http://www.bakersfield.com/110 Robert Price from Bakersfield.com en-us Copyright 2008 The Bakersfield Californian http://www.bakersfield.com/static/new/images/bdotcom_rss_logo.gif http://www.bakersfield.com/110 http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/columnists/robert_price/story/501396.html http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/columnists/robert_price/story/501396.html I took my family to an amusement park last weekend. Which is to say I<I> chauffeured</I> them to an amusement park, griping the whole way. Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:43:00 PDT I took my family to an amusement park last weekend. Which is to say I chauffeured them to an amusement park, griping the whole way. ]]> http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/columnists/robert_price/story/495860.html http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/columnists/robert_price/story/495860.html When I was 17, I flitted from one job to another on the most trivial of pretenses. Fast-food fry cook, furniture delivery man, sprinkler-installation ditch digger. Sat, 12 Jul 2008 20:42:49 PDT When I was 17, I flitted from one job to another on the most trivial of pretenses. Fast-food fry cook, furniture delivery man, sprinkler-installation ditch digger. ]]> http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/columnists/robert_price/story/489978.html http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/columnists/robert_price/story/489978.html Christi Abshire knows the Kern River. She grew up in the town of Lake Isabella, fishing, rafting and kayaking on local water. As a teen, she spent summers working as a guide for a Kernville commercial river-rafting outfit, regularly briefing tourists on what to do if they're pitched into the frothy maelstrom. Sat, 5 Jul 2008 18:37:00 PDT Christi Abshire knows the Kern River. She grew up in the town of Lake Isabella, fishing, rafting and kayaking on local water. As a teen, she spent summers working as a guide for a Kernville commercial river-rafting outfit, regularly briefing tourists on what to do if they're pitched into the frothy maelstrom. ]]> http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/columnists/robert_price/story/484241.html http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/columnists/robert_price/story/484241.html To some, it might look like Ken Weir is suddenly off the hook. The folks campaigning to recall the Bakersfield city councilman have admitted they're struggling, within the narrow time frame they've been given, to collect enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot. Sat, 28 Jun 2008 20:19:00 PDT To some, it might look like Ken Weir is suddenly off the hook. The folks campaigning to recall the Bakersfield city councilman have admitted they're struggling, within the narrow time frame they've been given, to collect enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot.]]> http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/columnists/robert_price/story/478262.html http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/columnists/robert_price/story/478262.html It might as well have been a crime scene. The cottonwoods lining the dirt road running through the Rio Bravo Ranch had been brutalized, half their lush canopies amputated like gangrenous arms. And the perpetrators were still at work at the scene of the maiming, seemingly oblivious to the horror they had wrought. Sat, 21 Jun 2008 16:09:00 PDT It might as well have been a crime scene. The cottonwoods lining the dirt road running through the Rio Bravo Ranch had been brutalized, half their lush canopies amputated like gangrenous arms. And the perpetrators were still at work at the scene of the maiming, seemingly oblivious to the horror they had wrought.]]> http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/columnists/robert_price/story/472277.html http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/columnists/robert_price/story/472277.html It was 3:30 in the morning when Jack Turnbull's bus pulled in to the Greyhound station. From all appearances, the town of Florence, S.C., was still asleep — and unfortunately, that included the bus station itself. It was locked tight, lights out, no pay phone in sight. Turnbull stood alone on the sidewalk, stranded. Sat, 14 Jun 2008 18:13:00 PDT It was 3:30 in the morning when Jack Turnbull's bus pulled in to the Greyhound station. From all appearances, the town of Florence, S.C., was still asleep — and unfortunately, that included the bus station itself. It was locked tight, lights out, no pay phone in sight. Turnbull stood alone on the sidewalk, stranded.]]> http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/columnists/robert_price/story/468396.html http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/columnists/robert_price/story/468396.html The numbers were almost too staggering to be believable. In just one year, the Bakersfield City School District had seen a near-tenfold spike in the number of student suspensions related to violence or drugs. Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:03:00 PDT The numbers were almost too staggering to be believable. In just one year, the Bakersfield City School District had seen a near-tenfold spike in the number of student suspensions related to violence or drugs. ]]> http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/columnists/robert_price/story/465982.html http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/columnists/robert_price/story/465982.html The customer service representative placed me on hold. I had called the financial-services company's toll-free line with questions about my 401k account, and now the rep had to step away to fetch some information. Sat, 7 Jun 2008 17:43:00 PDT The customer service representative placed me on hold. I had called the financial-services company's toll-free line with questions about my 401k account, and now the rep had to step away to fetch some information.]]> http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/columnists/robert_price/story/459418.html http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/columnists/robert_price/story/459418.html Congratulations to Jonathan Lee Happel, who made it through 13 years of school without missing so much as a single day of instruction. That's an achievement that points to a single-mindedness of purpose, a succession of competent campus registrars and unusually good luck. Not necessarily a rock-solid immune system, though -- that's rarely the case even with students who always, unfailingly, make it to class. It certainly wasn't the case with Happel. Sat, 31 May 2008 17:53:00 PDT Congratulations to Jonathan Lee Happel, who made it through 13 years of school without missing so much as a single day of instruction. That's an achievement that points to a single-mindedness of purpose, a succession of competent campus registrars and unusually good luck. Not necessarily a rock-solid immune system, though -- that's rarely the case even with students who always, unfailingly, make it to class. It certainly wasn't the case with Happel.]]> http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/columnists/robert_price/story/453867.html http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/columnists/robert_price/story/453867.html Here's an idea that's foreign to most Californians: the concept of a "breakaway" region. And I mean foreign, literally. Secessionist movements are something we usually read about only in the international section of the newspaper. South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Transdnestr -- places few of us had heard of before they decided to break away from whatever country they've unwillingly been a part of. (In this case it's Georgia, itself a one-time breakaway republic.) Sat, 24 May 2008 16:57:00 PDT Here's an idea that's foreign to most Californians: the concept of a "breakaway" region. And I mean foreign, literally. Secessionist movements are something we usually read about only in the international section of the newspaper. South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Transdnestr -- places few of us had heard of before they decided to break away from whatever country they've unwillingly been a part of. (In this case it's Georgia, itself a one-time breakaway republic.)]]>