San Luis Obispo

MUSIC Living legends of early rock and roll are in short supply, but the surf guitar hero Dick Dale still shreds as hard as when he first cut "Misirlou. " His famously ornery stage presence is as winning as his Stratocaster fireworks. SLO Brew, 1119 Garden St., San Luis Obispo. 7 p.m. Thu. $25. Slobrewingco.com.

While visiting my daughter in Geneva, we took the train to Lyon, France, to shop and have lunch at the charming Les Terrasses d'Alex. It was a five-minute cab ride from the train station, in a residential district. Wonderful menu and a full bar. I can't wait to go back in the spring and dine outside under the great shade trees. Les Terrasses d'Alex,14 Rue Alexandre Boutin, Villeurbanne; 011-33-4-78-65-95-74, http://www.lesterrassesdalex.com . Main dishes from about $11. Linda Groover San Luis Obispo

Can't face "Carmageddon"? Consider taking a train trip out of town to Santa Barbara or San Luis Obispo. If you act quickly, you may score discounts for the weekend too. The Carmageddon wildcard, of course, is that no one knows exactly what will happen to traffic Saturday when the 405 Freeway shuts northbound along a 10-mile section between Interstate 10 and the 101 Freeway, and southbound between the 101 and Getty Center Drive....

Dear SOS: Recently my best childhood friend treated me to a creekside birthday dinner at beautiful Novo Restaurant in San Luis Obispo. We both had the Thai green chicken curry, and it was absolutely incredible. I tried an online recipe that was good but just didn't reach the level of excellence that Novo's creation did. I would love to have the privilege of getting that recipe if possible! Julie Simonsgaard Thousand Oaks Dear Julie: Novo was happy to share its recipe for this wonderfully rich and flavorful soup-like curry, which it serves with rice and chapatis on the side.

Amtrak's San Diegan, which normally travels between San Diego and Santa Barbara, today begins making one round trip per day to San Luis Obispo. The extended run will leave San Diego at 12:30 p.m. and arrive in San Luis Obispo at 8:33 p.m. after stops in Santa Ana, Los Angeles (departing at 3:30 p.m.), Oxnard and Santa Barbara. Southbound departure from San Luis Obispo is 7:15 a.m., with arrivals in Los Angeles at 12:10 p.m. and in San Diego at 3:20 p.m. Round-trip fares are $50.

Cal State Northridge made its first seven three-point attempts, including four by Eric Gray, as the Matadors routed Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 104-66, Saturday night in an American West Conference game before 486 at Northridge. Gray scored 23 points to pace Northridge (6-16, 3-1) in its most lopsided victory in more than six years and its largest ever against NCAA Division I competition. San Luis Obispo is 1-22, 0-5.

Residents of San Luis Obispo will get to vote April 26 on whether to build a proposed shopping center on farmland. The City Council put approval of the proposed 650,000-square-foot San Luis Marketplace shopping center up for a vote following a lengthy meeting Wednesday night. Save San Luis Obispo, the group opposing the project, submitted petitions forcing the election.

Once, San Luis Obispo owed much of its prosperity to ranchos and the railroad. Though still agriculturally rich, farmland is but part of the charm of this bucolic county seat (and home to a Cal Poly) that's flanked by seven prehistoric volcanic peaks. Downtown WHERE TO GET THE HOT TIPS The Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center (1039 Chorro St., [805] 781-2777) sits conveniently downtown, but in this sociable city it's just as easy to ask a friendly food server or cashier what's cooking.

MUSIC Living legends of early rock and roll are in short supply, but the surf guitar hero Dick Dale still shreds as hard as when he first cut "Misirlou. " His famously ornery stage presence is as winning as his Stratocaster fireworks. SLO Brew, 1119 Garden St., San Luis Obispo. 7 p.m. Thu. $25. Slobrewingco.com.

The agreement by investor Warren Buffett's MidAmerican Energy Holdings to buy a $2-billion photovoltaic farm in San Luis Obispo County could bring a ray of financial sunshine to the battered solar-energy industry. The scale of Buffett's foray into this sector of the renewable energy scene is considerably more modest than his $34-billion purchase of BNSF Railway, but it could provide the same kind of boost to the solar power business that the 2009 acquisition did to the railroad industry, experts said.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that California State University did not violate the state's open meeting law in January when it approved a $350,000 annual salary for the new president of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. In April, Lillian Taiz, president of the California Faculty Assn., sued the university's Board of Trustees and Cal State Chancellor Charles Reed, arguing that the public should have received prior notification that the salary for Jeffrey D. Armstrong would exceed the previous maximum rate of $328,212 for top executives by nearly $20,000.

For someplace fresh and exhilarating in Carmel, try Dametra Cafe. We never miss sharing their Greek combination platter ($19.95) on an all-Mediterranean menu. Everything is affordable; the place is tiny, colorful and exuberant but not noisy. Co-owner Bashar Sneeh is likely to stroll by strumming his oud. Pizzas from $11.95, entrees from $14.95. Dametra Cafe, southeast corner of Ocean and Lincoln, Carmel by the Sea; (831) 622-7766, http://www.dametracafe.com . Barbara Frank San Luis Obispo

Can't face "Carmageddon"? Consider taking a train trip out of town to Santa Barbara or San Luis Obispo. If you act quickly, you may score discounts for the weekend too. The Carmageddon wildcard, of course, is that no one knows exactly what will happen to traffic Saturday when the 405 Freeway shuts northbound along a 10-mile section between Interstate 10 and the 101 Freeway, and southbound between the 101 and Getty Center Drive....

Traces of radioactive iodine have been found in milk from San Luis Obispo, but officials say the amounts are so small that they pose no risk. "People need to realize that really trace amounts do not pose a threat to public health," said Mike Sicilia, a spokesman for the California Department of Public Health. "The levels we detected are nearly 5,000 times less than FDA standards. " The radioactive material is iodine-131, which is produced by nuclear fission. It hadn't been found in California milk samples before fallout from Japan's ravaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant drifted across the Pacific.

State Sen. Sam Blakeslee said Monday that he would try to block Pacific Gas & Electric's licenses to run one of the state's two coastal nuclear power plants unless the utility withdraws its renewal application pending a seismic study of the facility's site. Blakeslee, a San Luis Obispo Republican whose district includes the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, wants to know the potential effect of a recently discovered fault line near there. "I'm concerned mostly about this culture of disregard of risk," said Blakeslee, who has a doctorate in geophysics.

Trips to Spain and Argentina, choice Lakers tickets, gourmet meals and rounds of golf are among the $637,000 in gifts that elected state officials accepted last year, many from companies and groups that lobby in Sacramento. The gifts, disclosed in statements of economic interest released by the state Thursday, reflect how loose ethics rules are in California compared with some other states. Acceptance of many of the gifts common in California is strictly forbidden in New York and Arizona, for example.