Cover Story
Condors of the North Coast
Two decades ago, the Yurok Tribe began working to honor the request made by a council of elders for the bird they know as prey-go-neesh to once again soar over their ancestral lands. By then, the California condor had been absent from the skies for more than a century, meaning generations had gone without seeing…
Land Speed Record
The title of this week’s edition comes from Minnesota punk pioneers Hüsker Dü’s intense 1981 concert album, after the group had — allegedly — discovered a performance-enhancing drug that sometimes goes by the second word in the said title, but before they essentially invented pop punk. It is a rough and wonderful crash course of…
Nobody Wants Your AI Food
Not the sunrise-tinted sandwich with its eerily symmetrical drippings of melted cheddar. Not the glossy, alien billboard burger or the frothy not-beer a program spit out. And for the love of all that occurs in nature, not the unholy crustacean nightmare ring I encountered in a local ad. There are so many reasons to reject…
Get Lost in Greig-French-Bell Grove
Lost! Again! Glints of sunlight streaked the trail and the old-growth trees on either side stood as silent as snow. As I wandered deeper and deeper into the forest along tiny threadlike paths, surrounded by more sorrel than I’d ever seen in my life, I felt as if I was in a fairy tale and…
Pullet Surprise: Fun with Mondegreens
I suspect everyone has their favorite “mondegreen,” a misheard word or phrase which is usually more fun than the original. For instance, check my title against that annual journalism and literature award. The word mondegreen was coined by Sylvia Wright in a 1954 Harper’s Magazine essay. As a child, Wright had misheard a line from the…
‘Onslaught’ Shoots Wide of the Mark
ONSLAUGHT. The trailer for A24’s Onslaught had plenty of flashing signs indicating “slasher movie ahead.” And yet, the plot, as much as a splatter-fest requires one, specifies a former Army sharpshooter defending her daughter when they stumble upon genetically rigged killing machines. How could I keep from getting geared up for a woman-on-a-mission/mom-against-the-world action movie, particularly…
The Good and Bad News at CPH’s Fall Welcome
After attending decades of welcome-back fall meetings at the former Humboldt State University, I found it interesting to watch President Richard A. Carvajal at Cal Poly Humboldt, the ninth president and first Latino to lead CPH after being president of Valdosta State University from 2017 to 2025, in his first ever Fall Welcome event on…
Prepatriarchy
Editor: Those who were intrigued by Barry Evans’ “An Estruscan Venus and the Patriarchy” (Aug. 27, 2026) might enjoy checking out the work of Marija Gimbutas. She was an archeologist who, when she entered the field, started actually investigating myriad female figurines that male archeologists had casually tossed into drawers, dismissing them as “fertility” tokens…
Invitation to film: ‘American Doctor’
Editor: Even though it’s supposed to be very difficult to watch, I’m intending to see the recently released film American Doctor at the Minor Theatre on Sept. 16. I hope that you will join me. The film is about three U.S. doctors, Jewish, Zoroastrian and Palestinian, who voluntarily go to Gaza to try to…
Correction
Answers to the Aug. 27 crossword puzzle, “Magazine Covers.”
A Stage of Wonder
Sitting on the Kellogg benchas so many have done beforewith waves and rippleseasy to see,I think those who’vepaused in this spacedid not fall intothe futile gameof worrybut danced onthe playful stageof wonder. — Keith Carmona
