ARIES (March 21-April 19): My reading of the astrological omens inspires me to make a series of paradoxical predictions for you. Here are five scenarios I foresee as being quite possible in the coming weeks. 1. An epic journey to a sanctuary close to home. 2. A boundary that doesn’t keep people apart but brings […]
Life + Outdoors
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Seize the Day on the Bay
I pause and take in the surroundings: sky, water, light, boats, buildings. The word that most often comes to mind is “amazing.” Energized, I resume rowing. I learned to row nine years ago during a summer session for new rowers offered by the Humboldt Bay Rowing Association (HBRA). I learned in an eight-oared shell, practicing […]
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Plenty of Holiday Options for North Coast Anglers
For anglers across the North Coast, Memorial Day weekend provides an excellent opportunity to try your luck at a variety of fishing locations. With plenty of options on the table, the biggest decision might not be if you want to go, but where. Here are a few of the options that will hopefully make your […]
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Chinese Again in Humboldt, Part Three
Editor’s note: This story, which originally ran in the Ferndale Enterprise, includes racist language in quotations from historical newspaper articles. On Sunday, Sept. 30, 1906, one day after a mixed-race workforce of Chinese and Japanese men and white women arrived at the Starbuck-Tallant Co.’s salmon cannery in Port Kenyon, a mass meeting took place in […]
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Lava Beds, Lava Tubes, Modoc War
A geological hotspot deep underground in the northeast corner of California has been sending molten rock to the surface for over half a million years. It’s a reminder that we live out our brief lives on a geologically active planet that counts the passing of time in millennia, not months and years. Medicine Lake volcano, situated […]
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Strong Start for Pacific Halibut and Rockfish
Much like the Pacific halibut opener a couple weeks ago, Monday’s rockfish season debut was curtailed by rough ocean conditions. Luckily the delay lasted just a day as boats were headed to the rockfish grounds first thing Tuesday morning. And as expected, wide-open rock fishing was reported from Shelter Cove north to Crescent City. Expect […]
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The Birdmobile
For years I had an old newspaper clipping taped to my even older refrigerator. It was a Car Talk column by Tom and Ray Magliozzi called, “Who’s Hardest on Cars, Anyway?” A couple had written the mechanics asking them to determine once and for all if men or women wore out their cars more quickly. […]
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Chinese Again in Humboldt, Part Two
Editor’s note: This story, which originally appeared in the Ferndale Enterprise, contains quotations that include racist language and slurs. On Saturday, Sept. 29, 1906, the steamer Roanoke arrived in Eureka’s harbor from Astoria, Oregon. Among its passengers were members of the management team for the new salmon cannery about to begin operations at Port Kenyon, […]
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Hake on the Menu
As a billionaire, I’m told I should do something good for the planet. That’s B.S., of course, but I opened a sustainable seafood restaurant to make it look like I care. At the Washed-Up Seafood Galley, everything is extra-sustainable because my staff of expert beachcombers only harvests already dead or dying organisms. And there’s no […]
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Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries dramatist Samuel Beckett, winner of the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature, wrote 22 plays. The shortest was Breath. It has no dialogue or actors and lasts less than a minute. It begins and ends with a recording of the cry of a newborn baby. In between there are the sounds […]