Bakersfield Sound legend Red Simpson and gun shop owner Gene Thome head to Tennessee for the Muddy Roots Festival, and are we becoming a nation of singles?

 * ... RED SIMPSON: Bakersfield Sound legend Red Simpson will be appearing at the Muddy Roots Music Festival outside of Nashville this weekend. And opening for him will be Gene Thome, the owner of Bear Mountain Sports who is quite the singer himself. The festival is set in Cookeville, Tennessee. Thome told me he will be sharing the stage with Shooter Jennings, son of the late Waylon Jennings.

 * ... FOOTBALL: We are headed into the first weekend of college football with all the collective hoopla and hysteria. Steve and Danielle Frolio reminded me that the Nebraska Cornhusker Group meets each game day at Goose Loonies Tavern and Grill to cheer on the red and white.  aid Danielle: "This is a local group that my husband and I started here in Bakersfield back in 2008 to bring more attention to college ball (and especially our favorite team - the Huskers) in which everyone is invited to come out and support college football, whoever your team may be. Our first game is this Saturday at 5 p.m. and we hope to have a terrific turnout. GO BIG RED!" Starting Sept. 7, Goose Loonies will open for breakfast at 9 a.m. on the weekends.

 * ... GOING SOLO: Did you know that more Americans are now living alone than ever before? According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 27 percent of Americans are living alone, compared to just 17 percent in 1970. Why? Young people are waiting longer to marry and the number of married couples has been steadily dropping, from 71 percent in 1970 to 49 percent today. The Los Angeles Times quoted a researcher as saying "the rise of living alone is the greatest social change of the last 50 years."

 * ... ROTARY: More kudos to the Twilight Rotary Club which sent 140 kids back to Mount Vernon School with free backpacks and supplies. The club also raised some money for Rotary International's Polio Plus project.

 * ... MEMORIES: Jerry Beckwith remembers the old Stan's Drive-in on the northeast corner of 19th Street and Union Avenue. "It was part of the weekend cruise along with Mitchner's and Andre's. One of the really cool things, other than the best double burgers and onion rings ever, was the Request Phone Line that was mounted on an outside wall - a direct line to KAFY Radio. I guess you could call it our 1950s version of Social Media."

 * ... MORE MEMORIES: And finally this from Jimmie Hill of Oildale: "Just a little comment on Anthony Contreras and his memory of Baker and Bernard streets. The market on the northwest corner was the Stop and Shop Market owned by the Diffenbaughs. There was Herb and maybe a couple more brothers. Gene and Joe's was a sporting goods and bike shop next door. My dad was the meat cutter/butcher at the store for years and Gene and Joe's repaired my bike after it was stolen from in front of the old Granada Theatre on Monterey street. This was in the late 1940s to early 1950s."

Has City Councilman Rudy Salas gone too far with his negative attack ads on opponent Pedro Rios? And did The Californian show bias by running a picture of President Obama?

 * ... ELECTION: At this point in the campaign most of us just want this election to be over, but there will be plenty of drama on election day. Several local races are razor tight and there are a number of controversial propositions on the ballot. Former Kern County supervisor and longtime political consultant Gene Tackett will join me on Californian Radio KERN 1180 to discuss the general election and what is at stake. We'll be chatting about the presidential race as well as the City Council and Supervisor races. Join us at 9 a.m. Monday.

 * ... BIAS: Reader Randy Grigg took me to task for allegedly showing liberal bias by showing a picture of President Obama comforting a storm victim in New York. "As a subscriber for over 30 years and local small businessman I'm appalled at the picture on the front page of Obama holding an emotionally distraught woman because of the storm that hit the East coast. Why didn't you have a front page picture of the father whose son was killed because of lack of appropriate military action in Benghazi... and his comments?  Why aren't you covering the developments of this horrible incident?" Randy: You have to cut me some slack here. The story of Hurricane Sandy and its trail of devastation in New York and New Jersey was the big story of the way. We didn't mean to imply bias by running a picture of the president.

 * ... SALAS-RIOS: Politics is not for the faint of heart, and perhaps the nastiest local race this year is between City Councilman Rudy Salas and former Delano Mayor Pedro Rios who are competing for the 32nd Assembly District. The negative and clearly misleading attack ads by Salas on Rios have been unrelenting, and now it appears they have created a small backlash from folks who question if Salas has gone too far. Is going negative a smart strategy? On Tuesday, we will see.

 * ... TRASH: Keith Key is a local businessman who shares a growing frustration with the trash that litters our roads and parks. "I was reflecting on my recent trip to the World (skeet shooting) Championships in San Antonio, Texas. My wife and I really noticed the lack of trash on the Texas highways. Why can’t the people of California, take the same kind of pride as the people of Texas?"

 * ... HUSKERS: Kelsey Fien is a graduate of Frontier High School who is making quite a name for herself on the Nebraska Cornhuskers volleyball team. She helped lead the No. 4 Huskers to an important upset victory over top-ranked Penn State and is one of the team's standout players. The 6-foot, three-inch Fien is a freshmen in Lincoln.

 * ... CAMERON: Last week I shared with you the story of 12-year-old Cameron Caneta, who decided to surprise Monsignor Craig Harrison on his birthday by collecting food for the needy. Since then, folks have been lining up behind Cameron to join the drive. Said his mother Mary Caneta: "We were surprised today with three more cases of food and a young man pulled up in his truck to donate a truckload of clothes, shoes, socks, razors etc. More calls coming in! I told my son...'Job well done' and he replied 'Thanks Mom, but I am not done yet!'"

Nebraska Cornhusker fans gather in Bako and Californian Radio will host Cal State men's basketball coach Rod Barnes on Monday

 * ... CORNHUSKERS: So who knew that a group of University of Nebraska fans gather each Saturday at Goose Loonies to take in Cornhusker football? Local businessman Bob Tebbe said up to 25 fans meet each Saturday to root on the Big Ten team. Tebbe said the fans range in age from "from early 20s to 80 and just as many women as men, sometimes more. We are made up of  professionals, truck drivers, a judge, business owners, firemen, veterinarian, retirees ... just really nice people who have one thing in common.... a love of Nebraska."

 * ... CSUB: It may be football season but it's never too early to talk college basketball. On Monday, CSUB men's basketball coach Rod Barnes will join me on Californian Radio (KERN 1180) to talk about the prospects for the Roadrunners as the team goes deep into Division 1 play. The team just returned from Bermuda and a series of exhibition games. The show begins at 9 a.m.

 * ... BROCK DINNER: Hats off to Jon Van Boening, the president of Memorial Hospital who was honored with the John Brock Community Service Award at the annual dinner last week at Seven Oaks Country Club. Van Boening has been quietly steering Memorial during a period of hyper growth and has built an impressive team to offer the best quality care. The Brock dinner, sponsored by the CSUB School of Business, is always a good opportunity for our community's business and civic leaders to recognize one of their own.

 * ... SPOTTED: At a local Vons,  a woman pulls her loaded cart up to the express lane (15 items or  fewer) and proceeds to empty the cart 15 items at a time, paying at each interval until her cart was empty.

* ... KIWANIS: One of my regular contributors, Dona M. Baker, dropped me a note to remind me of the good that the Oildale Kiwanis club does each year for students at Standard and Beardsley elementary schools. Each year the club purchases back to school clothes and back packs for kids at the schools, meeting the kids at a local Target to select the supplies. Dona also wanted me to remind all World War II veterans to be part of the annual Veteran's Day Parade Nov. 12.

 * ... GOLF: If you want to support the Wounded Heroes Foundation of Kern County, you may want to sign up for the third annual Wounded Heroes golf tournament at Bakersfield Country Club. Club pro Bruce Burroughs told me the event is this Saturday, September 15, starting at noon with a shotgun start. Call the pro shop at (661) 871-4121 to sign up. All donations are welcome.