Is Trump a bully or a breath of fresh air, puppies are hot in the rental market (seriously) and California pins its hopes on a strong El Nino

 * ... TRUMP: So what do you think of Donald Trump and his "no holds barred" campaign style? Is he a breath of fresh air, a mean-spirited bully or a candidate who has the guts to say what others won't?Peggy Noonan, a former speech writer for Ronald
Reagan and now a respected conservative columnist for The Wall Street, was not charitable when she recently described Trump this way: "Mr. Trump is not a serious man, which is part of his appeal in a country that has grown increasingly unserious. He’s a showman in a country that likes to watch shows—a country that believes all politics is showbiz now, and all politicians are entertainers of varying degrees of competence. At least Mr. Trump is honest about it."

 * ... PUPPIES: And speaking of the Wall Street Journal, it carried a story the other day about the popularity of rental puppies (that's right, rented puppies) at a child's birthday and bachelorette parties. I am serious here. Across the country people are actually renting adorable puppies to entertain children and adults. One business in the Los Angeles area has access to 70 puppies with rates starting at $200 an hour for up to 10 pups.

 * ... EL NINO: There is a lot of talk about the increasing chances that California could get some relief from the drought with a strong El Nino this year. Said The Washington Post: "The present El Niño event, on the cusp of attaining 'strong' intensity, has a chance to become the most powerful on record. The event — defined by the expanding, deepening pool of warmer-than-normal ocean water in the tropical Pacific — has steadily grown stronger since the spring." Even a strong El Nino won't erase four years of drought, but it's a start.

 * ... THIEVES: There is a Facebook account dedicated to catching the thieves that break into our homes and cars. It's called 'Bakersfield Thieves' (search for it and then ask to join) and it features posts by victims about local crime. One recent post: it turns out as the price of gas goes up, thieves are routinely crawling under cars and stealing the entire gas tank.

 * ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "If you're an astronaut and you don't end every relationship by saying 'look, I just need space' then you're wasting everyone's time."

 * ... COHN: Chain, Cohn, Stiles, the local plaintiff's law firm, is getting ready to move into its new downtown headquarters at the corner of 18th Street and Chester Avenue. Originally built as a bank in 1874, the 30,000-square-foot building has been gutted and remodeled and now bears a fresh coat of paint, a welcome addition to the heart of downtown. For most of the building’s history, banks have called it home: Kern Valley Bank and Crocker National Bank to name a few. The lawyers and staff will be moving this weekend and will be at the new location beginning next week.

 * ... HIGHWAY 58: A regular reader posed this question: "Can you please tell me when Highway 58 is going to be completed for the lanes go straight instead of looking like a maze being pushed to the right and the left by all these little orange pylons?"

 * ... GOOD ADVICE: Here's some sound advice I received in a local horoscope the other day: "Some people believe other people's lifestyles are somehow an affront to their own. Let them argue it out while you're busy making money."

College students demand a "safe" environment from anything that "triggers" negativity, but isn't that all part of freedom of speech on this Memorial Day weekend?

 * ... FREEDOM: Memorial Day is a time to reflect and appreciate those who gave their lives for our freedoms. But with those freedoms comes responsibility, as Peggy Noonan cited in her Saturday column in the Wall Street Journal. Noonan was writing about the use of "micro aggressions" and "triggering" on college campuses, in which some students demand a "safe" environment from

anything that might "trigger" negative feelings. Said Noonan: "Life gives you potentials for freedom, creativity, achievement, love, all sorts of beautiful things, but none of us are 'safe.' And you are especially not safe in an atmosphere of true freedom. People will say and do things that are wrong, stupid, unkind, meant to injure. They’ll bring up subjects you find upsetting. It’s uncomfortable. But isn’t that the price we pay for freedom of speech? You can ask for courtesy, sensitivity and dignity. You can show others those things, too, as a way of encouraging them. But if you constantly feel anxious and frightened by what you encounter in life, are we sure that means the world must reorder itself? Might it mean you need a lot of therapy?"

  * ...  OVERHEARD: John R. Tubbesing was helping plant a field of American flags at the Parks and River Walk when someone asked if there were truly more than 1,000 flags. "Yes," someone answered, "there's over a thousand flags. We made sure because we don't want Lois Henry counting them all."

* … MUDDING: I managed to get in a long hike in the hills above Hart Park after the rain Friday, and besides the testosterone fueled Jeeps and pickups doing doughnuts in the mud (parents of boys tell me that's called 'mudding'), I had the place all to myself. But it left me sad that this wonderful property, until recently designed to become a "Great Park" for the public, will one day be developed.

  * … SOUTHERN CHARM: An elegant and classy local woman formerly from Virginia, asked how she is doing, replies with this bit of Southern charm: "I am up and taking nourishment."

 * … TERMS OF ENDEARMENT: Alvin Gregorio read my recent post on being in love ('I've never been in love, but I imagine it is similar to the feeling you get when you see your food coming in a restaurant') with this memory: "I had a longtime (adult) girlfriend who would sort of bounce in her booth-seat as the waiter approached with her food. It was the cutest and most endearing thing ever."

 * ... OVERHEARD: At the new TJ Maxx on Stockade Highway, a woman tells a cashier: "I live in the northeast and waited until everyone was out of town for Memorial Day to come here. I feel I have the whole town to myself."

 * ... MEMORIES: Jack Rademacher dropped me a note asking if I could stomach yet another memory of the old movie theaters in town. Why yes, Jack, I can. So here he goes: "My uncle Charlie was a projectionist at the California Theater. As Kern County Union High School students, my brother and I visited him, high up in the projection booth... The booth was an unbearable hot box and a potential fire trap. An escape hatch was provided at the north wall with a flex ladder dropped down to the alley, in the event of an internal fire."

Peggy Noonan: on the callous children in our government

 Few pundits have such insightful takes on our country than Peggy Noonan, a former Reagan speech writer and now a Wall Street Journal columnist. What I admire about Noonan is that - while certainly a conservative - she readily criticizes both Republicans and Democrats and never pulls her punches. Her Saturday column in the Wall Street Journal on the problems and malaise confronting our country (read full column here) is must reading for anyone concerned about our country. One salient passage:

  "It is a curious thing that those who feel most mistily affectionate toward America, and most protective toward it, are the most aware of its vulnerabilities, the most aware that it can be harmed. They don't see it as all-powerful, impregnable, unharmable. The loving have a sense of its limits.
"When I see those in government, both locally and in Washington, spend and tax and come up each day with new ways to spend and tax—health care, cap and trade, etc.—I think: Why aren't they worried about the impact of what they're doing? Why do they think America is so strong it can take endless abuse?"