More of our kids head off to top colleges and is Oxy getting ready hire dozens more for Bakersfield?

 * ... LAY'S MODEL: It's not often you open the New York Times and see a familiar face staring at you from one of the photos. But there he was, local farmer Brian Kirschenmann, beaming from a potato field in a photo accompanying a story on Lay's new marketing strategy. If you remember, Brian was chosen as one of the Lay's models because he exudes a "simple, salt of the earth" appeal. Expect to see more of Brian's smiling face as Lay's pumps up its marketing campaign.

* ... ANN ARBOR BOUND: Liberty High senior Paul Brumfield has opted to spend the next four year in Ann Arbor instead of Eugene. The son of Superior Court Judge Lorna Brumfield and local attorney Bob Brumfield, Paul initially had decided to attend the University of Oregon on an academic scholarship. But that was before he learned he was accepted into Michigan's Vocal Performance major. Only 30 kids out of 300 who auditioned made the cut. Proud father Bob told me that his sister lives in Ann Arbor and in addition to that, he gets to spent more time at Zingerman's, the college town's famous delicatessen. Paul joins a family of some 40,000 rabidly loyal Michigan students, including my own daughter Hannah, who will be a junior next fall.

  *... COMING HOME: Dr. Bill Farr dropped me a note to tell me about a West High graduate who will be coming home to join the Farr Medical Group in August. He said Alycia Garcia Campos, who graduated from the Medical College of Wisconsin, will be practicing family medicine at his practice. She is currently the chief resident of family medicine at Northridge Hospital.

* ... STAR STUDENT: Another reader, Joy Tolladay, wanted me to know  about Allie Trakimas, an outstanding senior over at Frontier High School. She will be attending the University of Pennsylvania but was also accepted at Johns Hopkins, the University of Portland, UCLA, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego and the University of Rochester. Not surprising, Allie was at the top of her class. But according to Joy, apparently Frontier has elected not to recognize a valedictorian this year (which she would be) despite a petition from a couple hundred students. Either way, she has accomplished a lot and that will have to be recognition enough. Allie's parents are Lucy and John Trakimas.

* ... CARROT TOWN: Reader Donna Greer wrote in response to an earlier post about Bolthouse carrots being found in London. "I've purchased their carrots in Illinois, Texas, Matamoros, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela and the West Indies. I chuckle every time I see our carrots so far away from home!"

 * ... OVERHEARD: Lots of speculation on the streets that Occidental Petroleum will soon be hiring dozens of new workers for Kern County. There's no official word on it yet, but we do know about Oxy's big new oil strike somewhere in Kern County. The oil could be worth as much as $34 billion based on today's prices. The arrival of dozens of new managers and workers could be a big boost to our local housing market at just the right time.

 * ... EAST BAKERSFIELDISM: This from reader John Pryor: "You must be an East Bakersfield old timer if you shopped at the ADS Market on Baker Street across from the library. ADS stood for the name of the store's owner: Admiral Dewey Sprayberry. We called him Dewey."