If It's in the Newspaper of Record It Must Be True

The paragraph shown above on page A22 of the New York Times caught our eye this morning. It reminds us of that old poster, "A New Yorker's View of the United States" from the top of the Empire State Building. To the west is the Hudson River, then New Jersey, and just beyond that Hollywood and Malibu.

Apparently the geographers at the New York Times think that Rancho Cucamonga is in the desert. (We know, we know, no emails: we are living in a desert and that is the source of our water problem) We didn't think the desert really started until, say, Fontana.

But a secret gun-smashing military base in Rancho Cucamonga? That's a new one on us. Or maybe that explains that weird tract at the southeast corner of Baseline (16th Street there) and Campus with the high berm walls and the huge power lines and where no roads go. We bet that's it. Although it's probably technically Upland.


UPDATE 11:15 A.M.

If it's in the Insider, It Must Be False

Didn't Diann Ring say that?

A reader whom we wouldn't have thought knew a flam from a paradiddle wrote to us at lightspeed to give us the straight scoop on what he says is "not much of a top secret gun smashing facility".

It seems the military has gone to elaborate lengths to disguise its secret Inland Empire base in Rancho Cucamonga by creating a Potemkin Village steel scrap processing facility on Arrow Highway just west of Etiwanda. It is complete with piles of scrap and rebar lying around. Everything is all dusty and rust-colored. Even the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin is in on the hoax. Google has been co-opted to create a convincing online identity for this sham facility.

It's sad what credulous people are willing to believe. We have our reality; you have yours.