Life + Outdoors
Posted inLife + Outdoors
A Bird in Hand
You’re strolling around the neighborhood one morning when something odd catches your eye. You take a closer look and find a bird in the grass. It looks like a young one: Some of its feathers are stubby, others fluffy, and it hops along as if unsure how to fly. You’re worried it might end up […]
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Vulcan: Missing in Action
Vulcan was the Roman god of fire; he was also ugly. The good news is that he somehow got to marry the goddess Venus, who was something of a catch. The bad news is she was constantly unfaithful. Although sounding like a bit of a loser, Vulcan had the last laugh, giving us our word […]
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Wizard Sticks
Like all wizards, my old friend Merdalf carried a long wooden staff. It was covered in markings that looked like ancient runes and mysterious maps. He found it washed up on the beach. Unfortunately, Merdalf the Wizard violated some unwritten rule of wizardry and fell into a magic bottomless pit. On calm nights, you can […]
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Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In Stephen King’s novel It, a character named Beverly is in love with a man who projects a sense of authority but also listens well. He is strong-minded but receptive; confident but willing to be changed; self-possessed but open to influence. That’s an apt description of the allies I wish for […]
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Answers to Summer Puzzles
Surviving the Toss: Either the two tosses come up the same (two heads or two tails) or different (one head, one tail). So one of them, say Alice, always says that Bob’s toss will be the same as hers, e.g. she sees heads and guesses that Bob will get heads. Bob does the opposite, e.g. […]
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Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Emotions are not inconvenient distractions from reason and logic. They are key to the rigorous functioning of our rational minds. Neurologist Antonio Damasio proved this conclusively in his book Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. The French philosopher’s famous formula—”I think, therefore I am”—offers an inadequate suggestion about how […]
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Folklife Strums On
Many of Humboldt County’s finest local musicians could be found at this year’s Humboldt Folklife Festival. The week-long lineup of offerings by local musicians started with the new Folk School Day on Sunday in Blue Lake, with free classes on bluegrass guitar, banjo, mandolin, percussion, songwriting and singing. The traditional Songwriter Showcase on Tuesday featured […]
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Quillback Rockfish Off the Menu Starting Aug. 7
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife projects the combined recreational and commercial take of quillback rockfish will exceed the harvest limits specified in federal regulation for 2023 is prohibiting retention of the fish statewide in both the recreational and commercial fisheries effective Aug. 7. From the CDFW July 28 announcement: “The 2021 stock assessment […]
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Summer Puzzles
Every year at this time, I check what I’ve dumped into my “puzzles” folder over the past 12 months. Hope you enjoy them as much as you enjoy the one or two hours when the sun shines here in coastal Humboldt. I think it’s called “summer.” The first is about as counterintuitive as any puzzle […]