Opinion

100 years ago – August 11, 1921

There’s no use putting this off any longer; now is as good a time as any to tackle one of the most controversial topics of all. No, we’re not talking about capital punishment or global climate change; we’re talking about pie making.

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. Admission is always free at the museum, open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Return our fire services tax dollars to Fitch Mountain

The 32nd annual Summer Olympics have come to a close in Tokyo, Japan. There were moments of lifetime achievements, world records, tears and raw emotions, a few lessons about mental health and stress, transgender milestones and, overall, a surprisingly successful collection of games, competition and camaraderie — all under a cloud of a global coronavirus pandemic.

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. Admission is always free at the museum, open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Facts matter, but only when enough people accept and believe them. Reader comments to last week’s editorial in this space offered much disheartening proof to this. Our “disturbing picture” satire that proffered that the 2020 Presidential Election was fraudulent and Biden’s victory was illegitimate was celebrated by some as bold fact telling, mistaking mockery for concession.

It’s been a couple of decades since we started hearing about how climate change would impact the planet and hence, the creatures living on it. Ice would melt, seas would rise and extreme weather would get more extreme: hotter, colder, windier, wetter, dryer.

Months ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom, target of a disgruntled developer and facing a recall campaign while managing extraordinary wildfire storms, COVID-19 and worsening drought, called for a voluntary water conservation effort that initially targeted only Sonoma and Mendocino counties. Not too much later, as the greatest reservoirs in the state came closer to reaching their lowest levels, Newsom ultimately placed the entire state under voluntary limits of 15%, while never calling for mandatory ones. In the meantime, water levels went down, down, down.

While washing dishes the other night I was contemplating what this month’s topic should be for the Market Report. As I squeezed the environmentally friendly liquid detergent onto the sponge, I realized my dishwashing ritual has changed substantially this past year. I never use...