MCT: Monday, August 3, 2020

• Clarity
• 322 Cases
• Sherwood Outbreak
• Swallows
• Elder Deaths
• 1917 Fellers
• Resignation Letter
• Albion Bridge
• Fuente Fundraiser
• Locomotive
• Failed Ordinance
• Boonville Baseballers
• Retirement Ukiah
• Franklin Street
• Trustees Sought
• Timber Bridge
• Roy Exclaims
• Greenwood Logging
• Ed Notes
• Yesterday's Catch
• River Tripping
• Irena Sendler
• Herd Mentality
• Manilatown Series
• Metrics Wanted
• July Numbers
• Numbskull Scumbags
• Lip Glaze
• The Waiting
• Decline/Fall
• Bad Acts
• Uncle Masked
• Marco Radio
• Found Object

ANOTHER DAY of clearing along the coast is expected by at least the afternoon north of Cape Mendocino while areas farther south could stay clear all day. Interior areas will remain clear and dry. A stray mountain thunderstorm will be possible Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. (NWS)

MENDO COVID, AUGUST 2

ADDITIONAL HOSPITALIZATIONS OF SHERWOOD OAKS RESIDENTS, LOCAL STATE DATA COMPARISON, REVISED HEALTH ORDER TO BE ISSUED

Post Date: 08/02/2020 1:47 PM

Mendocino County Public Health is reporting a total of 7 COVID-19 positive Sherwood Oaks residents have now been hospitalized at Adventist Health Mendocino Coast at the time of this Press Release. This outbreak is being closely monitored by Public Health in coordination with Sherwood Oaks staff, a strike team of additional facility staff provided by the state, and Adventist Health.

"As a community we mourn for the residents of Sherwood Oaks who lost their lives to COVID-19,” said Health Officer Dr. Noemi Doohan. “Swift and coordinated action to prevent more illness and loss of life has been taken. It is this type of strong collaboration for the public's health that will keep Mendocino County protected during this pandemic. Thank you Dr. Bessant Parker, Dr. William Miller and Adventist Health Mendocino Coast Hospital for providing urgently needed COVID-19 isolation care for our frail elderly."

“This is a crisis affecting our community and we must come together as a community to solve it,” said Dr. William Miller, Chief of Staff at Adventist Health Mendocino Coast Hospital.

Sherwood Oaks COVID-19 Outbreak Statistics

Total positive: 29 

• Residents: 20 
• Staff: 8 
• Community: 1 

Total deaths: 7 

• Residents: 7 (6 in the nursing home and 1 in the ER) 
• Staff: 0 
• Community: 0 

Total hospitalizations for illness: 6 

• Residents: 5 
• Staff: 0 
• Community: 1 

Total hospitalizations for isolation purposes: 4 residents

“This has been a difficult time for us and so many in our community,” said Will Maloney, Administrator of Sherwood Oaks. “The Sherwood Oaks family appreciates deeply the collaboration and support we have received from Adventist Health Mendocino Coast and Mendocino County Public Health.”

COVID-19 testing in response to this outbreak is still being facilitated through Public Health or through community partners for residents and employees of Sherwood Oaks. Public Health and the congregate homes throughout the County have been meeting weekly for months, to allow a coordinated response to outbreaks and to ensure congregate homes have sufficient PPE and prevention protection protocols in place. The County and congregate homes follow all the State guidelines including; using Optum Serve to do surveillance testing for 100% of staff monthly and offering surveillance testing to residents through Public Health. The preparation, planning, frequent testing and adherence to State guidelines are a key factor in quick and coordinated response to such outbreaks.

Mendocino County is still in the middle of a COVID-19 surge. Our county’s COVID-19 data does meet the criteria to place us on the state’s Watch List, but our placement on this list has not yet been confirmed by the state.

COVID-19 Data Comparison Between State and County Chart:

https://www.mendocinocounty.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=37007

Currently, the State and local orders restrict permissible gatherings to outdoor Place of Worship faith-based services and cultural ceremonies; outdoor funeral and memorial services; as well as outdoor protests. Facial coverings must be worn by all participants in accordance with the facial covering order and physical distancing of at least 6 feet is required at all times between all persons from different households, living units or Stable Bubbles. Due to the increased risk of transmission (even outdoors), the Health Officer has also limited capacity to a maximum of 100 persons. The Health Officer does not consider drive-in/drive-through activities as gatherings, if participants follow the Guidelines for Drive-In and Drive-Through Events, stay in their cars and otherwise remain apart from individuals in separate households, living units or Stable Bubbles.

This upcoming week, Mendocino County Public Health will be issuing a revised Health Order concerning these changes in gathering allowances. It is crucial that all Mendocino County residents continue to adhere to current health orders in order to protect the health of our county. 

Summary of Open and Closed Businesses and Activities, in Addition to Details on Permitted Gatherings:

https://www.mendocinocounty.org/home/showdocument?id=37005

Remember:

• Avoid gatherings
• Wear a facial covering at all times when in public
• Practice social distancing
• Stay home when you feel sick

SWALLOWS

MENDOCINO COUNTY HEALTH OFFICIALS GRAPPLE WITH DEADLY CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK IN FORT BRAGG NURSING HOME

by Tyler Silvy

Six more residents of a Fort Bragg skilled nursing facility have died in the past two weeks and 29 coronavirus cases have been newly confirmed at the site in the single worst outbreak of COVID-19 in Mendocino County, officials reported Sunday.

Altogether, seven residents of Sherwood Oaks Health Center have died from the coronavirus, health officials reported, accounting for all but two of the county’s nine COVID-19 deaths. Six of the residents died at the 79-bed Dana Street nursing home and one at the hospital.

The grim update came as the pandemic deepens its toll on elderly residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities across the North Coast, including in Sonoma County, which on Sunday confirmed two more coronavirus deaths, bringing its total to 39. County officials said the cases involved a man and a woman, both over the age of 65, who died at skilled nursing facilities.

Local health authorities, citing their lack of regulatory power over the care homes, which are licensed and governed by the state, have been scrambling to formulate a response.

In Fort Bragg, officials with Adventist Health Mendocino Coast, the town’s renamed district hospital, and state health authorities have descended on Sherwood Oaks in an effort to stem the loss of life, county officials reported.

“As a community we mourn for the residents of Sherwood Oaks who lost their lives to COVID-19,” Mendocino County Health Officer Dr. Noemi Doohan said in a release from the county. “Swift and coordinated action to prevent more illness and loss of life has been taken.”

Doohan credited the Adventist Health Mendocino Coast for providing isolation space for vulnerable elderly residents.

“This is a crisis affecting our community and we must come together as a community to solve it,” said Dr. William Miller, chief of staff at Adventist Health Mendocino Coast Hospital.

Mendocino County has provided regular updates on the pandemic’s widening impact in its communities, publicly identifying businesses and care facilities where outbreaks have occurred ‒ something Sonoma County officials have repeatedly declined to do, citing laws governing medical records.

Few if any pandemic updates from Mendocino County, however, have come with the same alarming news as Sunday’s.

“This has been a difficult time for us and so many in our community,” Sherwood Oaks Administrator Will Maloney said in the county release. “The Sherwood Oaks family appreciates deeply the collaboration and support we have received from Adventist Health Mendocino Coast and Mendocino County Public Health.”

Mendocino County CEO Carmel Angelo said in a phone interview Sunday that the county has poured a tremendous amount of energy into corralling the outbreak. Of the 29 cases documented on Sunday, 20 involved residents, eight are staff members and one is a community member, according to the county.

“The goal was to treat and separate them,” Angelo said of infected residents. “The facility was separating them, but because it was such a big outbreak, the physicians, including our health officer, felt like there needed to be more done.”

The Mendocino Coast hospital offered an unused wing for isolation, and has recently welcomed seven residents from Sherwood Oaks, which Angelo said actively sought help.

A state “strike team” comprised of a nurse, two emergency medical technicians and a paramedic have trained staff at the facility and even worked overnight shifts in the battle against COVID-19, Angelo said.

Meanwhile, Sonoma County this past week has reckoned with its own spike in cases and deaths at skilled nursing or residential care facilities, which have accounted for 32 of the county’s 39 deaths, including at least 14 since July 23.

The outbreaks include confirmed cases among residents and staff in at least 16 of the county’s 20 skilled nursing facilities, and at least one of its residential care sites, which are nonmedical institutions that include assisted living, board and care homes and memory care centers.

Public health officials last week sought state help to curb the spread, which Sonoma County Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase twice called “heartbreaking.”

Sonoma County, however, was unsuccessful through most of last week in its effort to secure an alternate site where vulnerable elderly people could be isolated and treated outside the confines of nursing and care homes that lack such space.

Talks with Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital as well as medical facilities in Healdsburg, Sebastopol and the Sonoma Valley have not panned out, Mase said Friday, adding that she hoped to talk to another group that could accept 12 people with COVID-19.

Sonoma County officials on Sunday also released new details on the county’s 37th death, a woman younger than 65, with underlying health conditions, who died at a hospital.

In Mendocino County, where state workers are already embedded, the county is set for a health officer transition, as Doohan’s long-planned departure for a job in San Diego approaches.

Angelo said Dr. Andy Coren, a Ukiah family doctor who was recently named Doohan’s replacement, will work with Doohan for the next month to ensure a smooth transition. And Doohan will continue on as a consultant through the end of the year.

Doohan is poised this week to issue new health orders, potentially among her last, further restricting civic life in an effort to tamp down the ongoing surge.

Although the county does not yet appear on the state’s watchlist, Doohan will issue new guidelines for outdoor activities, according to the county’s release, likely limiting the number of people that can be present, even with mitigating measures such as social distancing or masks.

For Angelo, the efficacy of the measures depends entirely on how well residents adhere to them.

“At the beginning of this pandemic, it felt like it was just a public health issue, and a public health response,” she said. “But the longer this goes on, it’s very clear that this is a community event that needs a community response.”

(courtesy The Press Democrat)

TEN MILE LOGGERS FELLERS, 1917

MCRPD BOARD RESIGNATION LETTER

To Whom It May Concern:

I do not agree with and will not condone the direction the Mendocino Coast Recreation and Park District (MCRPD) board has taken in recent board and committee meetings. There has been no pursuit of adaptation to the COVID-19 pandemic to provide recreation opportunities to the public and other board members have stated that MCRPD’s “only solution” is to sell off the regional park property. Realistic solutions that will bring the MCRPD out of debt and provide a multi-use park for the public have been brought to the table by people that have volunteered hundreds, if not thousands, of hours to find rational reachable solutions, yet have been thrown away lest a decision have to be made.

My personality is one of action, not discussion and pontification. Members of the board have shown time and again that their direction is to ruminate rather than move towards a defined goal. MCRPD is at a pivotal time with the regional park property. Partners that have multiple avenues of resources have been brought to the table and repeatedly ignored due to bruised egos of board members.

• MCRPD has become the “park district” that is willing to throw away it’s only opportunity to provide a park for the public it is chartered to serve because developing the park property is not simple and easy.
• MCRPD has become the “recreation district” that will not provide recreational opportunities in tough times because it is too difficult to think outside the box.

I will not be part of a government organization that receives tax funds but will not provide the resources in its charter, recreational opportunities and a park, to the citizens that pay said taxes. MCRPD has become the epitome of “bad government” at the direction of the majority of its board members.

Effective immediately I resign my position as a board member of the Mendocino Coast Recreation and Park District.

I wish MCRPD luck in its future endeavors to provide recreational opportunities and park facilities.

John Huff

July 30, 2020

ALBION BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION, 1944

FUNDRAISER - ARTIST HOPES TO REBUILD AFTER FIRE

by Jaclyn Luna

Mendocino artist Larry Fuente’s home and work space were destroyed in a fire on July 3. The nationally renowned artist lost nearly everything. Fortunately, Fuente was unharmed, the same can not be said for his life’s work. To help him rebuild what was lost, the Mendocino Art Center organized a Go Fund Me campaign with the goal of raising $50,000.

Mendocino Art Center Communications Director Mike McDonald said he was motivated to put the fundraiser together due the fact that, “there has been quite a bit of an outpouring of community support for him, people wanting to be able to contribute in some way. We have had a longtime affiliation with Larry.”

Less than a year ago, the center hosted a solo show by Fuente in two of their galleries titled, “New World Hoarder” which showcased a diverse selection of Fuente’s life’s work. McDonald said the show brought in a lot of people from within the community, as well as from outside the community. He said it was one of their most popular exhibitions of all time.

Fuente’s work has also been seen on the cover of National Geographic magazine and shown at the Museum of Modern Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. He is known for the intricately embellished assemblage sculptures. Fuente was born in Chicago, Illinois and studied painting at the Kansas City Art Institute before moving to the Bay Area in the late 1960s. After moving west, his art transformed from painting to three-dimensional work.

Firefighters were able to save Fuente’s legendary Mad Cad, a 1960s Cadillac sedan he spent five years decorating with one million colored beads, buttons and plastic lawn ornaments, among other things. The car is a prominent feature in Mendocino’s annual Fourth of July parade.

McDonald said, “Larry is such a Mendocino treasure, he is just revered by all. He is such an engaging man and such a creative mind. I feel like he’s one of those artists that really knows how to engage the viewer in his artwork. Last year when we hosted his exhibit, people would just spend an enormous amount of time just looking at each piece, really engaging in each piece, because they are so intricate and meticulous. I think he is such a role model and inspiration to other artists. He was a huge draw for us, personally, being able to host him for his six-week exhibit.”

McDonald further explained the Center’s desire to help Fuente. He said, “We just really wanted to be able to help him out. Both Larry and the Mendocino Art Center are long time residents of the Mendocino coast, and it just felt like the right thing to do.”

Mendocino Art Center Executive Director Roccie Hill set the goal of $50,000 after talking with Fuente’s family and determining that would be an appropriate amount for the fundraising campaign. More than $10,000 had been raised at time of press.

Visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/larry-fuente-fire-fun to donate and see a short video featuring a selection of Fuente’s work.

GUALALA ENGINE #5

POT ORDINANCE WOES CONTINUE…PART 2

by Jim Shields

Last week I let you know that there are dark clouds on the horizon regarding the county’s failed Cannabis Ordinance and the resulting uncertain prospects of pot growers ever being licensed by state regulators.

According to one county official, the licensing process now required by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) was “never anticipated when the Cannabis Ordinance was adopted by the County in 2017.”

That official, Planning and Building Services (PBS) Director Brent Schultz, gloomily concluded, “These (state) processes will also be difficult for our permittees and applicants to navigate, with no guarantee that their cultivation sites will ultimately pass site specific environmental review. Furthermore, because Provisional State Licenses expire January 1, 2022, PBS staff has no confidence that sufficient time remains for active permittees and applicants in the County’s Cannabis Cultivation Permitting Program to obtain all necessary approvals for an Annual State Cannabis Cultivation License to be issued.”

Therefore, it’s possible that untold numbers of county residents may have no way forward to obtain the required state cannabis license.

I disagreed with Schultz’s characterization of this development as being “never contemplated when the original ordinance was adopted.”

I pointed out last week that three years ago representatives of two state resource agencies — CAL FIRE and the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) — appeared on their own motion at a July 18, 2017 Board of Supervisors meeting, and specifically addressed County officials on potential problems with their pot rules.

From the outset of their remarks, the state resource agencies’ reps pointedly but politely bared their fangs on the County’s problematical environmental review process and the enforcement issue.

Last week I covered DFW’s numerous warnings on the ordinance’s defects.

Here’s what CAL FIRE had to say on the county’s pot regulations.

CAL FIRE’s Unit Resource Manager Craig Pederson spoke on the lack of enforcement regarding tree removal associated with marijuana cultivation.

“CAL FIRE was satisfied with the final ordinance language which clearly prohibited tree removal” for grow sites, Pederson said.

But, he stated, “In practice we find that not to be the case as conversion of timberland to cultivate marijuana has continued.”

He pointed out that ‘the number of issues and potential CAL FIRE law enforcement cases are escalating …”

He told the Supes, “CAL FIRE encourages the county to promptly and consistently enforce the cultivation ordinance. The ordinance must be enforced by the county, as lead agency, to ensure responsible agencies’ (such as CAL FIRE) written and verbal concerns are addressed.”

He reminded the Supes that the ordinance created a “zero tolerance for tree removal. It doesn’t allow a single (commercial) tree to be removed for cultivation purposes.”

The bottom line for CAL FIRE was they were not happy that they were being forced by the “escalating” tree removal activities of growers to do the enforcement duties that are actually the county’s responsibilities.

Recently I wrote once again in this space that by any process of program evaluation or measure of a program’s effectiveness, the Mendocino County cannabis ordinance is an abysmal failure. I said that there’s really only one viable option left to the County, and it appears there may be a number of Supervisors who see it that way also, with John McCowen, Ted Williams, and John Haschak perhaps favoring a change in direction.

On Tuesday, Aug. 4, the Board of Supervisors will be discussing whether to change direction and possibly create a Cannabis Ordinance that actually works, instead of the one that is currently ignored by 90 percent of pot farmers.

(Jim Shields is the Mendocino County Observer’s editor and publisher, and is also the long-time district manager of the Laytonville County Water District. Listen to his radio program “This and That” every Saturday at 12 noon on KPFN 105.1 FM, also streamed live: http://www.kpfn.org.)

BOONVILLE BASEBALL, 1906

ASSIGNMENT: UKIAH - WAKE UP, COFFEE, DAWDLE, REPEAT

by Tommy Wayne Kramer

Now that I’m retired I have nothing to do and it takes me all day long to get it done. It occasionally requires overtime.

In part it’s my laziness, but there’s also inertia and sloth to consider. I’ve heard time expands to fill the amount needed to get things done, meaning if I’ve got two weeks to write a column I will complete it right on deadline unless I’m able to wheedle an extension. I can also write one in 30 minutes if that’s what’s needed.

So being retired is one long excuse to do nothing except experience the delight of not having to get anything done again today except dress myself, which I regularly accomplish in less than an hour, not including tying shoes. After that my calendar is open through mid-September.

If a new appointment suddenly gets pencilled in the first thing I do is panic. Second thing is to see if I can cancel or at least postpone that appointment too.

Dental checkup? Didn’t we just read somewhere that most people don’t need yearly X-rays and cleanings? I’ll have Trophy call the dentist to postpone my visit until 2023. In return I promise to start flossing, assuming I can somehow find the time.

I’m good at dealing with errands so long as there’s no more than one a week. Groceries? Tuesday looks good. Hand me your checkbook.

But if I’m supposed to visit the grocery store plus the post office and pharmacy all in one day I consult the kitchen calendar. After that I do whatever it takes to convince my wife she doesn’t need all that medication, especially given the expense and side effects. Next, google those meds to see what the side effects are, then slightly exaggerate.

The post office can wait. I’m planning to go there in October anyway to mail my brother a birthday card. When October draws near I’ll compromise by leaving a message on a phone he no longer uses. And I can always stick one of those “belated” birthday cards in the envelope along with the card Trophy will send him at Christmas.

I came across an old notebook calendar I used to keep when I worked as an investigator and it is scarcely believable to see what I accomplished in a day back then. There must have been three of me:

To Covelo. Locate, interview six witnesses, subpoena five, return to office, write report on each. Visit jail, meet with new homicide client, write report, confer with attorney, return nine phone calls, meet Public Defender investigator at Club Calpella, noon, to discuss new case and potential witnesses, martinis for lunch.

Today that reads like a year’s entire schedule, except I’d have to squeeze in the dental appointment I postponed last summer.

My kind of town, Ukiah is

Last week’s column described our habit of letting the best, oldest and most valuable properties (old Post Office, Palace Hotel, Talmage Hospital, Trinity School) be purchased by outsiders, then locked up, closed down and neglected.

I got a response from my pal Mike Koepf (author most recently of Shelter Cove, a lightly reimagined novel of Redwood Summer and the death of Judi Bari) who lives in Elk and corresponds occasionally. His take on my piece made me blink.

Koepf wrote “Nice column, T., you are one of the few people in the county who actually cares about Ukiah.”

And a warm glow illumined my damp, cramped writing closet (contents: child-size school desk, Underwood typewriter) while I sat and pondered. Mike’s right. Despite my occasional yowls in protest of this or that endeavor or some city hall imbecile, I dig Ukiah just fine and would like to do right by her.

What some people are forever hoping to “fix” is Ukiah’s dowdy, unfashionable appearance and her utter unwillingness to join the rush to be among the stylish cities. You know the kind. They pop up weekly in magazines and travel sections devoted to “ So Cool They’re Hot!! Towns With Sizzling Eateries, Vibrant Shopping and Lots of Shiny Expensive Sporty Cars Driven by Sillies Just Like YOU!”

The country and California have a million boring cities like those and my goal is to never visit any of them.

Ukiah is Ukiah and let’s keep her that way. Who needs three more Starbucks, a dozen downtown real estate shops and a Tesla car lot?

All of Marin County and everything south of it is nothing but artificial soul-sucking commerce centers stuffed with trendy shops I’d pay to not enter.

Thanks, Mike! I may soon be feeling better about myself.

And maybe Ukiah likes me back. Tom Hine was stunned and delighted to see his very own plaque at Anton Stadium’s entryway honoring the true heroes who helped rebuild it. My contributions were slight, but I’d love to know who nominated me and listen to the debate that followed. TWK is just along for the ride.

(Courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal.)

FRANKLIN ST., FORT BRAGG, 1890s

NEW CSD TRUSTEES SOUGHT

Dear Anderson Valley Community,

Elections are coming up and this is an excellent time to make a commitment to serve your community. There are three openings for Community Services District Directors on November 3rd. Although the three incumbents (Soderman, Christen, and I) are willing to serve once again, we are always looking for new Community members who are willing to help steer the District. In the past, incumbents have continued to serve for longer than they had planned because no one stepped up to take over. I can’t tell you how many recruitment speeches I have made over the years!

In the interest of full disclosure, I am going to tell you about the commitments of the job. I need to do this because we have had folks drop out once they realize the level of time and effort involved. 

A Director must:

Be familiar with Roberts Rules of Order. (Don’t worry – we’ll teach you.)

Take trainings that are legally required by all Directors. There are three separate trainings mandated by State Law that need to be refreshed every other year: Brown Act, and Ethics, and Sexual Harassment. These can either be done in person (not during COVID) or virtually. Your test results at the end are submitted to the District and the County.

Attend the regular meeting on the third Wednesday of the month. Before the meeting Board members need to fully read the Directors’ packet and the Reading File to be ready for discussions and perhaps vote.

Attend Special Meetings when it is necessary to convene to take actions required before the next regular meeting. For example, the Board might need to meet to approve a grant request before its deadline. On rare occasions directors must meet in emergency sessions to handle critical issues that are extremely time sensitive.

Serve on additional committees that meet regularly or as needed: Current committees are Budget, Personnel, Loss Control, Fire Protection, Emergency Medical Services, Policies and Procedures, Recreation, Airport, MCAFD (Mendocino County Association of Fire Chiefs), and the new Water Projects committee. As you can see, there are more committees than there are Directors, and so Directors need to plan on at least one to three additional meetings a month beyond the regular third Wednesday evening meeting. Directors tend to gravitate towards their interests and abilities. The Community is the beneficiary of retirees who come in with a lot of experience and high levels of skill and a great deal of energy to serve.

Directors must be professional and be able to keep confidential any interaction with staff, volunteers, or individuals in the public. 

If you feel you can dedicate yourself to your Community, please start attending meetings (all are public except for Closed Sessions which are very rare). There is no better way to get a feel for the responsibilities of the job than to watch the Community Services Board in action. 

Valerie Hanelt, Chair

Anderson Valley Community Services District Board

Boonville

TEN MILE BRIDGE

CLAIMED?

Letter To The Editor,

Open the July 27 issue of the paper and there on page 7 is a story by my old running buddy, Jim Gibbons. Met him at a race in Boonville in which we finished 1-2 in September of '78. Good guy. We both were teaching in Willits. We ran together many afternoons for a couple months. I had just moved to Ukiah from Southern California, in the process losing my long time running buddy. In January I had run a 2:37 marathon under less then optimal conditions. My goal was to break 2:30. Jim provided a much needed running companion.

Lay back in the recliner and start to read. Yes, I remember him telling me about running in college. He was a half miler with times better than mine. He ran with Howie Hawkes. I know Howie! Also a good guy. He was the contractor who did a beautiful renovation of my home. Oh, here is my name. In one sentence my attitude changed.

“Roy claimed he got up at five every morning and ran ten miles around Ukiah, meaning the days he ran with me after school were twenty mile days.” 

CLAIMED? CLAIMED? Claimed is a word used to express possible doubt as in “Trump CLAIMED he was valedictorian at Wharton.”

If you squint and breath deeply while slowly tapping your left foot as you read the rest of this, it will seem less like the rantings of a senile old fart. 

CLAIMED? Jim, every single f-ing day we ran together, I had run 10 miles from my home in Rogina Heights, down Talmage into town, around the west side and Todd Grove Park then back via Perkins and up Watson Road to home where I showered, dressed and went to Sunny's Doughnuts before heading to Willits. Yes, it was dark and cold.

After school you and I would run many afternoons. In my log I see references to you (ex: “Fri 9-29 12 miles, part fast with Jim Gibbons”). You made reference to my running 100 mile weeks (If indeed I ran those morning miles as “claimed”). Yes, except for the week I eased up before a marathon in January I ran well over 100 miles every week of 1978. The total for the year was 6,822 miles. This translates to 18.7 miles a day, 130.8 per week. The two months during which we ran together were 600 and 601 miles. Didn't miss a day for seven and a half years, 2,727 days. I usually don't work those numbers into casual conversation but aspersions have been cast against my integrity.

CLAIMED? CLAIMED? Am I taking offense over the use of that word? You bet your butt I am. The competitive fires have been stoked, Jim. It's on. I'll meet you at the senior center. The minute the bingo game is over, we'll man our walkers and race around the parking lot. 

“Claimed” my ass. 

Roy Mason Swett

Ukiah

---

JIM GIBBONS REPLIES:

"Good to hear from you Roy. Sorry about that awful “claimed” word. I guess I found it hard to believe someone could run 100 miles a week and still work a full time job. I’d get tired if I ran more than 50. Maybe I was jealous because you beat me? Anyhow, I hope you forgive me and enjoy the rest of my book. Aloha."

BISHOP BRIDGE, GREENWOOD

GREENWOOD FLYER

ED NOTES

NANCY PELOSI got off an unfounded, unelaborated upon slam at Dr. Birx, Trump's coronavirus task force coordinator, simply because she works for Trump. Birx responded by saying, her announcements are not pollyannish. "I've never been called pollyannish, or non-scientific, or non-data driven," Birx said. "I will stake my 40-year career on those fundamental principles of using data to implement better programs and save lives."

DR. BIRX pushed back on a misconception that the virus only inundated urban landscapes, like the former epicenter New York City, and not other rural regions. "To everybody who lives in a rural area, you are not immune or protected from this virus. If you're in multi-generational households, and there's an outbreak in your rural area or in your city, you need to really consider wearing a mask at home, assuming that you're positive, if you have individuals in your households with co-morbidities. This epidemic right now is different and it's more widespread and it's both rural and urban."

MARC LUCAS is the man who prompted Saturday's prolonged standoff in Albion. 

Lucas, who poured gasoline on himself, brandished what turned out to be a pellet gun and threatened to torch himself, was finally subdued when a heads-up firefighter drenched him to immobility. 

A FORT BRAGG READER NOTES: "I go to the Food Bank every week and I know a few others who do, plus several people who work there. My impression is that there has not been much of an increase in traffic since the start of COVID. I've been going every week the whole time. The Fort Bragg Food Bank is in a different situation than Ukiah's in a lot of ways, Ukiah's being on the 101 corridor of course, but it might also be that the Food Bank here was already serving a large part of the vulnerable population. It's not unusual at all here to have people mention in casual conversation that they are going to or have gone to the Food Bank as clients. I'm not sure that's true in Ukiah. Plus I get the impression that the enhanced unemployment $$ has made a big difference here, partly because of all the under the table work (not talking about pot) available. That's how I've made it. In some ways, Fort Bragg has had a 'gig' economy for a long time, if hauling things to the dump can be a 'gig'. Also, a large part of the population is Hispanic. There are plenty of Hispanic people who come to the Food Bank. But, grossly generalizing, I think more Hispanic people will make it under conditions where some white people start going off the rails. But I have no clue about Ukiah…" 

THE INTERNATIONAL DRUG BIGWIG corralled on Elkhorn Road near Yorkville last week was found with a distressed nude drunk woman. He is named Casey Hardison but she remains unidentified because it appears she may be a victim of the grinning perp, noted by international police forces for his unfailingly jolly Joker-like demeanor. Hasn't been this much excitement on Elkhorn Road since Bill Cook drove off the road only to languish for some time before his cries for help were heard by a rare passerby. Before Bill's mishap there was an old world murder on Elkhorn committed by a Mexican man entrusted with the care of a beautiful young, underage relative hotly pursued by a young Mexican male. Warned to stay away from the girl by her guardian, the bewitched young man was shot to death when he continued to pursue her. 

WHY was Mr. International Drug Guy on Elkhorn Road? Even taking into account that Mendocino County can seem like an open air Witness Protection Program, and Yorkville having plenty of likely hideouts if you have connections in the area, the Mr. Big's presence is unusual. 

AS THE GREAT historical re-write continues, it was inevitable that Luther Burbank's belief in eugenics would focus attention on his sordid intellectual misfires. It won't, however, be easy erasing Burbank from Santa Rosa. The famous inventor of many varieties of plum, including the treasured Santa Rosa Plum, Burbank is buried in the middle of town and his home and gardens also remain there. The local angle: Burbank was a frequent visitor to the Anderson Valley where he visited a gifted amateur botanist at that man's farm at Nash Mill, I think, where Wilbur Nash later made his home. What was the Nash Mill man's name? I asked Kathy Bailey whose home is nearby: 

"Here's what I know about the Burbank connection, but please recognize that this is from my ‘memory.’ I never had the foresight to write any of this down. I was quite friendly with Bob Glover, who was my neighbor over on the Gschwend Ranch and who taught me a lot about water systems over time. He worked on the water systems both on the Gschwend Ranch and here on Nash Mill Road. From my place you can see northeast to a grove of Eucalyptus trees further back on the ranch on the hill behind where Charlie and Cheryl Bass used to live. Bob mentioned on several occasions that ‘Luther Burbank himself’ planted the Eucalyptus trees. I do not remember the part about the local botanist, but that would make sense. I don't recall any name associated with that botanist. Perhaps someone at the Unity Club would have an idea. Bob's connection with Nash Mill Road was strong. His mother, whom he always called ‘Ma’ so I have forgotten her actual first name, was raised here perhaps 0.75 of a mile above the intersection with the highway. He showed me where her house had been, now an overgrown fir and manzanita grove, and where the barn had been, across the road from the house on the lower edge of the property below mine. Her maiden name was Michaelis, but I wouldn't put money on that spelling. The other interesting Nash Mill Road information Bob told me was that a slope instability caused a landslide into Mill Creek that formed a lake for many years before it blew out again. I think this was associated with an earthquake at a time his Ma still lived up here. The track of that hill slope failure is still obvious. Far away times now…" 

A THOUSAND AMERICANS A DAY have died from coronavirus over the last week as the $600-a-week unemployment insurance for the living ended Friday, meaning increasing desperation for millions of working people. Meanwhile, the ineffective duopoly argue big bailout numbers, so big one has to wonder where the value of all this pretend money ends. The Republicans are holding out for a trillion more, the Democrats want three trillion. Prediction: We'll get $1.5 tril, not enough to slow the great unraveling, which now includes millions of eviction notices for people unable to pay rent.

CATCH OF THE DAY, August 2, 2020

BRIAN ANDERSON, Fort Bragg. Battery with serious injury, county parole violation.

MYQ ATTANASIO, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, failure to appear. 

JOHN FREULER, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting.

TESLA HENCZ, Laytonville. Probation revocation.

ELIZABETH HOLM, Redwood Valley. Failure to appear.

JESSIE MCKEE, Bakersfield/Potter Valley. DUI-alcohol&drugs, vehicle theft with priors, false ID, falsely personating another, false info to peace officer, suspended license (for DUI0, probataion revocation.

HUGO MUNIZ, Ukiah. DUI, suspended license (for DUI), no license, probation revocation.

MATTHEW PATEREAU, Willits. Probation revocation.

ON THE ROAD WITH BILL KIMBERLIN

Did the Russian River again in Kayaks. Started in Monte Rio this time. Slightly less water in a few places than last month, but still a lot of fun.

In talking to locals... one hotel owner above the River and one restaurant owner also with a deck above the River, I asked how things were going. Both said the season had started out with the people all being polite and thankful, but now they are surly and rude. One said you can see it on the roads and highways, very angry people. That I think we all have seen.

REMEMBER THIS LADY?

Look at this lady - Let us never forget! The world hasn't just become wicked, it's always been wicked. The prize doesn't always go to the most deserving.

Irena Sendler

Died: 12 May 2008 (aged 98)

Warsaw, Poland

During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist.

She had an ulterior motive. Because she was German, she KNEW what the Nazis' plans were for the Jews.

Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack for larger kids.

She also had a dog in the back which she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto.

The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.

During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants.

She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs, arms, and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.

In 2007 Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize. She was not selected. Al Gore won --- for a slide show on Global Warming.

Later another politician, Barack Hussein Obama, won for his work as a community organizer for ACORN.

In Memoriam - 65 Years Later

I'm doing my small part by forwarding this message. I hope you'll consider doing the same.

It is now more than 65 years since the Second World War in Europe ended.

This is posted as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated!

Now, more than ever, with Iran and others claiming the Holocaust to be a myth, it's imperative to make sure the world never forgets because there are others who would like to do it again.

“IF YOU ELECT to join the herd you are immune. To be accepted and appreciated you must nullify yourself, make yourself indistinguishable from the herd. You may dream, if you dream alike. But if you dream something different you are not in America, of America American… The moment you have a 'different' thought you cease to be an American."

— Henry Miller, Tropic of Capricorn (1938)

THE MANILATOWN SERIES

Produced and Directed by Curtis Choy, "The Manilatown Series" is a collection of four short films about San Francisco's Historic Manilatown:

1. "Tino's Barbershop Quartet in Action" - Located on the ground floor of the historic International Hotel, Tino's Barbershop served as a living room and hang-out for the Pinoy bachelor society also known as the "Manilatown Manongs". Herein, a heartrending few minutes with some real community pioneers.

2. "Manongs" - This nearly text-less short film of the struggle for the International Hotel was the starting point for the 6-year project that would become the classic documentary, "The Fall of the I-Hotel". This is the story about a lively, vibrant community crushed by inhumane laws.

3. "Manilatown Lives!" - After the brutal evictions at the International Hotel, the Manilatown Senior Center found itself moving around a lot before establishing a permanent site, and thus, this singin' and dancin' celebration of community life.

4. "The Rise of the I-Hotel" - Twenty four years after the destruction of the International Hotel building, the weed-strewn empty lot is filled in and shored up for the start of construction of a new residential hotel, a school, and a courtyard atop a parking garage. Chinatown/Manilatown celebrates.

View these shorts now at:

And please also join us for our Annual I-Hotel Eviction Commemoration featuring the works of Filmmaker Curtis Choy.

www.manilatown.org

YOU CAN’T MANAGE WHAT YOU DON’T MEASURE

Editor: 

Seeking a metric—

Perhaps Peter Drucker’s most important insight in founding the study of modern management is that you can’t manage what you don’t measure. I’m reminded of Drucker every time I read the latest reports by Dr. Sundari Mase, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and every governor about how terrible the COVID-19 epidemic is for everyone. Compared to what? After more than six months, none of the above has developed a true measure from which to manage expectations — either of citizens or themselves. 

Flatten the curve, social distance, masks are mandatory aren’t measures of anything that can be managed. There is still no commonly agreed numerator or denominator. 

Let me suggest both. As the entire country is incapacitated by government diktat, the numerator is 330 million. And deaths, a denominator least subject to interpretation, 145,000. That’s 0.04% of the population. As of July 24, Sonoma County COVID-19 deaths were 24, 0.005%. How does this compare to deaths by diabetes, auto accident, lightning, flu, suicide, etc. — currently and historically? The cynic tells me governments want to keep citizens in a state of fear, anxiety and helplessness while offering nothing to measure its job performance. Perhaps it’s just plain laziness and/or incompetence. 

William Rothe

Santa Rosa

UNFORGIVEABLE

Editor,

Another week of supposedly violent protests by those weak cowards who only make the news when they are in numbers. Just a bunch of the sickest numbskull scumbags I've ever seen. I'm ashamed. Can't believe what they're trying to do to President Trump so he won't win the next election. It won't work. He will win, no doubt, then four more years. President Trump will put them out for the count before it's over. They are not winning, they are losing big time and they won't forgive themselves when it's over. Ugly. Despicable. What the liberal mayors and governors of these cities are letting them do. Unbelievable.

God bless Donald Trump, I hope he kicks their asses.

Jerry Philbrick

Comptche

HE WHO HAS WAITED long enough, will wait forever. And there comes the hour when nothing more can happen and nobody more can come and all is ended but the waiting that knows itself in vain.

— Samuel Beckett

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Re: Congressman Huffman: Even in the time of COVID-19 we cannot get our act together under this duopoly system except for illegal wars and their promotion of bad medical insurance and private companies wanting a tap into public education funds. All with an eye of course of taking the next round of campaign contributions.

U.S. Representatives voting for more military funding when accountability of taxpayer funds is virtually nonexistent. It is now 60% of the entire federal discretionary budget projected with the debt to consume your entire income taxes by 2030 by one Lt. Col.’s estimate.

Then they voted for $3.8 billion a year minimum to the Israeli state so they can put a knee into the neck of people whose lands they want for themselves and bulldoze their homes with little consequences from anyone not to mention killing and maiming protestors.

They voted for Land and Water Conservation funding only when tied to extreme profitting of the offshore drain America first of it’s resources oil and gas.

They voted for insurance companies to strip seniors of Medicare funds and needed care after a lifetime of work. Try for example to get good known effective treatments for diseases and they side with $300 a pop pillmakers and vaccine makers known by the FDA to place contaminants tumorgenic in with them.

Yes it’s really a mess. We see the rebellion against us and it is not in the streets, it’s in D.C. with their bad Acts. Vote third party with principles and values that are like yours. And give them some time and money at least they are out in front with all the People.

XMAS IN JULY ANNUAL SOTTO VOCE EXTRAVAGANZA.

The recording of last night's (2020-07-31) Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show on KNYO-LP Fort Bragg is right here: https://tinyurl.com/KNYO-MOTA-0395

Obligatory disease-capades, a Scott Peterson story about the financial shenanigans of Hospitality House, a very tragic chapter of Jay Frankston's El Sereno, lovely Xmas music, the tale of intrepid but misinformed Alvar Nunez Cabeza da Vaca (his real name), poetry, art, scandal, spectacle, whimsy, disaster, laughter, tears, wonder, science, fruitcake and farce: Xmas in July.

Furthermore, at https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you'll find a fresh batch of dozens of links to not necessarily radio-useful but nonetheless worthwhile educational items I set aside for you while gathering the show together. Such as:

The most astounding magic trick ever. "Tens of millions of Americans think the person on the left is the violent aggressor." Note the tattoo on the soldier-creature’s arm. And the ear on its head. Where are they getting these soldiers from? The Torchwood rift? Mordor?

It's the most astounding magic trick ever. https://t.co/psoLo9oTjO

— Absurdistwords (@absurdistwords) July 26, 2020

Ow, right in the feelings.*

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/7/24/1963399/-Cartoon-Chad-Wolf-s-goon-squad

You know what we need to do?

https://i0.wp.com/www.theava.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/crucifixed.jpg

And the voyage over the Atlantic and back by gigantic but spindly British dirigible in 1930. A ripping yarn. A ripped elevator fin, for that matter. Collapsed butt cone, punctured frame girder, assorted storm dommage. (That means a pity or a shame, in French: quel dommage.*)

https://tinyurl.com/Dirigibility

Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org, https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

FOUND OBJECT