From the extremely large, solid oak desk of Secretary of War Peter Hegseth: Questions regarding the Pentagon’s plans to develop a High-T military are harshing my morning buzz so I will be addressing some of your baby-ass concerns here. Side note: We will also begin construction of a new building, swapping out the five-sided thing […]
Life + Outdoors
Posted inGet Out
Redwood Coast Music Festival 2026
The 34th Redwood Coast Music Festival last weekend in Eureka attracted another huge crowd of attendees who faced the pleasant challenge of picking and choosing among 130 sets by amazing talent over four days at different venues. The event began back in 1990 with a traditional Dixieland jazz music genre targeting a somewhat aging audience. […]
Posted inField Notes
Thales’ Eclipse and the Saros Cycle
“… just as the battle was growing warm, day was on a sudden changed into night. This event had been foretold by Thales, the Milesian, who forewarned the Ionians of it, fixing for it the very year in which it actually took place. The Medes and Lydians, when they observed the change, ceased fighting, and […]
Posted inWashed Up
Mussel Super Glue
Howdy. I’m that naked guy you’ve probably seen beachcombing. You can be sure it’s me by my potbelly, which makes it look like I’ve swallowed a basketball. Because I carry my keys and phone in my hands, I need a place to carry any washed-up objects I wish to take home. I was inspired by […]
Posted inField Notes
Childbirth: Why So Difficult?
The “obstetrical dilemma” was born, so to speak, in 1960, not in a medical journal, but in the pages of Scientific American magazine. There, anthropologist Sherwood Washburn proposed that the ease with which most non-human primates give birth when compared to humans comes down to bipedalism. While a mother-to-be great ape will seek seclusion to […]
Posted inGet Out
North Country Fair at 52
Overcast skies and even a few early in the day sprinkles served as a gentle reminder the change of seasons is underway for the large crowds attending the 52nd annual North Country Fair last weekend in Arcata. Alex Ozaki-McNeill, director of the fair, said this year’s theme of “Stronger Together” was selected because, in these […]
Posted inField Notes
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 […]
Posted inGet Out
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 […]
Posted inField Notes
An Etruscan Venus and the Patriarchy
“Patriarchy has tried to erase imagery of the feminine since time immemorial. Destroy the image and you can control the narrative.” — Syreeta McFadden, The Guardian U.S., April 13, 2015 Almost life-sized, the “Venus of Cannicella” looks out at us from behind her protective transparent cylinder in an archeological museum in the town of Orvieto, […]
Posted inGet Out
Corkscrew Trees and a Crooked Trail
Perfect weather on Aug. 1 and a desire to be among the first to walk the newly opened Crooked Trail brought my wife and me to the adjacent and newly open-to-the-public ‘O Rew Redwoods Gateway — a 125-acre Yurok Tribe-owned and managed preserve just north of Orick. The new entry gate read, “Welcome to ‘O […]
Posted inGet Out, Life + Outdoors
Coming Together for Obon
A large crowd showed up under lightly smokey skies from wildfires on Sunday afternoon at Arcata’s Creamery District to celebrate Obon. The Japanese Buddhist festival honoring the spirits of one’s ancestors is a recent tradition in Humboldt, having begun locally in 2022. After opening shakuhachi (Japanese flute) music by Rick Kruse, emcee Marylyn Paik-Nicely welcomed […]
Posted inGet Out
My Very Own Sit Spot
I’m lying on a bench underneath an arbor, looking up at the wisteria on the trellis. Sun peeks through the cracks of the bench. I sit up and look at the tree to my left, my eyes following the fractal beauty of the branches, watching how they replicate themselves in ever-smaller degrees of scale. I’m […]