Chris Smith: Why Santa Rosa Mombo's Pizza owner can't get enough of 'Money Monster'

HOLLYWOOD'S WALL STREET THRILLER, “Money Monster,” may not be the greatest movie ever, but Sonoma County pizza guy Fred Poulos could watch it all day.

Much of the film starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts involves a frantic, gun-at-your-head search for $800 million in investors' missing money. Amid the pursuit, one word pops up again and again.

It sounds to be Mombo, or Mambo. When Fred saw the movie, he especially liked it each time Clooney or Roberts uttered the word.

Mombo.

At one point in the flick, somebody taps the word into an Internet search engine, then reports, “It's a pizza place.”

That's the part that had Fred, the founder and proprietor of the Mombo's Pizza parlors in Santa Rosa and Sebastopol, dabbing happy tears.

Don't read further if don't want a spoiler. It turns out that the recurring word has naught to do with pizza and everything to do with a South African union leader, Moshe Mambo.

Were I Fred, there'd be on the pizzeria specials board a monster topped richly with pesto and peppers and anything else money-green, and called the Mombo Moshe.

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THE HEADSTONE that's engraved with the name of Thomas B. Ashley, who died the 10th of March in 1867, will soon be back where it belongs.

Much credit goes to my colleague Clark Mason, who wrote Sunday about the sleuthing and cemetery restoration of Santa Rosa's Jeremy Nichols.

Shortly after the story was posted online, Nichols received an email from Cheryl Ronconi Tennyson of Petaluma.

Wed to a descendant of Thomas B. Ashley, she recounted how the headstone was plucked long ago from the Spring Hill Cemetery near Sebastopol and how it came to be in her and her husband's yard.

Aware that the Spring Hill graveyard is quite nice following restoration work, Tennyson asked Nichols of he'd return Ashley's headstone to his grave.

Nichols, who lives for that sort of thing, will see that the marker is replaced on June 3.

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A GOOD FELLOW: It's a world-class honor that Samuel Kortum, son of late Sonoma County veterinarian and environmental pioneer Bill Kortum, has been named a 2016 fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Sam grew up in Petaluma and was launched by Casa Grande High, Class of 1979, to Wesleyan University and on to Yale, where he's an acclaimed professor of economics.

His work to build a better bridge between the theory of international trade and quantitative models of international trade is having impact and it makes his mom in Petaluma, Lucy Kortum, awfully proud.

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SWEET OLD CARS will contrast nicely with modern electric and hybrid beauties in Sebastopol on Saturday at the Driven to Perfection Classic Car Show & Cruise.

Leave it to green-minded Sebastopol to balance classic gas guzzlers with some the latest alternate-power vehicles.

Proceeds from the show, which opens at 10 a.m. in the parking lot at O'Reilly Media on Gravenstein Highway North, will benefit the Sebastopol Area Senior Center and help to keep its ride service on the road.

Maybe next year there will be a self-piloting car there. Have you wondered, how in the world will you test-drive one?

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.