Care For An Éclaire?
Actually, no, say some doctors to the tasty ploys of drug reps
Cover Story
Care for an Éclair?
Goodbye, sugarpie About five or six years ago — he can’t quite remember when — Dr. Leo Leer and his colleagues at Eureka Family Practice turned a cold shoulder to the hordes of pharmaceutical company salespeople — drug reps — who hitherto had had free rein in their office. No longer could a well-heeled, uberfriendly,…
Push Comes To Shove
Via the Times-Standard: The California Attorney General’s Office said today it has officially declined to pursue charges against local businessman Rob Arkley stemming from Eureka City Councilman Larry Glass’ allegations that Arkley assaulted him on Sept. 5. “There was insufficient evidence to bring charges and, of course, we treated the matter seriously and looked meticulously…
Good God, Part II
Is it just our imagination, or are these kinds of things happening a lot more frequently of late? Eureka Police officers were dispatched to a residence in the 2500 block of K Street Tuesday at approximately 6:50 p.m. for a report of a burglary, assault with a firearm, and brandishing a firearm. Unknown suspects gained…
Good God
Superbad scoobies from this month’s Humboldt Economic Index , as evidenced in the graph above concerning lumber production: The index value of this sector is based on a combination of payroll employment and board feet of lumber production at major county lumber companies and is adjusted to account for normal seasonal variations. Lumber-based manufacturing generates…
Pass the Duchy
The officeholders’ latest stab at loosening term limits has officially bombed , so that means it’s time to dosey-do. Assemblymember Patty Berg and former State Senator Wesley Chesbro are holding a press conference tomorrow to make an “announcement regarding California’s First Assembly District.” Wild guess: The announcement will be that Berg, termie-termed out of office,…
Join the Meserves
He’s back, baby! Former Arcata City Councilmember Dave Meserve has written up a citizen’s initiative that would completely ban all military recruiting targeting minors [Thx, Shane!] within the Arcata city limits. He’s calling it the “Arcata Youth Protection Act,” and he hopes to get it on the November ballot. Will he be able to gather…
Help Me Out
Is this story really saying that Caltrans is going to go after Prop. 1B funding for improvements to Highway 36? To Highway freakin’ 36? I think it is saying that. Prop. 1B, you’ll remember, was a state bond measure designed to alleviate traffic congestion on highly impacted transportation corridors. And so it seems that some…
Long Distance Encounter with George Clinton
He’s a man who needs no introduction, so I won’t say much. My conversation with George Clinton ranged far and wide, from his legal affairs to the history of Parliament-Funkadelic and on to close encounters, even a recipe for fried fish, “the best one in the world.” In advance of his show for the Black…
Reggae Hearing Continues — Today
The headline on the page 2 story in this morning’s Times-Standard reads, ” Mateel hearing to continue later this month.” It would appear that the story was written last week, but held until today, which makes the past/future tense parts a tad confusing. T-S staffer Jessie Faulkner writes, Retired Judge James Warren of San Francisco,…
A Little Carnival Treat
I immediately recognize myself in the little girl dressed as Snow White. I also identify my best friend, in an elegant kimono. I can actually recognize all our costumed classmates. A bit to my surprise, their first names and almost all of their last names travel effortlessly from a remote corner of my memory to…
Books as Art
If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the 15 years Eureka’s Arts Alive! has been in existence, it’s that some of the most interesting art is often found in unexpected places. I considered this fact as Scott Brown led me toward the back of Eureka Books, weaving his way through shelves, tables, chairs and boxes…
On Shaky Ground
The Physical Science Building at the College of the Redwoods sits atop a grassy knoll on the corner of the campus. As was explained in detail at a special meeting of the community college’s board of trustees last Thursday, the building also sits atop something called the Little Salmon Fault. In fact, much of the…
Communication Dept.
It would be easy at this moment in HSU’s history — surprisingly fat with increased enrollment as the spring semester freshly sprouts, but also in belt-tightening mode to cover a lingering deficit — to assume that any tales of overstuffed classes and enormous waiting lists has directly to do with this happy-sad situation. One might…
I Made a MySpace
If you’ve been listening to Lila Nelson’s radio show, "Meet Me In the Morning" Sunday mornings on KHUM, you’ve heard about her "Write Your Own Damn Song" contest. (If you come up with an idea, she writes a song around it.) This Sunday she’ll be singing a "damn" song about Humboldt’s MySpace scene, and in…
A Masterpiece
Previews Another month, another Hollywood Asian horror film rip-off … or "adaptation," if you’re more kindly inclined. Opening Friday, Feb. 1, is The Eye , based on the Pang Brothers’ Ji?†n Gu«ê, which was released in 2002. The latest version is co-produced by Tom Cruise and stars Jessica Alba as violinist Sydney, blind since childhood,…
Stick-Slip Slug Slime
Banana slugs evolved from snails, and both are classified as Gastropoda. The slugs’ deterrent slime permitted them to almost completely abandon the protective but cumbersome shells carried by their snail ancestors. A few predators manage to eat banana slugs despite their defensive production of copious mucus, but the process is disgusting to watch. Some potential…
Rattlesnake Creek
S o there we were, drinking beer in a stinky little white car at 11:30 on a Sunday morning, thinking about kayaking 15.8 miles down Ten Mile Creek into the South Fork Eel River. The rain pounded. We were in downtown Garberville waiting on our friend Ed, who was trying to get gas. The power…
On Endorsements
Call me a flip-flopper, although I don’t really think changing one’s mind based on a shifting landscape over a period a many years constitutes a real flip-flop. In the beginning, 1990, we made the decision not to endorse anyone for anything. We were a monthly publication covering "politics, people and art" staffed by three part-timers,…
Does the house always win?
By Japhet Weeks Big labor and big gambling are clashing this year in California’s most expensive proposition fight to date. On Feb. 5, voters will decide whether or not to ratify four Indian gaming compacts that were passed by the California state legislature last summer, signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and approved by…
Fear On Trial
Two things occurred to me before I saw 12 Angry Men at the Ferndale Repertory Theatre. First, that once you find yourself in the jury pool in Humboldt County you can pretty much count on getting called to the court house every damn year. That doesn’t happen everywhere. So some sizeable proportion of those seeing…
Letter to Sasquatch
You might not readily accept advice from one…
Bill Frisell Trio
Live performance Jan. 20 at Yoshi’s San Francisco Seattle-based jazz guitarist Bill Frisell claims two very different guitar players as main influences: Jim Hall and Jimi Hendrix. He was a student of Hall, whose cool harmonic style was Frisell’s primary jazz influence, and like most electric guitarists who came of age in the ’60s he…
Pet Genius
CD by Pet Genius. Hydrahead. From the primal angst of Cave In to the quirky pop meanderings of his numerous side and solo projects, Stephen Brodsky has always displayed a penchant for inspired and inventive songwriting. What is baffling, however, is that outside limited circles of the indie underground, Brodsky has not received the success…
Sigur Ros: Heima
DVD Directed by Dean DeBlois. Xl Recordings Since critics are legally required to refer to their music as "epic," you might expect a film about Sigur Ros, who are better at creating spacious hugeness than any other working rock (post- or otherwise) band, to be overtly grandiose itself. Two obvious predecessors, U2’s Rattle and Humand…
