TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Recent Stories

1. 

   HERB BENHAM: The dime I can spare, brother, but not the guilt

   By Herb Benham

   Monday, Jun 17 2013 06:49 PM

   March of Dimes sent me a solicitation. In the envelope was a shiny dime. An attractive, shiny dime. What made it more compelling was that the envelope contained address labels, too.

   A shiny dime and address labels. Usually, you get one or the other. Both is a banner day. Address labels come in handy.

   There aren't many good diseases or afflictions, but if the charity sending the solicitation is especially heartrending, I have a pang of conscience when I use the address labels and do not send a small contribution. I still use them, but I am not proud of myself.

   Money presents a different dilemma. Somebody is giving you, entrusting you with, a sum of money. In this case, 10 cents. A shiny new dime.

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2. 

   HERB BENHAM: 'A' is for her 'attitude,' and she's 'amazing' too

   Juliana Martin is confident but hasn't always been. Life has been a challenge for the 12-year-old, a recent graduate of Columbia Elementary in northwest Bakersfield. She was born with a heart murmur, a congenital heart defect and had her...
3. 

   HERB BENHAM: S. Barbara wedding? Priceless; cost of forgetting tie? $100

   Santa Barbara. A Santa Barbara wedding. It had been awhile since I had been to either. Last weekend, we attended the wedding of Jessica Hall and Harl Asaff of Dallas (the bride is the daughter of neighborhood friends). Monsignor Craig...
4. 

   HERB BENHAM: Can we just put the carpet back and call it a life lesson?

   I was sanding the floors upstairs a couple of days aga, and the sander started smoking and throwing off sparks. Before it ignited and became a sanding fireball, the hot belt sander tripped a breaker and killed the lights in the room in...

5. HERB BENHAM: Ah, Baja -- guns, partial nudity taken in stride

   We sat on the beach. I sat. My brother Derek, shaded by a half-ton Ford, lay, his head resting on a rolled-up towel. The bum. Two cars -- a green Jeep and a small white truck -- pulled off the dirt road behind us, raising plumes of Baja...
6. 

   HERB BENHAM: A few items from the columnist's notebook

   I met Steve Kennelley a few years ago during the real estate boom when each of us was trying to make a million dollars, and neither of us did. Kennelley, 47, continued doing what he does best -- teaching and coaching baseball at Delano...

7. HERB BENHAM: Desire to keep one's teeth: Is it even a question?

   Last Monday I went to the dentist. It had been six months since my last visit. Things happen with teeth; seldom do they become healthier and more photogenic with time. After I kicked off my shoes and sat down -- the sleek, comfortable...
9. 

   HERB BENHAM: How forgiving is St. Christopher?

   I was driving in my car when it rattled one too many times and I said to myself, "That's it." I grabbed it around its metal waist and dumped it in the white plastic bag I'd been given my last time through Cruz Thru Express Car Wash. "It"...
10. 

    HERB BENHAM: If karma is real, Lance McCullah has a lot coming his way

    Thursday nights during football season, Lance McCullah, an assistant varsity coach at Bakersfield High School, takes linebackers and running backs to dinner. Pizza, sushi, cheeseburgers, it doesn't matter. What does is that players --...
11. 

    HERB BENHAM: Nothing, not even the budget, can take down a wrestler

    Recently I attended "An Evening with Stephen Neal," a fundraiser at the Stockdale Country Club. It wasn't a fundraiser for Neal, the legendary Cal State wrestler, four-time all-American, and former right guard with the New England...

12. HERB BENHAM: 'You look retired' is shorthand for 'You look old'

    Last week Carlos poured cement along the fence in our backyard in order to create a border for a new flowerbed. He used a curbing machine rather than the old-fashioned way, which involves trenching, setting forms, pouring, scraping and...
13. 

    HERB BENHAM: BC student hopes to win for body of work

    Bodybuilder Kameron Bailey is not always the "killer" his nickname, Killer Kam, suggests. But then again, he's been eating nothing but fish and raw broccoli for weeks now, so it might not be a good time to get sideways with him. Bailey,...

14. HERB BENHAM: Inkless pen means all is not write with the world

    I was writing a check recently to pay off the Capital One credit card bill when the pen ran out of ink. I did what I always do: I tapped the tip of the pen three times on the checkbook. Then I continued writing the check, assuming the tap...