Mountain Views News, Pasadena Edition [Sierra Madre] Saturday, September 2, 2017

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Mountain View News Saturday, September 2, 2017 


Walking Sierra Madre…The Social Side 

by Deanne Davis


“Keep your face to the sunshine and you will never see 
the shadows. It’s what sunflowers do!” 

Helen Keller

“Advice from a sunflower: Be outstanding in your field. 
* Hold your head high * Spread seeds of happiness * 
Feed the birds * Think solar * Keep on the sunny side 
* Grow Up!”

We were walking past the Sierra Madre community 
garden, next to Memorial Park on Mariposa, the other 
day, my favorite walking buddy and flower enthusiast, 
John, and I, when we spotted these sunflowers. We 
took their picture just before our part of the world 
was engulfed in the heat wave from you know where! 
There were several and all of them were over 6’ tall! 
Now these are sunflowers, friends and neighbors! The 
kind van Gogh went wild over. He painted two series 
of sunflower pictures; the one executed in Paris in 1887 
shows his sunflowers lying on the ground while the 
second set, the ones we’re most familiar with, shown 
in a vase, were painted in Arles. Here’s something 
interesting: sunflowers can grow to 16’ high! 

 Anyway, the rest of the garden looked pretty much 
like everybody’s garden does now, sort of like somebody 
needs to pull out all those squash vines and deal with 
the weeds. About all anybody has left this time of year 
is zucchini, which keeps cranking out those squash 
whether you want them or not. My tomato is still 
putting out green leaves and yellow blossoms so I gave 
it some tomato food and said, “go for it, big guy!” The 
tomatoes have been awesome. I gave some to a friend 
and he created a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich 
that was truly a work of art. He sent me pictures. 
The giant pumpkins down the street are going to be 
the biggest ones ever! Halloween is coming and the 
Creative Arts Group’s 6th Annual Scarecrow Festival 
will start in early October. You can attend their free 
Scarecrow Workshop on Sept. 16th. Give them a call: 
626-355-8350

 Our daughter, Leah, showed up at lunch last Sunday 
with her newest cookbook, “Thug Kitchen, eat like you 
give a ----, The Official Cookbook.” We were falling 
off our chairs laughing. This #1 New York Times 
Bestseller is put out, believe it or not, by the Rodale 
Press, which specializes in wholesome diet, exercise 
and inspirational literature. They quote Julia Child on 
the first page, “The only real stumbling block is fear 
of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-
hell attitude.” Which she certainly did, i.e., dropping 
the chicken on live television, picking it up off the 
floor, dusting it off and continuing the recipe...which, 
apparently is (sadly) only a rumor. She did drop a 
potato pancake once, picked that up and continued to 
cook it, which she readily admitted, but she adamantly 
denied ever dropping a chicken and continuing to 
cook it. Anyway, The Thug Kitchen is available from 
Amazon.com and is actually quite a fine (though 
punctuated with expletives) cookbook. I sent one to 
our Texas daughter and she was laughingly shocked...
which is good. It’s too hot to cook but a salad with 
avocado, cold asparagus, tomatoes and maybe some 
hard boiled egg slices would be nice.

 Took a look at T-Neer and the sign in the window 
asks us to be patient while the new people refurbish. 
The big banner overhead says, “Toro Coffee & Tea – 
Spanish Coffee Bar & Tea House Fusion.” They’ll be 
open at 7 a.m. when they’re ready and I’m looking 
forward to a new business here in town. Wish 
somebody would rent the storefront next door which 
was a bicycle shop.

 Thinking about our current heat wave brought some 
old songs to mind... remember these?

 “Summer in the City” – The Lovin’ Spoonful – 1966 
– We met John Sebastian once at the old Ash Grove 
and he admired our baby, Crissy.

 “Hot Fun In The Summertime” – Sly & The Family 
Stone – 1967

 “Good Day Sunshine” – The Beatles – 1966

 “Summer Breeze” – Seals & Crofts – 1971

 And who could ever forget Marilyn Monroe singing, 
“We’re Havin’ A Heat Wave” in the movie, “There’s No 
Business Like Show Business.” I won’t say what year, it’s 
that old! Stay hydrated out there and if you can give 
to help out the folks in Houston, that would be good. 
World Vision has a page and it’s easy to do.

 My book page: Amazon.com: Deanne Davis

Blog: www.authordeanne.com

 “A Tablespoon of Love, A Tablespoon of Laughter” is 
now available at

 Sunrise Books + Coffee at Pasadena First Church 
of the Nazarene – just down the road on Sierra Madre 
Blvd.

 Kindle readers, give yourself the gift of: A Treasure 
Map, A Drunken Owl, and 47 Rattler’s in a Bag

 It’s on Amazon.com on my book page!

 Follow me on Twitter, too! https://twitter.com/@
playwrightdd

SIERRA MADRE POLICE BLOTTER

August 20 , to August 27 , 201 7 During this time 
period, the Sierra Madre Police Department 
responded to approximately 404 day and night time 
calls for service. 

Monday, August 21 

At about 11:42 a.m., officers responded to the 00 
block of Kersting Ct. regarding a female subject 
who was refusing to leave a store after taking food 
and eating it without paying for it. The officers 
transported her to the Pasadena Jail for booking and 
released her to the jail staff. Case forwarded to DA’s 
office for filing on Petty Theft charges. 

11:24 p.m. 

Officers responded to the area of Lima St. and 
Grandview Ave. where Southern California Edison 
employees were working on a utility pole. A female 
subject called the SoCal Edison dispatch center at 
about 9:20 p.m., and became upset and said, “I need 
the power to be turned on or I will get a gun and 
shoot everyone”. Case to Detectives for follow up 
investigation 

Friday, August 25 

A report of trespassing was responded to by officers 
in the 400 block of E. Montecito at about 8:20 a.m. 
The caller reported that when she checked her 
surveillance footage earlier that morning she had two 
separate recordings that showed her male neighbor, 
in her backyard without any clothes on. It appears 
the subject entered the backyard through unknown 
means without the permission of the resident. Case 
forwarded to the DA’s office for filing considerations 


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com

Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com