Mega-village
Behind the effort to create the largest residential development in county history
Cover Story
Mega-village
Until a few years ago, the biggest planned residential development in county history was Shelter Cove, site of the infamous late-’60s real estate swindle in which unscrupulous developers tried to sell thousands of residential lots, many of them unbuildable, on the remote, singularly beautiful — but tectonically violent — Lost Coast. Most of the lots…
Former Eureka Priest Charged With Child Sexual Abuse
A story in today’s San Francisco Chronicle reveals that Patrick Joseph McCabe, a former Catholic priest who led Eureka’s St. Joseph Parish in the early 1980s, has been charged with sexually assaulting boys in his native Ireland. McCabe, now 74, was assigned to the Eureka church in 1983 by now-deceased Bishop Mark Hurley of Santa…
Here’s Our Water, Take It
For an uneasy time, we consumers of the water purveyed by the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District have dogpaddled around in a massive glut of 60 million gallons a day — slowly sinking under weightier rates to pay for it, all the while snapping at would-be water-thieves. You know: We have the rights to more…
Another Oxycontin Tweaker Holds Up Eureka Pharmacy
Yet another case in this year’s spate of Oxycontin robberies. Maybe it’s interesting to note that Limas Pharmacy, the scene of the crime, is just down from the recently shuttered Hummingbird Healing Center, a medical marijuana dispensary that the county obtained a judicial order to close. How many marijuana dispensaries have been knocked over recently?…
Summer CAMP
It ain’t legal yet, goddammit. That could well be the subtext of a press release today from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, in which they announced the end of week one of the 2010 Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) season. The multi-agency law-enforcement effort yielded more than 33,500 marijuana plants in just four days, according…
Marty and Cinnamon
Cinnamon, a robust, blond-maned Bavarian draft horse, clip-clopped slowly up Eureka’s Second Street, pulling a stately maroon carriage behind her. Perched on the carriage’s padded bench seat and clad in an oiled duster and felt bowler hat, reins in hand, was Marty L’Herault, owner-operator of Old Town Carriage Company. Twisting around, he ducked his head…
Mostly All Right
Previews THE OTHER GUYS. Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg star in a parody of cop/buddy/action flicks directed and co-written by longtime Ferrell collaborator Adam McKay (Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Step Brothers). Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson show up as a macho cop duo. 108 m. Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, language,…
Fieldbrook vs. the bears
The first night the bear came into Bob Smith’s back yard, in Fieldbrook, it tumbled a few of the small-time beekeeper’s hives. Flattened them and ate the honey and bee larvae. Then it moseyed over to Smiths’ neighbors’ houses, all within a mile or so of the Fieldbrook Family Market, and rumbled garbage cans, trampled…
Alas, The Ass-Kicking, Alack, The Cliches
Editor: Charlie Myers’ review of the film Salt (Filmland, July 29) goes a long way toward demonstrating the sad state of the industry. “Kicking ass” is the new measure of action. Cold-war cliches are the new guidelines of plot. Myers and apparently anyone raised on video games gladly eschew motivation as long as someone gets…
What About Bucky’s Map?
Editor: Barry Evans’ column about the limitations of accuracy of world maps (Field Notes, July 29) has one important omission, Bucky Fuller’s Dymaxion World Map. Imagine a globe centered inside of a geodesic solid, such as an icosahedron. With a light at the center of the globe, the map is projected onto the facets of…
There are stories in the bones of fish
The mirror moves in rhythm with the rain…
Ach, A Clammy Goof
Editor: An apology to those who came for the Highland Games on Sunday night and ended up at the wrong parking lot at Clam Beach. This was entirely the fault of the organizers, who chose the wrong address when posting the event on the North Coast Journal’s calendar (July 29). For those who did make…
The Suburbs
In the early 1970s, my parents and I drove up Hwy 17 from Watsonville, then a small farming town, to visit relatives and their new house in Foster City near San Mateo. As soon as we entered Foster City, a relatively new suburb built on landfill in the ’60s, we got lost. All the houses…
Cell Co-inventor Shuns It
Editor: I support Shane Brinton’s proposal to require stores in Arcata to list emissions of each model of cell phone that they sell. There is credible evidence that use of hand-held cell phones, especially by children, increases the incidence of brain cancer. The evidence is not yet strong enough to be able to yet say…
Suitcase Full of Dreams
Suitcase Full of Dreams is the evocative first-person account of a brown-skinned girl’s childhood, and the oppressive poverty and racist crimes and indignities visited on African Americans in rural Mississippi and Alabama in the 1950s and ’60s. Hoy Kersh’s nature-loving, politically astute father worked two jobs, and her mother made homemade lace curtains and quilts.…
Humboldt County Haiku
Cartoon by Joel Mielke
Serendipity in Science
Years ago, while my morning London bus was stopped outside St. Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, my eye was often drawn to a small plaque reading, “Here in 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin.” Discovered? Well, yes. And no. Truth is, the Scottish scientist (and Nobel Prize laureate) didn’t so much discover the antibiotic as stumble upon…
Arts Alive!
First Saturday Night Arts Alive! Is proudly presented by USBank, with Eureka Main Street and the Humboldt Arts Council Opening receptions for artists, exhibits, and/or performances August 7 6-9 p.m. Phone 707-442-9054, for more information. 1. WORLD CUP 1626 F St. Paul Krakow, photographs.1a. ST. INNOCENT ORTHODOX CHURCH 939 F St. Jeff Jensen, A Declaration…
Chard Season
Now is the season of chard. And kale, and beet greens and other tough leafy greens that you planted optimistically a few months ago, thinking, “This will be the year I healthfully gag down mountains of green organic fibrous leaf, thereby cleaning my system and giving my skin the glow of both health and smuggery!”…
Tapping the Source
What’s a fringe artist do when the fringe becomes the mainstream? Infiltrate the mainstream, of course! Sonny Wong and Sheik, two of Humboldt County’s most prominent graffiti art practitioners, have expanded their repertoire to include painting en plein air — also known as painting’s bread-and-butter. Most recently, their show of landscapes, “Nature Bats Last,” was…
Fight the Faux Pox
I blurt things out at inopportune times. It is a disease I’ve had from birth, which I call footinmouthitis, also known as the Faux Pox. Some people who know me find this unnerving and avoid me. Others find it honest and refreshing. They say I tell it like it is. So I was glad that…
Blues Buddy
While packing up the Journal’s Arcata office in preparation for the move to our spacious new digs in Old Town, someone came across a file box full of old promo photos. A blue Post-it note stuck to the top asked, “Bob — Keep?” Absolutely. It was packed with music history. Sorting through the now-archaic ephemera…
Go Wild in Rio Dell
Bad news. If you’re reading this on Thursday you’ve probably already missed part of this year’s Wildwood Days. Sorry. The annual reason to go to Rio Dell is back in full force, running from August 4-8, with family fun aplenty. Like, literally too many things to list here. But we’ll give you the highlights. Now,…
Galician Lark Song
For 30 years now the Lark in the Morning World Music and Dance Celebration, better known simply as Lark Camp, has drawn traditional musicians from around the world to Mendocino Woodlands State Park for a week of workshops and jam sessions with an international scope. A fair number of local musicians attend every year –…
