Upbeat on Martin Luther King Jr. Day

My wife glanced at the blog this morning and informed me that I need to be more upbeat. So, here goes:

This pleasant, crisp MLK morning, my daughter and I took a stroll to the Claremont Village, where we enjoyed people watching and staring contests over bagels at 42nd Street Bagel, then picked up a to-go order for my wife and son, and admired the s’more cupcakes, at Some Crust. We also took some detours on the way home to do gymnastics on the egg-shaped bike racks and giggle at cavorting dogs at the Pooch Park.

Now my son (sick in bed with a cold) and I are going to watch Superman (1978) on Netflix. Orale.

I am grateful for my amazing family, our comfortable home, for the vibrancy and silliness of Claremont and SoCal, for MLK all others who have paved the way.

Happy MLK Day!

Signs and Headlines

Looking for something to read at the Metrolink station this morning, I found this. “Run, the Mexicans are coming, ” IE Weekly? Really?

… and then there’s this from the Claremont Trader Joe’s, the latest example of conflating bad Spanish with bad fake Mexican food.

What a way to start the week.

Thoughts at the Claremont Super King Market

I went to the new Super King Market the other night to buy some snacks and magazines. Vons is my usual go-to for after-hours groceries, but I had been curious about this new place for a while.

The store was reasonably attractive and quite busy. I was happy to see the huge and colorful fresh produce section, with more quantity and variety than you’ll ever see at Trader Joe’s. No organics, but the state and country of origin clearly posted. Same with the seafood section: no doubts about whether a fish was farm-raised or wild. The new normal?

All in all, the market seemed like an above-average destination for penny-pinching people of color. Plentiful fresh veggies, meats, and seafoods bracketing numerous aisles full of processed junk. Mexican crema agria, imported coffees and teas, ceramic plates with warning labels about their toxic lead content, machete-shaped tequila bottles, on and on. I picked up my snacks, threw in a pack of Maria cookies, and started to look for the magazines.

Not one thing to read in that entire store.

Someone has decided that people who shop at the Claremont Super King are not looking for stuff to read. No newspapers, paperback romance novels, Lowrider Magazines, Soap Opera Digests, comic books, religious tracts, NOTHING in any language.

If I can find the time and energy, I’ll send a note to management and let you know what I hear back. In the meantime, please promise me that you are finding stuff to read wherever you can: libraries, school (ahem), Vons/Target/Walmart, the internet, the recycle bin, whatever.

READ, people!