When politicians veer off their well rehearsed scripts, interesting things happen. So is gender preference (gay, lesbian, transgender) becoming an issue in the Bakersfield mayor's race?

 * ... POLITICS: Funny what happens when politicians veer off their well scripted stump speeches. It happened last week when 16 of the candidates running for mayor attended a debate at Cal State Bakersfield. While fielding questions from the audience, they were asked if, as mayor, they would attend a gay/lesbian pride parade. First, this seems an odd question to me. Hasn't the question of gay rights been put to rest? Remember the Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village? That was 1969 for

goodness sake, 47 years ago. And look around our community. Some of the most respected business people and scholars in town are gay or lesbian. But the truth is always in the details. So hats off to candidates T.J. Esposito and Gilberto De La Torre who answered a firm "yes," with Esposito eloquently noting that the mayor serves everyone, not select communities or religions. More surprising was the garbled, non response from presumed front runner Karen Goh, CEO of Garden Pathways and a former county supervisor. After serving up some platitudes about loving each other, she dodged the question. I followed up with Goh by text and she asked if this was on or off the record and, having been told this was for the record, she offered no real response. In fairness, I contacted the other presumed front runner, former homebuilder Kyle Carter, and posed the same question to him. (Full disclosure: Carter is a neighbor and I consider him a friend) Like Goh, Carter declined to address the question. So what's next? Perhaps we should ask all 25 mayoral candidates to check the boxes of the parades they would, and would not, attend while serving as mayor. Start with the Christmas parade and then move on to parades and events hosted by the Sikhs, Punjabis, Muslims (need we differentiate between Shia and Sunni?), Scots, native Americans, atheists, Deists, Jews, Basque, Greeks, dog lovers etc. You get the picture. If it's an election cycle, we are certain to be in the silly season. (file photos of Goh, Carter and Esposito)

 * ... JOHNSON: And speaking of politics, I cannot recommend highly enough the HBO special on Lyndon Johnson called "All The Way" starring Brian Cranston of "Breaking Bad" fame. It is an honest, unflinching examination of the complex man that Johnson was during the fight for the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act.

 * ... GUN SALES: There's nothing like the California legislature to do its part of boost gun and ammunition sales. In the wake of the state Senate passing an array (11 in all) of bills putting new restrictions on gun and ammo sales, local gun dealers are reporting a boom in business. Among the proposed restrictions: one would restrict lending a weapon to only immediate family members. Really? What if you are hunting and you simply want to try a friend's shotgun? Yet another bill would go further in restricting ammo magazines that was be loaded quickly. The irony, of course, is these bills are aimed at the very people who obey the law, keep their weapons stored in safes and are no threat to the public. And so it goes.

 * ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "Much like a dog, men will pretty much do anything you want if you feed them first."

 * ... SPOTTED ON FACEBOOK: "Marriage allows you to annoy one special person the rest of your life."

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: From a reader: You may be a Bakersfield old timer if you caught the bus at 'The Orange Tower' on Niles Street to go to Bakersfield High School.

The new year ushers in some tough economic worries, ammunition sales take off and a dark comedy starring Zach Galifianakis is set in the "garbage dump" that is Bakersfield

* ... LOCAL ECONOMY: It's hard to be optimistic about the local economy when we start the year with $26 a barrel oil, a stock market in full retreat and local Realtors warning the housing market will stall or even reverse. "It's going to be a tough year," one local businessman told me. "It's tough now

and it is going to get tougher." Still, as reported by John Cox in The Californian, several notable retailers are scouting the Bakersfield market for possible locations, including Five Guys Burgers and Fries, Cafe Rio Mexican Grill and Yard House and two national entertainment companies, Cinemark Theatres and Harkins Theatres.

* ... AMMUNITION: Lost in the recent series of stories about surging gun sales is the fact that ammunition sales are also going through the roof. Local gun store owners tell me that customers are routinely buying as much ammunition as they can for two reasons: the price of ammo is going up and there are fears the government will start requiring background checks for ammunition in addition to handguns and long guns. Said Gene Thome of Bear Mountain Sports: "Every time a politicians starts talking gun control, I can't keep anything in stock."

* ... BASKETS: A new dark comedy starring Zach Galifianakis is set in Bakersfield, and to no one's surprise it doesn't put us in a good light. Called "Baskets," the new FX series has Galifianakis as a rodeo clown who is forced to move back to Bakersfield to make ends meet. Here is how The New Yorker views it: "The show is set in California, though not a sun-kissed Apatovian Los Angeles, but instead a sun-blasted Bakersfield, where the most coveted job around appears to be behind the counter at Arby’s, and where one character remarks that the town is pretty, like a 'garbage dump.'" Should we care? Probably not, but you would think the script writers could find similar 'garbage dumps' much closer to home.

* ... OCSARS: The New York Post, the always irreverent tabloid, ran this headline combining the east coast snowstorm with the controversy over a possible Oscar boycott: "This weekend will be Whiter Than The Oscars."

* ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "The difference between in-laws and outlaws? Outlaws are wanted."

 * ... SPOTTED ON FACEBOOK: "OMG......was almost just killed by a lady driving the wrong way on 24th Street."

 * ... MEDIA MOVES: Meteorologist Colin Jackson has left KERO TV to take a job as chief meteorologist for  the NBC affiliate in in Reno. No word yet from KERO who will be Jackson's permanent successor.

* ... ACHIEVER: Hats off to Malcolm Rivera of Arvin who is now serving as chief justice of the Associated Students at the University of California at Davis. Rivera graduated from Arvin High School in 2013 and and is attending UC Davis as a Gates Millennium Scholar. Said his proud mother Regina Rivera: "We, his family, are so very proud of him and he is making a name for himself as a leader."