Humboldt Joins ICE Out for Good Protests
Around 200 people turned out Saturday at the Humboldt County Courthouse to protest last week’s fatal shooting of a Minneapolis mother of three in her car by an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer during a massive deportation operation in the city. The gathering was one of three in Humboldt — others took place in…
Wipeout
Despite observing my habit of (relative) temperance during New Year’s Eve at home, I managed to catch that nasty flu going around, the forces of which I am still reeling from. This has been my most stricken-with-disease experience in years and the reason I was absent from last week’s issue and still writing sparingly. This…
Start the Year with (More) Soup
Did you start the new year with a wish to eat more vegetables? If not, you still have time to make one. Either way, here’s my suggestion on how to put such aspiration into practice: a vegetable-rich soup. Winter weather in its various versions of rainy and cold is an invitation to have a pot…
New Food Pyramid FAQ
Since Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. launched our new food pyramid, we’ve gotten a lot of questions. As the architect of this pyramid, I’ve prepared a list of frequently asked questions, answered to the best of my ability with the time I have left. Why are we back to a…
‘Primate’ Fails to Evolve
PRIMATE. Upon re-examination of our newsroom Slack channel, it was Calendar Editor Kali Cozyris who first posted the link to the trailer for Primate and asked, “When are we seeing this?” But after the adrenaline rush of press day wore off and we remembered how goddamn unsettling simians are and how awful rabies is, we…
Imagine Possibilities. Keep Them Real.
Do you already have a wish for your outdoor activities in 2026? In this column three years ago, I proposed to toss the word “resolution” in favor of “wish” (“Make a Wish Instead of a Resolution,” Jan. 5, 2023). While both require some work on our part, making a wish offers a more positive perspective.…
‘Opportunity for the Future’
Editor: While the recent Arcata fire that destroyed a half block of buildings, businesses, apartments and studios is a terrible disaster, it also has presented an opportunity for the future. As I walked about the rubble, I’m imagining a rebuilding response in downtown Arcata that would create attractive new business spaces and more housing for…
No More Falls!
A journey to increasing bone strength Though I wasn’t very physical as a kid, I became an “adult-onset” lover of fitness in my 20s, and have enjoyed walking, running, hiking and exploring the outdoors ever since. So in 2017, when I was diagnosed with osteoporosis, I couldn’t believe it. Two years later, I fell and…
How to Meditate When the World is on Fire
This week has been incredibly trying for so many of us and our community. How do we move toward a sense of balance, ease and fulfillment in a world that is so loud? I don’t expect 2026 to feel easier or calmer than 2025, but I know I will move into it with some more…
‘Thoroughly Impressed’
Editor: “Not Impressed” is how I’ve often felt within the realm of politics. Carol Moné’s letter (“Not Impressed,” Dec. 4) shows that our community isn’t buying the lie we are fed; that our needs simply can’t be addressed. This ruling-class duopoly and its good-cop-bad-cop trope has lost my patience, it seems to have lost yours,…
Trump/Fascist/WWIII
Editor: Is Trump a fascist? Fascism is an extreme right-wing authoritarian government, promoting nationalism and a government with no checks and balances, demands total societal control through a police state imposed gradually or by martial law suspending normal laws and ending freedom and democracy, leaving only dictator Donald and his corrupt appointees to rule our…
A Colorful Winter Garden
Winter is here on the North Coast, and with it come cloudy days, bare-branched deciduous trees, and a muting of nature’s hues. But we can still enjoy our gardens and yards throughout the year by making December through February more colorful and interesting with some carefully chosen native plants (and one non-plant). While most conifers…
