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“The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store,” by James McBride, and more short reviews from readers

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:25 GMT

Editor’s note: The opinions of the smart, well-read women in my Denver book club mean a lot, and often determine what the rest of us choose to pile onto our bedside tables. Sure, you could read advertising blurbs on Amazon, but wouldn’t you be more likely to believe a neighbor with no skin in the game over a corporation being fed words by publishers? So in this series, we are sharing these mini-reviews with you. Have any to offer? Email [email protected].“The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store,” by James McBride (Riverhead Books, 2023)“The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store,” by James McBride (Riverhead Books, 2023)In this beautifully written novel, McBride explores how a sense of community and humanity can overcome differences, whether they be racial, religious or even physical. The “Heaven & Earth Grocery Store” is a neighborhood fixture and keystone, connecting the lives and fates of immigrant Jewish and African American neighbors in a smal...

Here’s how to get $30 tickets to Broadway’s “Six” at the Denver Center

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:25 GMT

A limited number of $30 tickets for the Tony-winning British musical “Six” will be available for the first three weeks of the show’s Colorado run, according to Denver Center for the Performing Arts.The nonprofit, Denver-based theater giant on Monday announced a ticket lottery for the popular musical, whose Dec. 5-24 performances have already hit the “limited capacity” phase. That means each scheduled show has only a handful of seats left for sale, ranging from $45 to $155 per ticket.In most cases, it’s literally one or two close-to-stage seats per show, as well as a few dozen in the back three or four rows of the balcony at the Buell Theatre.Here’s how you can get a leg up, according to the show’s producers:Make sure you’re eligible: you must be 18 years or older and have a valid, non-expired photo ID that matches your name to enter.Make a Lucky Seat account if you don’t already have one; visit luckyseat.com to sign up. Pro...

New Jersey native opening bagel shop in former Denver Bread Co. space

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:25 GMT

Miles Odell is a classically trained chef, who’s cooked around the world, including in Japan as a culinary ambassador for three years. But the New Jersey native is ready to get back to his roots: bagels and smoked fish.Chef Miles Odell won the Rebel Bread Staff Pick Award for his bagels at the inaugural Denver Bake Fest hosted by Rebel Bread in October. (Provided by Odell’s Bagel)“Bagels are one of my favorite things, and I’ve perfected my own recipe,” Odell said. “Trust me, it has nothing to do with the water.”The 33-year-old chef hopes to open Odell’s Bagel in the former Denver Bread Co. space at 3200 Irving St. by spring 2024. Owners Greg Bortz and his wife Kristy announced in August that they had decided to permanently close Denver Bread after nearly 29 years, along with their cookie business Victory Love + Cookies.Odell had originally planned to open a Japanese restaurant dubbed Keepsake when he moved to Denver last year. He started his own pop-up at the Highland Square F...

Crews battle 'city-block-sized' fire in South Los Angeles

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:25 GMT

Firefighters responded to a massive fire burning in the Central-Alameda neighborhood of Los Angeles Tuesday morning. The fire erupted around 3:25 a.m. and involved a "city-block-sized area" of structures in the 1500 block of East Vernon Avenue, according to an alert from the Los Angeles Fire Department. A fire burning in the Central-Alameda neighborhood is seen on Nov. 28, 2023. (Key News)Additional structures are threatened on all sides, the alert stated.Over 140 firefighters were assigned to the incident and are making good progress, the fire department stated at 4:30 a.m. Crews assisted residents who were asked to evacuate their homes during the firefight.One resident told KTLA that a neighbor woke them up as the fire was raging. “He hopped the fence, got on top of the roof and then he banged on our window,” the resident said. The neighbor told them there was a fire, so she woke up her husband and went outside and saw the flames threatening their home.“I just thank God that he s...

3.5 magnitude quake wakes up residents in Big Bear City

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:25 GMT

Residents of the Big Bear City community in the San Bernardino Mountains were awakened in the middle of the night by a 3.5 magnitude earthquake. The temblor was reported at 11:59 p.m. Monday night and was located 2.6 miles from Big Bear City. The quake struck at a depth of nearly 5 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.A 3.5 magnitude earthquake struck near Big Bear City on Nov. 27, 2023. (USGS)Light shaking from the earthquake was felt as far as Palmdale to the northwest and Twentynine Palms to the southeast. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. Monday night's temblor follows a 2.1 magnitude quake that hit the Big Bear area last Tuesday.

Wish Book: Paralyzed veterans learn life, work skills from competitive sports

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:25 GMT

Marine Corps veteran Kyle Hansel of Pacifica is making a belt for his mother, using lessons, skills, and a renewed faith in himself gained from competitive sports despite hands and many muscles that don’t work.His mom Teresa loves turquoise, so he’ll paint the bottom layer of the belt that blue-green hue, to gleam through decorative gaps he will laboriously cut in the top layer.The work, like many of the tasks in his life, requires “adaptive” techniques he has honed through wheelchair rugby, archery and other sports he competes in thanks to the local chapter of Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA).Kyle Hansel, right, from Pacifica, transfers from his regular wheelchair into a rugby wheelchair with the help of Chris Child, recreation therapy assistant, at the Palo Alto Veterans Association Medical Center in Palo Alto, Calif., on Monday, Oct. 16, 2023. Wish Book for BAWPVA, Bay Area and Western Chapter Paralyzed Veterans of America. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News ...

Hey, Caltrans, you need to repaint some signs on I-680: Roadshow

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:25 GMT

Q: At about 10 p.m. Thanksgiving night, I entered northbound Interstate 680 at Monument Boulevard in Concord. Luckily, I knew how to get to westbound Highway 4, because overhead signs were almost unreadable. Reflective paint on all the signs was worn off, to the point where some would have made no sense to a driver relying on them.I don’t know if the problem is more extensive than what I saw on that short stretch of 680. It was pretty alarming.— Gail Wiemann, RichmondA: I’ll forward your message to Caltrans.Q: Your column on illegal dumping reminded me that in the 1960s, illegal dumping and its consequences were made famous by a singer/songwriter, Arlo Guthrie, who documented the experience when he and a friend dumped garbage alongside a road and faced consequences. His famous song, “Alice’s Restaurant,” sold millions of copies.The incident Guthrie recounts in the song was reported in the Berkshire Eagle on Nov. 29, 1965. It describes the conviction of ...

NFC playoff picture: 49ers’ best chance at top seed is beating Eagles in Philly

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:25 GMT

The 49ers don’t have to beat the Eagles Sunday.There. It’s out there. Apologies to those who breathlessly anticipate the end of the 49ers world as they know it should they lose again at Lincoln Financial Field as they did in last year’s NFC Championship Game.It’s Week 13, so it’s getting serious. As regular-season games go, 49ers-Eagles is as good as it gets based on the whole Brock Purdy drama last Jan. 29.While the provincial prevailing notion is the 49ers would have gone to the Super Bowl had Haason Reddick been walled off and unable to rearrange the anatomy in Purdy’s elbow, I’m one of the few locally who thought the Eagles were the better team and got what they deserved.They were better on both sides of the line of scrimmage, and let’s face it, Reddick’s sack wasn’t a cheap shot. It was part of football. And taking out the other team’s quarterback with a legal play is brutal but fair game.Yet judging from what we...

Kaiser Permanente grabs empty San Jose land site in expansion quest

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:25 GMT

SAN JOSE — Kaiser has bought a big chunk of San Jose land, paving the way for a possible expansion by the healthcare titan at the location — a deal that also jolts prior plans for an office project on the choice site.The land that Kaiser bought is located at 1601 Technology Drive in San Jose, a short distance from the interchange of State Route 87 and Skyport Drive.Kaiser Foundation Health Plan paid $43.5 million for the vacant land site, according to documents filed on Nov. 21 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office. Hudson Pacific Properties, acting through an affiliate, sold the land.The purchase also paves the way for a possible Kaiser expansion in the area.The just-bought land is next to a parcel that accommodates an existing Kaiser Permanente medical office building, Google Maps shows.The transaction serves as a reminder that economic conditions have deteriorated for office properties in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley during a time of rising vacancy ra...

Skelton: Schwarzenegger shows the value of an upbeat attitude

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:25 GMT

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger returned to Sacramento recently and reminded us of a beneficial trait he possesses that is sorely lacking in today’s polarized politics: an upbeat attitude.There’s currently too much bellowing, blaming and belligerence — and hatred — to make democracy work productively the way the republic’s founders intended.True, it’s easier to be upbeat when you’re super rich and a global celebrity — one who has soared to the top in three competitive ventures: bodybuilding, movies and politics.Conversely, being upbeat and an eternal optimist throughout life surely is a major reason why Schwarzenegger, 76, rose to the top of the heap, accumulating stardom, wealth and power.It made him an extraordinarily interesting moderate Republican governor for seven years — not always successful, but constantly trying and bold.I was reminded of Schwarzenegger’s value to the political world when he came back to the sta...