Instead of rushing to "do something" about gun control, let's focus on something that works. The lessons from Las Vegas, more bobcats sighted in town and my verdict on the Santa Carota hamburger

 * ... GUN CONTROL: One of the difficulties in the debate over gun control is the definition of exactly what turns a semi-automatic weapon into an "assault rifle." Regulating (or outlawing) weapons by design or how lethal they "look" is foolhardy when the internal mechanisms are basically the same as a hunting rifle, which is why I found this piece in the Washington Post by Leah Libresco so interesting. Libresco works for FiveThirtyEight, a website  that focuses on opinion poll analysis, politics, economics, and sports blogging. Said Libresco: "When I looked at the other oft-praised policies, I found out that no gun owner walks into the store to buy an 'assault weapon.' It’s an invented classification that includes any semi-automatic that has two or more features, such as a

bayonet mount, a rocket-propelled grenade-launcher mount, a folding stock or a pistol grip. But guns are modular, and any hobbyist can easily add these features at home, just as if they were snapping together Legos. As for silencers — they deserve that name only in movies, where they reduce gunfire to a soft 'puick puick.' In real life, silencers limit hearing damage for shooters but don’t make gunfire dangerously quiet. An AR-15 with a silencer is about as loud as a jackhammer. Magazine limits were a little more promising, but a practiced shooter could still change magazines so fast as to make the limit meaningless." If the Las Vegas shooting demands a national conversation on gun laws, and I for one think it is appropriate, then we need to spend less time focusing on "doing something" and more on doing something that works.

* ... BOBCATS: Remember those two bobcats that were seen off the bike path below the Panorama Bluffs? Doug White spotted two more, adult bobcats on the bike trail two to three miles east of Enos Lane in August. "The female had already crossed while the male just stood motionless at the path's shoulder while I rode by.  I wasn't about to stop to take a picture. Since they are so rare here, I wonder if they are the same pair."

 * ... CAROTA BURGER: I checked off the Santa Carota burger off my bucket list when I accompanied a group of friends to Temblor Brewing Co. to try the famous grass and carrot-fed beef. My verdict: a delicious half-pound burger but at almost $14 with a side of fries, perhaps a little too rich for my wallet. Still, it's worth a try.

 * ... SPOTTED ON FACEBOOK: "I'm having people over later to stare at their phones if you want to stop by."

 * ... GOOD FORM: Frances Quiroz gave a shoutout to local Dr. William Baker. "My 17-year-old son broke his fibula playing football. I couldn't get him into an orthopedic, because no one would see him. I was referred to Dr. Baker by the athletic director at my son's school. Within 30 minutes we were sitting in his waiting room... and he managed to get my son seen by an ortho within hours. After the day I had, dealing with the stress of my son having a broken leg, not knowing if he needed surgery to repair it and none of the ortho doctors the urgent care referred us to would see/access him.... the care Dr. Baker and his staff treated us with was so overwhelming that it literally brought me to tears. I would recommend Dr. Baker to anyone and everyone. I feel blessed to have him as my son's doctor. His kindness, care and generosity is not easily found."

 * ... MORE GOOD FORM: Hats off to Tony Martinez who is now volunteering his time with a non-profit that helps needy families renovate their homes and neighborhoods. Martinez, a retired Bakersfield police officer who ran for mayor this last go around, is working for Rebuilding Together/Kern County, a group formerly known as Christmas in April. The organization is helping homeowners in the "Carnation tract" of homes near McKinley Elementary School make basic repairs on their homes.

Bobcats are spotted on the bike trail in southwest Bakersfield, outdoors columnist Steve Merlo dies and sharing some memories of old Bakersfield

 * ... BOBCATS: There have been more bobcat sightings out on the bike trail to the west of town, the latest coming earlier this week when my friend Jason Barnes was cycling out toward Enos Lane.

Barnes managed to snap a handful of pictures of the young cat as he rode past. The bobcat seems undisturbed by Barnes on his bike and simply sauntered alongside the path as Barnes rode past, cell phone camera in hand. The drought has pushed bobcats and other wildlife closer to the neighborhoods in the southwest, but there have been no indications that they pose a threat to anyone.

 * ... CYCLISTS: And speaking of cyclists, Bakersfield has always had a robust cycling community but there has been a noticeable spike in the number of cycling "commuters" on our streets, particularly in the downtown area where millennials on fixed gear bikes share the road with the more serious recreational cyclists. If you are driving, make sure you are alert and "share the road" with these folks.

 * ... STEVE MERLO: I was saddened to learn that outdoors columnist Steve Merlo died of an apparent heart attack. Merlo was an avid outdoorsman, and I appreciated how he wrote about the hunting and shooting sports in ways that made them accessible to folks who never owned a weapon. He was a strong advocate of the 2nd Amendment, a proponent of the environment and a level head when it came to how the shooting sports can play a healthy role in our society.

 * ... OVERHEARD: A commuter who lives on the east side of town but works off Truxtun is telling a colleague: "I just won't go through California and Oak at rush hour anymore. I am thinking of taking Rosedale to Mohawk ... that is how bad it has gotten."

 * ... SPOTTED ON FACEBOOK:" I’ll call it a smartphone the day I yell 'Where’s my phone' and it yells 'Down here! In the couch cushions!'

 * ...MEMORIES: Here’s a follow-up on Loren Stroppe’s memories of Ewing’s Stockdale Inn, compliments of Cheryl Saki: "After the Ewings failed to renew the lease on the site with the owner of Tenneco Oil, the building was purchased by a group of local businessmen. It was cut in half and moved to California and Oak at the site of the Santa Fe Railroad Roundhouse. The building was remodeled to resemble a train station with a vintage Pullman car sitting on the tracks in front. An authentic red caboose was located inside for additional seating for diners. The restaurant was named the Iron Horse and it was decorated with artifacts from closed train stations throughout the state. Milton Huggs of Milt’s Coffee Shop was the owner of the Iron Horse. Milt eventually sold the restaurant and the property was turned into the the strip mall that currently occupies the corner of California and Oak. I am honored to say that Milt is my dad and I am so proud of his creative genius that has enhanced and enriched the restaurant scene in Bakersfield for the past 50 plus years."

* ... MORE MEMORIES: And finally, John Pryor adds this memory when "all development west of Oak Street was limited to cattle grazing land of Kern County Land Company. My uncle, dentist C. E. (Doc) Pryor lived on the west side of Oak, north of Brundage. He had horses corralled behind his home... My parents belonged to Stockdale Country Club at the time (with something like $22 per month for dues).  o get there, we had to drive through all open fields between Oak and Fairway except for one little frame building. The sign said Shell -- not global Shell Oil but rather local Joe Shell's 'oil patch.' That was in the 1930s and 40s. Even in the 1950s when I played on the Bakersfield College golf team (Jack Frost was coach) this was evident. The surroundings of Stockdale were all open fields for cattle grazing."

City crews tackle complaints on trash and litter, and a wildlife expert worried about mountain lions being driven close to home because of the drought

 * ... TRASH: Nice to see the folks over at the Bakersfield Solid Waste Division responding to complaints about trash and litter. After reading a post on this blog about the litter on the northbound ramp connecting Panorama Drive and Manor Street, Sal Moretti said he would dispatch a

crew from the Bakersfield Homeless Center to clean the area. Moretti, superintendent of the Solid Waste Division, said city residents can call 86-CLEAN when they spot areas that need to be cleaned. Moretti said crews from the homeless center also are helping clean the Westside Parkway and local freeways.

* ... BOBCATS: Steve Merlo is an avid hunter and outdoors writer who knows a lot about wildlife around town. After reading about the bobcat recently spotted on the bike path, he wrote to say bobcats were actually fairly common in our area. "What I would rather read about is the actual sightings of mountain lions in the same areas. The drought is forcing many species, including the big cats, to leave their traditional living areas and move down to wherever they can find adequate food and water--the Kern River being close to perfect habitat. I'm worried that someone will be attacked by a food deprived lion along the path or river and might possibly be seriously hurt or even killed. You see, I feel that whenever someone claims to see a mountain lion, then the only reason they saw it in the first place was because the animal was already stalking their pets or them."

* ... EAST HIGH: The folks coordinating the 75th anniversary of East High School are looking for at least five convertibles to use during the homecoming game. The event is set for October 12. Call Jesse Pena at (661) 496-8186 or Marti Larkin at (661) 578-2209 if you can help.

 * ... MUELLER: I was saddened to hear of the passing of Larry Mueller, one of our local citizens who always worked to make Bakersfield a better place. He died Sunday after a long battle with cancer. He was 64. Mueller was past president of the Rotary Breakfast Club and a charter member of the Twilight Rotary Club. He was active on the club level but also contributed many times on the Rotary District level.

 * ... BAD FORM: Shame on the woman who attended an assembly at Norris Elementary School and chose to disrupt the ceremony when her son was honored with a group of other students. Said one grandparent:  "In the group that included my granddaughter, a women who somehow pushed her way in the middle of the students in the center section towards the front, jumps up with a large poster, complete with lights congratulating a young boy by name. She continued to hold up the large poster  pretty much blocking the view for most of the families and made it nearly impossible to get a picture as she bounced around with her huge obnoxious sign.  Good lesson to that child to only think of themselves."

  * ... GRAPERY: The plaudits and national attention for local grape company The Grapery keep on coming. The Grapery received an honorary Award of Excellence in a national, triple blind judging of table grapes conducted by expert Masters of Taste. The judging was part of the ongoing USA Taste Championships founded in 1986 with the establishment of Chefs in America, whose professional board members gather weekly to conduct taste tests on a myriad of food service and retail products. Nice to know they agree with the good taste we locals and fans of the company, founded by Jim Beagle and Jack Pandol, have known all along.

There has been another bobcat sighting on the bike path in the Southwest, and a social media cat fight erupts over the future of First Friday

 * ... BOBCAT: There has been another bobcat sighting along the bike path in the southwest. This from reader Kevin Ammann: "I thought I'd pass along that on Saturday morning, friends and I were

riding on the bike path about 1.5 to 2 miles west of Allen Road and saw a bobcat sitting under a shrub. Then on Tuesday evening, we saw a bobcat crossing the bike path at Truxtun lakes. It was coming from the bigger of the lakes and heading toward the dry riverbed. I've heard that they've been seen on the path, but first time I saw one."
(file photo of bobcat in a tree)

 * ... FIRST FRIDAY: A social media cat fight erupted this week over the direction of First Friday, the popular, monthly downtown event that focuses on art and bringing people into local businesses. It was triggered when Seamus Finn, a relatively new local businessman who runs a cooking studio, launched a clumsy attempt to "improve" First Friday by adding new commercial elements. Finn, a tireless self promoter, did all this without consulting the local artists and business people who have worked to make First Friday successful. The fear, according to local artists, is the commercialization of First Friday will turn it into a street faire like the ones hosted several years ago by the Downtown Business Assn. First Friday has avoided food vendors and has tried to keep it focused on the arts and getting people into the doors of local businesses. All this erupted on social media which led to Finn issued a mea culpa if he had insulted anyone. Stay tuned.

 * ... ABORTION: Memo to City Councilwoman Jacquie Sullivan: can we please stop pushing the divisive, misguided and totally unnecessary idea of having our own "Restrictions on Termination of Human Life" ordinance? However well intentioned the effort, aren't there bigger challenges in Ward 6 and the city that demand our attention?

 * ... VIDEO: Hats off to Kyle Steiner, a 2010 graduate of Bakersfield High School, who is in Australia directing a music video for Aussie pop singer Vince Gelonese. Steiner is in his final year of film school in the San Fernando Valley.

* ... WINE: It's that time of year again for the annual Elegant Evening of Wine to support the Joe Alexander Scholarship Foundation. This is truly a first class event and this year it will be held at the home of Mark and Sue Ashley in Westchester. Meir Brown of Cafe Med provides a world class experience for this Rotary event, which seems to grow in size each year. Individual tickets are $175 each. Call Vernon Varner at (661) 979-5788 for further details.

 * ... MASTERS SWIM: If you are into competitive masters swimming, you might want to head over to Garces Memorial High this Saturday when The Gold Wave Masters swim team is hosting its First Annual 'Say Goodbye to Summer' swim meet. Most of the 36 entries are coming from out of town. People wanting to sign up may do so online at: http://www.spmasterswim.org/w/SPMS/. It all starts at 8:30 a.m.