Cover Story
Slim Pickins’
By the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s definition, Hoopa was a food desert long before its only full grocery store packed up and left town in June of 2016. That month, Ray’s Food Place, the only store serving a 40-mile radius in the Klamath-Trinity region, permanently closed its doors due to a rodent infestation and subsequent…
Sub Conscious
Graduations, birthdays, christenings, communions and shotgun weddings — any event worth filling the yard with folding chairs in my hometown back east meant a 6-foot-sub. Laid out on a long table would be a seemingly endless loaf of Italian bread stuffed with layers of salami, ham, pepperoni, provolone and peppers doused in oil and red…
The Papaya Lounge is Ripe for Comedy
The funny, bawdy and sometimes naughty comedy and music show The Papaya Lounge met its goal of turning the Arcata Playhouse into a seedy cabaret nightclub on Saturday, Jan. 27. Velvet Q. Jones (Sarah McKinney) hosted the cabaret, billed as a music, comedy and variety show “with a fruity attitude.” The show was supported with excellent live…
Morning, Porkchop
So if we’re willing to blur the line between breakfast and lunch, we may as well luge down the slippery slope to dinner. We’re really only an order of steak and eggs away. Abandon labels and be free. Well, at least until Cafe Waterfront (102 F St., Eureka) stops serving breakfast around 11 a.m. We…
Still Missing: Ivan Linan
A Spanish man who worked as a professional mountain climber and guide remains missing in Eastern Humboldt. Ivan Liñan Cano, 31, was reportedly struggling with mental health issues and paranoia on Nov. 28 when he attacked the friend who was driving a car in which he was a passenger on State Route 36 near Carlotta. The…
The Humboldt 34: Missing Man Reunited With Family
A short six hours after this week’s copy of the Journal hit the stands, we received a call from a man whose name was featured on its cover: Daniel Ogden Stromberg. Stromberg, who is living in Eureka with a roommate, didn’t know that he had been reported missing to the Eureka Police Department in July…
Drug-Related Deaths on the Rise, say Sheriff, Coroner
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office released a comprehensive report Monday which shows that deaths due to alcohol and other drugs continue to rise. The report, compiled by HCSO public information specialist Samantha Karges and Humboldt County Coroner’s Office legal office assistant Brent Ferguson and reviewed by the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services, examined…
Bracing Racing at Clam Beach
Some 700 runners and walkers braved the light mist, cool temperatures and even colder Little River on Saturday in the 53rd annual Trinidad to Clam Beach Run Honoring Ford Hess. Hess was the Humboldt State University coach who started the race as a training experience for his track and field runners. The race’s 8.75-mile and…
Celestial Trifecta Wednesday: A Super Blue Blood Moon
In case you haven’t heard, a rare celestial event known as a “super blue blood moon” — try saying that three times fast — will be unfolding overhead Wednesday morning, if the North Coast’s notoriously gray skies don’t get in the way. Despite the somewhat ominous name, a super blue blood moon is basically a…
It’s All Gravy
In the interest of transparency, I would like to confess that I have been closed minded about biscuits and gravy. Haunted by a decades-ago plate at a truck stop near the border of Texas and Arkansas with payphones in the dining booths, it was hard to accept any variation on the standard dusty-topped, fluffy biscuit…
Rare Waterspout Makes Landfall at Woodley Island
Meteorologists at Eureka’s National Weather Service’s office are hoping local boat owners can check their wind gauges to help pinpoint the strength of a waterspout that went through the marina late Thursday afternoon before moving onto Woodley Island. Security footage captured an image of the 4:41 p.m. wind event, basically a tornado over water, which…
Memorial Planned for Famed Pollster Jim Moore
Friends and relatives will gather tomorrow evening to celebrate the life of Jim Moore, an Arcata native who became one of California’s must trusted political pollsters. Moore, who had been in declining health, died unexpectedly in his El Dorado County home Jan. 1. He was 66. Born March 28, 1951, the son of Herb and…
Huff to Bring Transgender Veteran to State of the Union in Protest of Military Ban
North Coast Congressman Jared Huffman will bring transgender Marine Corps veteran and Fort Bragg resident Lynda Bengtsson-Davis to the State of the Union on Tuesday in an effort to send a message. “As President Trump delivers his first State of the Union address, my message to him, to my constituents, and to America as whole…
Crown Jewell
You don’t have to be a fan of gin to enjoy Jewell Distillery’s latest spirit, Jewell Gin. In fact, you don’t have to be a gin fan to distill it. Michael and Barbara Jewell began Jewell Distillery in a small Blue Lake warehouse in June of 2016. It was a passion project for the longtime…
It’s Complicated
Editor: Thank you for publishing Assemblyman Jim Wood’s “Setting the Record Straight” views piece (Dec. 28) on the single payer health care bill (Senate Bill 562). He clearly states he and other assemblymembers want a single payer healthcare system. It was refreshing that he admitted it’s a complicated issue and placed trust in his constituents…
An Herb Shop Grows in Eureka
The first time Julie Caldwell drove across the Humboldt County line, the native Alabamian felt curiously at home underneath the towering redwoods. Humboldt’s incredibly diverse ecosystem, rich with verdant flora and fauna, captured Caldwell’s heart and imagination. She decided to stay forever. Like many transplants starting anew behind the Redwood Curtain, Caldwell saw an opportunity…
A Monumental Defense
Editor: The hateful statements about President McKinley in the NCJ (Mailbox, Dec. 14), prompt my response in his defense. He is accused of being a white supremacist who condoned lynching and committed genocide, yet he risked his life many times for the abolition of slavery. Enlisting as a private at 18, he performed heroically at…
Signs from the Women’s March
Editor’s note: In our weekly cartoon feature in the Jan. 25, 2018, edition of the North Coast Journal, we ran a photo collage submitted by cartoonist Terry Torgerson showing signs from the Jan. 20 Women’s March on Eureka. It has since come to our attention that Torgerson used photos he found on Facebook, including some taken…
Drilling Down
Editor: Regarding your Jan. 11 article, “Trump Admin Releases Draft Plan to Open North Coast Waters to Oil Drilling,” it’s almost incomprehensible how relentlessly outrageous, unstable, inept and reckless Trump is. Indeed, “the greatest threat facing the United States is its own president” (as David Rothkopf wrote in the Washington Post). Trump’s all-out assault on environmental…
Crowns and Coke
The meaning of the word “Shakespearian” is elusive when tossed around by wags and pundits, and it’s occasionally used with a little laziness. It’s dispatched to label something as being multi-layered, and also looking deep into the souls of people who are contradictory and perhaps doomed of their own making. King Lear has great fame,…
Not Impressed
Editor: Huffman talks of being cordial (“Congressional Chat,” Jan. 18), yet his first act to a new president is to boycott his inauguration. I dunno, seems a strange way to offer a welcoming hand? And then he wants more gun control, as if that will solve gun violence by criminals. And this is coming from a guy…
Bagels & Boards
Let’s set aside, for now, the flea market with its displays of quartz crystals and circa-1973 Pepsi glasses, the craft fairs, wrestling matches, roller derbies and cannabis fests. Redwood Acres, that bastion of endless entertainment, is also a hotbed of handcrafted delectables. A few mornings a week, head to the old racetrack these days to…
‘Absurd’
Editor: It is with some alarm that I read that our drinking water (for 88,000 Humboldt County residents) is now at risk because a poorly thought out “heavy industrial” zone ended up in the updated Humboldt County General Plan (NCJ Daily, Jan. 18). The area in question is located on the north shore of the…
Women’s March 2018
We are the revolution we are dinosaurs daydreams mothers lovers fighters we are more than the sum of black white skin birthplace gender sex or even our stories We are blood and fire and nebulas …
Panspermia and SETI
The last time I saw Bob Zubrin, at a conference of the Mars Society of which he’s president, he was, as usual, passionately advocating for manned missions to Mars. “If we send robotic machines ahead of humans to synthesize rocket fuel from the planet’s soil and atmosphere, we can cut NASA’s $400 billion cost estimate…
Creatures of the Night
I’m finally kicking the flu but I am not at full speed, so this has been a slow and wet week. I tried going out but didn’t do well with that and ended up crawling back into my lair to listen to blues music and dispense sluggish and hazy bon mots to my friends and…
Flavor Palette
Start with a heart of Romaine, curled up on the plate like a crisp green flavor envelope waiting to be filled. Add tangy corn pico de gallo. That’s the foundation for the main event — chicken in a dark, glossy mole simmered up from a generations-old family recipe. Top with thinly sliced, perfectly ripe avocado.…
Mateel Talks Bankruptcy
The depths of the Mateel Community Center’s financial woes continued to sink in at the January board meeting as newly sworn in members immediately faced a creditor’s demand and a discussion of bankruptcy protection options. The Mateel’s deep financial trouble bubbled into public view last fall when the Southern Humboldt community institution reported it had…
Monsters and Phantoms
Reviews THE SHAPE OF WATER. Guillermo del Toro loves a monster movie. He’s been working on variations within the genre for 25 years or so and he seems to be one of its last, great practitioners. As modern and self-aware as he may be, his work still belies a reverence for the classics of early…
Ten Items or Fewer: WinCo Edition
With aisles that can be as clogged as its parking lot, WinCo (636 Harris St., Eureka) is not for the weak. But for the strong and the willing, the employee-owned supermarket is a universally acknowledged deal. Solid fish counter, busy bakery, bulk bins for days (a barrel of giant jawbreakers!) and nobody notices if you…
The Choice is Yours
If you limited your vehicle purchase options to hybrids or electrics, sip only shade grown fair trade coffee and buy clothes only from brands that pay a living wage, it’s long since time you took the same approach to your cannabis. This notion was underscored mightily by a recent study authored by researchers from the…
Teachers Left Out
Editor: It was with great delight that I and my colleagues at Dell’Arte International read your recent cover story about writer Cecilia Holland’s and artist Julie McNeil’s work with prisoners at Pelican Bay State Prison as a part of the statewide Arts in Corrections program (“Students Inside,” Jan. 4). Ms. Holland deserves much credit for…
HumBug: Spiders in a Car
What do you do when you’re driving and a spider runs across the inside of your windshield? Like any good entomological photographer, I pulled over at a safe place and took its picture, of course. Done with the photo shoot, I hearded it onto an envelope and ushered it outside. Really, spiders are nothing to…
Attack of the Monster Women
A few minutes into the 2006 Humboldt County music documentary Rural Rock & Roll, The Monster Women’s guitarist and vocalist Courtney Jaxon describes our little slice of heaven. “There’s something strange and magical about this whole place,” she says. “It’s like we’re in the middle of some weird forest where things are different.” A bit…
Follow the Beat
On any given night, you can follow the sound of music and find yourself a good time in Arcata’s bars, restaurants, clubs and on sidewalks. Here are five rock-solid places to let the sound of local and visiting acts move you. The John Van Duzer Theatre on the Humboldt State University campus is the closest…
Bar by Bar
They’re both comprised of different sized slats to strike to produce playful melodies. But the marimba, with its double row of wooden bars and metal resonator tubes below, is a far cry from the tinny, rainbow-colored toy you remember from grade school. Instead, it yields a warm, natural resonance like that of an acoustic guitar.…
