Cover Story
Humboldt Then and Now
The Journal’s editorial department has spent a lot of time recently flipping through a quarter-century’s worth of news coverage of the people, politics and art of Humboldt County. We saw a lot of familiar faces and some familiar issues. If there’s a theme we took away from the experience, it’s that life is cyclical, especially…
Little Orange Hen
Back in the day (the historical period during which everybody started dressing like hell on Mad Men), every fancy French menu had a canard a l’orange — the dark, roasted duck with crispy skin ladled over with a sauce of stock, orange juice and zest and maybe a little booze — Grand Marnier or Cognac…
Arcata Bay Crossing Opens
Humboldt County’s newest and shiniest low income housing project is open for business, and it’s already full. The Arcata Bay Crossing, tucked between the freeway and South G Street, is a collaborative project by the Humboldt Bay Housing Development Corporation, the Rural Communities Housing Development Corporation and several local governmental and non-profit organizations. A robust…
Flash Fiction 2015
Got 99 problems but a plot ain’t one? Crack your knuckles and start typing — the North Coast Journal Flash Fiction Contest is back. Send your original story of 99 words or fewer to our judges for a chance at publication and a prize. Email your entries to fiction@northcoastjournal.com between Sept. 24 and 5 p.m.…
Logger Legalities
The City of Blue Lake will begin evaluating zoning, use permits and community impacts pertaining to the Logger Bar at tonight’s council meeting. Following a series of noise complaints by neighboring residents resulting from late night shows and reported public nuisance activities such as fighting and loud conversations in the neighboring parking lot after bar…
All Species on the Plaza
Miss the sunshine, music and dancing on the Arcata Plaza already? Here’s photographer Alexander Woodard’s slideshow of the North Country Fair and All Species Parade on Sunday, Sept. 20. (See Saturday, Sept. 19 photos here.) The parade started with a symbolic busting of the Klamath Dam and a flood of fish, feathers and fantastic creatures…
Homeless in Humboldt Update: Death, Drones and Rallies
A drone video of the PalCo Marsh, known to some as “The Devil’s Playground,” shows camps still firmly entrenched in the wooded area just behind the mall, an area where the Eureka Police Department is preparing to cite and arrest campers. EPD is encouraging people to move north, to the flat area adjacent to the…
Thomas’ Death Ruled a Homicide
The Humboldt County Coroner’s Office has officially determined Terry Lee Thomas’s death to be a homicide. The 63-year-old homeless Eureka man was found bloodied and unresponsive shortly after 8 p.m. on Sept. 8 in the parking lot of the Courthouse Market in the 900 block of Fourth Street. He later died at a local hospital.…
HSU Gets Sexual Assault Funding
Humboldt State University announced recently that it won a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to reduce sexualized violence on campus. It’s part of a $8.5 million nationwide effort at 27 colleges. The funding will allow the university to expand its Check It program, which the Journal wrote about in February, as well…
Dancing around the Plaza
The first day of the North Country Fair on the Arcata Plaza kicked off on Saturday, Sept. 19 with more drums, dancers, jugglers and giant puppets than you could shake a belly dancer’s jangling belt at. It was all blue skies and bright costumes, as you’ll see in Alexander Woodard’s photographs here in the slideshow.…
Your Next Alibi
Headed down to the Arcata Plaza this weekend for the North Country Fair? Make sure to stop for a Bloody Mary at the new Alibi expansion, which opened Friday afternoon. Owner Justin Ladd says he expects the kitchen to reopen for food within a week. Meanwhile, you can have a drink in the stylish, bright,…
Golden Ticket
Primus was back at the Eureka Municipal Auditorium on Thursday night, Sept. 17, with a Willy Wonka-themed show that took the packed-in audience on a sugar-fueled trip into trippiness. The Primus and the Chocolate Factory tour with the Fungi Ensemble brought movie clips, swirling lights, top hats and enormous Oompa Loompas to the stage as…
Multiple Agencies Push Homeless Campers to a “Safer” Place
Kathleen Hytholt doesn’t know where she’s going to go. Hytholt has been living in a makeshift shelter in the greenbelt at the corner of Sixth and T streets in Eureka for two months. She has been homeless for three years. The young people in the camp call her “Mama Kat.” Their kids call her “Grandma…
Feel the Burns
Kilts. Bagpipes. Whiskey. Need more proof that the Scots throw a good party? Never mind that they invented golf, they brought the world its best adult beverage and their national animal is the unicorn. Aye, they know how to have a good time and the North Coast Scottish Society shows us how at the Frolic…
Name the Faces on the Journal, Win Big
Got a good handle on the faces of Humboldt? Did you have a good pore over the 25th anniversary issue of the Journal that hit stands on Wednesday? Journalistas had a good time putting that Sgt. Peppery cover together, and we hope you got in on the fun. And to test just how in-the-Humboldt-know you are,…
Come One, Come All (Species)
The North Country Fair on the Arcata Plaza, Saturday Sept. 19 and Sunday, Sept. 20 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (free) is the quintessential Arcata festival. With arts and crafts vendors, beer, a samba parade, giant puppets, political and nonprofit booths, kids games, live music and more, the plaza’s got a groovy thing goin’,…
Where the Dinosaur Roam
Parents, you’ve taken the kids to all the Jurassic movies — and you know your little ones love The Big One. Now it’s time to take things to the next level. You may not be able fly a twin engine to Isla Nublar, but you can load everyone into the car and head over to…
McKinleyville Arts Night
Third Friday June 19, 6-8 p.m. Presented by members of the McKinleyville business community and is open for all McKinleyville businesses to display the work of local artists. Receptions for artists, exhibits and/or performances are from 6-8 p.m. on the third Friday of each month. Call (707) 834-6460 or visit www.mckinleyvilleartsnight.com for more information. CALIFORNIA REDWOOD…
Eureka Stinks
Ah, summer days in Old Town Eureka. Just a hint of heat from the sun, the bay calmly lapping at the waterfront, the seagulls drifting overhead. And. That. Stench. If you’ve visited the north side of Eureka during the daytime in the last month or two, there’s a good chance you’ve caught a sniff of…
Origins of Art
Inspiration demands the active cooperation of the intellect, joined with enthusiasm. — Giorgio Vasari We don’t create art, not in the first instance anyway. It impregnates us. We carry it to term by interior osmosis; gestation lasts days or decades. Art is in the unconscious until we sublimate it, even as we nourish and discipline…
Counting Rings
We’re celebrating a rather significant anniversary here at the Journal — our 25th. Where were you and what were you doing in 1990, the year the Journal was born? I was often in a one-room office on the third floor of the Carson Block Building in Old Town Eureka with my two business partners —…
Knowing Where You’ve Been
There’s the old saying that goes, “You can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been.” I think Jesus said that. There’s also a slightly less older saying that goes, “Well, we know where we’re goin’, but we don’t know where we’ve been.” That was David Byrne of the Talking Heads. I’m…
A Cook’s Journal Revisited
As we approached a small village at dusk, the view through a thick haze of barbecue smoke was a sea of tables and chairs under large plane trees. Men were playing backgammon and sipping ouzo. It was here on a back road in Greece — Iria Beach — that we had the best barbecued chicken…
Twist Again
Reviews THE VISIT. It’s been quite a while — probably a decade plus — since the opening of an M. Night Shyamalan movie was any kind of an event, local folderol over After Earth (2013) notwithstanding. Speaking only for myself, his reliance on twists and tricks got old even before the end of the vastly…
Out of the Shadows
There’s not a multi-celled organism on earth that could evolve much in 25 years. But perhaps there’s an argument that the cannabis plant, through its symbiosis with humans, has changed as much in the last two and a half decades as any species could. Well, except the ones that have gone extinct. Aiding that shift…
Growing Gorgeous Garlic
From Ancient Egypt to Humboldt County, garlic is one of those plants that you can find in almost every garden. It is one of the oldest cultivated crops, and all around the world people still rank garlic among their favorite foods. And it’s not just food —it’s medicine, too. Garlic is used as an antibiotic,…
Spider Love
Jumping Spiders! Even people who do not like spiders can find much to love in the red backed jumping spider. First of all they are cute (well, cute for a spider). Stocky and fuzzy, with eight eyes positioned across a broad face, they are somehow a little less spidery-creepy than a black widow. If you…
Remember Terry
Editor: Last week a man was beaten to death behind the courthouse market. His name was Terry (see “NCJ Daily”). Beyond whatever vices Terry pursued, he was a person, he was my friend, and I felt blessed when I could trade a couple of dollars — paper — for five or 10 minutes of his…
But is it Art?
Editor: My compliments on the vivid descriptions of the interior of the cabin in the Arcata Community Forest (“Cabin Fever,” Sept. 10). They correlate uncannily with the Mad River Union’s original reporting, based on my visits to the mysterious little house. And yet it seems like there’s something missing from your story. Kevin L. Hoover,…
AT&T Outrage
Editor: For the second time we have experienced a loss of cell phone and internet service due to a vandalized fiber optic line (“NCJ Daily,” Sept. 10). It seems that AT&T should have taken precautions to ensure that this did not happen again. Rather than invest in these precautions, AT&T remained focused on profit and…
Keep Roads Truckproof
Editor: The article entitled “Crash” (Sept. 3) is a sad commentary but highlights the safety problems that already exist on Humboldt County’s roadways. Our citizen group CRTP (Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities) is seeking community input on ways to make our roads safer and more inviting to pedestrians and bicyclists. Some of these initiatives include…
Full Stop
Editor: In part four of the series “The Reluctant Cyclist,” (Sept. 3) Jennifer Savage asked, “How wrong is this?” in reference to bicycling through the intersection of 14th Street and L.K. Wood Boulevard without stopping at the stop sign. I appreciate the opportunity to write about one of my least favorite things when driving a…
Miffed by the Races
Editor: Where did Jason Cole (“On Conviviality,” Sept. 3) get the idea that the noise from Redwood Acres Raceway is “one or two days a month during the day?” The schedule posted on the Raceway’s website lists 12 stock car races that start at 6:30 p.m. (and sometimes don’t end until after 10 p.m.) between…
Photo Finish
Editor: Although I live in San Jose, my family has been connected to Humboldt County since the founding of Ferndale. Likewise, since my childhood, I have attended the Humboldt County Fair many times. Therefore, I read Rod Kausen’s recent article in the NCJ, reflecting on the fair, the races, the history and the humanness of…
