Bakersfield College President Sonya Christian receives a warm welcome, Pyrenees Cafe and Saloon keeps knocking it out of the park and Patrick Duffy shows up at The Padre Hotel

* ... SONYA: Bakersfield College President Sonya Christian may be locked in a dispute over extending her contract, but you wouldn't know that when she appeared Thursday at the downtown

Rotary Club. Christian received a standing ovation when she was introduced as the speaker, and her appearance drew an overflow crowd at the Bakersfield Museum of Art. Her popularity among BC faculty and students and in the business community is impressive, and no doubt this does not go unnoticed by the Kern Community College District's board of trustees and Chancellor Sandra Serrano. Among the non club members who showed up for lunch were former Congressman (and former Bakersfield College professor) Bill Thomas (a big Christian supporter), Supervisor Leticia Perez and Michael Turnipseed, head of the watchdog group Kern Tax.

* ... PYRENEES: One of our community's amazing success stories is happening over at The Pyrenees Cafe and Saloon, where co-owners Rod and Julie Crawford took a dated brand, gave it a smart makeover that retained the building's historic character, and created one of the hottest Basque restaurant venues in town. Pyrenees was one of the eateries featured on Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and Rod told me his appearance on the Food Network program is still driving business. "I had people in from Long Beach who had seen it on the show and were checking it out," he told me the other day. Business, meanwhile, is booming and the Crawfords have plans for even more improvements.

* ... SPOTTED: I ran into the actor Patrick Duffy at The Padre Hotel the other day. He is in town working on a movie that will also star actress Ann Archer. Duffy is best known for his role as Bobby Ewing in the 1980s CBS soap opera hit "Dallas." When I spotted him, he was sitting in the Padre bar calmly working on a newspaper puzzle.

 * ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "To whoever finds the $20 I dropped: spend it on alcohol. It’s what I would have wanted."

* ... IMMIGRATION: With all the talk about immigration reform, reader Sam Rodriquez offered these thoughts: "My wife and I were traveling to Arroyo Grande this last Friday.  I observed on Highway 166 close to Cuyama all of the Mexican field workers either hunched over or on their hands and knees working their tails to provide us with whatever they were picking. Then from Arroyo Grande we took Highway 1 to Pismo Beach and there again there they were Mexicans working their behinds off.  I realize that we need to something about illegal immigration but when you hear the likes of Donald Trump and all of the closet racists coming out of the wood work it makes me very sad. My parents (legal Americans of Mexican decent) came out of the fields.
You can go into any ghetto in Bakersfield and its surrounding communities any day of the week or any time of day and all ethnicities are represented... What is the answer I don’t know? But when you see a family of Mexicans at Wal-Mart, Sears, or the grocery store on any given Sunday be humble and maybe even say thank you."

 * ... HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL: Are you ready for some high school football? If so, did you know that The Bakersfield Californian will livestream high school football games for a third consecutive year? And this year it is partnering with ESPN Bakersfield 1230 AM to bring a game of the week to digital and radio audiences. The BVarsity Live Game Night and Game of the Week debuts Friday at 7 p.m. on bakersfield.com and on ESPN Bakersfield 1230 AM. Longtime local sports personality Vance Palm will host a live pregame show from The Bakersfield Californian's studios and Zach Ewing, sports editor of The Californian, and Justin Roberts will call the action from a game each week. Palm will also provide updates throughout the night from many BVarsity correspondents covering games around Kern County.

Local attorney George Martin plans big music festival, KC Steakhouse to be featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, and a Valentine love story

 * … MUSIC: Local attorney George Martin is at it again, this time bringing a huge music festival to Bakersfield on May 23. There is not doubt that Martin, brains behind the highly successful Bakersfield Business Conference, knows what he is doing but I have to wonder about the price to attend. The

cheapest tickets are going for $135 each and "preferred seats" are a whopping $425. That's $270 to $850 per couple just to walk in the door to hear bands like Steppenwolf, Chubby Checker, Asleep at the Wheel and LeAnn Rimes. (Food and drinks are extra) These long-in-the-tooth acts are well beyond their prime (Steppenwolf's first hit was 47 years ago), but if anyone can pull this off, it is George. Yikes.

* … SCAM: Those scam phone calls from the Internal Revenue Agency just won't stop. This from Arnold Johansen: "I came home yesterday to find the phone message light blinking. I hit the play button and heard the following; 'This is an official final notice from the IRS. We are filing a lawsuit unless you immediately call (206) 501-3133. Thank you.' I knew mnothing was pending and I called my CPA. She said it is a scam of course and that her aunt got taken in by the call. You might want to alert your readers."

 * … FOODIE BEST BET: The Padre Hotel bar boasts an excellent grilled cheese sandwich with an added savory twist: a fried egg.

 * … KC STEAKHOUSE: And speaking of food, it looks like Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives will feature our own KC Steakhouse on Friday, March 6. That's the word from the popular downtown restaurant.

 * … VALENTINE: Today's valentine comes courtesy of Beverly Hayden: "The old miniature golf course on Mount Vernon has a special place in my memories. One summer evening my sister Judy and a few classmates from Bakersfield High School had finished playing miniature golf there and were waiting for one of our parents to give us a ride home when a car pulled up full of cute guys from East Bakersfield High. They invited us to go hang out with them, we said no because we wouldn't have had our parents permission. We did exchange phone numbers and I am thankful that the guy I had my eyes on persisted. His name is Rod and that was 57 years ago and we have been married 55 years."

 * … ROBOTICS: Judy Henderson wrote to send kudos to the robotic teams of Centennial and Highland high schools. "The have competed and won their way to the state competition. The matches will be held at the Pasadena Convention Center this Saturday. Each year, an international committee decides what the challenges will be in the robotic  arena. Students throughout the world then build a robot that can meet the new challenges. These students are tomorrow’s engineers."

 * … MEMORIES: Some memories of old Bakersfield from reader Elinor Grant: "Does anyone else remember when car license plates changed color every other year? One year they would have a black background with orange letters. Then they would switch to an orange background with black letters. Black denoting oil and orange for the California poppies. And mail delibery was twide a day Monday through Saturday. Ours came at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. And during December that included Sunday. At three cents for a letter and a penny for a postcard."

Does being married actually make you happier? And a happy ending when a rescue cat goes missing but turns up in a recliner stored in a warehouse

 * … MARRIAGE: So does being married make you happier? Or is it simply that happier people are more likely to be married? Those were the questions put to the National Bureau of Economic Research, which came to this conclusion: "Being married makes people happier and more satisfied with their lives than those who remain single - particularly during the most stressful periods, like midlife crises." As

reported in The New York Times, the irony is that fewer people are getting married these days, particularly if they are younger. Fully a quarter of today's young adults "will never have married by 2030," the highest ever.

* … HAPPY ENDING: Here's a lost cat story that should put a smile on your face. It was shared with me by Steve Williford, who runs the local ServPro franchise and also serves as president of the downtown Rotary Club. In his words: "Last weekend I received a call from my security company at 4 a.m. informing me that my motion detector was tripped, thus triggering the alarm in the warehouse.  I then hustled down to the shop only to find nothing disturbed. I re-set the alarm at this time and six hours later the alarm was tripped again. The following day, I received a text message from a customer for whom we had just performed a pack-out. (Moved furniture and contents from a residence to our warehouse).  She was missing her cat and had a notion the feline might have stowed away in a recliner during the move-out. This all made perfect sense, given the two 'false alarms' on the prior day. Turns out the cat's name is Buddy and he was a rescue and apparently still very skittish around strangers. The initial search of the shop came up empty, but a liberal offering of cat food did the trick, as the kitty immediately surfaced to scarf down a long-awaited meal. After two days in a cold dark warehouse, I am certain Buddy has a renewed appreciation for the comforts of  home!"

 * … DINERS: Bakersfield was abuzz this week when Food Network celebrity chef Guy Fieri brought this film crew to town to film episodes for Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. By last count, he had visited Moo Creamery, Muertos, Pyrenne's Cafe, 24th Street Cafe and KC Steakhouse. Even without Luigi's (which declined the offer) that's a pretty good representation of our local eateries.

* … SPOTTED: On Facebook: "I’m glad I don’t have to hunt for my food. I don’t even know where sandwiches live."

 * … SERVICE: Elinor Grant dropped me a nice note to thank the employees of the See's Candy outlet on California Avenue. Always jammed during the holiday season, Grant said the employees could not have been nicer.

 * … BAKO? Count reader Ronal Reynier among those who detest the nickname "Bako" for our hometown. Said Reynier: "The search should be on for person or organization that gave the great city of Bakersfield the name Bako. They deserve an award for the worst abomination of a cities
name in the country. Is our arch enemy Fresno, Fres? Don't go to San Francisco and say Frisco if you expect service of any kind. I'll admit that I am one of those that calls Los Angeles, L.A. Yes, I also use San Luis for San Luis Obispo… They have to be more correct than Bako."

 * … BAKERSFIELDISM: You know you're from Bakersfield "if you could find out who was engaged to whom just by coming across the Olcott's advertisement in The Californian."

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell questions the wisdom of local communities banning tracking, and Guy Fieri heads to Bakersfield to feature Pyrenne's Cafe on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives

* … FRACKING: In the disinformation war on hydraulic fracturing, I was interested to read that President Obama's chief custodian of federal lands thinks that regional bans on fracking are misguided and not supported by science. KernTax passed along a new story by KQED quoting Interior Secretary Sally

Jewell as saying: “There is a lot of misinformation about fracking. I think that localized efforts or statewide efforts in many cases don’t understand the science behind it and I think there needs to be more science.” The story continued: "The recent move by New York to extend a statewide ban does not sit especially well with Jewell, who, as a former petroleum engineer, has hands-on experience with fracking."

 * … DINERS: One of our storied Basque restaurants, the Pyrennes Cafe, will be featured on the popular Food Network program Diners, Drive Ins and Dives. A film crew from the program was there testing lighting over the weekend. The program host, Guy Fieri, has announced that he is opening an outlet of his own restaurant, Johnny Garlics, at The Marketplace this year.

 * … EATERY: And speaking of eateries, =nother new restaurant is opening downtown, this one specializing in sushi. Jin Sushi will be located on the northwest corner of 19th and Eye streets next to The Metro Galleries and across the street from Chef's Choice Noodle bar. No word on the exact opening date.

 * … GOOD FORM: Bobby Blackmon shared this uplifting story that I feel compelled to pass along. In his words: "I am writing to tell you about some great form from a group of coaches, student athletes and parents at Stockdale High School. My wife was diagnosed with (AML) leukemia last year and spent many months in the hospital. She recently relapsed, along with valley fever causing pneumonia which sent her back to USC Norris Cancer center for six weeks. We have two boys attending Stockdale, and a daughter that graduated in 2013. All three run cross country and play soccer. As a show of support and ultimate kindness, coaches, student athletes, and the parents of those young men and women gathered dozens and dozens of gas, food and gift cards and put them in a gift bag and sent them home with my sons for our family! I was speechless when they showed me (I’m never speechless). Please send our thanks and gratitude and LOVE to all the people who helped out with this amazing show of support for our family! We would also like to thank the MOPS moms from Valley Baptist Church for all the meals and amazing show of support over this past 18 months. We want everyone that’s helped to know how much it means to us!"

 * … MEMORIES: Ronal Reynier wrote taht the new AAA Westways magazine featured a story on the state's citrus crop. Said Reynier: "Do you remember the orange stand on 'old' Highway 99  in Greenfield? They not only served orange drinks but also the greatest cheese burgers in the country. Their sauce was so secret that when they closed, they would not say how they made their sauce to anyone.

 * … BAKERSFIELDISM: You may be a Bakersfield old timer if "you got your television tubes tested at the Thrifty's in Hillcrest."