Columns

Today, we flip the calendar to the new month of November, and we wish we could also turn the page on all the recent news about mail bombs, another horrific mass shooting, bitter political divisions and dismal news about pending climate and global doom. Maybe our post-election period will cast glimmers of hope, new and positive energies or a reminder that “these things too shall pass.”

Shakespeare got it right, says Pierre Ratte. From her balcony, young Juliet laments her sweetheart’s name is Montague, an enemy. And yet at a tender age, she recognizes, “’Tis but thy name that is my enemy … What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Wouldst Juliet’s wisdom leap into our dangerous political rhetoric.

Sonoma County’s COVID-19 case data shows a climbing line upward, marking hundreds of new positive cases each week and a quadrupling of deaths in just the last month. All predictions are for this line to keep moving upward across the page to the right where it might meet up with a “second wave” of coronavirus infections just when flu season gets here in a few months.

The following snippets of history are drawn from the pages of the Healdsburg Tribune, the Healdsburg Enterprise and the Sotoyome Scimitar, and are prepared by the volunteers at the Healdsburg Museum & Historical Society.  

There has been a lot of advice on how to landscape our homes to keep wildfires away (including this column).

Looking for a lost pet or a new four-legged friend? See the list of incoming strays and the slideshow of cats and dogs available for adoption from the Sonoma Humane Society, Healdsburg Center.