Want to laugh? Go see Master Hypnotist Mark Yuzuik: He performs at the Action Sports Arena from Aug. 13 through Aug. 17. His shows are at 4, 6 and 8 p.m.

Go dancing at night at the Plaza Pacifica Stage: Swing dancing with a live band on Fridays 8:30-11:30 p.m., DJ West Coast Dave on Saturdays 8:30-11:30 p.m., Latin Dancing to a live band Sundays from 7:30-10:30 p.m.

See the mama pig and babies: You have to do this, don’t you think? There’s a sow who’s due to deliver the first week of the fair, and also another due the last week of the fair. Pigs typically have litters of 8-14 piglets. You can find them in Centennial Farm.

See a show at the Action Sports Arena: You have to pay for reserved seating, but there is limited general admission seating or standing as well. Yes, go watch those monster trucks tear up the ground.

Stay hydrated for free: You can refill your own water bottles at six chilled water stations around the grounds for free. Stations are at the main carnival, Kidland carnival, Fair Square near Blue Gate, livestock near the Western Saloon,  carnival, Family Fairway near Green Gate and Park Plaza near pig races.

Free carnival rides for kids: Most carnival rides aren’t free, of course, but kids ages 5-11 who read three books and sign up for the Read & Ride program can get a QR code valid for two free rides in the Kidland area only. Only one per child. Here’s how to sign up.

Hang with some cute animals at the petting zoo: Near the Yellow Gate, find a petting zoo with goats, sheep, pigs and more.

Root for the All-Alaskan Racing Pigs: You can’t miss those, can you? These piglets travel in a custom “Piggy Penthouse” trailer that’s heated and air conditioned. And, yes, they just love to run. Racecourse is between the Family Fairway and the Plaza Pacifica. Wed, Thurs & Fri: 2, 3:30, 5, 6:30 & 8 p.m.; Sat & Sun: 12:30, 2, 3:30, 5, 6:30 & 8 p.m. ocfair.com/oc-fair/things-to-do/animals/pig-races/

Explore interesting animals in the Livestock Area, near the Yellow Gate (and there are more animals too!)

• Pygmy goats: Yes, how cute are they? Pretty darn cute.  They can reach heights of 22 inches and weigh 50-70 pounds. They’ll be in the barn from July 18 to July 20.
• Llamas: No, you don’t have to go to South America. There will be dozens of them in the livestock areaJuly 18-20.
• Miniature donkeys: Less than 36 inches tall, they’re fun and friendly to their owners. In the barn July 29 to Aug. 3.
• Barnyard fashion parade: Take in this runway show at 6 p.m. Aug. 6  in the livestock show ring.
• Friesian Horse Club of Southern California: Two of these gorgeous animals will be on display Aug. 13-17. Their owners will be there daily to share and talk to people about the breed. Other horses are also expected to be exhibited.
• Learn more: ocfair.com/oc-fair/things-to-do/animals

Go see the milking demonstrations with dairy cows:  Head over to the Millennium Barn to see cows milked at 2:15 and 4:15 p.m daily.

See a show free at the Hangar until 5 p.m.:  Daily performances including folklorico and belly dancing, choirs, martial arts demonstrations and clog dancers. Located at the main mall between the Family Fairway and the Action Sports Arena. Note: After 5 p.m. you have to pay for seats but it’s free to stand. Learn more: ocfair.com/oc-fair/entertainment/community-entertainment/

Free live music all day long on the Meadows Stage: Performers will include Sean Oliu & The Coastline Cowboys, Lousy Little Gods, Ashley Felton Trio, Morrison King,  Lucky Coot & The Band of Bobs, Front Street Troubadours. Located between Centennial Farm and Fair Square. Learn more: ocfair.com/oc-fair/entertainment/community-entertainment/

Lots to enjoy at the OC Promenade Stage: Magician Frank Thurston performs at 2, 4 and 6 p.m. Evening shows will include Suemy G, Danny Maika & Trio, John Kraus & The Goers, Wimberley Bluegrass Band, Mariachi Juvenil Herencia Michoacana and more. Located off the main mall. Learn more: ocfair.com/oc-fair/entertainment/community-entertainment/

Hear the nightly performance of “Taps”: The military tune will be played at 6 p.m. at Heroes Hall. Located between the Blue Gate and the Pacific Amphitheatre.

Look out for the Red Light Brass Band: The combo will roam the fair from noon until 6 p.m. daily.

Enjoy the exhibits: This year, they’re divided into culinary arts, hobbies and handicrafts, horticulture, livestock, table settings, visual arts, wine and woodworking. This encompasses many specialties, including floral arrangements, sugar arts and confections (yum), photography, miniatures, embellished clothing, wood carving, quilts, cosplay costumes, scrapbooking, upcycled handicrafts, livestock animals and lots more.

If you could hire a skilled hunter who was able to kill up to 40 rodents a night, would you do it? What if that hunter had friends and they were all willing to work for free? 

Your neighborhood owls are those hunters.

A barn owl can kill 10-15 rodents per night. If there’s a nesting pair with youngsters, they can kill many more than that. A great horned owl can kill 40 rodents a night. This makes them far more effective than any rodenticide or trap. Many people resort to poison because they think that is the most effective solution to their rat (or mouse or gopher) problem. Unfortunately, poison (any poison) is killing owls and other predators. Even the “safer” rodenticides are harmful to non-target wildlife and pets due to their cumulative effect.

A poisoned rat is going to seek out water, so if you have an outdoor water feature (or pet water dish), you’re likely to find a dead rat nearby. As you’ve discovered, poisoned rodents can become disoriented and will often seek cover in sheltered spots like inside that box of stuff in your garage or even within interior walls. 

So, if you don’t poison the rats, the owls should be able to help with the problem. (Old-fashioned snap traps can also be effective.)

Q. Is there a more effective way to control weeds besides just pulling them out? I am trying to get rid of bindweed, but the vines are hard to pull out.

Any kind of vining weed can be a pain to pull out because you often end up pulling out or damaging neighboring plants in the process. In many cases, the weeds have extensive root systems that make weed-pulling a never-ending task.

Mix up a half-strength solution of weedkiller (Round Up) and fill several floral water picks (plastic tubes designed to hold water so flowers can stay fresh in a floral arrangement). Cut the weed stem and place the ends into the pick. The plastic cap should contain the solution so it won’t spill and kill neighboring plants. Poke the pick into the ground and refill the solution when it gets low. You want to use dilute herbicide so the plant has a chance to take up enough to kill the root system. If you use full-strength weedkiller, you may end up killing the stem before the roots are affected.

Los Angeles County

mglosangeleshelpline@ucdavis.edu; 626-586-1988; http://celosangeles.ucanr.edu/UC_Master_Gardener_Program/

Orange County

ucceocmghotline@ucanr.edu; http://mgorange.ucanr.edu/

Riverside County

anrmgriverside@ucanr.edu; 951-955-0170; https://ucanr.edu/sites/RiversideMG/

San Bernardino County

mgsanbern@ucanr.edu; 909-387-2182; http://mgsb.ucanr.edu

Pop Mart has struck it rich. The Chinese company that caters to toy connoisseurs and influencers said this week that it expects profit for the first six months of this year to jump by at least 350% compared with the prior-year period, largely because of its smash hit plush toy, the Labubu. Pop Mart joins a small list of companies that have tapped into the zeitgeist, drawing in millions of buyers who, for one reason or another, simply must get their hands on a toy or gadget of the moment.

But what makes the Labubu a must-have, or any toy for that matter, is a decades-old question that toy makers have yet to figure out.

Here’s a look at some of the most popular toys over the years.

Cabbage Patch Kids

Cabbage Patch Kids began as chubby-faced dolls with yarn hair that came with adoption papers. During the 1980s the dolls were so popular that parents waited in long lines at stores trying to get a hold of them. More than 90 million Cabbage Patch Kids were sold worldwide during their heyday.

Cabbage Patch Kids, which were created by Xavier Roberts and initially sold by Coleco, were relaunched in 2004, looking to take part in the successful return of other popular 1980s toys including Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

A Cabbage Patch Kid museum named BabyLand General Hospital still exists in Cleveland, Georgia. The dolls entered the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2023.

Beanie Baby

Beanie Babies captivated consumers in the mid-1990s. The cuddly $5 toys were under-stuffed for maximum hug-ability, stamped with cute names on their Ty Inc. tags, and given limited edition runs.

Many people collected, traded and sold the toys with the hopes that their value would just keep going up at the dawn of the e-commerce age. It made some people money, and the founder, Ty Warner, a billionaire in three years.

In 2014 Warner learned that he would not go to prison for hiding at least $25 million from U.S. tax authorities and instead received two years’ probation. Warner, one of the highest profile figures snared in a federal investigation of Americans using Swiss bank accounts to avoid U.S. taxes, had pleaded guilty to a single count of tax evasion.

Tamagotchi

Looking for a pet without the real-life responsibilities? Well then the Tamagotchi electronic pet from Bandai was for you. Consumers were hooked on the egg-shaped plastic toy that first launched in Japan in 1996 and became a craze worldwide in the late 1990s and 2000s.

Users were tasked with taking care of their virtual pet by pressing buttons that simulate feeding, disciplining and playing with the critter on screen. If a Tamagotchi is neglected, it dies.

In 2013 Tamagotchi was reborn as a mobile app, duplicating the experience of the plastic handheld toy. The toy was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame in May.

Fidget Spinner

Fidget spinners — the 3-inch twirling gadgets that took over classrooms and cubicles — were all the rage in 2017. The toy was considered somewhat of an outlier at the time, given that it wasn’t made by a major company, timed for the holiday season, or promoted in TV commercials. Fidget spinners were more easily found at gas stations or 7-Eleven than at big toy chains.

Fidget spinners had been around for years, mostly used by kids with autism or attention disorders to help them concentrate, but they became more popular after being featured on social media.

While hot toys are often made by one company, fidget spinners were made by numerous manufacturers, mostly in China. The toys were marketed as a concentration aid but became so popular among children that many schools started banning them, saying that they were a distraction.

Labubu

The Labubu, by artist and illustrator Kasing Lung, first appeared as monsters with pointed ears and pointy teeth in three picture books inspired by Nordic mythology in 2015.

In 2019 Lung struck a deal with Pop Mart, a company that caters to toy connoisseurs and influencers, to sell Labubu figurines. But it wasn’t until Pop Mart started selling Labubu plush toys on key rings in 2023 that the toothy monsters suddenly seemed to be everywhere, including in the hands of Rihanna, Kim Kardashian and NBA star Dillon Brooks. K-pop singer Lisa of Blackpink began posting images of hers for her more than 100 million followers on Instagram and on TikTok, where Labubu pandemonium has broken out.

Labubu has been a bonanza for Pop Mart. Its revenue more than doubled in 2024 to 13.04 billion yuan ($1.81 billion), thanks in part to its elvish monster. Revenue from Pop Mart’s plush toys soared more than 1,200% in 2024, nearly 22% of its overall revenue, according to the company’s annual report.

Iger said the Disneyland resort has reached “almost 30 million” in annual attendance while talking about what Walt Disney would think of Disneyland today during a speech at the front gates of the park.

“More than anything else, he’d be awestruck by the fact that almost 30 million guests flow through the gates of his beloved Disneyland each year,” Iger said during the 70th anniversary celebration speech on Thursday, July 17.

ALSO SEE: Disneyland celebrates 70th anniversary with parades, fireworks and marching bands

The 30 million figure mentioned by Iger represents an approximation of overall annual attendance at the Disneyland Resort, according to Disneyland officials.

The “almost 30 million” figure should not be used to gauge any increase in attendance at the Disneyland Resort since 2023 as the number is an approximation, according to Disneyland officials.

The combined attendance of Disneyland and Disney California Adventure was 27.25 million in 2023, according to TEA/AECOM. A new mark of 30 million would represent a 10% increase in attendance over the past two years.

Disneyland attendance in 2023 stood at 17.25 million in 2023 with Disney California Adventure attendance at 10 million, according to TEA/AECOM.

ALSO SEE: Disneyland’s biggest decade ever is about to end — and the next could be even bigger

An increase of nearly 2.75 million visitors per year at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure would push the California theme park resort past the 28.5 million visitor mark registered in 2019 and back above pre-pandemic attendance levels for the first time.

Tracking attendance numbers used to be a Disneyland tradition — with the park proudly issuing annual tallies. Disneyland no longer publicly announces attendance figures.

TEA/AECOM has published annual theme park attendance figures since 2006, with the latest numbers available through 2023. The 2024 TEA Global Attractions Attendance Report is expected to be released in September.

ALSO SEE: Disneyland had a nightmare start in 1955, but ‘Walt’s Folly’ quickly won over fans

The Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) has never recorded a higher annual attendance count at Disneyland than the Magic Kingdom over the past two decades.

The latest attendance increase could make perennial runner-up Disneyland the most visited theme park in the world.

Disney’s Magic Kingdom in Florida was the most visited park in 2023 with 17.72 million visitors, according to TEA/AECOM. The difference between first place (Magic Kingdom) and second place (Disneyland) in 2023 was fewer than 500 visitors — the closest gap in recent history.

ALSO SEE: Walt Disney and Abe Lincoln animatronics to share rotating Disneyland stage

Hurricanes Helene and Milton put a damper on Walt Disney World attendance in 2024, according to Disney quarterly financial reports released in February.

The Magic Kingdom still remains 3 million visitors behind the all-time high annual mark of 20.96 million in 2019, according to TEA/AECOM.

“I was excited, obviously,” said Aubriana Stover of Jurupa Valley of the announcement several weeks ago that all seven members of BTS have now finished their mandatory South Korean military service, which took members of the group out of circulation from December 2022 to June 2025, and are planning a reunion for early 2026.

She’d just met Jazmine Adams and Zaidee Sanchez, best friends from San Diego, and in the way members of the BTS fandom known as Army often do, they had already bonded over their love for the band.

“I felt like I was becoming a fan all over again,” Adams said of the news. “Just the excitement and knowing that there was going to be a community coming back together again.”

Were there tears and overwhelming joy at the news of BTS’s return? Oh yeah, Sanchez and the others said.

“Think of Michael Jackson at his prime – that times 10,” Stover said.

“Or how everyone was passing out (at Jackson shows then),” Adams said. “That’s the feeling I got.”

Valeria Altamirano of Tucson joined the group of young women. She and Sanchez met through online BTS fandom and met in real life on Thursday for Jin’s first of two shows at Honda Center.

“I’d say it felt like I was 12 years old again,” Altamirano said. “Like I was just a little kid, discovering them all over again.”

We lost track of our new BTS pals as showtime neared, but it’s the safest of bets to say their delight continued throughout the hour and 55 minutes of Jin’s performance, the third solo tour after Suga in 2023 and J-Hope earlier this year.

The #RunSeokJin_Ep.Tour takes its name from Jin’s full name, Kim Seok-jin, and “Run Jin,” the web variety series that Jin debuted a year ago after concluding his military service. Over 36 episodes, Jin and friends played games, did challenges, and had as much fun as possible. The tour seeks to recreate much of that playful attitude.

“Running Wild” kicked off the show with Jin dressed in a sparkling denim-colored jacket and pants by Gucci, for which he is a global brand ambassador, singing the soaring pop anthem as he skipped and danced through confetti and blasts of pyrotechnics.

“I’ll Be There” followed as the packed arena glowed with the synchronized flashing lights of “bombs,” the name given to the orb-like light sticks fans bring to BTS-affiliated shows.

Most of the songs featured a mix of Korean and English lyrics, though the tilt toward English now seems slightly more than it was on earlier BTS records. Musically, Jin’s solo records, including the EP “Echo,” released in May, and the EP “Happy,” released in November, shift from pop ballads to synth-pop, dance rock to rock anthems.

After “Falling,” a romantic ballad, a close-up of Jin’s face filled the video screens on stage as he slowly raised his fingers to his full lips and blew the crowd a kiss, eliciting screams so loud the decibel-checking app on my Apple Watch handed in its resignation.

Telepathy Game, the first of several audience-participation challenges, featured Jin trying to guess a secret word or phrase acted out by audience members, with the number of correct answers determining what outfit he’d change into for his next song. The word “happy” was easy enough – broad smiles, hands angled upwards around beaming faces.

Somehow, he also guessed “flying chair,” a reference to a stunt in an episode of “Run Jin,” though the fan in the floor seats who waved their chair overhead might have been what did it.

“Super Tuna” followed with Jin in a broad straw hat and what looked like rubber boots – a fisherman’s outfit, perhaps? – as fans sang and danced wildly to the upbeat dance pop song, which, judging by the number of fish-themed T-shirts, hats and accessories in the crowd, is a fan favorite.

After spinning a wheel to pick a song for the audience to sing, which Jin rigged to give them “Anpanman” based on their cheers, he ducked off stage to change as the sing-along unfolded.

He returned to the stage in a slim black suit with silver buttons on the seams of his pants, sitting alone at a piano to accompany himself solo first on “I Will Come to You,” which ended with a lovely falsetto run, and next “Abyss,” which started solo before the band joined in halfway through.

In addition to the light-changing bombs that most in the crowd waved throughout the night, the crowd also, well, barked at him often between songs. Apparently, this has become a tradition for K-pop fans of certain acts.

After the big rock anthem “Another Level,” which saw guitarist Park Shin-won step out to solo as Jin sang, he led the audience in the Sing-Along Game, which gave 30 seconds to guess the song that fans were singing from lyrics unseen by him on the screen or get bonked on the head by silver tray suspended over him. (It’s another bit from the “Run Jin” series.)

“Don’t Say You Love Me,” which he’d sung on stage earlier in the show, was easy. “No More Dream,” which drew laughter from the crowd when the lyrics on screen shifted to Korean and suddenly a whole lot of mumbling ensued, he missed. Bonk!

The latter run of the show included mostly high-energy numbers such as “Loser,” a terrific number off “Echo,” the seven-song EP he released in May, and whose seven tracks all showed up in the set. “Rope It,” a country dance number, saw Jin in cowboy garb doing a bit of boot-scooting shimmies down the ramp out from the stage.

BTS songs showed up here as well, with a medley that opened with “Dynamite” and “Butter,” a pair of that band’s best bangers, and ended with “Mikrokosmos” and “Spring Day.”

“The Astronaut” ended with Jin on his back amid the confetti streamers that blasted off midway through the number before “Nothing Without You” closed out the main set with Jin sinking through a stage trapdoor.

Two more BTS numbers, “Epiphany” and “Moon,” opened the encore, with Jin going down to the floor to get fans to sing the wordless melody that’s featured in “Moon.”

Then with “To Me, Today,” a peppy number with a crowd chant at points in the chorus, he wrapped up the night, and with it, edged one step closer to the return of BTS in spring 2025.

Coachella perhaps? They’ve never played it, though their K-pop peers Blackpink have. Or a new stadium tour like their last tour, which played multiple nights at SoFi Stadium.

One way or another, it is coming.

She opened the chain’s first restaurant with her late husband, Mike Vasquez, at 1039 W. Sixth St. in Corona in 1975. Business from nearby Corona High School and Mike and Mary’s food, including house-made hot sauce, made the place a success.

Mary Vasquez visited the drive-thru, now called “the original,” at 2 p.m. Friday afternoon to hand out birthday cake. The first 50 customers also got cards for free tacos.

The dining room was full by the time she cut the cake, which was chocolate with cream frosting. State Senator Sabrina Cervantes dropped by to give Mary a framed resolution and compliment her “masterfully crafted burritos.”

She chatted with longtime customers and caught up with them on their children and grandchildren, or parents and grandparents.

Among them was Shelly Jensen, who said she used to go through the drive-thru in the late ’70s in her ’67 Buick when she was a Corona High School student.

“It hasn’t changed a bit,” she said.

She ordered her favorite, a bean and cheese burrito with several cups of hot sauce.

Jensen’s uncle Tom Gunderson was mayor of Corona, and her father, Phillip Gunderson, were friends with Mike and Mary Vasquez at their first, full-service restaurant that opened nearby in 1973.

But there’s a new addiition, a piece of artwork that reads, “A 50 year tradition and counting.”

“it’s pretty, isn’t it?” Mary Vasquez said.

Javier Vasquez, the chain’s chief executive officer and Mary’s son, arrived at the party a little later.

All 23 restaurants in the chain gave out cake and taco cards from 2 to 4 p.m. Miguel’s Jr. has locations in Riverside, Orange and San Bernardino counties.

At 82, Mary Vasquez is still the face of Miguel’s Jr. in Facebook reels and TikTok videos. In May, she completed her education and picked up a high school equivalency diploma from Corona-Norco Adult School, near the original restaurant.

Information: miguelsjr.com

“I wanted to spend time with my family and have a good summer with them,” Visoso said.

Visoso, 24, hadn’t been to the fair in more than a decade. After all those years waiting, how would he spend his day on the fairgrounds?

“Hopefully get on all the rides, because I know there’s going to be a lot of people coming in,” he said. “And get some good food.”

The 2025 OC Fair will run through Aug. 17 — it is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. The 23-day event is expected to bring in more than a million guests. Daily attendence has been capped since the onset of the pandemic and popular days sell out each year.

New activities this year include an after-dark event at the Plaza Pacifica that will get people moving with swing dancing, Latin music and more on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

Read also: OC Fair 2025: Here’s what you need to know to pay, play and park

New attractions, food and stands, including Tom’s Puffs and Pie, the 180-foot-tall Aviator and an exhibit paying tribute to the VHS tape era featuring movie poster art, have also been added to the mix.

Each year, hundreds of residents submit entries to the fair’s competitions. Everything from quilts to cupcakes to table settings.

With a list of his family’s 20 entries, Long Beach resident and event planner Dan Smith Chavira rushed to the glass cases displaying the winning entries, searching for any blue ribbon wins. This is his second year submitting baked goods with his family. His niece had been perfecting her eight recipes for months, he said.

“This is the moment when you can first see the results,” Smith Chavira said. “So we doorbusted to see how we did.”

His Portuguese Focaccia, inspired by his Italian grandmother and Portuguese grandfather, won the focaccia class and an overall award for the artisan leavened bread division.

He turned in his focaccia earlier in the week, as well as his Yuzu bar that won an honorable mention in the citrus bar category. Smith Chavira says he only bakes for the OC Fair.

“I’m not a baker, but I’m a competitor,” he said. His focaccia beat out 24 other entries in his category, decided by a panel of 13 judges.

He was the only division winner in his family.

He called this year’s win a “redemption” after his “overdone” French onion focaccia garnered no accolades last year. This year, he told himself, “Don’t overcook it, slow down, cook to your skill level, and relax.”

Even without any entries in the competition, Anaheim couple LuAnn Hillman and Steve Rosco made an early stop in the OC Promenade hall to see the winners.

“We see all the talent that’s in Orange County. Look at these bakers and what they’ve done,” Hillman said.

They’ve been visiting the fair for more than 40 years. And each year, they go on the first day. They say it’s the best time to catch the food entries, “when everything’s fresh.”

“It’s beautiful,” Rosco added. “It’s not professional like when you go into a bakery, these are regular average people that have these incredible, wonderful talents.”

Standing next to his table setting, Orange resident and administrative manager Tim Wyckoff was approached by fans of his work from previous years. Wyckoff has been decorating table settings for more than 30 years.

This year, his table in the Tropical Paradise division won second place.

“I want to make people smile,” Wyckoff said. “Since I’m not a master of a certain craft, but I like crafting in general, I like that this lets me do so many different versions of crafting.”

He designs every aspect of his table meticulously, including the floral arrangement, glassware and menu. For the theme, he even made an animatronic parrot from scratch.

“The pink in the orchids matches the pink in the salt and pepper shakers. The green and orange are pulled upward into the birds of paradise. Everything is coordinated,” Wyckoff said.

Brian Koch, a 68-year-old arborist, took off work Friday to visit the first day of the fair. It was his first fair in at least a decade, and he purchased a season pass to come back regularly.

“I enjoy going to fairs,” Koch said. “Mainly for the agricultural stuff, not for the rides or anything.”

Throughout the fair, various animal species will come and go for people to visit and watch in competitions. Cattle, chickens, donkeys and more will make their way to the fairgrounds over the next month.

During opening weekend, visitors will be able to see goats and llamas brought by breeders from around Southern California.

Eleven llamas at the fair on Friday belong to Eileen Ditsler.

“I discovered the llamas by accident at a fair like this,” said the 61-year-old San Dimas resident. “I’ve had llamas now for 30 years and they’re just so easy.”

She said a few years ago they exploded in popularity with people watching videos of them on TikTok, wearing llama T-shirts and even paying for them to be at weddings. They can even be taken out for a walk in the neighborhood with a lead rope.

They’re a hit with the fair crowds, especially Jim Wilson, 83, of Cypress, who was smiling in the livestock area as he watched the llamas munching on hay and showing off their poodle-like haircuts.

“It’s so great to see them,” Wilson said. “These guys are something different.”

If you go

When: Hours are 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays and until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays through Aug. 17

Where: The OC Fair & Event Center, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa

Cost: General admission is $13 on Wednesdays and Thursdays and $15 on other days; seniors and children are $9 daily. Tickets must be purchased at ocfair.com/tickets and popular dates may sell out.

For more information: ocfair.com

Knott’s Scary Farm tickets will go on sale July 25 at 10 a.m. for 28 select nights from Sept. 18 through Nov. 1. Tickets for the “Nightmares Revealed” preview show also go on sale on July 25.

ALSO SEE: 70 new menu items coming to Knott’s Summer Nights

Scary Farm 2025 will feature 10 haunted mazes, five scare zones and three live shows at the Buena Park theme park. Knott’s typically adds two or three new mazes per year and removes an equal amount from the lineup.

This year’s Scary Farms dates include Sept. 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27 and 28; Oct. 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30 and 31; and Nov. 1.

ALSO SEE: 21 live bands coming to Knott’s Summer Nights

Doors open nightly for the separate admission, after hours event at 7 p.m. The event runs until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 1 a.m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

Knott’s announced the retirement of the Bloodline 1842 and Wax Works mazes after the 2024 season. Two new mazes are expected to take their place.

Here are the eight mazes expected to return in 2025 (with their debut year):

• Widows (2024)
• Eight Fingers Nine: The Boogeyman (2024)
• Chilling Chambers (2023)
• Cinema Slasher (2023)
• Room 13 (2023)
• Grimoire (2022)
• Mesmer: Sideshow of the Mind (2021)
• Origins: The Curse of Calico (2019)

Knott’s will reveal the full lineup of mazes, scare zones and shows for Scary Farm 2025 during the “Nightmares Revealed” show from 7 to 10 p.m. on Aug. 19 in the Walter Knott Theater.

Knott’s has not yet announced ticket prices for this year, but Scary Farm tickets cost $60 online and $110 at the gate in 2024.

The $35 tickets to “Nightmares Revealed” include admission to the show, access to the Ghost Town scare zone filled with fog and monsters, opportunities to speak with Knott’s maze designers and creative directors and ride time on the GhostRider, Silver Bullet and Sierra Sidewinder roller coasters.

That’s how professional snowboarder turned restaurateur Jordan Small, 31 years of age, described opening day of his first brick-and-mortar smashburger spot Small’s Smash Club in San Clemente. On the heels of successful concepts that got their starts as a homebound ideas during the pandemic, Small’s eatery began as a backyard operation in Huntington Beach by way of snowcapped mountaintops.

Growing up in Lake Forest, Small was all but born with a board strapped to his feet. “In my family, I have an older brother and older cousins who all skated. Everyone snowboarded or skated. That was kind of built into our family,” said Small. “Ever since I could walk, my dad was building us ramps in the garage”

With his early days a blur of skateboarding, rollerblading and surfing, he kicked around a soccer ball for a spell in high school, but it fell by the wayside in favor of the arguably cooler world of skating. “Coaches were not happy when I’d show up with broken arms from skating contests,” he laughed.

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Soon skateboarding led to its wintertime iteration as Small’s full time gig. “Skateboarding I could do every day, all the time, but snowboarding was so special. It was like, ‘All right, cool, we’re going to the mountains this weekend,’” he said. A chance encounter with the snowboard company Thirtytwo led to sponsorships and before he knew it, Small was living the dream as a pro snowboarder.

For roughly 15 years, Small carved out a living on the slopes. Unlike his peers, however, Small wasn’t stoked for competitions. His interests were in street snowboarding, where he would travel the globe filming videos. This creative approach he’d later bring to his next career jump.

In 2020, Small went from shredding powder to smoking meats and, eventually, smashing patties. Small was on a filming trip in Finland when the pandemic hit. Making his way back to the states on one of the last flights out of Finland shortly before everything shut down, he landed in Huntington Beach and, as fate would have it, a sponsorship with Traeger Grills. “They would send us free grills and free pellets,” he explained. With time on their hands and a trove of smokers, Small and his wife, Jordyn, started smoking meats.

“My wife said, ‘Let’s sell barbecue,’ so that’s how we started,” he said, which is how Small’s Barbecue was born, operating out of their backyard. He credits Heritage Barbecue in San Juan Capistrano and Heavy Handed in Los Angeles as inspirations. Posting a menu of their meaty fare on Instagram, Small’s budding operations proved a success during the early days of COVID, offering pulled pork, pork belly, burnt ends and chicken thighs. While he garnered a loyal following, the logistics of smoking and transporting meat for pop-ups proved exhausting. That’s when he pivoted to the smashburger realm.

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“One day, we just were like, ‘Let’s try a burger on our menu.’ And it crushed — everyone loved it,” he recalled. “So I thought, ‘You know what? I think this is a bit better. Let’s pivot to burgers.”

Small’s Smash Club, his namesake eatery along Camino De Los Mares, is Small’s ode to the humble smashburger, the burger format that has skyrocketed in popularity over the last few years — and with good reason. The format is simple yet exquisite; patties are pressed flat onto a griddle to create a thin patty with crispy, lacy edges, offering an easier (and tastier) hamburger.

“It’s just your simple smashburger: grilled onions, pickles and special sauce,” he said. But it’s the special sauce, he believes, is what separates a good smashburger from a great one. “Your sauce has to be really good,” he added, sharing only that the one at Small’s is mayo-based. As for the cheese? It is, of course, American cheese. “It’s a must for a burger,” said Small. Indeed. Cheddar splits and turns oily. Blue cheese turns nubby and tough. But American offers a distinct mouth feel in a burgher that seemingly highbrow fromages simply can’t provide.

He also sources his meat from Sterling Pacific Meat Company, an 80/20 chuck blend he selected after testing over 30 grinds. And the buns, as mandated by unwritten law, are plush Martin’s Potato Rolls, the go-to bun for aficionados.

In addition to said burgers, which run $9 for a single, $12 for a double and $15 for a triple, Small’s features beef tallow-fried french fries and onion rings for $4 and $6, respectively. Also on tap are a handful of local beers and natural wines.

The first-week success of Small’s Smash Club was a sweet surprise for a team that’s largely new to the restaurant world. “It’s been packed every day,” he said. “On Saturday at 10:30 we had a line waiting for us, and we opened at 11.” He credits part of their early success to his snowboarding following, which allows for choice cross-promotion. But in the end, it’s the burgers themselves that will keep people coming back.

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Located inside the site of a former TJ’s Woodfire Pizza, the space was a fortunate find. After a couple of years of hunting for the perfect spot, Small says he’s thrilled to be nestled away from the more congested downtown San Clemente strip. “We have parking, the bowling alley is coming, which is going to be massive for us,” he said. He says he also plans on hosting live music in the near future.

As for expansion? That’s the entrepreneurial dream, of course. “The big goal, our pipe dream is five locations in five years,” he revealed, saying he hopes to open venues along the coastal enclaves, as well as a Small’s Smash Club in his hometown of Lake Forest.

For now, however, the San Clemente location is where his focus remains; after all, with one young child and another one en route, familial access is now more important than ever to Small, who has lived in the seaside town for nearly five years. All the better to bring “good vibes, better burgers,” Small’s Smash Club’s mission statement, to South County.

Find it: 641 Camino de Los Mares, San Clemente

Alan Bergman, the Oscar-winning lyricist who teamed with his wife, Marilyn, for an enduring and loving partnership that produced such old-fashioned hits as “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?,” “It Might Be You” and the classic “The Way We Were,” has died at 99.

Bergman died late Thursday at his home in Los Angeles, family spokesperson Ken Sunshine said in a statement Friday. The statement said Bergman had, in recent months, suffered from respiratory issues “but continued to write songs till the very end.”

The Bergmans married in 1958 and remained together until her death, in 2022. With collaborators ranging from Marvin Hamlisch and Quincy Jones to Michel Legrand and Cy Coleman, they were among the most successful and prolific partnerships of their time, providing words and occasional music for hundreds of songs, including movie themes that became as famous as the films themselves. Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Tony Bennett and many other artists performed their material, and Barbra Streisand became a frequent collaborator and close friend.

Blending Tin Pan Alley sentiment and contemporary pop, the Bergmans crafted lyrics known by millions, many of whom would not have recognized the writers had they walked right past them. Among their most famous works: the Streisand-Neil Diamond duet “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” the well-named Sinatra favorite “Nice ’n’ Easy” and the topical themes to the 1970s sitcoms “Maude” and “Good Times.” Their film compositions included Ray Charles’ “In the Heat of the Night” from the movie of the same name; Noel Harrison’s “The Windmills of Your Mind,” from “The Thomas Crown Affair”; and Stephen Bishop’s “It Might Be You,” from “Tootsie.”

The whole world seemed to sing and cry along to “The Way We Were,” an instant favorite recorded by Streisand for the 1973 romantic drama of the same name that co-starred Streisand and Robert Redford. Set to Hamlisch’s tender, bittersweet melody, it was essentially a song about itself — a nostalgic ballad about nostalgia, an indelible ode to the uncertainty of the past, starting with one of history’s most famous opening stanzas: “Memories / light the corners of my mind / misty watercolor memories / of the way we were.”

“The Way We Were” was the top-selling song of 1974 and brought the Bergmans one of their three Oscars, the others coming for “Windmills of Your Mind” and the soundtrack to “Yentl,” the Streisand-directed movie from 1983. At times, the Academy Awards could be mistaken for a Bergman showcase. In 1983, three of the nominees for best song featured lyrics by the Bergmans, who received 16 nominations in all.

The Bergmans also won two Grammys, four Emmys, were presented numerous lifetime achievement honors and received tributes from individual artists, including Streisand’s 2011 album of Bergman songs, “What Matters Most.” On “Lyrically, Alan Bergman,” Bergman handled the vocals himself. Although best known for their movie work, the Bergmans also wrote the Broadway musical “Ballroom” and provided lyrics for the symphony “Visions of America.”

Their very lives seemed to rhyme. They didn’t meet until they were adults, but were born in the same Brooklyn hospital, four years apart; raised in the same Brooklyn neighborhood, attended the same children’s concerts at Carnegie Hall and moved to California in the same year, 1950. They were introduced in Los Angeles while working for the same composer, but at different times of the day. Their actual courtship was in part a story of music. Fred Astaire was Marilyn’s favorite singer at the time and Alan Bergman co-wrote a song, “That Face,” which Astaire agreed to record. Acetate in hand, Bergman rushed home to tell Marilyn the news, then proposed.

Bergman is survived by a daughter, Julie Bergman, and granddaughter.

Bergman had wanted to be a songwriter since he was a boy. He majored in music and theater at the University of North Carolina, and received a master’s from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he befriended Johnny Mercer and became a protege. He and Marilyn at first wrote children’s songs together, and broke through commercially in the late 1950s with the calypso hit “Yellowbird.” Their friendship with Streisand began soon after, when they visited her backstage during one of her early New York club appearances. “Do you know how wonderful you are?” was how Marilyn Bergman greeted the young singer.

The Bergmans worked so closely together that they often found themselves coming up with the same word at the same time. Alan likened their partnership to housework: one washes, one dries, the title of a song they eventually devised for a Hamlisch melody. Bergman was reluctant to name a favorite song, but cited “A Love Like Ours” as among their most personal:

“When love like ours arrives / We guard it with our lives / Whatever goes astray / When a rainy day comes around / A love like ours will keep us safe and sound.”