Former city fire chief Ron Fraze being courted to run for Ward 2 City Council seat, and CSUB wrestling fights to survive

  * ... THE BUZZ: The talk downtown is that former city Fire Chief Ron Fraze may run for the Ward 2 City Council seat being vacated by Sue Benham. Benham, now vice president of development at Memorial Hospital, has said she won't run for another term in the ward, which covers much of the downtown area. Fraze lives downtown and supporters feel his inside knowledge of how the city works would serve the area well.  I talked to Fraze Saturday and he told me he is considering a run and is honored that some folks are urging him to enter the race. Stay tuned.

  * ... WRESTLING: Had coffee the other day with Craig Tobin, a local businessman who is among a growing group of people trying save the wrestling program out at CSUB. Wrestling is one of those sports that is basically fending for itself in an era of extreme budget cuts and Tobin and others have been committed to finding ways to keep it alive. There have been fund raisers and some guerrilla marketing, and last week they put more than 1,000 people in the stands at the Icardo Center to watch CSUB take on Arizona State. Craig will be my guest today (Monday) on Californian Radio KERN 1180 beginning at 9 a.m. Stay tuned because you will hear from from these folks.


 * ... KINDNESS: Christine Lollar dropped me a note to send her good wishes to Wendy Wayne, who is dealing with a recurrence of cancer and was recently honored with a random act of kindness. "Thank you, Richard, for listing the 'kindness' and mentioning Wendy’s 'battling' non-Hodgkin’s. What a perfect adjective. I found it ironic that the organization is called 'Soldier’s Smile' because that is exactly what Wendy Wayne wears on her face every day, a 'soldier’s smile.' She’s long been my mentor. If I could have her grace and humbleness in my pinky finger I will have lived a successful life. When you think of her life from the Peace Corps to First Five, immunization volunteer, and ever the civic servant whenever called upon. Wendy is an amazing, all around, individual, and she has truly fought her own fight (her physical battles) and the fight of thousands, maybe millions, who could not fight for themselves."

 * ... OVERHEARD: This little gem comes from reader Walter Stewart. "I am amazed and amused in a Bakersfield restaurant yesterday. The man sitting in the booth in front of me was wearing a cap. I was amazed when a man walking by paused and said, 'Cultured people remove their hats in restaurants.' I was amused when the man dryly responded, 'Cultured people mind their own business.' I am still chuckling."


* ... SPOTTED: Jessica Massey submits this bit of bad form, spotted in the parking lot of Albertson's on Gosford and White Lane. "The woman in the truck in front of me completely stopped the flow of traffic in the parking lot by coming to a full stop to open her driver's side door and toss a soda cup on the ground! I honked at her and gave her the 'are you serious?' signal and she just gave me a dirty look and drove off. So rude to the poor Albertson's employee that probably had to pick it up and to me for getting that dirty look!"

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: You know you're from Bakersfield when keeping up with the Jones means serving Smith's cookies. Thanks to J.R. Lewis of Keller Williams for that little ditty.

A tribute to the late Rev. Glenn Puder and some really bad behavior on our streets

  * ... SUBSIDIES: Beth Pandol is executive director of the Water Association of Kern County and dropped me a note to respond to an earlier reader's post on agriculture subsidies.  "Hats off to her for trying to minimize air pollution but her comment on farm subsidies was a bit off base. While there are farms that receive farm subsidies here in Kern, there are relatively few and our top three crops - grapes, almonds, pistachios - are not subsidized crops. Neither are carrots, fruits or other vegetables. And as for the dig at corporate agriculture, she might want to take a look at the jobs those corporate farms provide, the innovation they create and the boost they give to our local economy. Why is it people feel perfectly free to relegate agriculture to a 1910 business model while heaping praise on other corporate creations like the Apple iPad or HP laptop?"

 * ... PASSINGS: I was saddened to hear about the recent death of Rev. Glenn Puder. Rev. Puder was one of the first people I met on moving to Bakersfield in 1994 and he was a kind and decent man with a huge following. Back then, he was head of the downtown First Presbyterian Church and was active in a number of outreaches around town. Rev. Puder moved to Bakersfield right around the time of the great earthquake of 1953. The church was destroyed and he was among the team that worked to rebuild the church. He died in Napa. By way of background, Puder's wife Dorothy was a niece of the late Walt Disney.

 * ... SPOTTED: Reader Carol Black submitted this doozy. "If you are aware of your surroundings while motoring around town you will see the unbelievable. Yesterday I sat at the stop light going south on Mohawk and Truxtun. Beside me a guy in a red Ford pulled out a bottle of vodka and took three swigs before the light turned green. I couldn't call and report him because I would be driving and talking trying to catch his license number.  And today while driving on the 204 (Golden State) I spotted a quite new dark blue Chevy Impala without any kind of license, no plate, no stickers in any window.  I bet if I did that I'd get stopped within a block from home!  Just my luck!"

 * ... MORE SPOTTED: A younger woman wearing a white medical frock stands in front of Memorial Hospital Tuesday at lunchtime casually smoking. Memorial is a smoke-free campus and cannot control behavior on the sidewalk, but it's an odd sight nonetheless. Someone forgot their New Year's resolutions.

 * ... SORORITIES: Attention all sororties ladies. The National  Panhellenic Conference International  Badge Day is coming up Monday,  March 5, at the Petroleum Club. This is a celebration of sisterhood for women who were members of their sororities in college. Contact Marianne Keathley at (661) 831-8321 with questions. 

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: You might be a Bakersfield old timer if you "remember when the Haberfelde Building had its own switchboard operator, just inside the main entrance. I believe her name was Edna." Thanks to reader John Strand of Lake Isabella for that piece of history.