Cover Story
‘I am These People’
I saw the place the Karuk call the center of the world in a painting before going there for real. It was marked with a sleek isosceles triangle, blue magic marker on tinfoil — an emphatic shape that lingered in the mind. Standing before his painting, Brian D. Tripp turned to me in the oaken…
Toni’s is Fancy Now
Toni’s has had work done. In the weeks you spent driving past its empty parking lot, afraid the closure of the one spot in Arcata that was always open might be forever, the truck stop swapped out its humble decor for glass, stainless steel and enough barn wood to make an actual barn. On a…
Last-minute Thanksgiving Recipes
Whether you had grand plans for the holiday meal or you’re flying by the seat of your chef’s pants, these Thanksgiving-ready recipes might come in handy. Stuck for sides? Nothing could be more fitting than a soup of acorns, a traditional indigenous food staple. Stuffed acorn squash is a winner and even works as a…
North Coast Night Lights: 1964 High Water on the Avenue
In 1964 a perfect storm of snow melt and heavy rains caused a historic flood in Humboldt County and the greater Pacific Northwest. Along the Eel River watershed, the raging flood waters wiped out roads, bridges, and entire communities. U.S. Highway 101 was submerged at some points. That was before my memory, and now most…
Music Tonight: Wednesday, Nov. 21
Holus Bolus, the one-man band from our neighbor to the north Crescent City, is a fine small-room act. A little bit country, twang, folk and space jams, this mysterious stringer has perfected the art of filling a space with the musical equivalent of a fog machine playing aural bursts of curling ambience. Come find out…
Poor Quality Delays Commercial Crab Season
The start of the North Coast’s commercial Dungeness crab season has been delayed until at least Dec. 16 due to “poor crab meat quality test results,” according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. According to a release, more tests are tentatively scheduled to take place in the region around Dec. 1 and, if…
Music Tonight: Tuesday, Nov. 20
More than once I have found myself, whether because I am picking up a drunk friend or am in fact inebriated myself, a stranger in the strange land of Eureka, at the Blues Tuesdays night at the Vista Del Mar. Beginning at 7 p.m., you can find a rotating cast of bluesters walking through the…
Things are About to Get Wet Outside
After a mild beginning to the fall season, things are about to get wet. Really, really wet. And, maybe, a bit loud as well. The National Weather Service is predicting the first storm system will hit late tonight and continue into the morning hours with the possibility of coastal thunderstorms Wednesday afternoon into Thanksgiving morning.…
New Survey Reveals Who Owns Guns in California — and How Many Got Them Without Background Checks
In a state that has some of the nation’s toughest gun control laws, one in four California gun owners own firearms that they somehow managed to buy without undergoing background checks, researchers at UC Davis’ Violence Prevention Research Program reported at a recent meeting. An estimated 4.2 million California adults own guns, 14 percent of…
HumBug: Damsels in Fall
The unseasonably warm and dry weather seems to be to allowing some species of insects to linger later in the year than I’ve seen before. Among them are two damselflies. I checked my archives, and this is the latest date in the year I’ve ever noted either the rubyspot or California spreadwing (Archilestes californica). I…
UPDATE: Blue Lake Robbery Suspect Arrested After 101 Shut Down
UPDATE: The Blue Lake Rancheria is reporting that the suspect in an armed robbery at the Play Station 777 and subsequent carjacking has been arrested in Del Norte County. The Triplicate is reporting that suspect Jeff Gatlin was arrested. Read the Blue Lake Rancheria release below: The Blue Lake Rancheria is providing the following information.…
Double Cross
Listen, sweetheart. It’s a crazy, mixed up world, especially in director Billy Wilder’s 1944 uber-noir Double Indemnity, playing at the Eureka Theater at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 16 ($5). Fred MacMurray — that’s right, kid, the wholesome fella you knew from My Three Sons — stars as Walter Neff, an insurance man who falls…
Music Tonight: Saturday, Nov. 17
It’s Saturday night and money is often tight, so here are three free to-dos to fill the apotheosis of your weekend nightlife. From north to south: At 9 p.m. at Cher-Ae Heights local Pink Floyd tribute act Money will be ticking away the moments that make up a dull day while you fritter and waste…
Mushroom Mania
Check out the fungus among us at Humboldt Bay Mycological Society’s 40th annual Mushroom Fair on Sun., Nov. 18 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. ($5 adults and kids over 16, $1 youth ages 12-16, free under 12). There won’t be mush room left in the Arcata Community Center after it’s stocked with between 300…
Election Update: Trinidad Council Race Remains Tight
The Humboldt County Elections Office released updated results this afternoon that leave things pretty much where we left off on election night. The new tallies add about 9,000 votes but the percentages remain roughly the same in most races. Of note is the nail biter up in tiny Trinidad, where six candidates are vying for…
Storyteller ‘Carpathian’ Pleads No Contest in Sexual Abuse Case
The man whom many knew as the local storyteller “Carpathian” has pleaded no contest to sexually abusing a child and is facing up to 16 years in prison, according to the Times-Standard. The paper reports that John Beideman, who worked as a Humboldt Superior Court records clerk, is set to be sentenced Dec. 14. The…
Humboldt Gem and Mineral Show
Calling all rock hounds: The annual Humboldt Gem and Mineral Show will be held Fri., Nov. 16 through Sun., Nov. 18 at Redwood Acres Fairgrounds. There will be fossils, live gem cutting demonstrations and a huge assortment of gems and minerals to peruse. You better check this schist out.
Music Tonight: Friday, Nov. 16
The Westhaven Center for the Arts is having its third Friday of the month jazz night this evening at 7 p.m. The title of tonight’s show is “Nicaraguan, Bolivian, and Cuban diaries” and features regular trio RLA backing performances by Don Baraka on sax, flute and bass, as well as a spoken word piece by…
Update: Three Alarm Fire in Eureka at Apartments on California Street
UPDATE: Humboldt Bay Fire evacuated a California Street apartment building owned by Floyd and Betty Squires of nearly a dozen people and rescued “a number of pets” from last night’s fire at the property, one of 26 placed under a “receivership” by the courts to procure needed repairs. The couple is currently in bankruptcy proceedings…
Signboard Fire Near Hoopa Continues to ‘Creep and Smolder’
The “low-intensity” Signboard Fire is continuing to “creep and smolder” in national forest land near the Tish Tang Ridge, growing to 53 acres, according to a release from Six Rivers National Forest. An “inversion of fog and smoke” prevented helicopter water drops on the blaze, which began Nov. 13 when a prescribed burned escaped its…
A Wild Night of Eureka High Football (with video)
It was a stag-gering experience for some folks at last Friday’s Eureka High School football game against De Anza when an unexpected visitor took the field, much to the apparent delight of folks in the stands by the sounds of the video. Watch the video by Sally Graham below: The Loggers, by the way, handily…
UPDATE: Smoky Haze Lingering From Camp Fire as Death Toll Grows
The smoky haze from the Camp Fire will continue to settle over the region today at levels equal to or slightly better than yesterday, according to the National Weather Service. Read more here and here and here. Meanwhile, grim numbers continue to be reported by officials in Butte County, where 56 people are now confirmed…
Holiday Open House in Old Town and Downtown Eureka
Kick off the holiday season in Old Town and Downtown Eureka. Join participating merchants for the first Holiday Open House on Fri., Nov. 16 from 5 to 9 p.m. and enjoy a night of merry n’ bright festivities. Enter to win gift certificates and the grand prize — dinner for two at Restaurant 301 and…
Taste of the Holidays
Get a Taste of the Holidays on Thursday, Nov. 15 from 5 to 8 p.m. Sample food, wine and brews from more than 30 local specialty food and beverage producers. There will be a Dutch auction and silent auction with proceeds benefiting the Rotary Club of Arcata. Bring a gift for Toys for Tots and…
Music Tonight: Thursday, Nov. 15
There’s a Thanksgiving benefit show tonight at the Outer Space at 7 p.m. Join Smooth Weirdos, Frog and one-man drone act Idyll as they team up to rustle up non-perishable goods for Food For People. Only $5 gets you in the door but $1 is deducted from the cover for every can of food donated.…
‘Standing Up’
Editor: Thank you for giving a stronger voice to the three trans people featured on your cover (“#WeWillNotBeErased,” Nov. 8). Thank you for letting us know more about Key’Maan Stringer, the extraordinary young college kid lost at the jetty (“Sunshine Every Day,” Nov. 8). Thank you for letting us hear from the amazing Sadie Shelmire,…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Interior designer Dorothy Draper said she wished there were a single word that meant “exciting frightfully important, irreplaceable, deeply satisfying, basic, and thrilling, all at once.” I wonder if such a word exists in the Chamicuro language spoken by a few Peruvians or the Sarsi tongue spoken by the Tsuu T’ina…
About Single Payer
Editor, Thanks to everyone who voted for Eureka Mayor-elect Susan Seaman, City Councilmembers-elect Leslie Castellano, Kim Bergel and Natalie Arroyo! (“Incumbents Cruise and McKinley Will Come Down in a Sanctuary County,” Nov. 8.) These four all support direct action on our local level to install a single-payer healthcare system in California. They believe that saving…
An Unexpected Crime Thriller
Reviews CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? is based on the autobiography by Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy), a real-life biographer who began writing magazine profiles for the likes of Katharine Hepburn in the 1960s and made it to the New York Times bestseller list. It’s a squalid little gem of a film, it’s a tale of…
Corrections
The story headlined “Sunshine Every Day” in the Nov. 8, 2018, edition of the North Coast Journal misspelled Key’Maan Stringer’s name in a sub-headline due to an editing error. And the election results grid in the same paper misidentified the party affiliation of California State Senate Second District challenger Veronica Jacobi, who ran as a…
Word Play
As a young boy, I lost a classwide spelling bee on the word “broccoli.” My teacher said I spelled it with two ‘l’s (I didn’t, and I will die on that hill if I must). So when Chip Tolentino (Evan Needham) was eliminated on “tittup” in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, I empathized.…
The Bear Harbor Railroad, 1892-1905
From May to September on the third Saturday of each month, visitors to Fort Humboldt State Park enjoy free rides behind a couple of veteran steam logging locomotives, courtesy of the Timber Heritage Association. The Falk operated for 40 years from 1884 on, including serving Noah Falk’s eponymous town. The other announces her heritage in…
Exploring the Historic Sinkyone Wilderness
The first thing I see upon waking is a female elk poking her head into our open van door, a few inches from my husband Barry’s face. I blink. Is this real? The elk wanders off and Barry starts to laugh. “What’s the protocol when a lady elk approaches you?” he asks. We have just…
The Green Wave
If there was a clear-cut winner on Election Day, it wasn’t Democrats or Senate Republicans, and it certainly wasn’t The Donald. It was cannabis. Amid all the hand-wringing and consternation over whether a Blue wave was going to crash over the nation, national pundits largely have overlooked the fact that the nation is awash in…
The Holiday Pie Divide
Like many of you, my family ate pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving. But I never dug it. Pumpkin pie was typically bland and one dimensional, so I usually just skipped dessert and, for years, longed for that sumptuous finale befitting of a feast. Then in my 20s, it happened. I began dating my now-husband and had…
Back in Town
I have written here before about my antagonistic relationship with nostalgia and the withering contempt it generates in me. As Spider Jerusalem from Warren Ellis’ excellent comic book Transmetropolitan observes, “The future is an inherently good thing.” However, with all of the familiar faces and returning musicians in this week’s column, I find myself flexing…
Life Coaching from an Ancient Redwood
Grow. Seek light. Never stop. Welcome winter rain and summer fog. Don’t let little nuisances bore under your bark. Work to increase your heartwood year by year. Strive upward. Spread and entwine your roots with those of your peers. Cling fast to each other in storms. Even in old age, you can sprout new roots.…
Changing the Landscape
Last week, as wildfires sparked to the south and east of Humboldt County that would soon come to devastate large parts of the state and capture national attention, organizers around the small Klamath River town of Orleans had just finished their fifth annual training to advance prescribed burning — both the skills and the public…
McKinleyville Water Rates Set to Spike
Some McKinleyville residents are up in arms overp increases in their water and sewer bills. The new rates, which go into effect Jan. 1, will continue to rise each year until January of 2023. About 10 residents appeared at a public hearing held by the McKinleyville Community Services District on Nov. 7 to make their…
‘Pharmaceutical Catalyst’
Editor: Regarding the recent coverage of violent crimes in Arcata (“Lawlessness,” Nov. 1) the author points out several contributing factors that may or may not acerbate the spike in an attempt to identify a remedy. The story cited alcohol and drugs and training by the Bureau of Alcohol Beverage Control. My observation is that no…
The Art of the Question
Editor: Regarding the guardians of “fake news” (“The Real Fight Against Fake News,” Oct. 4), reporters come off remarkably un-savvy when they hit Mr. Trump with questions like these: “Mr. President, how do you see yourself as a moral leader?” They are ineffectual, these reporters, if “gotcha” is their game, which it is. So rather…
