Black Friday
As holiday shopping begins, retailers’ prospects are not looking so bright. Where should you shop?
Cover Story
Black Friday
They call it Black Friday. The day after Thanksgiving is one of the best days of the year for retail — it’s the day that heralds the start of the all-important holiday shopping season; only the Saturday before Christmas surpasses it in overall sales. Retailers everywhere are hoping you’ll come to their business to find…
Election Results: Wrong
The results from the Nov. 4 election that were certified by the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors on Monday were incorrect, according to County Clerk-Recorder Carolyn Crnich in a phone call this morning. Over 200 absentee ballots were not included in the officially certified totals, most of them from one particular precinct in Eureka. The…
From the Emerald Triangle to the Emerald Green Valley…
…with pot. Perhaps this papa-sonny pair from Petrolia and McKinleyville, respectively, were lured to the southern Minnesota city by its official motto, “Make It Mankato!” And they did make it there, arriving last week with, allegedly, five suitcases of pot — 28 pounds, street value $100,000 — says the Mankato Free Press. But, they didn’t…
Gans Responds
Yesterday Security National’s Randy Gans wrote a letter in response to last week’s story, “Arkley v. Humboldt.” Unfortunately the letter arrived too late to make it into this week’s paper, but we’ll put it up here and run it next week: Editor, Your article “Arkley .v. Humboldt” (November 26, 2008) implies that our companies that…
Black Friday Addendum
courtesy of Adbusters Around the time this week’s Black Friday story hit the presses, someone pointed out that Nov. 28 is also ” Buy Nothing Day ,” a day of protest against consumerism, originally founded by Vancouver artist Ted Dave and later promoted by Adbusters magazine. Adbusters suggests: As the planet starts heating up, maybe…
Arkley v. Humboldt
Rob Arkley is suing Humboldt County. Well, technically, two of his numerous real estate syndicates are. The disputatious Eureka businessman is up in arms over delays at the Planning & Building Department. Seems he has some prime real estate down in Loleta that he wants liberated from red tape, and he’s not about to abide…
Kiddie Fare
Previews Opening Wednesday, Nov. 26, is Australia, a historical epic set prior to WWII. Directed by Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge), the film stars Nicole Kidman as an Englishwoman who inherits an Australian ranch and Hugh Jackman as her Aussie partner. PG-13 for some violence, a scene of sensuality and brief strong language. 155m. At the…
Riding On
The name sets the stage: New Riders of the Purple Sage was theoretically an update on a cowboy band from the ’30s, which in turn was named for a seminal cowboy novel by Zane Grey, the guy who basically invented the Western genre. The New Riders came together toward the end of the ’60s. The…
Love Song of the 1st District
Word broke last week that several high Congressional muckety-mucks have pressed President-elect Barack Obama to name our own representative, Mike Thompson, as the next Secretary of the Interior. The nominators include Bay Area lawmakers Anna Eshoo and George "The Enforcer" Miller, both loyal lieutenants of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. If appointed, Thompson would succeed Idaho…
“Urgent Care,” Nov. 20
A story in last week’s paper about Mad River Community Hospital’s loss of several operating room nurses (“Urgent Care,” Nov. 20) misstated the position of Dr. Gregory Gibb. He is no longer the president of the Humboldt Del-Norte Independent Practice Association, having vacated the post in July. The current president is Dr. Bruce Kessler. Dr.…
Check Your Flippancy
Editor: I am writing about the preview for the 4th Annual Synergy Fair that your journalist Emily Hobelmann wrote up (“Synergasm,” Nov. 13). The preview was written up in a way that made me think that the writer did not take the event seriously. I think the preview was sarcastic, “tongue-in-cheek” stereotyping and had a…
The Annual Complaint
Editor: I patiently wait for the new Journal from the moment I finish reading the current edition. Your stories are well researched, offer a unique perspective to local issues and give a voice to many underappreciated members of this community. That being said, I could not be more annoyed with your layout on the cover…
Season of Fire
This past summer, for days on end, I looked up at the night sky and saw the moon glowing red. From the perspective of humans, the fires that created that red moon were among the worst on record, with nearly 300 square miles burned and 16 firefighters killed. The roaring flames were relatively short-lived compared…
Soft Airplane
The early songs by the lo-fi indie pioneer Robert Pollard and his "band," Guided By Voices, sounded as if they were recorded in a basement. They were. Today’s singers/songwriters have access to a wide array of technologies, old and current, allowing them to create recordings that you would never guess were made in someone’s basement.…
Furr
Portland’s Blitzen Trapper have been kicking around the Northwest for a while. Earlier records like Field Rexx revealed a band unsure of its identity. Lo-fi noise jams alternated with bluegrass field recordings, and it seemed like they could be just another annoyingly smart-ass indie band that mistook eclecticism for creativity (Beck, what hath you wrought?)…
Pushcart Prize XXXII: Best of the Small Presses (2008 edition)
We seek out alternative news, alternative music and alternative films. But what about alternative literature? With hundreds, if not thousands, of small print and online magazines and journals, how do we decide what to buy, borrow or read? For the last 32 years, Bill Henderson and the Pushcart Press have put together an annual volume…
What I’m Thankful For
Last week I posted a survey on GardenRant, a group blog I’m a part of, asking gardeners if the economic downturn had put a dent in their horticultural shopping habits. Of the 85 people who voted, a third are going to the garden center a lot less than they used to in order to avoid…
Hopping Along the Beach
While strolling along the beach, as the waves wash over your toes, you’ve probably noticed little acrobatic critters performing back flips in the sand. These beach hoppers, sometimes called sand fleas, are actually amphipods. Amphipods are a type of crustacean, found in both marine and terrestrial habitats, which appear in a variety of different sizes…
inside your heart
inside your heart are 10,000 trees and 30,000…
