Columns

I am proud to be the mayor of Healdsburg. Four years ago my public high school students inspired me to run for my hometown’s city council. My son and daughter, their friends, my neighborhood, community groups and my core values supported me. After a three-week delay, I did, indeed, win the election by 40 votes.

In the 1950s, we had Halford E. Luccock writing the back page of “The Christian Century,” a journal of more or less progressive Christian news, scholarship, and opinion that still comes out every week. During Luccock’s time, readers went immediately to the back page to see what he was up to, much like people look through the New Yorker for the cartoons before turning to whatever else might be there.

Town hall meeting next week

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.

Four library book groups are again meeting this month, and what wonderful selections to discuss. “The Last Bookaneer” is a swashbuckling tale about greed, highlighting thieves, spies, smugglers and tricksters, whereas “The Secret Place” is a terrifying mystery, featuring giddy, devious and untrustworthy schoolgirls. The middle schoolers will be enjoying the charming graphic novels “Awkward” and “Brave,” full of humor, realism and kindness.

The word “smitten” has several meanings, ranging from being hit with a heavy blow to caught in a trance of obsession or becoming love-struck. Here, we are using smitten as a synonym for enraptured or enchanted, like a teenager who casts a first sight on the new girl in class and immediately starts talking in nonsensical rhymes.

“Water, water all around, but not a drop to drink.”

Last weekend a very good friend celebrated a milestone birthday, which she wanted to commemorate by having a “crafternoon” at her family’s cabin. Melissa gathered years’ worth of craft materials – pounds of buttons, miles of fabric, bags of saved mint tins, boxes of old maps, mod podge, glue guns, scissors, scrapping paper, paint, etc., etc., etc. – and several years’ worth of friends, and we crafted our hearts out.

I started my Monday morning by picking squash, cucumbers, some tomatoes, a handful of strawberries and what my Oklahoma family calls “a mess of okra.” Okra is a favorite at our house. My Oklahoma grandmother, Momo as she preferred, served it breaded and fried with nearly every meal as long as okra season lasted.

Here's what's happening at the senior center this week: