Mailbox

Editor: Ryan Burns’ story "Crossing Schools" was a pleasant and welcome surprise in your Feb. 5 paper. I have taught at Dow’s Prairie School for 24 years and was expecting to see yet another hit-and-miss effort at understanding the reconfiguration controversy. Instead, Burns presented a well-researched, in-depth survey of the complexity of the issues and […]

Editor: Marcy Burstiner correctly notes that "here in Humboldt, we all seem to complain about the quality of our local newspapers" ("Dark Ages," Feb. 5). But when she lists the newspapers whose "hard-working reporters" without whose work "we wouldn’t have a clue as to what’s happening in our small, isolated world," she omits the Redwood […]

It’s a pleasure to see poetry, especially about birds, published in the North Coast Journal ("Foot of Del Norte Street," Feb. 5). However, the "grackles" in the poem are undoubtedly Brewer’s Blackbirds, as grackles have been sighted in Humboldt but a handful of times and "readle-cak" is a valid translation of the blackbird’s call.  We […]

Editor: I saw The Wild Guys last week and I must have been at a different play than your critic, William S. Kowinski ("Stage Matters," Feb. 5). First mistake is in the first sentence: Andy (Mike Halton) clearly states that he has only been in a men’s group for a few months and has never […]

Editor: The suggestion by Hank Sims that critics of the Headwaters Fund Board "tape their mouths shut or jump into the sea in shame" ("Town Dandy," Jan. 29) is a stunning reflection of the snow job perpetrated on Sims and the general media concerning the gift of $500,000 from the Headwaters Fund to the City […]

Editor: In your recent article “Hobart’s Children” (Jan. 29), you wrote: “Where did the current litigious battle for his legacy begin? Ellin Beltz suggests starting with Brown v. Humboldt Kinetic Association.” You also write that when the Humboldt Kinetic Association “… realized the race couldn’t turn a profit, they stopped payments and Hobart sued.” That’s […]

Editor: Last week’s “Town Dandy” (Jan. 29) was yet another example of why I shield my children from the local weekly in our town. Your verbal masturbation in place of balanced commentary created an impression of us v. them. It’s an easy out for you to quip, in your fanciful word dance, about taping shut […]

Editor: Most of the thick nonsense started with the HKA suit (“Hobart’s Children,” Jan. 22). Hobart was heavily medicated at that time. A mysterious Ferndale woman had a bigger picture in mind. Will it turn out in her favor in the end? ’Cause the drama is not over yet. No chance Hobart would have initiated […]

Editor: Wow. It must’ve been a slow news week if you are reduced to running nearly a full page of content to a “story” about a local guy trying to sell an Obama business card for hundreds of dollars (“The Change Card,” Jan. 22). This is the sort of item that might warrant a one-sentence […]

Editor: I must commend Mr. Sims on his colorful wit and vivid imagination, reflected in the Town Dandy piece (Jan. 15). We love to hate that Railroad Tycoon that now “runs the NCRA,” and finally “came clean” about using the tracks that run through Supervisor Clendenen’s “domain”! (Sounds like a B western movie plot!) I […]

Editor: Marcy Burstiner recently made some comments that questioned the inclusion in the Times-Standard of an editorial page that was a remnant of the defunct The Eureka Reporter (“Media Maven,” Jan .1) A reader passionately disagreed with Ms. Burstiner (“Mailbox,” Jan. 8). While my own stridency sometimes disqualifies me from reasonable discourse, I must offer […]

Editor: Thank you, Seth Zuckerman, for putting your finger right on it (“Bond Freeze,” Jan. 15). Water and park bond funds are economic stimulus, infrastructure development and training. Those dollars support local vendors and contractors, improve ecosystem health and public access, extend scientific understanding and educate the public about the world we live in. A […]