Turns out that my weakness for rum balls is shared by the co-owner of Eureka Books. Scott and I found ourselves standing in front of what I think of as the "Temptation Display" in Ramones. "So what’s the topic of your next Journal piece?" he asked. "Haven’t a clue," I replied, "Any ideas?" "Albino redwoods." […]
Life + Outdoors
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The Tides of the Bay
Twice a day, Humboldt Bay inhales and exhales a vast amount of water through the half-mile-wide harbor entrance between north and south spits. How much water? Picture a cube straddling four city blocks, that is, two blocks long, wide and high. That’s the volume, on average, that passes through the “throat” of the bay every […]
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Ghost Bike
As you drive east on Highway 299, nearing Blue Lake you might be startled by the white bicycle chained to the fence a couple dozen feet off the highway. Next to it someone has hung two wreaths. The "ghost bike" marks the spot where Blue Lake resident Greg Jennings, 42, died on Aug. 25 as […]
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What I’m Thankful For
Last week I posted a survey on GardenRant, a group blog I’m a part of, asking gardeners if the economic downturn had put a dent in their horticultural shopping habits. Of the 85 people who voted, a third are going to the garden center a lot less than they used to in order to avoid […]
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Hopping Along the Beach
While strolling along the beach, as the waves wash over your toes, you’ve probably noticed little acrobatic critters performing back flips in the sand. These beach hoppers, sometimes called sand fleas, are actually amphipods. Amphipods are a type of crustacean, found in both marine and terrestrial habitats, which appear in a variety of different sizes […]
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Eureka, Archimedes and the Golden Crown
Have you ever wondered why the name of our county seat appears right there on the state seal? (In fact, it’s the state motto.) And speaking of Eureka, what’s that about Archimedes running naked around the streets of Syracuse yelling the name of Humboldt’s largest city? Archimedes was the greatest mathematician of the ancient world. […]
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Urgent Care
It came in as an anonymous tip: Nurses, a whole mess of ’em, were said to be leaving Mad River Community Hospital’s operating room en masse for the sanctified halls of Eureka’s St. Joseph Hospital. The departures, we were told, may well force a shutdown of the OR at Mad River, Arcata’s beleaguered private hospital […]
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Logjam
Times is tough, but in Humboldt County, few have it tougher than mill workers. Hot on the heels of the Evergreen pulp mill shutdown comes another closure, this one on the opposite end of the Samoa peninsula and, hopefully, much shorter-term. Sierra Pacific Industries’ Arcata lumber mill halted operations Monday citing market conditions, that insurgent […]
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The Obama Garden
I am writing this on the morning after the election, trying to tame my hangover in time for more champagne at another victory party tonight. During his acceptance speech last night, President-Elect Obama laid out many challenges that Americans face, but he overlooked our most pressing problem: What to do with all those hours that […]
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Rainforest Remedies
Many scientific discoveries affecting our health have come from research done with plants from rainforests. Did you know native rainforests of the Pacific Northwest, including the redwoods, have contributed greatly? Very important historical and contemporary medicinal compounds have been isolated from native plants of California. Often these pharmaceutical breakthroughs originated with the native wisdom of […]
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The Big Buy-in
A couple of rings and then, in a chipper sing-song: “Thanks for calling The World’s Greatest Bank this is Tracy how may I direct your call?” That’s how tellers at Umpqua Bank answer the phone, all earnest and frighteningly pert. Lots of companies force this kind of pathological sunniness on their workers, like those acid-trip […]
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Humboldt: What’s in a Name?
The schooner Laura Virginia made history on April 14, 1850, by becoming the first vessel to enter our bay. Captain Douglass Ottinger and his second officer, Hans Buhne, promptly named the bay “Humboldt” after a German naturalist. Three years later, Humboldt Bay gave its name to our county when it was detached from Trinity County. […]