Columns

Madness and greed have sparked a spate of home invasions, violent crimes and robberies, some botched, that have taken place from Cloverdale and Santa Rosa to Sebastopol and Petaluma.

Folks are lining up to play pickleball in Healdsburg. There’s a paddle rack and new courts at Healdsburg High School. The bright green and blue colors perk up the tennis facility, now the Pickleball/Tennis facility. Scheduled play and available courts in Healdsburg, both public and...

100 Years Ago: Sept. 20, 1923 Grape Shipments Running High as Cars Grow Short The surplus of refrigerator cars has been exhausted and the Healdsburg district is now on a hand to mouth basis in grape shipping, according to W. E. Hicks, Northwestern Pacific station agent. There...

Lots of stars and stripes around H’burg this week. Old Glory, here on University Avenue, rests unfurled every day. It’s protected by Plexiglas from premature weathering, the fate of a prior flag. Fireworks were also on display this Fourth of July, returning in a...

Imagine a small kid, five years old, getting a Tonka truck for Christmas. Imagine later that kid playing with a dad who has slightly bigger toys, same color, all set-up to make playtime fantasies real.  Yup! Dad plays with a small kid in the dirt....

Ski resorts transport people up mountain sides in elevated moving chairs—literally. A suited butler-ish person greets, holds the chair, making sure passengers are comfortably and safely seated. Thank you, Jeeves.  Generally, pleasant music is playing for this interchange, and then in the next magical moment,...

Each year there are four eclipses. Two occur during a new Moon, when the Moon blocks the Sun. Two occur at the full Moon, when the earth blocks the Moon. This month there will both kinds of eclipses. The full Moon lunar eclipse takes place on February 10 at 22 degrees of Leo and the new Moon solar eclipse happens on February 26 at 8 degrees of Pisces. The eclipse is most significant and impactfull when those degrees are occupied by a planet in one’s natal chart or if those degrees are on the angles of one’s natal chart.

100 years ago – July 19, 1923 Ball Fans ‘Kick’ Against Aviators Many complaints have been made by spectators attending the baseball games against the airplanes which, almost every Sunday, do flying tricks over the crowded grandstand and bleachers. During the Napa game a plane swooped down...

Once upon a time, real trees were cut for warmth, shipbuilding, utensil making and various sundry things. And once upon a time not so long ago, Christmas trees did not appear until December. Now, trees can be pulled from a box or seemingly created...

This Week in H’burg is a weekly column featuring photos and fun facts from local photographer Pierre Ratté. Each week we’ll feature a new photo from Ratté along with a fact about the subject matter of the photo.