Environmental groups attack hydraulic fracturing, but trying to prove a negative won't stand up in making public policy, and some bad form when two dogs are locked in a hot car

 * … FRACKING: I had to chuckle at the recent letter to the editor from an Oakland-based environmental group that insists on trying to link hydraulic fracturing to earthquakes. Never mind that

countless government studies have discounted this theory (as they used to say, 'never let the facts get in the way of a good story') the writer said earthquakes have occurred in areas where fracking is practiced. And? What he didn't say was that quakes have happened in areas free of fracking as well. That's called trying to prove a negative, and frankly the argument doesn't hold water. Hydraulic fracking needs legitimate oversight, not hysteria.

 * … SAFETY: The incident at the Wal-Mart on Gosford Road is a cautionary tale to everyone. Two young black men in a white van pulled up to a woman in front of the store and grabbed her purse while the van was moving, hurling the woman against the moving vehicle and throwing her to be ground. Bakersfield police said the woman was not seriously injured and she maintained hold on her purse. They are looking for suspects. Be safe out there.

 * … BAD FORM: Gordon Dowdy spotted this bit of bad form in front of the Panera Restaurant on Stockdale Highway: "At 12:30 p.m. today a car with all the windows rolled up and two poor little dogs locked inside. We consider this animal abuse."

* … GOOD DEED: Lupe Canon-Morales and her friend were taking their daily walk recently when her friend tripped and fell.  "As I was helping her up and retrieving her glasses, a young lady driving by (we walk in an industrial area) witnessed what had just happened. She made a U-turn, pulled alongside us and inquired if we needed help. She then drove us back home. We were so rattled we failed to get her name, we want to thank her for her thoughtfulness and taking the time to see us safely home.  God Bless her, we need more people like her in this world!"

 * … BAGEL SHOP:  A reader wrote that her husband was in Bagels and Blenderz recently and spotted a couple with their small gray chihuahua sitting on the table. "How unsanitary was that?" she asked. "You may think twice before you sit down to enjoy your next bagel and coffee at this location.  Let's hope they clean and disinfect their tables frequently!  Remember people, dogs are not human!"

 * … CEMETERY: My friend Ray Mish, owner of Mission Family Mortuary, dropped me a note about the old Chinese Cemetery between Terrace Way and Brundage Lane. After the cemetery was moved to clear way for a housing tract, Mish said a contractor putting in a swimming pool found the skeletons of two people. Mish was working for there now defunct Armstrong-Flickinger Mortuary and he asked the owner if he would donate baby caskets to bury those two in Union Cemetery, which had donated a plot of ground where the other Chinese had been buried. "I then contacted members of the Ming family, a prominent Chinese family. I was given permission to conduct these services with a minister and flowers and a large gather of people and it was a traditional Chinese funeral." Mish said he is now in his 75th year in the funeral business, starting when he was just 14 years old.

How about turning the tunnels under the streets of old Bakersfield into a tourist attraction? Some readers like the idea

 * … TUNNELS: All the chatter about the labyrinth of tunnels and passageways underneath our downtown streets has led many to wonder how we might exploit it in some way. Can you imagine the Bakersfield tunnels as a tourist attraction? As Greg Gordon wrote: "I recently returned to Bako after completing a PhD out of state. I've really enjoyed reading your blog in the Californian, and I love the bits on Bakersfield history, especially the tunnel system downtown. Please keeping 'digging' into the tunnels; I'd love to learn more about them!  (Has someone mapped them out? What are the access points? Why were they originally built?). Here's an idea: how about a guided history tour through them?  (Or even a ghost-themed Halloween version, similar to what other cities have?)" Now that is a grand idea.

* … MORE TUNNELS: A reader named James Taylor shared his story of the tunnels. "In the early 1950s, my father had a friend that owned a building near the California theater on Chester Avenue. One time they took my father, brother and myself down a stairwell inside the building down to a tunnel. The tunnel had a large metal door. We went in and proceeded towards the street. There were many metal doors along the tunnel. We went into their vault and they had art works stored there. They gave my father a huge oil painting. It was all cemented walls and floors."

 * … VILLAGE GRILL: Shame on me, but I had never been to the Village Grill on F Street before Sunday when I stopped by for breakfast. The food was fabulous, the service speedy and I spotted a lot of old friends there, including former Bakersfield College football coach Dallas Grider and his retired banker wife Mary, local banker Bart Hill and his interior decorator wife Napier, and former supervisor Pete Parra dining with his family.

 * … CEMETERY: Remember the old Chinese Cemetery that once existed on Terrace Way? Lois Sabaloni does. In her words: "My husband, Joe Sabolini, remembered his dad telling the story of delivering whole roasted pigs with apples in their snouts in his Model T delivery truck. Instead of feeding the spirits as planned the food didn't go to waste as the hobos were waiting for the services to be over before enjoying the feast!"

 * … TREES: There are few more worthy local non-profits than the Tree Foundation of Kern. Over the years the Foundation has funded the planting of hundreds of trees around town and I have had the pleasure of watching some of them grow and flourish. On Friday, March 13, the Foundation will hold a "Trees in Art" fund raiser at Renegade Park at Bakersfield College. It is being billed as an evening of California's finest wines complete with dinner and a silent auction.The donation to get in is $50 or $90 for a couple. Call (661) 323-TREE (8733) for details.

 * … MEMORIES: This memory from back in the 1920s comes courtesy of reader Jack M. Rademacher. "North of China Grade loop was a forrest of wooden oil derricks. The area around North High School was occupied with a 10 foot deep, 30 feet in diameter oil sumps that Standard Oil Co. stored crude oil that fed their 'batch still' refinery located further east and south of China Grade Loop. Note: this batch refinery was replaced with a modern distillation-thermal cracking treating refinery around 1950 following World War II. I was the refinery engineer until 1955."

Friends of Janis Varner chip in to raise $6,900 for Honor Flight Kern County, and readers submit their memories of an older Bakersfield

 * … JANIS: If you know Janis and Vernon Varner this post will not surprise you, because their generosity here is well known. It turns out Janis held her annual birthday Bunco party at StockdaleCountry Club, where Vernon picked up the check. Janis' friends then chipped it to donate to one of her favorite charities, Honor Flight Kern County which sends veterans to Washington, D.C., to view the war memorials. According to Honor Flight coordinator Lili Crommett-Marsh, Janis' friends donated $6,900 to Honor Flight. Janis herself has paid for five veterans to make the trip. (photo by Jessica Frey)

 * … RETAIL: It looks like Joseph A. Bank, a men's retailer, is coming to The Marketplace in the Southwest. The national chain has hung its signage in the space once occupied by Russo's Books.

 * … MEMORIES: It looks like we solved the question about the name of the old drug store in Valley Plaza when it opened in 1967. But it triggered a lot of memories, and I will share some here. As Kevin Cornelius said: "The name of the drug store was Payless Drug Store, you could enter from the south side of the building or from inside the Valley Plaza. I remember this because I bought my girlfriend a $19 going steady ring from the jewelry counter located at the inside entrance. That girlfriend became my wife of 40 years. WOW has time flown by."

 * … MORE MEMORIES: But another reader, Janice Dillingham, also recalled a candy store in the mall called McFarland Candy Store.  "John and Nancy White (my aunt and uncle) managed it when I was a little girl and we always received wonderful candy treats and leftover doughnuts when we visited them in Bakersfield. I love your blog and look forward to reading it along with the rest of the Californian." Thanks Janice.

 * … AND MORE: And there was this in my mail box from reader Joe Stormont: "The drug store in Valley Plaza was Payless Drug Store. It was eventually moved to the old Mayfair Market building south of the mall (near where the theatre is now located). Other Valley Plaza old timers might remember Pickwick Books, Toy World and Jolly Roger restaurant. Another great memory was when they had a Japanese Zero airplane on display in the center of the mall for a short time in the 1970s. A local had shot it down during WW II and recovered it from the bottom of the ocean many years later. I believe the Zero ended up in a San Diego air museum and was destroyed in a fire a few years later."

 * … AND MORE: Linda Meadows Polston remembers when her then 18-month-old daughter, Cathy, "knocked over a three foot tall display of Maalox in the old glass bottles" at the drug store. "Fortunately for me, my husband, Eddie, was with her and had to suffer the embarrassment.  What a mess!"