A Bar By Any Other Name

My friend DD and I were talking during lunch about the incident at Downtown Joe’s recently, which led me to tell her the story about Panama Jack’s. She told me she thought that the stabbing occurred inside of the bar, not down the street. See what I mean? All the paper has to do is put the word stabbing and a name of a business in the same sentence and people will start saying somebody was stabbed there.

DD said she always liked Panama Jack’s and was sorry when it closed. “We saw Dave Wakeling there” she reminded me. I had totally forgotten about that. (That screaming sound you now hear is coming from Waist High all the way in Portland.)

That seems to be the way it goes for most bars in Bakersfield. Every thing is great a first, then someone gets hurt, negative press is spread and the next thing you know the business is gone.

Of course it usually reopens a year later with a different name and the same crowd.