The approach of Halloween may bring to mind bats, crows, toads and spiders, but there is another creature that fits in with the holiday’s theme: the burying beetle, aka sexton beetle (Nicrophorus defodiens). It’s aptly named, as a sexton is a person who maintains a church’s buildings and churchyard, and whose duties once included digging […]
Life + Outdoors
Posted inGet Out
North Country Fair Rising
“Rise Up!” was the theme for the free and family-friendly 51st annual North Country Fair on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 20 and 21, at the Arcata Plaza. The fair’s organizers said the theme was a reminder “that as a community we can work together to celebrate and advocate for a healthy environment, a vibrant alternative […]
Posted inField Notes
Nefertiti, the Second Monotheist
Her life-sized bust rates a room of its own in the huge museum, sitting on a plinth within a 20-foot-high glass enclosure. Her discoverer, German Egyptologist Ludwig Borchardt, called her “the epitome of tranquility and harmony.” She was found (actually by an Egyptian workman under Borchardt’s supervision) on Dec. 6, 1912, in the ruins of […]
Posted inWashed Up
Magical Comb Jellies
When I was a kid, my babysitter was a witch. She was a typical pointy-hatted, spell-casting witch. But she was also a marine biology major at Humboldt State University, so she’d take me on her broom to the beach after school to look for washed-up stuff. One day she said, “Look, my lovely, the beach […]
Posted inSeriously?
Our Democracy is Crumbling Before My Eyes and Women Still Won’t Sleep with Me
First of all, let me just say this is not what I voted for. In 2024, many young American men like myself were primarily concerned with our economy, immigration, geopolitical conflict and not voting for a Black lady — that’s not a race thing, by the way, because I would not have voted for a […]
Posted inField Notes
Sketches from Humboldt’s Past
“There’s a working theory that within a year of residency, most newcomers are infected with a deep and abiding interest in this great place we call Humboldt.” So starts the introduction to Steve Lazar’s The Humboldt Project. Lazar’s passion is “deltiology,” the study and collecting of postcards. Over the past 15 years, thanks mostly to […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Causing Ferment in the Kitchen
While the cold spring weather this year delayed growth of the vegetable plants in my garden, I am finally getting enough cabbage, garlic and radish to start making kimchi. Like yogurt and kombucha, kimchi, a fermented vegetable dish and staple of the Korean diet, has been enthusiastically adopted in the U.S. and is commonly carried […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
What are the Odds?!
“Players aren’t buying an investment; they’re buying permission to fantasize for a couple of days.” — Jack Murtagh, Scientific American, April 2025 Neurologists recently figured out what gamblers have known ever since a savvy Sumerian grifter invented the shell game: You don’t have to win to be a happy punter. You just have to bet […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Riding All the Way
Three years ago, when I wrote about cycling from the Crannell Road exit of U.S. Highway 101 to the end of the Humboldt Bay Trail (“Cycling Along the Water,” March 10, 2022), I was not optimistic about being able to ride past the “End of Trail” sign in the foreseeable future. It wasn’t because I […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Milky Way Over Benbow Inn
The historic Benbow Inn keeps quiet watch along the South Fork Eel River, a century-old host lit in gold while the stars swing silently across the sky each night. In summer, the Milky Way takes its turn, marking time as it sweeps by like a clock hand through the night. I traveled down there the […]