Falling Trees Ahead
It’s Caltrans v. treehuggers in SoHum and north
More NPK
This week’s North Coast Journal includes a portion of a conversation with NPK guitarist Tanner Speas in The Hum . Our chat covered much more territory, touching on issues like diesel dope, and some of you may want to read more. Here’s the rest of the story in Q&A form: I understand you’re about to…
Trouble at the mall
Not that kind of trouble Gottschalks’ announcement yesterday that they’re filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy means yet more trouble for Bayshore Mall parent company General Growth Properties. A story on NPR this morning elucidated the woes of the nation’s second largest mall operator. If GGP can’t figure out a way to pay off their significant…
Thompson, our squeaky wheel
Our trusty Congressional mouthpiece, Rep. Mike Thompson, is speaking out on behalf of us backwater yokels, a-scrappin’ and a-hustlin’ for some of that $800 kazillion-berzillion (or whatever) stimulus package. In a letter sent last week to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader John Boehner, Thompson, along with 32 other Congressmembers, argued for the importance…
Web Death
The paper’s Web site — www.northcoastjournal.com — has been down almost all day, and now it looks like it’s gonna roll right on into tomorrow. The people at Morse Media say that this is due to problems at the datacenter facility from which Morse rents space. That’s Silicon Valley Web Hosting — see their ultrahelpful…
Pay no attention!
A Humboldt County voting booth The disturbing revelations brought about through the Humboldt Transparency Project may be going viral. A story posted today on Threat Level, a politics and crime blog on Wired magazine’s blog network, describes in painstaking detail how the curtain was pulled back on the voting machines created by the wizards of…
Bomb Humboldt?
Oh, that British humour. A columnist with the 72-year-old U.K. Labour magazine Tribune — incidentally in the shaky midst of being sold — ponders the implications of President-elect Barack Obama’s Christmas message and predicts possible widespread retributions. Chris Proctor writes: Our great English king and crusader, the Lionhearted Richard, felt the need to explain to…
Farmers’ Daughters
And sons, of course — they, your kids, are the ones who may be taking over the family farm once you’ve, uh, bought the farm. Or maybe it’ll be some other sodbustin’, cattle-cooin’, sheep-shearin’ member of the family. Or haven’t you thought about that? Think you’re going to live forever? Think things will all go…
Happy Days, Here Again
PREVIEWS In Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood plays a cranky old codger in Detroit who finds a purpose — staring down street gangs, Dirty Harry-style. This after working through some personal issues and befriending the Hmong families who have moved into his neighborhood. Rated R for language and some violence. 116 m. At the Broadway, Mill…
Don’t Want To Hear No Blues
It was back in the days when vinyl records were the primary means of music delivery. I mostly shopped at a store in Northtown called The Recordworks (which would eventually spawn The Works). Unconcerned with the latest hits, I always checked the cut-out bin, where remaindered treasures could often be found. At some point I…
Madoffed?
The victims of Bernard Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme continue to pile up at the base of the cliff, a sad tangle of duped philanthropic organizations, banks, hedge funds and individuals. The reverberation, as well, continues to travel ever outward. Madoff was arrested in early December and accused of fraudulent investments — he used new investors’…
This Means War
"Don’t imagine your cool new president is going to give you a pass," we said a week after the Nov. 4 election, in re the successful Eureka and Arcata citizen initiatives banning military recruiters from targeting children ("Town Dandy," Nov. 13). As it happened, though, the feds moved to overturn Measures F and J almost…
It’s a Weed
Editor: As much as I like the photography and artistic creativity of the New Year’s photo essay, I feel the need to express how old and boring this is getting (“New Year’s Eve,” Jan. 1). I personally have no problem with environmentally conscious dope growers and don’t empathize with the tighter regulation sentiments of many…
Hard Boiled
In the refrigerator Montalbano found a plate of cold pasta with tomatoes, basil, and black passuluna olives that gave off an aroma to wake the dead, and a second course of fresh anchovies with onions and vinegar. Montalbano was in the habit of trusting entirely in the simple but zestful culinary imagination of Adelina, the…
Sam
Editor: I want to thank you again for last week’s article about Sam Price (“Saving Sam,” Dec. 25). I agree with Jessie Brownlee’s comment that we all could have done more. We are all in some ways responsible, but I also want to say that I think that she did find support and safety here…
Dirt 2009 To-Do
January never really feels like the beginning of the year to me. September, with its end-of-summer, back-to-school vibe, is the time of year that makes me feel like I’m starting over. January just feels like more of the same: more cold, more wet, more long, dark nights. But I can’t help but look ahead and…
Rx for St. Joe
Editor: While I wouldn’t have used the term “fed-up,” I am extremely disappointed by the conduct of the Board of Trustees of St. Joseph Hospital (“Medical Chief Grief,” Jan. 1). During the 12 years that I have been a member of the medical staff, the St. Joseph’s board has rarely played a significant role in…
Reach Out and Touch Someone
Water is a weird and wonderful substance. Most liquids are made up of essentially separate molecules — gasoline molecules, for instance, have little attraction for their neighbors, so each is pretty much independent. Water molecules, in contrast, have relatively strong attractions to their neighbors. If they didn’t, water would be a gas, much the same…
Media Moron
Editor: I seriously don’t think I have ever read anything in this paper as wild as “Zombies of the ER,” by Marcy Burstiner (Jan. 1). Having an apparent meltdown over the columnists from the Reporter now appearing twice weekly in the Times-Standard, she uses scads of loaded pejoratives to communicate her liberal hissy fit over…
Sunday At Devil Dirt
With Sunday at Devil Dirt, Scottish singer/songwriter Isobel Campbell, a former member of Belle & Sebastian, has released her second excellent collaboration with former Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan. The comparisons to late 1960s/early ’70s pop singing duets, namely Lee Hazelwood/Nancy Sinatra and Serge Gainsbourg/Jane Birkin are obvious: sexy vocal duets that fell into the…
Caveat Lector
Editor: I have been reading the NCJ for as long as it has been published. I look forward to each new edition arriving in time for my once a week breakfast outing. It is a serious tradition with me and all the staff at the restaurant I frequent. Lately, there have been editions of the…
Hot, Flat and Crowded
In Hot, Flat and Crowded, Friedman provides his readers a broad set of ideas for an energy-climate revolution in which nations will develop renewable energy, preserve biodiversity and, quite literally, save the world. In an ambitious and important book, Friedman moves the conversation from what we can do as individuals to what we can do…
Computer Glitch
Because of a computer error, the URL given in Cindee Grace’s letter last week (“Mailbox,” Jan. 1) was printed incorrectly. The true address at which her book Holistic Self-Care for Post Traumatic Stress & Dissociative Identity can be found is amyweintraub.com/resources.htm.
Emotional Awareness: Overcoming the Obstacles To Psychological Balance and Compassion
Paul Ekman is one of the most respected scientists in the Bay Area, internationally famous for his painstaking work in identifying emotions from facial expressions, even "microexpressions" that indicate when someone is lying. He developed training based on these findings that the Secret Service uses. He also proved one of Darwin’s more obscure theories, that…
Solstice
Winter’s debut frost on the trailer darkness at…
Second Friday Arts! Arcata
Arts! Arcata is Arcata Main Street’s monthly celebration of visual and performing arts, held at more than 30 participating locations in Arcata. Visit www.artsarcata.com for even more information about the event or call 822-4500. 6. Bubbles 1031 H St. Bluegrass music by Clean Livin’. 9. Meridian Fine Art Gallery 833 9th St. Wine served as…
O, Eucalyptus!
We pause now to interrogate a couple hundred of our longest-enduring residents. Experts tell us these old-timers are in the way. Creaky old limbs. Messy. And, besides, they’re not really from around these parts, are they? Australia, actually. And, though they do smell rather nice and get lovelier with each passing year, the fact is…
Drive-Thru Redwoods
The public-comment process for Caltrans’s proposed realignment of U.S. Highway 101 at Richardson Grove began with a low-key meeting in late September 2007, held at the Benbow Valley RV Resort. Three agency representatives spent the afternoon answering polite queries from about two dozen Southern Humboldt and Northern Mendocino residents, most of whom seemed content to…
Nancy’s Day
"I’m so deeply sorry," said Steven Daniel Hash, the thin, soft-spoken man in the orange jump suit, his words barely audible to the woman sitting nearby. Nancy Huntzinger stared back, dark eyes glistening, chin quivering — a mother in angry mourning. I did what any good friend would do; I held her hand. Eighteen years…
