‘Bye, Folks!’
Humboldt’s king of TV commercials rides into the sunset. Can he be replace?
Cover Story
‘Bye, Folks!’
Corky Cornwell, the boisterous, extroverted cellular phone hawker you know from decades of television advertisements, is retiring. Go ahead — let out a sigh. That might be a sigh of relief for one less brazen TV commercial, or a sigh of lament for the loss of one of the county’s most recognizable faces, a symbol…
Little Devils
You know that deviled egg recipe your aunt is so stingy with? Nobody wants it anymore. Instead we’ll be trying to recreate the ones at Humboldt Smokehouse (310 Fifth St., Eureka), topped with house-smoked bacon or pork belly, barbecue sauce and green onions ($1, $1.50). They have the tiniest bits of tart pickle to balance…
UPDATED: Kerrigan’s Got a Slim, Slim Chance
UPDATE: The Elections Office is still slogging through the uncounted ballots, and has begun tallying provisional ballots. The number of outstanding ballots from the 4th District is likely to be released early next week. Following a bit more predictive arithmetic, Chris Kerrigan’s chances of collecting enough votes to overcome Virginia Bass for the 4th District…
UPDATE: Gray Wolf Listed as Endangered
Wolves are officially an endangered species in California. Natalynne DeLapp of the Environmental Protection Information Center confirmed this afternoon. That three of four California Fish and Wildlife commissioners approved the listing. “It’s a good day for wolves in California and beyond,” Delapp said. PREVIOUSLY: Close to 200 people filled the conference room of Fortuna’s Riverlodge…
UPDATE: Final Election Night Results In
The Humboldt County Elections Office has released its final election night report, and the results remain largely unchanged. Humboldt County has elected its first female district attorney, Maggie Fleming, re-elected 5 th District Supervisor Ryan Sundberg and appears to have re-elected 4 th District Supervisor Virginia Bass, though Bass’ lead is slim enough (303 votes)…
Giddyap!
McKinleyville doesn’t slack when it comes to hoedowns. Some towns might dedicate one night to barn dancing and gallivanting, but Mack commits to a full five days of shindiggin’. Pony Express Days runs from June 4 to June 8, with events all over town. It all starts with the Chili Cook-Off in Pierson Park on…
Election Day!
After months of politicking, door knocking, lawn signs, glad handing and debating, Election Day is finally here. North Coast voters have some big choices before them today, including who will be the county’s next district attorney and who will represent the 4th and 5th districts on the county board of supervisors. There’s also a field…
Driller Sues Eureka
Apex Directional Drilling, the company that earlier this year abruptly halted work on part of the Martin Slough Interceptor, a massive sewer system upgrade, is suing the City of Eureka for upwards of $6,280,000, according to a complaint filed May 23 in Humboldt County Superior Court. The complaint alleges breach of contract for construction of…
New Subversive Graffiti Stickers Popping Up
Remember those “Eureka Stinks” stickers and T-shirts? (This shirt collector has one featured on his Tumblr.) Well, without that pulp mill smokestack to befoul the city’s air, there’s less motivation for malodorous maligning of the city. Perhaps, with election season sharpening every flaw in the city’s facade, a message like this — reserved, but embracing —…
Breaking the Mold
Are you hitting the Open Studios circuit this weekend? Like the Magic Kingdom, it’s nigh impossible to see it all (peruse the guide in this week’s Journal — it’s daunting). Put glass artist George Bucquet’s workspace at 1485 L St. in Arcata at the top of your list. For one thing, he’ll be demonstrating the…
Poison Accord
The maker of d-Con®, Reckitt Benckiser, will no longer sell the poison pellets that happy homemakers for years have used to fatally banish unwelcome rodents (and which some marijuana farmers have used to clear their crops of pests, resulting in the deaths of wildlife). New legislation already bans the general, non-permitted use of such poisons in…
Art Immersion
Break out your cargo shorts — festival season is here. On May 31 and June 1, the Mateel Community Center will transform the Benbow Lake State Recreation Area into a four-staged, vendor-filled celebration of all things cultural and crafty. The 38th annual Summer Arts and Music Festival ($15 per day, $25 for the weekend, free…
Tonight’s Setlist: Blackberry Bushes in Blue Lake
Tonight brings an opportunity to hang out in Blue Lake’s finest drinking establishment – not that an excuse is needed to enjoy The Logger Bar’s beauty and local vibe. It’s wonderful on its own, so when a good band is added to the mix, the lure is only greater. The Blackberry Bushes are really, really…
Faces of Humboldt Photo Contest!
Humboldt County is chock full of both character and characters, and the Journal wants to see them. From now through June 20, use your camera, tablet, phone or any other snazzy device you may to capture the faces of Humboldt County. Photos should be submitted as high-resolution JPEGs via email to photocontest@northcoastjournal.com by the end…
Up in Smoke
Close your eyes and breathe deeply — can you smell the smoldering briquettes, sizzling meat and fervent competition? You’re catching a whiff of the Up in Smoke Beer and BBQ Competition (free entry, $5 for 5 taster tickets, $50 for competitors), a suds-soaked grilling contest. The contest kicks off at noon on Saturday, May 31…
Tonight’s Setlist: Four Ways to Spend Your Night
#1: Poetry San Francisco’s Brian Laidlaw returns to the Siren’s Song. You may remember Laidlaw from his last visit – he’s a poet who fell into the wayward musician life via creative writing courses at Stanford University. Over the years he’s acquired an MFA at the University of Minnesota and won buckets of awards and…
Foraging
If you know what to look for, the world is your kitchen cabinet. Foraging in the spring can be a hungry affair compared to fall’s bounty of fruit, mushrooms and assorted edibles in full fruition. No worries — spring rains mean new growth and some tender sprouts that are only edible this time of year.…
Flashbacks
Reviews X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST. As a fledging geek dipping a toe in the ocean of comics, the X-Men were too much for me. Ditto the whole Marvel Universe, but the X-Men in particular were so many, each with his or her own convoluted origin story, all entangled in myriad plotlines across an incomprehensibly…
Buddhaville at Rest
It was June 24, 2008, and lightning fires were raging in the southern Humboldt hills. Then came 450 law enforcement agents — federal, state and local — in some 200 vehicles busting onto the smoky scene. You remember Operation Southern Sweep, right? No? Well, a brief recap: The officers weren’t there to help douse the…
Correction
A guest views piece on Page 9 of the May 22, 2014 edition of the Journal, headlined “Vote Yes on Prop 42,” contained an inaccurate date for the June Primary Election. Election Day is June 3.
Dreams are like this
Our ornithology teacher is looking for a burrowing owl on a rocky ridge near Clam Beach. He scrambles up the wash of stones and scans the crevices between the boulders, searching for a flutter of feathers. Nothing. Mist dims the view. Rain begins to fall. Still no sign of the burrowing owl, save for a…
We’re Chagrined
Editor: Hey, McGuinty! I just read your column in today’s Journal (“Hooters and Computers,” May 15), and I am writing about the letter from “Frustrated,” who was bothered by a co-worker’s faulty punctuation and wondered what to do about it. I thought your answer made some good points. But, because the issue was language and…
Judy’s Right
Editor: Judy Hodgson hit the nail on the head in last week’s column (“The Supes: A Retrospective,” May 22) suggesting the incumbent supervisors’ sudden change of heart is motivated by having challengers in the June 3 election. I contend that that is exactly why Virginia Bass was so eager to “facilitate” Kevin McKenny’s finally accepting…
Last Minute Endorsements
Editor: This campaign for 4th District supervisor is not about who is nicer but about who will truly support and build on the gifts of Humboldt County, bringing everyone to the table rather than just those with the most money or the loudest voice. Chris Kerrigan is about the next generation, which must be brought…
A Birder Takes a Fall
It was just two years ago that the local biology community stood in stunned disbelief as news spread that Mad River Biologists and its founder, Ron LeValley, were under investigation for embezzling almost $1 million from the Yurok Tribe. This wasn’t some backwoods outfit or a fringe biologist with a shady reputation. This was Ron…
Art Attack
There is a painting that hangs in my living room of three musicians. My husband bought it from a local painter. That painting bothers me a little. That’s because the musicians are black and the artist is white. And we are white. Should that bother me? Clearly the artist appreciated musicians, as we do. I…
Feeling Lucky
Sometimes switching gears from reading the news to writing about music requires a sort of conscious cognitive dissonance. “Damn, people are messed up,” says my brain, reeling from shootings and kidnappings and other various expressions of hatred and instability. “Look at all the fine shows happening this week,” says my brain, hoping people will seize…
Team Cilantro
Cilantro is the Adam Sandler of the herb world: You love it or you hate it. Apparently, whether it tastes like the joyful rush of summer or something you’d use to get engine oil off your hands is at least partly genetic. One hopes that, along with curing cancer, scientists will one day find a…
Baritones on the Barricades
Les Miserables, the musical now on stage at North Coast Repertory Theatre in Eureka, opened on Broadway with expensive grandeur. In his 1987 review, New York Times critic Frank Rich noted the revolving stage and the prodigious lighting and stage effects that included tilting towers and a floor that peeled back “to create the illusion…
