The Rundown

The youth of Redlands and beyond are safe again after the city’s Planning Commission puts an end to the raves that have been held at the defunct Pharaoh’s Theme and Water Park. They vote, 5-0, to revoke the complex’s conditional-use permit. Freed from the evil temptation of the raves—where many used drugs, which made them feel like really good dancers—Redlands’ kids have formed quilting bees and whittling clubs. Buoyed by its success, the Planning Commission announces it will next try to ban the game of Twister.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24

Theeeeeere goes Eddie! McMahon, I’m sayin‘.

THURSDAY, JUNE 25

The news is delivered to me while I am doing research in a corner of the library. A guy I’ve never met just walks up and tells me that Michael Jackson has died. “I figured you’d want to know,” he says, and of course, he’s right. We spend the next few minutes talking about a moment we know we’ll both remember forever, a moment that does not actually surprise us yet seems unbelievable. When you’re talking about somebody’s death, that’s a very special kind of sadness. The guy and I say goodbye. I finish my research, in no hurry to learn the details, knowing that they will be quite available through every media outlet for days and months to come—such is the overkill of our modern reaction to everything. Except, in this case, it may not be possible to say too much about the death of Michael Jackson, who is arguably the most-famous person in the world. During his life—that’s when we said too much.

FRIDAY, JUNE 26

No, I haven’t forgotten Farrah Fawcett. I just don’t think I’m in a position to write about her death yet, what with that . . . you know . . . well . . . that condition I’ve had since that poster came out . . . what is it, 30-some years ago? Let’s just say that when it comes to Farrah Fawcett, it’s always been hard to be objective.

SATURDAY, JUNE 27

A season-high crowd of 8,099 jams The Diamond in Lake Elsinore to witness another step in the comeback of pitcher Nick Schmidt, a 2007 first-round draft choice of the San Diego Padres who threw only 7 1/3 innings before an arm injury threatened his career. Schmidt underwent so-called Tommy John surgery—translated: an elbow-tendon transplant—and missed the entire 2008 season. He’s been working his way into shape through the low minor leagues, and it’s been working out pretty well—a 3-0 record with a 3.09 ERA at Fort Wayne, Indiana, with 54 strikeouts in 46 innings. So, no wonder there is such a crowd to watch his debut at Elsinore—it’s an inspiring story. And Schmidt gets off to a good start when by throwing a quick strike against the first batter he faces. But his second pitch? It lands over the fence in left field—in a dusty patch of grass and dead leaves, between two water pumps and a pressure washer. Too bad. But then again, not too-too bad. The batter is a Dodgers star who is on the comeback trail himself as he waits out the last few games of a 50-game suspension for using performance-enhancing substances. Yep, Manny Ramirez.

SUNDAY, JUNE 28

It’s the 40^th anniversary of a police raid on a gay bar that became a turning point in a civil rights movement. The unrest that followed the raid at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village isn’t as widely memorialized as, say, “the shot heard ‘round the world” in Lexington, Massachusetts, on April 18, 1775, or Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus on Dec. 1, 1955. Not yet. But the comparative openness of homosexuality in the four decades since is pretty compelling testament to the event—hey, it’s saving Palm Springs—notwithstanding California’s recent passage of Proposition 8, which outlaws same-sex marriage. In fact, that shameful election may turn out to be the Stonewall of our time.

MONDAY, JUNE 29

My favorite holiday of them all is only a week away, and the drum roll for the Fourth of July has begun. Of course, that’s not a drum roll at all—it’s the sound of fireworks, which are on sale in the desert cities of Cathedral City, Coachella, Desert Hot Springs and Indio. How do I love fireworks? Let me count the ways—on the fingers I have left, that is. Okay, they are loud, pretty, exciting and need to be handled with care . . . basically the same characteristics of anything fun. Oh, and they are sold at stands operated by community-based, nonprofit groups whose programs and services benefit from the sales. See, that’s five ways! Although the last one is a little mangled.