Raising Grandchildren
More grandparents are forgoing their golden years to rear their kids’ kids. How do they cope?
Cover Story
Raising Grandchildren
Patricia Bagley and her visitor sat on plastic chairs on the lawn in front of her modest rural house one recent overcast May morning. Two gnarl-barked trees, a black walnut and a cherry, graced the far end of the lawn. From the backyard came the muted whine of yardwork — a couple of Bagley’s young…
Memorial Run for the Wall
If you’ve followed the news over Memorial Day weekend you’ve heard about the veteran’s biker run, Rolling Thunder, probably because Sarah Palin crashed it for photo op purposes. Blue Lake resident Tish Sloan took off last week to join her vet dad on a pre-Thunder journey called the Run For The Wall (www.rftw.org). She shot…
Know Your 2011 Kinetic Sculptures! (UPDATING!) (NOW WITH SOUND!)
Morning drizzle gave way to glorious sunshine as the 2011 Kinetic Klass gathered on the Arcata Plaza Saturday. Does that signal a glorious weekend is upon us? Time will tell. The following is an almost komplete (we’ll keep adding to it) and helpful guide to this years kompetitors and their exploits. (For a preview of…
Rotary Adopts Playhouse
We love what Jackie Dandeneau and David Ferney have created since they took over a portion of the Old Creamery building in Arcata five years ago and turned it into the Arcata Playhouse. Between traveling and local theater companies, musical acts of all sorts, the Playhouse family series and work with youth, they’ve built the…
May 26-31
May 26. Your horoscope: For a moment, upon awakening, it will seem as if the songs of birds make perfect sense. They will appear to be singing in English, and this will not seem strange at all. You will be surprised, as you listen to their conversations, at how even-handed and considerate birds are.…
Atlas of Oceans: An Ecological Survey of Underwater Life
We live by the Pacific but, like just about everybody else, we live on land. Beyond the shores, for most of us, the oceans are a practical mystery. This book is timely for two reasons: Knowledge of the oceans — especially below the surface — has grown considerably in recent years. And because, amidst our…
Cannibal Courtship
In a sense, the LA-based band Dengue Fever is a postmodernist’s delight — its music is a hybrid of a hybrid. The band fuses Western rock built upon a foundation of ’60s Cambodian pop, itself a hybrid of traditional Cambodian melodies and U.S. ’60s psychedelic, surf and pop. Keyboardist Ethan Holtzman formed Dengue Fever after…
The Egrets of Indian Island
So you’re a Great Egret and your home is the rookery on Indian Island — which you share with a few dozen of your kinfolk — and you’ve got it made. The fishing’s good, you’re safe from humans (who thoughtfully located your pad within the jurisdiction of a National Wildlife Refuge), and the future looks…
A Sneak of Weasels
Pop! Goes the Box of weasels Such a…
Humboldt Cinderella
Of course this Cinderella, our own Cinderella, A Humboldt Cinderella, wears Uggs. Forget that dainty slipper. (Who wears a glass slipper, anyway?) This is a ballet with bona fide ballerinas; an art form with a deceptively dainty reputation. In reality, ballet dancing is hard-ass work. Dancing in pointe shoes onstage may be the equivalent of…
Gloriousity
Just so we’re klear: The Kinetic Grand Championship is happening, people! While some less-than-glorious kancellation kontroversy threatened to dampen this year’s proceedings (see “Rutabaga Scramble,” NCJ 5/19), a K-Universal truce was forged, papers were signed, krises averted and the Kinetic Sculpture Race, now in its 43rd year, will take place in all its Glory as…
Not Strange Enough
Reviews PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES. Sometimes, a commercial film comes along that far exceeds one’s low expectations. A recent case in point for me was Bridesmaids, a film that turned out to be funny with some fine acting, particularly from Kristen Wiig. I had similar low expectations back in 2003 for Pirates…
DeMark Your Calendar
On May 29, storyteller Jeff DeMark turns — get ready, Humboldt — 60 years old! Gasp! Uh oh. I know what you’re thinking. Reaching this soul-crushing milestone means the jovial, freewheelin’ raconteur will be forced to, like, grow up? Hardly. He’s still having too much fun working through the events of his childhood, onstage and…
Ick! Ew!
Editor: While reading the seven stomach churners (“Queasy Eats,” May 12), the words of Dr. Suess came to mind: “That is just sick, sick, sick. Just sick with ick! Ew!” ‘Nuff said. C. J. Williams, Eureka Editor: I was at a restaurant where I saw a gentleman get up to leave. It was painfully obvious…
On a Monday
While the pre-summer, no-college-audience lull is in effect overall, Monday night seems to be full of options. The Eureka Alibi has a three-band blast featuring The Billy Nayer Show, a strange dark combo with the most badass autoharp player you’ll ever hear, Cory McAbee. Wikipedia describes BNS as a New York-based musical group “of questionable…
Tragedy in Trinity
Just two days after allegedly confessing that she’d drowned her own 2-year-old daughter, Sophia, in the Trinity River, 30-year-old Claudia Pedreros of McKinleyville appeared in Trinity County Superior Court Tuesday afternoon to be arraigned on a charge of murder. As an interpreter read the charge to Pedreros in Spanish (she’s believed to be from Chile),…
Rabies Survivor
It started with a stomachache. Eight-year-old Precious Reynolds, who lives in Willow Creek with her grandparents, three siblings and a cousin, had been complaining about tummy troubles, so her grandpa took her to the local clinic. Assuming she had the flu, her doctor advised the usual treatment — rest, fluids — and sent her home.…
