Facebook rejects advertisement from a local gun store featuring little more than plastic decoy ducks, and Imbide Wine and Spirits sponsors a fund raiser for Covenant Coffee

 * ... FACEBOOK: Gene Thome is the easy going owner of Bear Mountain sports, a store that has catered to hunters and sportsmen for almost 30 years. Normally he's not easy to rile, but he was Thursday when the administrators of Facebook refused to allow him to advertise on its pages. Why? Gene wanted to post a picture of employee Bill Curtis holding a plastic dove decoy. Seemed innocent enough until Facebook rejected the ad, saying it not not allow "ads for ammunition, firearms, paintball guns, BB guns, or other weapons, including but not limited to: knives, daggers, swords, bows, arrows, knuckle dusters, and nunchucks." But the ad only showed a plastic decoy, so Thome was left scratching his head. "How is this offensive?" he asked me. "According to Facebook there is nothing in my store that I can promote with them. This is so sad on many levels."  (photo courtesy of Gene Thome)

  * ... COVENANT: Regular readers of this column know how fond I am of Covenant Coffee, the little non-profit on North Chester that helps former and current foster children gain skills to become productive citizens. If the converted bank building at 1700 North Chester is out of your way, here's an excuse to drop by to check out what they are doing. On Thursday, October 18, Covenent will open its doors to the public with a wine tasting and live music. David Dobbs, who owns Imbide Wine and Spirits along with wife Tami, are donating all the wine for the evening. Tickets are $25 and all proceeds go to Covenant. The event will run from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Pick up tickets at Imbibe on Truxtun Extension.

 * ... RUNNERS: And speaking of worthy fund raisers, the woman's basketball team at Cal State Bakersfield is trying to raise $100,000 by the end of December to provide more training opportunities over the summer months. Head coach Greg McCall is promising a "stronger, faster and taller" Lady Runners team that will open its season against the University of Arizona on November 9.

* ... TEHACHAPI WINE: Eugene Wood was shopping at Country Club Liquors on Columbus up in the northeast when he ran into a Forest Glen wine labeled Tehachapi Clone. It's a pinot grigio and "comes from a vineyard they have in Tehachapi, and they are giving credit to the area. On hot summer nights a glass of chilled pinot goes well with some grilled salmon on a cedar plank. I recommend it."

* ... STRANGERS: A reader wrote with a cautionary tale about suspicious people showing up at your door in the evening. "I answered  the door tonight to a lady with a young boy. I asked what I could do for her, she said, 'Yesterday my brother died of a heart attack and I'm  collecting for his funeral. Would you please help?' She had a plastic baggie with money in it.  I was so shocked, I just looked at her and then I said, no, where do you live?' She said up the street in the apartments. Was she for real,  or just someone begging money or just casing the neighborhood?"

 * ... LEADERSHIP: A reunion of the last 25 classes of Leadership Bakersfield is set for Thursday, October 4. The program is sponsored by the Greater Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce and exposes future leaders to all aspects of our community. If you served in a class and are interested, go to the Chamber of Commerce website for more information.

Best places to retire? High tax California fails to make the list and more blowback from the Garces High School senior prank

* ... RETIREMENT: Forbes is out with its annual list of the best places to retire, and it should come as no surprise that California didn't make the cut. Forbes said that "high cost, high tax states like New York, New Jersey and California" were omitted in its list of the 25 top cities for retiring. Among those that were recommended were Albuquerque, N.M., Ashville, N.C., Austin, Tex., Bloomington, Ind., Boise, Idaho, Cape Coral, Fla., Fargo, N.D., Lynchburg, Va., Phoenix and Tulsa, Okla.

 * ... GARCES: A reader who asked to remain unnamed dropped me a note about the senior prank at Garces Memorial High in which some doors were glued shut and the faces of school administrators were photoshopped on a picture of Adolf Hitler and his inner circle of Nazis. "Gluing doors at Garces?  Are you kidding me? That's not a prank, that's vandalism. 'Boys will be boys'....oh please.  Mighty poor excuse for the incredibly bad behavior by whoever thought up and carried out the disrespectful photo idea and the door-gluing vandalism.  I say let the students remove the glue and pay for any repairs necessary as a result of their actions. Perhaps take a course in history to find out about Hitler's evils.   Good thing those students have already graduated.  They wouldn't be returning to Garces the next year if I were in charge.

* ... STING: Hats off to the folks over at The Guitar Center and the Bakersfield police for setting up a sting operation that led to the recovery of an expensive stolen guitar. It all started when a 1989 black Fender Stratocaster owned by musician Robert Flores was stolen. He went to the Guitar Center to alert them to the theft, and sure enough two men came in trying to sell it. The police were tipped, the police set up a sting, two men were arrested and the guitar was recovered. (file photo of a Fender Stratocaster)

  * ... LEADERSHIP: The Greater Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce is planning a reunion of all the classes of its Leadership Bakersfield program. The 25th class of the program is about to graduate, and the reunion is planned for Thursday, October 4, at Stockdale County Club. There are some 750 local people who have been through the program, and the Chamber is trying to local everyone to tell then of the event.

* ... PHONE PREFIXES: More folks are weighing in on the old telephone prefixes and party lines. From Sarah Heinrichs: "Yes the prefix for the Oildale area was EXport 9-xxxx hence the 399-xxxx when numbers replaced the words. The area around East Bakersfield High School and College Heights had the prefix TRinity 1-xxxx  not TRiangle and became 871-xxxx when numbers replaced the words. When my family first got a phone we lived in the EMpire 6-xxxx area, were on a 10 party (rural) line but only heard the rings of four of the party lines.  Being able to make or receive a phone call at times was a nightmare.  We later moved to Oildale with an EXport 9 number but had several friends who lived in the TRinity 1 area of town.

 * ... MORE PREFIXES: This tidbit comes from Kala (Loewen) Stuebbe: "My father, Kenny Loewen, wanted me to pass on a telephone memory before even the prefixes. He remembers when his father, Pete Loewen, was a barber at the then new Padre Hotel Barber Shop in 1934 and their phone number was 164.  To contact them you would pick up the phone and a pleasant voice would say, 'Number please' and then connect you. Talk about 'hands free' (well almost). My grandfather later bought the barber shop and owned it from 1940 to 1976.  My dad loves to go to the 'New Padre,' by the way.  Lots of memories.