle and a Nordstrom – alight to the 150-square-mile sprawl of the city’s outer, strip-mall-saturated regions. Downtown Bakersfield clings to the past with buttons and buckles, not Velcro. Sure, there’s a fancy arena and a few chain hotels anchored on Truxton Avenue. But on the grid, streets numbered and lettered with straightforward humility, the past isn’t even the past, as Faulkner wrote. This is a good thing. This is downtown Bakersfield’s charm." (photo courtesy of the Sacramento Bee)

* ... GRANTS: The Bakersfield Californian (family) Foundation awarded its Fall grants last week, handing out $275,000 to deserving non-profits. The Community Action Partnership of Kern was awarded $100,000 for a food bank solar energy improvement project, the Children First Campaign was awarded $50,000 (with an additional $50,000 in matching funds available) for a family zone pocket park, the Bakersfield SPCA was given $50,000, and the Independent Living Center of Kern $25,000. Lastly, the Lamont Women's Club was awarded $25,000 to restore the city welcome sign and the Youth 2 Leaders Education Foundation won $25,000 for a technology readiness project.

 * ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "The sole purpose of a child’s middle name, is so he can tell when he’s really in trouble."

 * ... DRILLERS: Elaine Conley added this note about the old days at Bakersfield High School. "My husband, Larry Conley, enjoyed your column  about the pep band playing 'Sweet Georgia Brown' when the basketball team warmed up. Larry was captain of the pep band in 1960-61 and remembers this very well. He said the basketball coaches didn't like it because the players started twirling the ball and acting like the Globetrotters, but nothing was ever done because it was THE Driller Band!"

 ... GOOD FORM: This note, signed simply Dee and Jean, showed up in my mailbox and is worth sharing. "This morning my gentleman friend and I went to have breakfast out at our favorite restaurant - Mel's Cafe on Knudsen and Olive. It was one of those chilly mornings where pumpkin pancakes for me and ham and eggs for my friend seemed fit.  Since we are just a little old senior couple, it was a big order. Soon our waitress came over and said our check had been paid for.  It was such a great surprise.  Made our day! We want to please say thank you to the man and his little boy for turning our day into a happy day. Sir, if you are reading this, we thank you and God bless you!"

The secret to Donald Trump's popularity? Could it be our contempt for Congress and the presidency? And Alex Trebek to appear at the fall Taft energy summit and the Padre Hotel gets some love

  * ... TRUMP: Here's some more wisdom from Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan on the popularity of Donald Trump, and by extension the left leaning Democrat Bernie Sanders. "His rise is not due to his supporters' anger at government," she wrote. "It is a gesture of contempt for government, for the men and women in Congress, the White House, the agencies. It is precisely because people have lost their awe for the presidency that they imagine Mr. Trump as a viable candidate.... They're not nihilists, they're patriots, and don't experience themselves as off on a toot but pragmatic in a way the establishment is not."

 * ... BETTY: The funeral service for Betty Leonor, the 44-year-old artist who died of liver cancer last week, was held in Florida this weekend and I tuned in via the internet to watch the tribute. Leonor was not a product of Bakersfield, but she did her best work here and it was in places like The Metro Galleries downtown where the genius of her work was first shared with the general public. Her paintings, many self portraits, reflected a searing honesty not unlike the lyrics of the late jazz signer Amy Winehouse. Both were masters of their crafts, and both are gone well before their time. (Leonor's self portrait 'She waits' shown below)

 * ... TREBEK: Alex Trebek, the iconic host of the long-running hit TV game show Jeopardy!, will be the emcee of the West Kern Petroleum Summit set for this October at Taft College. This is a smart and witty move by organizers that will certainly add some flair to the petroleum summit, which was a huge hit when in its inaugural session last year. The event is set for Friday, October 16, at the college. Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy will also appear at the summit.

 * ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "Nothing good has ever come from answering a call from a blocked phone number."

 * ... PADRE: The Padre Hotel earned some nice recognition when it received the esteemed Four­Diamond award from AAA for the first time since its opening in 2010. This prestigious rating reflects a combination of overall quality, range of facilities and level of service. It is awarded to just 5 percent of the 28,000 hotels ranked annually. Four Diamond hotels are recognized as having luxurious accommodations, full­ service amenities and the highest level of hospitality.

 * ... BEST BET: And speaking of eating, the Union Station Deli on 18th Street downtown has changed hands and the new owners are rolling out a lot of delectable menu items. My favorite: a Mediterranean salad featuring black olives, red onion, salami, artichokes, yellow bell peppers and three different types of beans.

Voters kill the proposed tobacco tax; does this portend bad things for the twin tax hikes for the November ballot?

* ... TOBACCO TAX: I was surprised that Proposition 29, which would have added a new $1 tax on cigarettes, appears to be losing by a narrow margin. The tobacco lobby threw almost $50 million in misleading ads against the tax, but some experts think a general anti-tax sentiment across the state may have doomed the measure. If that is the case, it spells trouble for the two tax measures that will be on the November ballot to bail out higher education.


* ... NUT FESTIVAL: A group of folks who work hard to improve the image of our community are hoping a "nut festival" will bring Bakersfield some better publicity. It's all the brainchild of Sheryl Barbich and a small group of influential business people who are modeling the "nut festival" after the garlic festival in Gilroy and other successful events. The first Kern County Nut Festival will be held June 14-15, 2013, at the Kern County Museum. Organizers stay the event will feature a number of culinary creations using almonds, pistachios and walnuts, as well as games and activities for kids and adults. It's still being planned, but this could be just the thing our community needs to put Bakersfield in a better light.

 * ... JEOPARDY! Alex Trebek has hosted the popular game show "Jeopardy!" for almost 28 years, and there is a lot of speculation on when he might retire. In a recent interview, he dropped the idea that he may just drive up to Taft College to take a few courses. "Learning something new is fun," says Trebek. "When I finish as the host of `Jeopardy!' I'm going to go up to Taft in central California. They have a small college there that teaches you about oil drilling. I'd like to take a course," he says.

 * .... D-DAY: The 68th commemoration of D-Day brought this note from Bonnie Bogle Farrer. "On June 6, 1944,  my father sent me a telegram from 'somewhere in England.'  Six days after D-Day he landed at the Normandy beaches  in France as a major in the American Army. A medical doctor, he cared for both American and German wounded soldiers. Much later, he wrote his war memoirs about those incredible days."

* ... BILL RAY: If you consider yourself handy around the home, or if you aspire to be, head over to Bill Ray Tile on East Brundage on Saturday for a workshop on laying tile. Bill Ray Tile has an incredible selection of tiles around the world, and they will be giving away Dodger tickets and other prizes. Bill Ray is located at 6301 East Brundage and the workshop starts at 11 a.m.


 * ... EATERY: The renaissance of downtown Bakersfield continues with the opening of yet another restaurant, this one called Muerto's Kitchen and Lounge in the Wall Street alley just across from Guthrie's Alley Cat.  I stopped by the other day and was impressed by its menu and service (I highly recommend the white wine sangria and machaca tacos). Muerto's is in the space formerly occupied by Azul and the infamous Sud's Tavern in the 1970s and 1980s. It was originally a firehouse in the late 1800s and in fact the back patio area was the stable for the horses that pulled the fire wagons.  Muerto's is owned by Shawna Haddad-Byers, formally of Fishlips.

* ... BAD FORM: From Dr. Bill Farr, a physician whose office is near the intersection of Calloway Drive and Brimhall Road: "A teacher from Emerson Junior High dumped all of her class room crap all over the dumpster in my office, missing the dumpster and getting it all over the floor.  The trash (collectors) would not pick it up because it was such a mess. The pupils' grades and reports were scattered all over the ground."