Columns

With gender fluidity, one wonders about “Burning Man.” Right? Burners gather 375 miles northeast of Healdsburg in Black Rock City, NV—an alkali desert plain called “the playa.” Burners have a sense of humor, for sure, but the playa also stems from its location on...

Labor Day’s long weekend winds up summer. Vacations end. School starts. Days are progressively shorter. Autumn comes to mind and fall colors slowly show.  Labor Day honors the American worker. The U.S. was the first country to establish “labor day,” and the first parade took...

Out to summer dinner in Healdsburg the other night, a few of us sat around a table set on a driveway. Yeah, it’s an H’burg thing in the pandemic. Passersby walking dogs chatted, bicyclists waved.  Oh my goodness, the fresh Moroccan fare from start...

August 11th’s supermoon was the last of 2022. August supermoons are also called Sturgeon Moons, from a Native American tradition recognizing August as the month for catching these large fish in the Great Lakes, Lake Champlain and the Hudson River. This rising moon was...

Ahhhhh. The sweet smell of petrichor last week was a welcome joy. Petrichor? Yes, petrichor: the pleasant, earthy odor that follows gentle rain after a dry spell. Cool word, isn’t it? Pictured above are a few drops highlighting the Crocosmia crocosmilflora, or Coppertips Montbretia....

Crepe myrtles are known for vivid colors. This vibrant specimen shames the bright red painted curb at Safeway with a profusion of panicles. A panicle is a loose branching bunch of flowers, or if you prefer: a branched indeterminate inflorescence of racemes with pedicels....

When you’re young, downtown is where your life unfolds. It starts at 12 with the comic book shop, moves on to the record store and skateboarding, which is followed by clothes at the mall and finally literature at the bookstore, which is read and...

Reportedly, 17 years ago this wall at Fitch and Powell was a blank concrete block wall.  Often it would be “tagged.” That is until somebody decided to do something about it.  That somebody was eight-year-old Haley Fincher. She and her friends took it upon themselves,...

Walking around H’burg, specifically Veterans Memorial Beach Park, I happened to notice a little book on a picnic table. It’s not every day that one sees a book on Henry V left behind. Especially a children’s book describing a king from William Shakespeare’s 1599 play.  The...

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...