Cover Story
Flash Fiction 2025
Our talented readers again crammed fantastic stories into 99 words or fewer for the Journal’s annual Flash Fiction Contest. Retired children’s librarian JoAnn Bauer, NCJ Managing Editor Jennifer Fumiko Cahill, poet and novelist David Holper, Booklegger owner Jennifer McFadden and retired Booklegger co-owner Nancy Short returned as judges, diving into diminutive dramas, sample-sized stories and…
How to Bring a Blush to the Snow
It’s the last month of the year, which means I will be listening to a lot of winter tunes as we barrel towards the solstice. Top of that list lately has been Victorialand, the fourth album by the Scottish band Cocteau Twins. Released in 1986, the record is a swirling terrain of sounds inspired by…
Sheriff’s Office Releases Footage From Blue Lake Shooting
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office has released video from the fatal shooting of a 35-year-old man who, according to the investigation, fired at least once at the deputies trying to detain him near Blue Lake on July 26. Eureka resident Jared Randell Nelson, who the office says had an outstanding warrant for being a felon…
First Saturday Night Arts Alive
Dec. 6, 6 to 9 p.m. Experience the vibrant atmosphere as galleries, museums, theaters, bars and restaurants extend their hours. C STREET ARTS ALIVE FEST C Street (Second – Third streets). Guest artists, musicians, performance groups, food trucks and more! 4TH STREET MERCANTILE 215 Fourth St. Various artists. 40° North Gallery 320 Second St., Suite 102. Holiday pop-up shop with various artists…
Wake Up Dead Man Keeps Faith
WAKE UP DEAD MAN: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY. Writer-director Rian Johnson’s Knives Out (2019) is marvelous on a number of levels, harkening back to the ensemble Agatha Christie adaptations of the 1970s and, like the work of the queen of whodunnits, its cheerful skewering of the rich and powerful. In it, we meet gentleman detective…
‘Something of Our Lives’
Editor: I often think about the fact that I’m the extremely unlikely product of an unbroken, four-billion-year-long chain of survival and reproduction. What are the odds? Sometimes I’m wracked with guilt by the fact that, partly by luck but mostly by choice, I’ve broken that chain. Mr. Evans (“The Lure of Immortality,” Nov. 20) points…
‘Not Impressed’
Editor: The four contenders for governor, detailed in the CalMatters article (“They Want to Be California’s Next Governor. Here’s What They’d Do About Health Care, Nov. 20), range in age from 57 to 72. Katie Porter, who didn’t answer CalMatters’ questions, is 51. Other non-respondents were Chad Bianco who is soon to be 59, and…
Winter Gardening, Better Late Than Never
Before fall descends into winter, we vegetable gardeners have to make a decision: whether to put the vegetable garden to bed with a cover crop of crimson clover (or other green manure) until spring, while we cozy up indoors; or to tend a winter garden and have fresh vegetables year-round. A winter vegetable garden is…
Deep Gratitude
Deep Gratitude For everything that sings For leaves rustling in the wind And blossoms returning every spring Deep Gratitude For the four directions For the brightly shining sun And the moon’s reflections Deep Gratitude For winter, summer, day and night For the world going ‘round And wild birds in flight Deep Gratitude For joy unplanned…
