And sons, of course — they, your kids, are the ones who may be taking over the family farm once you’ve, uh, bought the farm. Or maybe it’ll be some other sodbustin’, cattle-cooin’, sheep-shearin’ member of the family. Or haven’t you thought about that? Think you’re going to live forever? Think things will all go […]
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Say “Awww”
Poor docs, starting tomorrow they will no longer be showered in free, logo-bescribbled office tools and medical devices. According to a story in the New York Times , the pharmaceutical industry has gallantly decided to stop said showering: Starting Jan. 1, the pharmaceutical industry has agreed to a voluntary moratorium on the kind of branded […]
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An Xmas gift for the Mateel
The long wait is over. The Mateel is finally getting the settlement payment they’ve been waiting for — following a long delay blamed on the current state of the lending market. Here’s the announcement from the Ranch: The Dimmick Ranch announces payment of the Mateel Settlement The Dimmick Ranch announced today that Tom Dimmick has […]
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MediaNews Downgraded
… to a “substantial risk of default,” says Moody’s Investors Services. The company has a debt of close to $1 billion. But the Times-Standard‘s parent corporation bristles at Editor & Publisher‘s musings to the effect that the massive American newspaper super-chain could be headed toward bankruptcy, following the Tribune Co.’s trailblazing path down that road […]
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Mother Jones on the big tree hug
from www.wordle.net Mother Jones magazine’s story on the end of the timber war in Humboldt, in the November/December issue, contains all of the requisite key words for a good local yarn: treesitters, sneaking, tofu, ruddy, mustache, glint, dash, fun, tree, old growth, chainsaw, Hurwitz, clearcut, Lorax, locked, crushed, wiped out, redwoods, debt, slow-growth, hug, happy, […]
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Black Friday Addendum
courtesy of Adbusters Around the time this week’s Black Friday story hit the presses, someone pointed out that Nov. 28 is also ” Buy Nothing Day ,” a day of protest against consumerism, originally founded by Vancouver artist Ted Dave and later promoted by Adbusters magazine. Adbusters suggests: As the planet starts heating up, maybe […]
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Oh, mama mia!
Well, hell. Damn. There goes the local Pizza Mia™ and those chocolate dunky things. And 16 jobs. Donald Davenport, who with his wife Jo Ann owns the Pizza Hut franchise in Eureka, just flashed us a news release saying they’ve closed shop. The Davenports were embroiled in a fight with Pizza Hut, Inc., of Dallas. […]
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Bayshore Mall owners face possible bankruptcy
empty storefront General Growth Properties Inc. , the Chicago-based real estate investment company that owns the Bayshore Mall , is in serious financial trouble. The value of shares in GGP, the second largest mall owner in the country, plunged Tuesday and Wednesday following a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Monday in which they laid […]
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Eureka Reporter calls it quits
The great daily (or nearly daily) newspaper war has ended with a victory for the Times-Standard. The Eureka Reporter announced today that it will cease to exist after this Saturday, November 8. The announcement evidently came as a surprise to most everyone, including the staffs of both papers. Dean Singleton, CEO of Media News, the […]
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A love story
Thanks to Slate (via BoingBoing ) for pointing out this TV ad for a bank, with what Humboldters will recognize as a familiar story, at least until the ending. As Slate’s John Swansburg points out, Joanna Newsom provides the soundtrack song. I can’t say I understand what it all has to do with banking, but […]
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Periodical lemming
From the mouthpiece of liberal elitism (or is it elitist liberalism?), The New York Times, comes this story about the imminent demise of The Christian Science Monitor’s daily print edition. The cost-cutting measure makes The Monitor the first national newspaper to largely give up on print. And so it begins. The nonprofit, church-financed fish-wrap won […]
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Pulp Mill Dumped
Just a couple of follow-up thoughts on the Times-Standard‘s major scoopage this morning on the sale of Evergreen Pulp … Here’s the disclosure form (.pdf) on the sale from the Hong Kong stock exchange. Note the payment schedule. Someone’s getting what seems like a pretty handsome deal. They’re putting about $2.5 million US down, then […]