“How does grass make sheep?” We were walking across a field in Northern England recently, and the child-like question popped up, unbidden and unexpected, like similar ones sometimes do: “How do raindrops know to fall straight down and redwoods to grow straight up?” “How does my brain make sense of tiny squiggles on a sheet […]
Life + Outdoors
Posted inSeriously?
Our Daughter Amantha
Attn: Milton G. Burg Junior High Principal Samantha Summers Re: Fair Accommodation Standards for all students, possible litigation Dear Principal Summers, I’m writing to you today to document our family’s struggles over the past few months to obtain a fair and equitable education for our child, your student, Amanthania BloodRoseoftheHeath Anderson. A copy of this […]
Posted inGet Out
Haunted Houses for Halloween
Editor’s Note: The North Coast Journal’s editorial staff would like to thank haunted house enthusiast Amber Saba for touring and scoring the local scare scene so we could cower in the safety of our newsroom. Below are her findings. Griffin Loch’s Scream-a-torium at the Scaregrounds Humboldt County Fairgrounds Thursday, Oct. 30, andFriday, Oct. 31, from […]
Posted inField Notes
Tears in Rain: Musings on Memory
“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.” — Roy Batty’s last words, Blade Runner Or is it “tears in the rain?”Cinephiles […]
Posted inGet Out
Redwood Coast Music Festival
Last weekend marked the 33rd year of the Redwood Coast Music Festival in Eureka. The event evolved a long way from its original Dixieland jazz era into what organizer Mark Jansen describes as “a musician’s festival where players collaborate with each other and one that they all want to come to.” “The musical focus of […]
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The Cult of Ictharel Calls for the Media to Stop the Demonization of Ichtharel the Unclean, Bringer of Armageddon and Devourer of All, and His Supporters
Good evening, fellow cultists, Hell-born creatures of unfathomable evil and members of the media. First, apologies for the oppressive cloud of sulfur, the result of Our Mighty and Merciless Overlord Ictharel having incinerated the previous cult president only hours ago. Second, thank you for all the well wishes on my subsequent rise to cult president. […]
Posted inField Notes
Bridge of Spies
“[Gary Powers] performed his duty in a very dangerous mission and he performed it well, and I think I know more about that than some of his detractors and critics know ….” — CIA Director Allen Dulles Standing on a hill recently, overlooking the Glienicke Bridge near Potsdam, Germany, several thoughts came to mind. While the […]
Posted inHumboldt Nature
Burying the Dead
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 […]
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 […]