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."

The percentage of Americans who own their own homes dips to a near record level, and an oil field worker rescues a cyclist who was spent and sick from the heat

 * … HOUSING: Another sign that we are far from recovering from the recession came this week when it was revealed that the share of Americans who own homes had dipped to its lowest level in almost 20 years. The Commerce Department said just 64.8 percent of homes across the country were occupied by owners, according to the Wall Street Journal. That is the lowest it has been since the third quarter of 1995. The missing
ingredient in the housing recovery? Just 35.9 percent of people under the age of 35 are homeowners.

 * … AIRPORTS: Little surprise here but the fastest growing airports in the country are in North Dakota, where the Bakken oil boom has led to hyper growth. In Williston, N.D., traffic at the Sloulin Field International Airport has increased 254 percent in just two years.

 * … BRICKS: Walter E. Stewart weighed in on the city's plans to remove the donated bricks at Centennial Plaza. "Remove the family bricks from the Centennial Plaza? What's next? Remove the grave markers from the cemeteries?"

 * … OVERHEARD: A local businessman is talking about attending an interfaith mass: "Glad to hear it is an interfaith service. Kathy and I will attend. We have an interfaith marriage—she’s a Notre Dame fan and I am a USC fan."

 * … APOLOGY: This heartfelt (and anonymous) apology showed up in my mailbox. "I would like to sincerely apologize to the gentleman in the Vons North Chester parking lot on Thursday morning. I was totally out of line and I sincerely apologize for my actions… please forgive my ugly words and rude behavior."

 * … GOOD FORM: It's not often that I can report an incident of "good form" involving a motorist and a bicyclist, but Tom Morgan provided this sterling example from last week. Morgan, deputy county counsel, had ridden his bike to Alta Sierra this past weekend and by the time he reached Poso Creek at Round Mountain Road on his way back, it was 106 degrees and he was spent. "While I was resting and trying to think of what to do next a large truck passed and shortly thereafter I could hear the sound of his air brakes. The driver, Richard Castellon, a supervisor for H and S Trucking, backed up and asked if I was okay. I had just enough energy to walk to his truck and climb up into the passenger seat. Without a word, he hopped out, grabbed my bike and gear and strapped it to the cage behind his cab, jumped back in and asked me where I  needed to go. I told him where I lived and he offered to take me directly home. On the way, I began to feel worse and I ended up getting sick in the cab of his truck. He didn't bat an eye and simply told me not to worry about it. Richard was able to get me safely home. Over the years I've had many encounters with vehicles as I've cycled the roads around Bakersfield, but I have to say that some of the most positive have been with the folks that work in the oilfields surrounding the city. Richard was on his way home after putting in a hard day at work and I'm sure the last thing he needed was some guy on a bike making a mess out of his truck and delaying his arrival home. But he never hesitated and he was clearly only be concerned about getting me home safely."

 * … MEMORIES: Carolyn Wilson was a member of the Bakersfield College choir in 1962-63 and is looking for a copy of a vinyl record made featuring Gabriel Faure's requiem. "I am appealing to those who may have a clean copy of this recording so that I can get a professionally mastered CD copy of it. I am willing to buy or borrow a copy as this recording has special memories for me and my family. If you cant help Carolyn, call her at (559) 432-8553.

A reader recalls a chance encounter with the late Julia Child, who revealed her family's Bakersfield roots

   * ... JULIA CHILD: Did you know that the late Julia Child (she would have been 100 years old this Wednesday) had Bakersfield roots? That's according to Susan Peninger, who shared a story about running in to the famous author and cook at LAX years ago. Child was alone and Peninger engaged her in conversation. "She asked my favorites (recipes) of hers and when I told her a gateaux and her roast chicken, she repeated the words I can still hear in my head when I think of her. Then, suddenly, the tables turn (no pun intended) and she was the one asking questions. She wanted to know all about me and where I was from, and so forth. When I said Bakersfield, she told me that her father had owned land in Bakersfield and that the family was here often during that time. In my research later, I discovered her father, John McWilliams Jr., was a California land developer who did own Kern County land and as I recall it was in the 1920s-1930s, and perhaps beyond.  It was Julia herself who told me the family lived here briefly."

* ... OUR WORLD: Claudia Casagrande wrote to share an experience in the Kern Medical Center waiting room. "I spent 5 1/2 hrs in the orthopedic waiting room at KMC with a relative who has a broken leg.  The waiting room was hot and crowded.  Crowded with people with broken limbs as well as able bodied friends and family. A young woman with a newly casted leg hobbled in on crutches to wait for her pain prescription. She was in obvious pain and looked around for a place to sit. She asked one middle aged woman if she could sit in the only vacant chair. The woman replied that she was saving it.  No one offered their seat, so I, probably the oldest female in the room, offered mine, after which a young man with an injured arm, insisted that I take his seat. The scenario played out several more times that afternoon and a few more men and woman offered their seats to others.  But many able bodied men and women did not. The woman who was saving the chair saved it for a half hour or so, before her son came and sat. "

 * ... CAL RADIO: Prices are going up in the local real estate market and the inventory of homes for sale is at or near an all-time low. On Monday at 9 a.m., join me on Californian Radio (KERN 1180) when I will be chatting with Scott Tobias, head of the Bakersfield Association of Realtors, when we will be talking about the state of the local market.


* ... THE MARK: The staff of the new downtown restaurant called "The Mark" is a collection of young people picked up from other eateries across town, and two of them are local products from rival high schools. Chef Ro Fernandez is a Shafter General, and bar manager Tony Partida (formerly of Cafe Med) hails from cross county rival Wasco. "It's like old home week here," Partida told me. The Mark is beautiful addition to downtown and is located on 19th Street in the building that once housed Goose Loonies.


 * ... INTERNS: Assemblywoman Shannon Grove has a new group of interns for her Bakersfield and Sacramento offices, all of them high achieving youngsters. They include Kirsten Albers, a sophomore in the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University; Leah Avila, a junior at Cal State Bakersfield; Mackenzie Carter, a sophomore at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo; Jasmin Howells, a junior at Patrick Henry College in Virginia; Michelle Huete, a sophomore at UCLA;  and Andrew Worthing, a senior at Northwestern College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. 


 * ... MOVIES: Here's something I bet most people have experienced. From reader Beth Espinoza: "The new trend in Bakersfield is to take your baby, toddler, adolescent, etc. to movies with R ratings. I sat next to families at Ted and Savages most recently. Now I know I shouldn’t be judging the parenting skills of others but, really, people? If you can’t afford a baby sitter then go see a movie made for families!"

The coming real estate train wreck, David Gordon hits the radio and more on Bakersfield nicknames....

* ... COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE: I read a disturbing piece the other day about just how much worse things can get not only with residential sales but also with commercial real estate. One expert, Andy Miller, argues the worst is yet to come, particularly in the commercial sector. (read the entire post here). On the residential side, the number of foreclosures remains staggering particularly in an area like the Central Valley that has been so hard hit. No one predicted we would be out of the woods this year, but Miller paints a frightening picture. An excerpt:

 "The public doesn't have any idea of the scale of the guarantees the government is taking on through Fannie, Freddie, and FHA. It's huge. If people understood what the federal government has done and subjected the taxpayers to, there would be a public outrage. But you can't get people to focus on it, and it's very esoteric, it's very hard to understand. But it's not something the bond market won't notice. The government can't keep doing what it has been doing to support mortgage lending without pushing interest rates way up.
 "Refinancings of single-family homes are very interest-rate sensitive. Consumers have their backs against the wall. They have too much debt. Refinancing their maturing mortgages or their adjustable-rate mortgages is very problematic if rates go up, but that's exactly where they're headed. So anyone who's comforted by current statistics on single-family homes should look beyond the data and into the dynamics of the market. What they'll find is very alarming." 

 So hang on, we've got more rough road ahead.

* ... ST. FRANCIS SCHOOL: Cynthia Meek, principal at St. Francis Parish elementary school, emailed to remind me that the school's annual Crabfest fund raiser this past weekend was organized by the Parent Teacher Organization and not the Junior League. I had mentioned the Junior League in an earlier posting on the event, noting that many of those working Crabfest were Junior Leaguers, but didn't mean to imply the League was a sponsor.  "I only mention this because I do not want to confuse our parishioners who support our school and the community businesses that support our school.... The Crabfest is the main fund raiser of the PTO and all profits go directly to the school to help underwrite the cost of education,"she said.

 * ... BAKO OR BUCKERSFIELD? Reader Don Palla weighed in on Bakersfield nicknames, asking if I had "totally forgotten about Buckersfield after Bako legend Buck Owens? That gets my vote!" And another reader, Molly Sabat,  noted that when "my husband and I were preparing to move here from Ventura in 1996, my little brother Kevin McKean started throwing out Baker-tucky. I think I like it." Thanks for the feedback.

 * ... MORE BAKO TALK: Lee Webb, professor emeritus of math at Cal State Bakersfield, sent me a thoughtful note on the debate over nicknames. In his words: "I'm enjoying the discussion about Bakersfield's name and the possible variations used.  I believe that you have mentioned the use of Stockdale, CA., but if not, I remember when I arrived in town in 1971 to start my teaching career at CSUB, I wondered what would happen if I put Stockdale, CA. 93309 instead of Bakersfield, CA. 93309 on a letter?  Stockdale sounded so much better.  After all, I believe if you addressed a letter to Oildale, CA. 93308 that is would arrive in a timely manner.

 "Also, when my son and I were in Mammoth skiing in December, I noticed one of the lift operators had a name tag with her name and 'Rosedale, CA.' under it.  I did not remember any Rosedale, CA, so I asked her if she lived in Bakersfield.  She said yes, but she didn't like to advertise that she lived in there, so she had them put Rosedale, CA on her name tag.  She thought that was better as she had recently graduated from Liberty High School and lived in the 93312 area code.  Would a letter addressed Rosedale, CA 93312 get to her?  Having been raised in Santa Barbara, which is considered a garden spot of CA, I even tried to disassociate myself with Bakersfield by thinking about Stockdale, CA when I first arrived.  It seems as though some young people are still trying to do so.  Now I appreciate Bakersfield more, particularly the very nice, friendly people.  I would prefer more Santa Barbara type weather, but I tolerate the heat and fog." 

 * ... MUSEUM ON THE RADIO:  David Gordon is the assistant director of The Bakersfield Museum of Art, a local artist himself and one of the wittiest people I know. So it was nothing short of a stroke of genius that the Museum decided to partner with 101.5 KGFM radio to put Gordon on the radio every Wednesday, teamed with the sibling morning hosts Rachel and Dustin Legan (photo below) to talk about gossip, local entertainment and local happenings. It's called "The Scene" and it will debut today (Wednesday) at 7:40 a.m. and will air every Wednesday at the same time. I'm tuning in, and suggest you do the same.