Ah, summer, when the Inland Empire becomes one of the sweatiest, most miserable regions in California.
This week is no different: The predicted high should meet or exceed 100 degrees through Friday in most of our cities. That’s even hotter than last week, which was at or near 100, and well above normal.
In fact, in Palm Springs last Friday, the high was 124, which the National Weather Service said was, get this, an all-time daily record for that city. Good thing the snowbirds have already left or their wings would be scorched.
Basically we’re in summer swelter up to our armpits, which incidentally could use a quick wipe, and it’s not even the middle of July.
But let’s look on the bright side. (Which ought to be easy to do with the sun on full blast.)
What do we love about summertime in the IE? That’s my question to you.
Is there a feature of the outdoors you like: a flowering plant, a public pool, the sunsets, the longer evenings, al fresco dining? How about an event or tradition that’s specific to summer that makes these months worthwhile: minor league baseball, outdoor movies, concerts in the park?
Or perhaps what you like is simply that it’s a little less crowded here with college students gone and some of your fellow residents out of town.
Tell me by email what you like about summers in the IE and why, along with your name and city of residence, please, to dallen@scng.com. I’ll print some of the best here soon.
Staying mindful of the weather, here’s one tip for you.
If coming up with something positive to say about summertime in the IE means you have to put on your thinking cap, be sure to choose one with a broad brim and UV protection.
Robert Towne, RIP
Farewell to Robert Towne, the screenwriter of “Chinatown” and many other movies, who died July 1 at age 89. Towne has a local connection: Born in 1934, he attended Pomona College in the 1950s, where he studied philosophy, took a creative writing class and roomed with Edward Taylor, who became a lifelong friend and writing collaborator.
Towne’s surname led some of us to wonder if there was any connection between the L.A. native’s family and a major Pomona street, Towne Avenue, named for an early investor. His obituaries cleared that up.
Towne’s birth name, it turns out, was Robert Schwartz.
This means there’s no link between Robert Towne and Towne Avenue.
Forget it, Jake. It’s a coincidental Towne.
Anniversaries
July 1 was the fourth anniversary of my longtime Inland Valley Daily Bulletin column expanding to The Press-Enterprise (in 2020) and fifth anniversary of its expansion to The Sun (in 2019). It’s a day that looms large for me because it altered my life and career.
Once my columns started appearing all around the IE, my subjects had to start encompassing the IE too. In this task I’ve been aided by three factors, all crucial: 1) your faithful support, 2) my natural curiosity and 3) the fact that nobody can agree what the IE is.
Seriously, I continue to experiment with how best to serve you within the bounds of deadlines, travel time, a realistic workweek and my own interests and inclinations. Your feedback pro or con is always welcome. And thank you for reading.
Trivia note: History does not record when my columns started appearing in the Redlands Daily Facts, because they kind of gradually sneaked in — here and there, and then frequently, and then most of the time, and finally, circa 2022, all three days.
Either our editors didn’t want to alarm Redlands, or our editors didn’t want to alarm me.
Math enthusiast
My June 7 column was on Twentynine Palms’ iconic “29!” sculpture, consisting of two numerals, 7 feet high, followed by a piece of punctuation. Reader Tom Volz of Claremont emails to say that the exclamation mark has a mathematical translation.
“This would be read as ‘factorial 29,’ or numerically 29 times 28 times 27, all the way to 1. When multiplied out, this is a very large number,” Volz writes. The result is 8,841,761,993,739,701,954,543,616,000,000.
“Who knew adding an exclamation point at the end of a number could make it so large!” Volz exclaims.
Not me. But then, I was an English major.
On a related note: The artist behind “29!”, Chuck Caplinger, has a show of his paintings at the store Desert General, 73552 29 Palms Highway, where “Desert Memories” is on view through Aug. 31.
‘What You Get’
A recent New York Times’ “What You Get” real-estate feature looked at what you could get for $1.3 million: a 1910 Craftsman bungalow in Colorado, an 1841 Cape Cod-style house in Massachusetts or a 1965 Midcentury Modern house in Riverside.
I suppose if I had $1.3 million, which is a mighty big if, I’d take the house in Riverside. Why? Among other things, the living room is separated from the dining room “by free-standing bookshelves.”
Also, compared to Colorado or Massachusetts, Riverside is closer to work.
David Allen writes Wednesday, Friday and (shrug) Sunday. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on X.
