A writer explores the barrios and neighborhoods of east Bakersfield, my search for the best watermelon margarita in town and Motel Radio will appear at Temblor Brewing Co.

 * ... CHRIS ARNADE: Chris Arnade is a former Wall Street investor who for the past year has been traveling the country visiting the poorer areas of our nation to learn more about the issues that divide us. After driving from the east coast he ended up in Kern County recently where he spent time in east

Bakersfield visiting his favorite haunts for the poor: small churches, the local McDonald's and neighborhoods. His reports appear via Twitter and his last two tweets were these: "The US right now is massively divided. The biggest division is race. Even after Obama. The next biggest division is education." And he added this: "I have rarely seen as large a homeless community, relative to town size, as here in Bakersfield."

* ... MARGARITAS: Here's a followup valentine to my friend Dee Rhodes, who challenged me to find the best watermelon margarita in town. One reader, Derek Vaughn, wrote that "the watermelon margarita at Nuestro Mexico is the best I have ever had. They ran out of watermelon one day and the owner went to the store and bought more so he could make them for all of us." Blair Budai, a lighting specialist, chimed in that Centro 18 "serves one that is amazing. I think the best include jalapeño." While having lunch at Eureka Burger in the Southwest this weekend, I ordered one off the menu and it too was outstanding.

 * ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "Fish don’t seem that stupid to me. If a burrito dropped out of the sky and hung in mid-air I would probably eat it."

* ...MOTEL RADIO: Looking for some fresh and inspiring music this week? If so check out the New Orleans-based band Motel Radio that will be appearing at Temblor Brewing Co. on Thursday evening. Grab a bite in Temblor's restaurant and then enjoy this evolving group featuring Americana music. The music starts at 7:30 p.m. and get your tickets online at www.passingthroughprouctions.com.

 * ... GARTH BROOKS: How about this for popularity: The Garth Brooks concert scheduled for the California Mid-State Fair in Paso Robles sold out in just 30 seconds, breaking the fair's record for the fastest one-day sell out. Brooks added a second show that is now scheduled for 10:30 p.m. on July 27. Tickets will be on sale at noon on Thursday, June 29.

 * ... GOODWILL: Goodwill Industries is opening its sixth store in Bakersfield this week, going into the space of the old Orchard Supply building at Ming Avenue and Ashe Road. This new space occupies 18,000 square feet of the building and will employ 28 people.

 * ... DAN BLOCKER: John Rodenburg wrote to remember the time that Bonanza star Dan Blocker (Hoss Cartwright on the show) frequented Bakersfield. "Regarding your recent columns concerning Dan Blocker, my mother Johanna Rodenburg believes he was grand marshal of the Bakersfield Christmas Parade in 1960 rather than 1961. I have no reason to doubt her as her memory of such past events is both legendary and scary. She was at the parade that night, standing at the old Foster Freeze at Chester and 10th Street in extremely foggy conditions. She also noted that Lorne Greene of Bonanza fame was part of that same parade. "

CSUB basketball coach Rod Barnes is WAC coach of the year, solving the mystery of a house scheduled to be demolished on 25th Street and remembering Jose's Spanish Food

 * ... ROADRUNNERS: Cal State Bakersfield basketball coach Rod Barnes won his second consecutive "Coach of the Year" honor in the Western Athletic Conference, and with that he once again inched the Roadrunners closer to national prominence. If the Runners win the WAC again it

will mean an automatic tournament bid to attend the NCAA "Big Dance," which puts CSUB in rare company and under a national spotlight. The upside of this kind of image marketing for Bakersfield cannot be underestimated, and it brings the campus better recruits and moves us closer to the kind of recognition offered other smaller schools like Gonzaga, Bucknell and Creighton.

* ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "I miss a man around the house so he can watch me do all the work."

* ... GOOD FORM: Here's to the middle aged man who hopped out of his white GMC pickup truck at 19th and Chester the other day to help a homeless woman who fell in intersection, spilling her belongings in the crosswalk and holding up traffic.

 * ... BAD FORM:  Shame on two bicyclists who, on their weekly noon ride that takes them up Panorama Drive, decided to urinate in public at the corner of Alta Vista and Panorama on the wall of a private residence. One man's toilet is another's neighborhood. Let's try to treat every neighborhood as if it were our own.

 * ... 24th STREET: Earlier this week a reader wrote inquiring about the history of a house at the corner of 24th and Beech that bears a large white "P" on its chimney. It is among the houses scheduled to be razed for the 24th Street widening. My friend Peter Hunt responded this way: "The house at the corner of 24th and Beech Street that one of your readers asked about was my grandfather's home. His name was Pat Morison. The house was built in the late 1950s. In the 1960s it was written about in the Los Angeles Times or maybe Sunset Magazine or the Californian. I can't remember. During the construction he fell off of a saw house he had been standing on and severely broke his leg in several places. Doc Iger fixed him up. He sold the house in1970. The fireplace had a large M on it in those days!"

 * ... MORE 24TH: And Kevin McDermott added more history to the same house: "My dad, Robert McDermott, owned and lived in the house you mentioned in your blog at the corner of 24th and Beech from 1973 to 1989. I believe the house was built in 1956. The house had an initial up on the chimney when he moved in, and he changed to his when he moved in. I am not sure when it was first established, but have seen it change since he sold the house. I still remember 1981 when he dressed in a Santa outfit and sat on the roof next to the chimney waving to the passing cars. My daughter cried when she saw him up there."

 * ... DAN BLOCKER: ​And the local stories about the late Bonanza star Dan Blocker continue. This note came from reader Harry Love: "With all the recent articles about Dan Blocker I thought you would enjoy this one. I began teaching at Foothill High School in 1967. I was in the social studies department. Another member was Larry Yount (now deceased). He was a double for Dan Blocker on Bonanza. He was very proud of doing it and showed us photos of him on the set."

 * .... MEXICAN FOOD: So who remembers Jose's Spanish Food at California and K Street in the early 1960s? I spotted a menu for the place on the Kern County of Old Facebook page offering taco and tamale dinners starting at $1.45.

Bakersfield makes a list of "white trash" cities in California, we lose some jobs to Fresno but boy do we have some good music and festivals coming to town

 * ... WHITE TRASH: I usually pay little attention to the myriad of "lists" that show up on the internet. You know what I mean: best and worst places to retire, safest and most dangerous cities, highest illiteracy, most sunshine, worst air. So here is another list we've made, and make of it what

you will. Here are the ten most "white trash" cities in California, meaning those municipalities with the most violent and drug addicted white populations. The top ten, according to the website homesnacks.com: Hemet, Barstow, Hesperia, Stockton, Bakersfield, Riverside, Antioch, Livermore, Fresno and Lakeside.

 * ... JOBS: It looks like Bakersfield lost out on some 600 jobs when Ulta Beauty selected Fresno as the site of a large distribution center. That is the word from The Sacramento Bee that said the facility is expected to create some 600 jobs. Fresno city leaders said Ulta Beauty is the largest beauty retailer in the nation and its planned warehouse would help it fulfill orders from its online sales unit. Other Valley places under consideration by the company were Visalia and Bakersfield, as well as sites in Utah and western Nevada.

 * ... CALENDAR: Who says there isn't anything to do in Bakersfield? Next week, there will be two live performances in town Thursday evening, starting with the California Guitar Trio over at the Bakersfield Music Hall of Fame. This is part of Rick Kreiser's Guitar Masters series now in its sixth year. On the same evening, Nora Jane Struthers returns to town over at Temblor Brewing Co. as part of the Passing Through Productions series of concerts. And finally, mark Saturday, April 22, on your calendar for the fourth annual Mac 'n Cheese festival out at Cal State Bakersfield, a big event featuring more than 20 beer and wine distributors and plenty of food.

 * ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "There are stories of mothers so full of adrenaline they've lifted cars off their children. Mine just refused to share a slice of cake."

 * ... 24TH STREET: Sharon Ellington shared this note about one of the houses scheduled to be razed on 24th Street. "It's sad to see the first of many homes being demolished for the 24th Street widening project.  I've always loved the white house on the north east corner of Beech and 24th Street. It sits perfectly on that corner, as if it's welcoming people to the Westchester neighborhood. I'm wondering if anyone who reads your column could provide some history on the house. Who built it and when, and how the tradition of putting the owner's initials on the chimney began? I'm really going to miss that house! So sad that it will be gone very soon."

 * ... FOUNDATION: The Bakersfield Californian (family) Foundation has put out calls for its Spring grant cycle. The foundation is focusing on animal welfare causes or summer based literacy programs. Only 501(c)3 organizations need apply, and for details go to www.bakersfieldcalifornianfoundation.org.

 * ... DAN BLOCKER: So who knew that the late Dan Blocker of Bonanza fame was so loved in Bakersfield, and he spent so much time here. Blocker, along with the actor who played Hop Sing on the popular Western, made frequent trips to Bakersfield for events, and West Rotary's Howdy Miller also remembers when Blocker owned a boat that he kept at Marina del Rey. "It was 1972 Marina del Rey,  a new boat arrives next to slip #17...LADY IN CEMENT... a Frank Sinatra movie that was used for a boat name by Sinatra and sold to Dan Blocker. That boat looked as if was going 100 mph just sitting in the slip! Mr. Blocker was a large hairy chested GENTLEMAN who loved wearing overalls and deck shoes, quit a combo. The three boats slipped next to each were: Lady in Cement, It's The Water (Olympia beer distributor), and the Howdy Howdy."

  * ... MORE BONANZA: And finally, this memory from Jeanell Kaufman: "While working for Avon Cosmetics, my route took me to the Stockdale area. My customer was helping with a cocktail party for Dan Blocker. There was an emergency situation and I stayed to help my client. Because I helped her, I was invited to the cocktail party. I wasn't able to go but was happy to be invited. He was Grand Martial of the Christmas parade that year (1961).":

YouTube reaches one billion hours a day of usage, further threatening traditional television, Nuestro Mexico enjoys a solid fan base and the Merrill store signals it is leaving the Outlets of Tejon

 * ... MASS MEDIA: Here's a startling statistic: Across the world, viewers of YouTube are watching more than one billion hours of videos a day. Yes, one billion hours of video every day. And we wonder why the old guard 'mass media' (local and network television, print etc) has seen such an

erosion in viewer and readership over the past decade. As noted in The Wall Street Journal: "It represents a 10-fold increase since 2012, YouTube said, when it started building algorithms that tap user data to give each user personalized video lineups designed to keep them watching longer." The billion hour mark "underscores the wide lead of the 12-year old platform in online video-threatening traditional television, which lacks similarly sophisticated tools."

 * ... NUESTRO MEXICO: I stopped at Nuestro Mexico recently and was heartened to see it continues to enjoy a loyal dinner crowd. Located in the same cozy 21st Street building that formerly housed La Costa Mariscos, Nuestro Mexico is home to some of the best chips and salsa in town, not to mention tacos and seafood specialties.

 * ... OUTLET MALL: The Merrill shoe store in the Outlets at Tejon is going out of business and it is offering some killer deals. Everything in the store has been discounted by 60 percent, so if you are in the market for some hiking or running shoes, it is worth the drive down Highway 99 to score a deal.

 * ... MCCARTHY: Last week I wrote to express sympathy for Republican congressmen (like our own Rep. Kevin McCarthy) who face unruly crowds at town hall meetings. If the meetings cannot be civil, I argued, why hold them at all? It triggered the expected blowback, including this note from reader Wade Eagleton: "For a person of influence and community standing to defend Representative McCarthy decision to freeze out his constituents, locking his district's office door and refusing to hold town hall meeting  during this critical time of change I cry foul. I call you out declaring shame on you. Shame on you for undermining the process of free expression and protest which is the definition of democracy." Thanks for the note Wade, but I never endorsed McCarthy "freezing" out constituents.  Your words, not mine. On this one we will have to agree to disagree.

 * ... MORE KMAC: Yet another reader, Alicia Ortega-Welch, send me this: "I was one of those candelight protesters. It is my right to protest. These past seven seven weeks I have marched for the first time in my 64-years of life. Mr. Beene, I assure you that at 4 foot, 10 inches tall I did not pose any threat to the in-excess-of-6-feet tall men guarding Mr. McCarthy's home that evening. I respectfully and peacefully held my candle in memory of all the citizens who will loose their health insurance and lives. Yes, I can not sit quietly this time. If all I can do is peacefully march, I will do so."

 * ... MEMORIES: Richard Alsop reacted to my piece on the late Dan Blocker of Bonanza fame appearing in Bakersfield. Said Alsop: "I saw your piece referring to Dan Blocker. I was 13 in 1961 and had a friendship with Cousin Herb's son Rusty. As I remember Cousin Herb's house was the two story on the south side of Bell Terrace at Highway 99. I think it's still there."

 * ... MORE MEMORIES: And finally Carol Penfield added this: "The clip about Tri-Valley Rambler brought back memories. I started to work there in 1969. When it was at 26th and Chester, we got to watch the Howell House being moved around the Chester Avenue Circle to the Museum. It took several days. Still there when it sold to Valley American, and when it moved to 149 Union Avenue next to the old Motor City location. It was sold in early 1972 and closed in May, 1972. That ended that job."