Battle for Boomer Jack
The adorable hound has inspired books and screenplays. Is a lawsuit next?
Cover Story
Battle for Boomer Jack
IT ALL STARTED WITH A DOG. Lincoln Kilian says he originally unearthed the story of Boomer Jack sorting through clippings in his job as an HSU librarian, a job he’d had since 1966. In 1977, he was transferred to the Humboldt Room, which houses the library’s special historical collections. Part of his assignment in the…
Wastin’ time
The sun shines and the air fills our lungs with that peculiarly invigorating scent of dead fish and salt: lunchtime in Eureka. The Tyvek home wrap on Bayfront One (or, rather, Bayfront One Mk. II, a building crossing its metaphorical fingers that it will not be burned down before it has a chance to be…
Native tongues
The Dandy is out for a while, so I cleaned the mildew off my spats — oops, I forgot to ask Hank how to tell if my cummerbund is right-side-up. He left his fedora here, hanging in his office. I’ll be lucky if I can get the word processing program running — Hank runs Linux…
An American Classic at Ferndale Rep
In the town of Monroeville, Alabama, a rich man’s son was caught joyriding in a stolen car. His father persuaded the sheriff not to arrest the boy, but to leave the punishment up to him. He imposed three years of house arrest, but it turned into a life sentence when the young man found he…
Photographing the garden
This spring, a group of garden bloggers got the idea to post a photograph on the 15th of every month showing what’s blooming in their garden. (If you’d like to check it out, just Google "garden bloggers bloom day" and you’ll see what I mean.) It’s a great idea to use a garden blog to…
Tossed Salad for Two
With the Farmers’ Market now in full glory, the North Coast community is blessed. How can we make the most of this bounty? When we opened our restaurant, Byrd House, over two decades ago, people warned us that there were "vegetarians" who would look askance at our omnivorous menu. I did not take them seriously.…
Peace and Love from Comoros
Unless your knowledge of geography is far greater than mine, it’s likely you have no idea where the Comoros Islands are, and thus would also have no clue what it means when the singer Nawal is described as "the voice of Comoros." First the geography: The Union of the Comoros is a collection of islands…
Orick or bust
Been to Orick, lately? No, not through Orick, but to. Pulled over, parked the car, got out, stretched the legs and grazed on the sights? Certainly we’re not posing this question to Orick’s few hundred residents, nor to the handful of plucky merchants who daily tootle out of the hills to unlock storefronts, kick aside…
Out for blood
The sky above our heads was inky black. But the sky on the horizon was not dark at all. It was shot with crimson, like a splash of blood. — Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier Thankfully, there were no splashes of blood on the Northern California Community Blood Bank’s Bloodmobile last Monday, although blood bank nurse…
