My latest: Mr. Milk Bottle, a former drive-through dairy that was a part of Pomona since 1960, has been demolished. But its whimsical sign has been declared historic and will remain. I was stunned, btw, to learn the business once bottled in its own milk. www.dailybulletin.com/2025/10/09/m...

My latest: Riverside City Hall marks 50 years with festivities, reminiscing. Some 300 people showed up to Monday's event, which carried deliberate echoes of the Oct. 6, 1975 dedication: It took place the same date, day of the week and time. www.pressenterprise.com/2025/10/07/r...

What I read in September: Octavia Butler stories, a Philip K. Dick biography, a first-time novel by a local nonagenarian and a one-volume history of California. What about you? www.insidesocal.com/davidallen/2...

My latest: Just as "Cheers" drew inspiration from Gay 90s pizza parlor and bar in Redlands, the character of Norm Peterson had his roots in a Gay 90s regular. Who? Probably Norm Baffrey, a portly San Bernardino parks and rec official and Gay 90s fixture. www.sbsun.com/2025/10/05/n...

My latest: Stories of unsung women in Riverside are focus of history book. "Anthology of Women in Riverside 1870-1970" tells 100 stories. It debuts Sunday with a presentation at Local History Book Fair. (I'll have a table.) www.pressenterprise.com/2025/10/02/s...

My latest: I make my annual visit to San Francisco, where I watch the Cardinals win (!), climb some stairs, admire a Millard Sheets mural and buy a $15 rush ticket to a play. www.dailybulletin.com/2025/09/30/s...

But, this Houstonian thinks they only got it partially correct. As someone who walks into and out of downtown Houston regularly, I find plenty to do and see and eat and drink. Although, I do agree with the writer that some weekends can be laughably short on activity. Yet, we have this:

My latest: Two ex-Houstonians in the IE have nice things to say about their city, which I visited last summer (and where I stumbled across a drive-in theater). Also, more pro and con views of Portland and Seattle, Robert Redford links in the IE, and more. www.dailybulletin.com/2025/09/23/r...

Ready to root, root, root for the @stlouiscardinals.bsky.social in SF tonight, one of the last games of the season. Go Cards!

Make Aspirin Great Again

My latest: Ontario Tower Buzzers? Name for city's new minor league team gets tepid response in person, stinging response on social media. What are your thoughts? www.dailybulletin.com/2025/09/21/o...

My latest: Gene Harvey ran movie theaters around the IE and SGV from the 1960s into the 21st century. His specialty was single-screen theaters, before they were crowded out by multiplexes. I pay tribute to him after his recent passing. www.dailybulletin.com/2025/09/18/g...

My latest: Since Ontario's new baseball stadium is called ONT Field, I asked for your ideas for the team name and mascot. Dozens of entries came in. (The real names will be announced Thursday.) www.dailybulletin.com/2025/09/16/r...

My latest: Ontario auto restorer decked out his shop with neon signs, road signs, kiddie rides, 1930s toy boats and other bits of Americana. Due to poor health, he's selling everything via auction. www.dailybulletin.com/2025/09/14/n...

My latest: If the new ballpark is ONT Field, the yet-to-be-announced team name and mascot may also reflect air travel. So I'm asking readers to suggest silly, sarcastic or sincere names and mascots. Details in the column! www.dailybulletin.com/2025/09/11/c...

My latest: How did Kimberly Crest's garden grow? Tours in Redlands will explain! The 1897 estate, gifted to the public and run by a nonprofit, has offered docent tours of the house since 1981, but until now it's never done docent tours of its gardens. www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/2025/09/09/h...

My latest: My Portland and Seattle vacation proves polarizing. In 2025, what isn't? Some IE readers had a negative reaction. One objected to "the ideology." Another said I should have gone on a police ride-along. www.dailybulletin.com/2025/09/07/p...

My latest: The @pressenterprise.bsky.social won a Pulitzer Prize in 1968 for meritorious service after a series of exposes on a ripoff of Agua Caliente members in Palm Springs. I read some of George Ringwald's stories and about the day the prize was announced. www.pressenterprise.com/2025/09/04/t...

My latest: Throwing together some items that hadn't run yet, here are a few belated words on my visit to Houston (kind of ... boring?), O'Day Short Elementary, curmudgeons, Google's AI and a serendipitously worn T-shirt. www.dailybulletin.com/2025/09/02/o...

What I read in August: Calvin Trillin, Sax Rohmer, Charles Hillinger and the manuscript for the upcoming North of Foothill by Orlando Davidson. What about you? www.insidesocal.com/davidallen/2...

My latest: "Sunset Boulevard" is loved, but maybe not in Pomona. The classic, released 75 years ago this month, contains a much-quoted putdown of the city. Also: a Banning reader recalls St. Louis, and I recall when IE Weekly gave me a backhanded honor. www.dailybulletin.com/2025/08/31/s...

My latest: Back from vacation, I write about my visits to Portland and Seattle. Coincidentally, both were derided last week by a political scion as "craphole cities." Really? They're so nice! www.dailybulletin.com/2025/08/28/p...

My latest: Deal for Ontario's Graber Olives fails, leaving future in doubt. As developer backs out of partnership, plans to can olives for the first time since 2022 are now in question. Says one Graber: "We're running out of time." www.dailybulletin.com/2025/08/18/d...

My latest: Upland's Tesla Supercharger station, dark for five weeks, is back up. Chargers had been covered in white sheaths after SB County said the amperage stickers were incorrect. "Look at it, it's awesome," one driver says of the 64-charger lot. www.dailybulletin.com/2025/08/16/t...

My latest: On a whim, I check out the line at DTLA's Cole's French Dip last Sunday, only to find there is no line. So I breeze in, enjoy one last (?) meal and observe the scene inside LA's oldest restaurant, due to close next month. www.dailynews.com/2025/08/14/a...

My latest: In 1995, couple may have been the first to wed at Ontario's Graber Olives. Also: retrospectives showcase the paintings of Karl Benjamin, and a piece of speculative fiction about the IE of 2047 invoked a certain real-life figure. www.dailybulletin.com/2025/08/12/i...

My latest: 'Cheers' was partly inspired by the old Redlands bar Gay 90s, where co-creator Les Charles drank and tended bar while attending University of Redlands. Norm was reputed to be drawn from a regular there. Also: two more items from Redlands. www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/2025/08/10/c...

My latest: With the passing of Bill Elwell of famous LA roadside stand Bill's Burgers, I write about my pilgrimage there six years ago. And I attend Wednesday's Dodgers-Cardinals day game, which has an unexpected outcome (i.e., the Cardinals didn't lose). www.dailybulletin.com/2025/08/07/r...

Here at Dodger Stadium representing @cardinals.com, somewhat subtly

My latest: O'Day Short Elementary is dedicated in Fontana, righting a historical wrong. School name honors Black family killed by vigilantes in 1945 for crossing the city's color line. “Today we are choosing justice over silence,” school superintendent says. www.sbsun.com/2025/08/05/o...

What I read in July: a comic novel about a man who works for very niche magazines, short stories by a Golden Age SF writer, essays about pop songs and articles + photos about the Mojave Desert. www.insidesocal.com/davidallen/2...

My latest: In Pomona, arts-based affordable housing coming to East Mission Blvd. 75-unit complex will reserve 15 units as live-work spaces for artists and boast art gallery at ground level. Next door, 38 townhomes are under construction. It's a welcome sight. www.dailybulletin.com/2025/08/03/i...

My latest: Tesla Supercharger station in Upland shuts down as San Bernardino County pulls the plug. Why? The 64 chargers failed a Weights and Measures inspection and were covered in white shrouds starting July 9. www.dailybulletin.com/2025/07/31/t...

My latest: I tour Lummis House, the rustic 1908 home built in Highland Park by writer, librarian and civic booster Charles Fletcher Lummis. It's open two days a week for free tours. He walked across the country from Ohio to LA in 1884-5. www.dailybulletin.com/2025/07/29/l...

My latest: Cole's French Dip in LA is suddenly in demand now that it's closing. I try to go for one last meal and find a line down the block! Here's some history of the 117yo bar and eatery that claims to have invented the French dip (as does Philippe). www.dailybulletin.com/2025/07/27/c...

A mini-column in place of a real column today. I'll be back Sunday! www.dailybulletin.com/2025/07/24/r...

My latest: I write about seeing MLB games in Houston and St. Louis, on a vacation that began with an amusingly worded U of Redlands ad at ONT, in my welcome-back column. www.dailybulletin.com/2025/07/22/t...

Woman at the next restaurant booth is telling her husband that The Phoenician Scheme (the new Wes Anderson) is “the dumbest movie of the century.” 🙃

A Starbucks is under construction in my hometown of Olney, Illinois, population 8,500. Nearest Starbucks? 44 miles away.

What I read in June: 3 local history books, a 1946 novel, a memoir by Janis Joplin's road manager and an exploration of T.S. Eliot's pathetic love life (in which he led on a Scripps College prof for years). www.insidesocal.com/davidallen/2...

My latest: After 5 years, this newcomer is now a regular around Riverside. My column expanded to the Press-Enterprise in July 2020. I reflect on getting to know and like California's 12th-largest city as well as on the challenges of this expanded role. www.pressenterprise.com/2025/07/08/a...

Seen in Houston ❤️

My latest: At 5-year mark, readers tell me: 'Just keep doing what you're doing.' I asked for feedback on my work five years after my column expanded to the Press-Enterprise and Redlands Daily Facts in July 2020. (It joined the SB Sun a year earlier.) www.dailybulletin.com/2025/07/06/a...

My latest: Extra! Extra! 1966 Pomona paperboy trophy delivers nostalgia. Reader snaps up trophy at an estate sale and gifts it to me. Plus: a few words about museum exhibits in Ontario and Upland, and about the time Jimmy Swaggart was arrested in the IE. www.dailybulletin.com/2025/07/03/e...

My latest: Brewery, pickleball may be coming to Riverside's Fairmount Park armory. Lease talks are underway with potential operators for the long-dormant space. That came out at a community meeting last week at the armory, which I attended. www.pressenterprise.com/2025/07/01/b...

My latest: Hammers swing at Museum of Riverside to mark the start of renovation and expansion. "It's not a ground-breaking," mayor says, "it's a drywall-smashing." Closed since 2017, the museum is expected to reopen in 2027. www.pressenterprise.com/2025/06/28/h...

My latest: Drew Oberjuerge is departing as executive director of Riverside's The Cheech and Riverside Art Museum to take the same job in Rancho Cucamonga at the Maloof Foundation. "I'm really proud of what we've done here," she says. www.pressenterprise.com/2025/06/26/d...

My latest: Corona's 1937 Santa Fe depot has been bought by a lumber yard and will be demolished to make way for storage. The former depot became marginalized over time as rail service ceased, an overpass cut off access and its tenant, a bar, left. www.pressenterprise.com/2025/06/24/c...

My latest: The Pomona Valley Genealogical Society, established in 1955, has disbanded due to age, declining interest and the internet. "People want instant gratification," president laments. Society's collection of genealogy materials numbers over 10,000. www.dailybulletin.com/2025/06/22/g...

My latest: Work to reopen Palm Springs' 1930s Plaza Theatre is in full swing. I got a peek inside on my recent visit. Closed since 2014, and now undergoing a $34 million overhaul, the theater is racing toward its Dec. 2 reopening show by Lily Tomlin. www.pressenterprise.com/2025/06/19/w...