Tom Robbins, the countercultural novelist of “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” and “Another Roadside Attraction” who died Feb. 9 at age 92, lived in Washington state. But when he turned in a manuscript, according to some of his obituaries, he preferred his editors meet him in the Riverside County community of Desert Hot Springs.

His favored site for editorial conferences was said to be a resort and spa, the Two Bunch Palms. Robbins wanted his editors to have a soak and a massage to relax them before getting down to work, an eccentric idea they indulged.That probably works better if you deliver a manuscript every few years.

News deadlines being what they are, my own editor is unlikely to take a spa day in the desert three times a week before reading my columns. So, magnanimously, I won’t insist.

Everything must go!

This column and Sunday’s were written in advance of a week off. My goal was to tie up some loose ends and get reader comments into print, a few of which had languished a while and were close to exceeding their use-by date.

In fact, I wrote enough for a third such column but ran out of time to finish it. Consider that something to look forward to when I return next week.

A reading life

My, er, Jan. 8 column on the books I read in 2024, and which promoted reading in general, drew positive responses from the bookish set.

Angie Gillingham of West Covina is in a mystery book club and reads on her own as well, mostly nonfiction. “Knowing how many citizens do not read says a lot of why our country is in the mess that we’re in,” says Angie, “but that subject is for another day. Keep on reading.”

Meanwhile, a reader in Canyon Lake writes: “I see that you have read 55 books in a year. Now, I hope that you get some exercise also.” (He evidently missed my Jan. 5 column about my 4-mile hike to the top of Mount Hollywood.)

“I also read a lot, but I also run three days a week and do a muscle workout,” he continues. “And you said that (another person) has read 192 books in a year. I would think that her exercise program is limited.”

In more ways than one, Mr. Canyon Lake sounds like a busy body.

LBJ capper

My Jan. 17 column was on the Stetson worn by President Lyndon Johnson on his Oct. 28, 1964, visit to San Bernardino and then gifted to a young lawyer, Pat Morris, who still has it today.

Kerry Jones, then 2 years old, was taken by her parents to see LBJ that day, not that she remembers.

“I was dressed in a cowboy outfit and cowboy hat and up on my dad‘s shoulders,” Kerry, now of Rialto, tells me. “They said LBJ pointed and waved to me.”

Ideally, this follow-up item on LBJ’s topper should have run a month ago. I hope you won’t consider it old hat.

Local-ish angle

Watching the new Saoirse Ronan movie “The Outrun,” which takes place on Orkney Island, Scotland, Jackie McHenry of Claremont was startled to see Ronan’s character enter The Pomona Cafe. “I looked it up and there is, in fact, a Pomona Cafe on Orkney Island,” Jackie reports. “Small world.”

A more social media

To anyone formerly on Twitter who’s made the leap to Bluesky, I’m on there at @davidallen909.bsky.social. I created the account two years ago and never posted. Taking a look early this year, I was floored to find that I had 125 followers awaiting me. So I started posting. To paraphrase Irving Berlin: “Bluesky smilin’ at me.”

brIEfly

A 50-home development in Chino Hills’ Carbon Canyon neighborhood will be named Serenity Grove. However, residents and some city officials have expressed concern that dump trucks hauling dirt away from the Serenity Grove site were exceeding the speed limit on Carbon Canyon Road, according to an item in the Chino Valley Champion. Perhaps the developers are in a rush because they want Serenity now.

David Allen can be reached by email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, and follow davidallencolumnist on Facebook, @davidallen909 on X or @davidallen909.bsky.social on Bluesky.