.

Yes, yes, yes, the world is about to end, sure. All the more reason to enjoy your eggnog. Buy the full-fat this year.

Happy holidays from all us expat Tehachapites.

.

I wouldn't be much of a writer if I didn't think to do this now and then, so here are three pieces of mine that have appeared in the last couple months:

Living Literature

Chores

The Widower

.

Come on: you can do better than this:

The wind blows down the
Everbrown mountains--not
Howling, but humming--through the
Apple trees, as old cowboys and young
Communters nod to each other as they
Hang rights and lefts off Highway 202
And wind their separate ways home,
Preparing for sleep under a mortgaged roof
In their small corner of a star-filled universe.

.

I will be spending both Christmas and New Years in Tehachapi next week for the first time since 1999--even including my stint as a resident again in 2004-2006.

And now I hear you all had snow last week.

Man, I swear. Sometimes I think this whole global warming thing's just about irritating me.

I deserve better than that, don't you think?

.

I was just listening to one of my favorite radio stations and learned that the Waybacks namecheck Tehachapi in a new song (the first track on their new album. It's not a big thing, but when your hometown's not New York, it's thrilling to hear its name sung on the radio.

(ps: you don't have to be in Northern California to listen to the Pig--it streams online; get the pleasure for yourself.)

(pps: the Waybacks are the sort of band that might get played on country radio...if country radio was any good)

(ppps: one thing maybe you should know is that the lead singer sounds like Weird Al--don't let that distract you)

.

I don't know how up-to-date <a href="http://www.tehachapinews.co... contact page</a> is, but assuming it is correct, no one has been chosen to take the place of Carol Holmes as editor of the Tehachapi News.

Carol was great for the paper and for our entire community. She was a woman of integrity and near-infinite kindness. She raised the level of dialogue in our community to her high standards and we are all better for it. But now she has left and we have to wonder--what comes next?

The News has an obligation to represent the community and to bring to our attention the most important issues. It has to discern between whistleblowers and blowhards, breaking news and stuff-and-nonsense.

Here's what I would like to see in our next editor:

Someone with the integrity of Carol Holmes.

Someone who is more punchy than we've seen before. Tehachapi is growing and we need hard-hitting reporting.

Someone who can twist arms in the publisher's office and down in Bakersfield. The News will not long be able to hold itself to sufficiently high standards if it doesn't give the editorial department more money. It needs <i>at least</i> one more reporter.

Someone who is well vested in our community--preferably someone who already has a long relationship with Tehachapi.

It will be quite difficult for the News to find such a person. Most people with the talent may well view an editorship at the News as a stepping stone to bigger and "better" things. No good.

What it really comes down to, I think, is what will the News pay Carol's heir? Carol's service to this community was almost on a volunteer basis. Anyone who supposes that real talent will work for those wages again has <i>no idea</i> how lucky we all were to have Carol in the first place.

Carol was wonderful, but she is gone.

Let's encourage the folks in Bakersfield to invest in our community. And the best investment they can give us now is an excellent editor to carry on our city's long tradition of excellent journalism.

.

Now that I live far, far away from Tehachapi (near Berkeley), I'm surprised how many people know well where we are. It seemed to happen so much less when a) I lived closer b) I lived out of state or c) when I lived in Korea. Here in Northern California they seem to know us well.

And I think we will only get better known and I'll tell you why: Tehachapi has an identity.

All these people who know Tehachapi tend to look blank when I say I worked in Lancaster/Palmdale. Now there is a spot on the map which'll have half a million people soon yet still has no identity whatsoever and is forgotten even by its county officials.

Viva Tehachapi!