Mendocino County Today: Monday, August 16, 2021

Westerly Winds | Unhealthful Air | Possible Outage | Fire Watch | Unlearned Lesson | Imperial Hubris | River Cleanup | Anapolsky Memorial | Boonville Postcard | Wrong Number | Ukiah Switchboard | Ed Notes | Ukiah Baseball | Bunyan Hiring | Yesterday's Catch | Raise Coyote | Saigon Echo | Water Rights | Normal Bad | Stressful Times | WASP Pilot | Lemonade Stand | Fly Buzz | Psycho Rapist | Don't Recall | Fairytale Giants | Hannity Ode | Undeveloped Subdivision | Taliban Leader | Whitewashing Kabul | Landfill Logic | Mission Accomplished

WESTERLY WINDS will continually reduce smoke across most of the area today. Temperatures will slowly return to more seasonal levels during the first half of the coming week. (NWS)

YESTERDAY'S HIGHS: Ukiah 108°, Yorkville 101°, Boonville 96°, Fort Bragg 65°

ANDERSON VALLEY AIR reached unhealthful levels yesterday afternoon.

purpleair.com/map?opt=1/mAQI/a10/cC0#9/39.1592/-123.1963

FROM THE ESSENTIAL DANILA SANDS: Mendocino Action News - Fire, Traffic and Other Emergencies

Public Safety Power Shutoff(Psps) Event Possible; Mendocino County Is One Of 16 Counties That May Be Impacted; As Of 08/15/21 6:45pm All Counties Are At "Elevated Level", However, Always Good Time To Prepare 

A Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) occurs in response to severe weather. Power is turned off to help prevent wildfire. PG&E will attempt to notify affected customers when and if the weather forecast clearly indicates a shutoff could be required.

Elevated – An upcoming event (a period of gusty winds, dry conditions, heightened risk) is being monitored for an increased potential of a PSPS event.

As of Sunday, August 15, 2021 6:45pm

The PG&E Emergency Operations Center has been activated for a potential PSPS event from Tuesday night into Wednesday. Read on for more detail. Weather forecast models indicate that an upper level weather system will progress through the Pacific Northwest Tuesday into Wednesday and produce dry, northerly winds across Northern CA. The northerly winds are expected to increase starting Tuesday night starting approximately at 9 pm across northern Counties, reach the Northern Sierra and Bay Area overnight Tuesday into Wednesday before tapering off near noon on Wednesday. Weaker northerly winds are also possible late Wednesday into Thursday. High resolution forecast models are indicating potential for maximum wind gusts from 30 – 45 mph with isolated gusts to 50 mph. Relative humidity values during the event are expected to be from 15 – 30% in general. Fuels are also historically dry in some areas and very susceptible to new fire ignitions. The entire area under PSPS consideration is also in extreme to exceptional drought at this time. Please note that the forecast map below indicates the counties that may be impacted with this event and is a high-level overview only. 

Detailed maps where PSPS is being considered locally will be available here: https://pgealerts.alerts.pge.com/safety/

Hot and dry weather will continue across much of the territory today as high pressure sits overhead. Temperatures will continue to run 5-10 degrees above normal, especially across the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys. Similar conditions are expected on Monday. On Tuesday a weak low pressure system will cross the Pacific Northwest, breaking down high pressure and allowing for more seasonable temperatures to return. Behind this system on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, dry and breezy north-northeasterly winds are expected to develop across the Cascades, Shasta Trinities, Sacramento Valley, North Bay ridges and northern Sierra Foothills. These winds will increase fire danger overnight. Weak offshore flow may return again on Wednesday evening, before more settled weather returns by Thursday. High pressure may slowly begin to rebuild late this coming week to early next weekend, bringing back gradual warming for the interior. Dead fuel moisture values continue to track near historical lows for this time of year across the lower and middle elevations away from the coast and live fuel moisture content is near critical levels in many areas with current readings more typical of values found in late August or early September. The 4 Month Seasonal Outlook issued August 1st from Northern Operations and Southern Operations Predictive Services calls for normal to above normal significant fire potential through October.

Updates/Address Lookup Here: https://pgealerts.alerts.pge.com/addresslookup/

FIRE WEATHER WATCH

OUTAGE POTENTIAL

REFLECTIONS OF A NORTHERN CALIFORNIAN ON AFGHANISTAN

by Jonah Raskin

Who didn’t see it coming? The Taliban take-over of Afghanistan. Maybe not as fast and as dramatic as it happened. But anyone without blinders had to have seen it coming from a long way off. The British were defeated in Afghanistan and so were the Russians. Why did Americans at the centers of what passes for power think that U.S. troops would be able to prevail when troops from other nations were pushed out. Reading the news from Kabul and looking at the images I couldn’t help but be reminded of the U.S. withdrawal from Saigon, the helicopters hovering above “our” embassy and the images of the Vietnamese desperate to get out before their city was “liberated” by the Viet Cong. Someone once said to me “What’s so intelligent about the Central Intelligence Agency?” The obvious answer is very little if anything. The CIA has missed most of the big events of the past sixty years and so has American journalism which has marched in step too often to the drum beat of the generals in the military. I am not cheering for the victory of the Taliban. What I feel now is a great sadness and sense of grief about the loss of Afghani and American lives. Sadness and grief for the ancient nation, wedged between Iran, Pakistan and the other “stands,” thousands of miles away from California, New York and Texas bombed and battered, its citizens tortured, betrayed and lied to again and again. Perhaps I shouldn’t say this now, but I will say it anyway. War crimes have been committed, perhaps by all sides; the war criminals are perhaps everywhere. They have been in the White House—Bush, Cheney, Rice and Rumsfeld—the State Department, the Pentagon and beyond. I have friends who served in Afghanistan. I love them dearly. I remember women students in my classes at Sonoma State University whose husbands were in uniform in Afghanistan and who told me again and again they were against the war and for the soldiers. How can you not be for the soldiers? American men and women sent overseas to shed their blood and surrender their limbs and their lives to prop up an Empire, which all the evidence suggests, is slowly crumbling before our very eyes. What imperial hubris! Will the architects of invasions, occupations and genocide never learn? It would seem so, even at this late date. The New York Times calls Afghanistan “a tragedy.” It is that. It is also yet another collosal stain on our nation that was born of blood and slavery, conquest and extermination. Could we have our eyes wide open and not lie to ourselves as we move into the future?

ON THE BANKS OF THE RUSSIAN RIVER, UKIAH

CLEANING THE RUSSIAN RIVER! The Rotary Club of South Ukiah and community at large showed up to clean up garbage. We made a dent in a couple of sites and will be back soon. With Charlie Kelly, Salvador Rico, Jim Sligh, Brent Clausen, Ron Selim, Beth Schwarz, Stacy Starkey, Howard Egan, and Vernon Hamilton Budinger from SUR. Thanks also to John McCowen, who organized the event!

STEPHAN ANAPOLSKY MEMORIAL AUG. 21.

A memorial for Stephan Anapolsky will take place Saturday, Aug. 21 at 3 pm at the Larry Spring Museum, 225 E. Redwood Ave., Fort Bragg.

Stephan, a colorful resident of the Mendocino Coast for over 50 years, was a volunteer at the museum. He lived in Fort Bragg at the time of his passing. Stephan's daughter Daisy Anapolsky is organizing this celebration of his life.

Nick Wilson

nwilson@mcn.org

BOONVILLE? Marshall Newman wonders: 

Supposed postcard from Boonville, CA postmarked 1923 (or maybe 1925). WHERE in Boonville?

I am not nearly as old as this postcard, but I don't think I have seen any spot in Boonville that looked remotely like this photograph.

GET THE NUMBERS RIGHT, MENDO

Editor/County Planning

Case #: CDP_2018_0032

I am a property owner located across the street from the proposed Lewis project. I received a letter from your department this week regarding a public hearing that will take place August 26th. I do not have a problem with the construction of a home on the Lewis property. It will not be seen from the street and since their property is at a high point on the ridge it will not block the view for anyone.

However, I do question the house numbering noted in the letter. The Lewis property has a number ending in ____1 Ten Mile Road and further states that the property is located on the west side of Ten Mile Cutoff Road.

My address is nearby, and I am located on the east side of the road. Both house numbers are odd numbers but on opposite side of the road.

According to the municipal code Sec. 18.16.060 properties located on the west side of a road are to have even numbers with odd numbers being assigned to the east side of a road.

The numbering system is in place for a reason and is especially important for first responders to fire or medical calls. Those responders are going to being looking for an address on the wrong side of the road if the road is numbered incorrectly. While it's true that the locals have a good idea where residences are located the same is not true for emergency responders that are not local and covering for a station particularly during these times of wildfires in California when local staff is sent to fight a fire elsewhere or cover for another station. It's best to assume that the responders are not familiar with an area and have homes correctly numbered than to have response time lengthened because an address is not where it's supposed to be.

Thank You,

Deborah Silva

Point Arena

ED NOTES

PETER LIT'S second book of poetry is called, “As Far as the Mind Can See.” The versatile Mr. Lit is still best known as the crusty proprietor of the Caspar Inn, the best live music bar North of San Francisco. The modest promise of the poet's title — As Far as the Mind Can See — is more than realized by the far seeing jewels inside, among which I especially liked:

HEADED SOUTH FOR WINTER

Who is this person

looking out from the mirror?

The one whose face is lined with pain

. . .

I am aging, yes, but

what transpired to turn

the possessor of a passionate mind

into a curmudgeon

who spends too much time

shoring up a crumbling body,

sharpening a quieting mind?

. . .

When did the dreams of travel and freedom

morph into a regime of tinctures and pills?

When did the champagne and cocaine

transform into prune juice and psyllium?

. . .

What happened?

Who is this person

looking out from the mirror?

. . .

When carbon speaks to carbon,

what language shall it use?

. . .

Earth, tree, mushroom, mycelium;

an elemental language of nitrogen.

. . .

The lion speaks to the lamb;

a different elemental exchange.

. . .

What language, what elemental language

shall we use to bridge the gap between us?

. . .

There are modern methods, efficient,

shrinking time, dissolving space;

telegraph, telephone, pagers, email,

text messages, chat rooms, skype,

instant messenger, snapchat, facetime and zoom.

. . .

. . .People continue to pursue

. . .possessions and diversions;

. . .streaming, tweeting, linked in

. . .to their facebook friends, distracted,

. . .distanced from the physical:

. . .an electrified corporate dependency.

. . .

There is a chasm

between silicon and carbon

that software cannot fill.

---

ANDERSON VALLEY, EYES ONLY. The June Ranch has sold for $4,745,250 before sale expenses. Don't know yet the identity of the buyer. A Valley old timer puts it this way: 

“Hopefully, the property will be respected and valued by the new owners for its beauty and extensive local history. Time will tell… I thought the Indians would save some of the place from total destruction because it has a huge historic reverence for the tribes that once lived in Boonville (Lemkolil) for thousands of years. The site is registered with the state — Confidential File Santa Rosa CDF and Native American Heritage Commission and local tribal governments all retain copy stating historic sensitivity."

Buyer: represented by: Jason M Nadeau Mendo Sotheby's International Realty

Seller: represented by Realtor.com 

Size: 827.39 acres 

Address: 12950 Ornbaun Road Boonville

Information from: Zillow and appraisal report dated September 26, 2002

Janese June (Jack June's wife), 1/3 partnership owner

Tamar June (Eric June's wife), 1/3 partnership owner

April June-Bento, (Delmar June's daughter)) 1/6 partnership owner

Victoria Ornbaun-Center,  1/6 partnership owner via deed from Delmar June

Description on Zillow: Property Overview - Steeped in history, the ownership of the June Ranch dates back to the late 1800's. Situated just outside of the town of Boonville, in the heart of the the Anderson Valley and totals 827 acres. Multiple springs, creeks and river tributaries found on the ranch provide plentiful water throughout. June Ranch's oak-studded foothills run adjacent to some of California's most productive viticultural properties. The vast timber reserves further up in the hills, comprised mostly of Redwood, Douglas Fir, Madrone and Oak, are truly the ranch's most important asset with the large, towering groves of mature Redwoods its most visible and dramatic landmark. The well maintained road system will carry you through every part of the ranch. Current ownership is proud of its long history of well-managed and sensitive timber harvests. With the mixed zoning present on this ranch (forestland, agriculture and residential) the possibilities for a new owner are limitless.

UPDATE: A Healdsburg couple named Roger and Michelle Burch have bought the June Ranch. A records search reveals that Roger Burch is in the timber business and is the owner of many Northcoast properties.

STORE MANAGER: PAUL BUNYAN THRIFT SHOP IS HIRING

Come Work With Us!

Now hiring: Store Manager for The Paul Bunyan Thrift Shop and Furniture Annex, where we provide excellent customer service to our community while raising important funds for Fort Bragg nonprofit Parents and Friends, Inc. The Retail Manager oversees all aspects of the day-to-day operations at the Paul Bunyan Thrift Shop & Furniture Annex and maintains communication with supervisors to promote a positive working environment. Must be able to maintain confidentiality, work with a wide variety of individuals and demonstrate cultural sensitivity. 5 years retail management experience preferred. Proficiency in Microsoft, Google, and social media applications is desired. This is a full-time position. 

To learn more log on to www.parentsandfriends.org/employment or call 964-4940 x113

Kristy Tanguay

CATCH OF THE DAY, August 15, 2021

MARIA AGUERO, Covelo. DUI.

DEAN AMMONS, Ukiah. Parole violation.

LEONARD CAMPBELL JR., Hopland. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

BAYRON CARDONA-PACHECO, Hawthorne/Ukiah. DUI.

KAREN DIGIROLAMO, Ukiah. Controlled substance, contempt of court.

FRANCISCO GONZALEZ, Ukiah. County parole violation.

WILLIAM HILLER, Fort Bragg. Controlled substance, failure to appear.

NATHAN MARRUFO, Stewarts Point/Ukiah. Criminal threats, resisting.

JAMES RAPHAEL JR., Lucerne/Willits. Domestic battery, probation revocation.

JAMES SIMMONS, Ukiah. Parole violation.

MARTIN TUCKER SR., Ukiah. Controlled substance. 

RUSSEL WATSON, Willits. Domestic battery, county parole violation.

WATER!

Editor: 

As the Biden infrastructure bill gets closer to passing, I ask all to join me and request that Reps. Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson work to include raising Coyote Dam at Lake Mendocino in the bill. Unlike most other reservoirs, which get water from the Sierra Nevada snowpack, we rely on rainwater to fill lakes Mendocino and Sonoma. It might be very soon that water isn’t diverted from the Eel River and Lake Pillsbury anymore, and raising Coyote Dam will be needed to guarantee our water supply. I believe raising the dam is the most important infrastructure project needed in their districts.

Temple O. Smith

Cloverdale

Ed note: Lake Mendo is dependent on the diverted Eel at Potter Valley; Lake Sonoma gets most of its water from the Russian River, which is also dependent on the diverted Eel.

BIG BATTLE LOOMS OVER CALIFORNIA WATER RIGHTS

by Dan Walters

As the state moves to curtail water diversions by California farmers, the stage is being set for a showdown over water rights.

California doesn’t have enough water to meet all demands even in wet years, and when drought strikes the competition becomes, to put it mildly, intense.

State and federal officials who must ration the restricted supply are beset with pleas from farmers, municipal water systems and advocates for the environment.

However, water managers must also contend with a bewildering array of water rights, some of which date to the 19th century, as well as long-standing contractual obligations and laws, both statutes and judicial decrees, on maintaining flows for spawning salmon and other wildlife.

Those conflicting factors came into play last week when the state Water Resources Control Board voted unanimously to curtail nearly all agricultural water diversions from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed, which stretches about 500 miles from near the Oregon border to near the Tehachapi Mountains.

The decree will affect farmers, who use most of the water allocated for human use, but not immediately. The season for irrigating crops is nearly over and water managers delivered a fairly substantial share of agricultural water earlier in the year — too much in the eyes of environmental groups.

However, if drought and the board’s no-diversion policy continue into 2022, they will almost certainly ignite a high-stakes political and legal conflict over whether the state can essentially usurp historic water rights and dictate how local farm water systems are to be operated.

Valerie Kincaid, a water law attorney who represents the San Joaquin Tributaries Authority, bluntly told the board, “We now have a draft regulation that exceeds water board authority,” hinting that a legal battle over water rights is looming.

The state first began regulating water in 1914 and holders of pre-existing water rights, plus landowners adjacent to waterways, have long been presumed to have virtually unfettered rights to draw water without regulation.

However, in more recent years, the legal status of those pre-1914 rights has been questioned. As drought gripped the state during his first stint as governor 40-plus years ago, Jerry Brown appointed a commission to review water rights, saying, “the existing law included impediments to the fullest beneficial use of California’s water.”

Nothing came of that effort but when another drought hit during Brown’s second governorship, his water board appointees attempted to breach senior water rights by punishing a small water district near Tracy for ignoring a curtailment order.

“We are a test case,” the Byron-Bethany district’s manager, Rick Gilmore, said at the time. “I think this has become a larger issue. I think the water board wants to use this as a precedent so they can start to gain more control over senior water right users.”

The conflict fizzled before it could morph into an all-out legal battle but other senior rights holders did win a legal ruling that the state was issuing its curtailment decrees without due process.

Environmental groups and some agricultural interests that lack water rights, such as the immense Westlands Water District, seem to be spoiling for a water rights battle.

Westlands endorsed last week’s board action, referring to deliveries to senior rights holders as “unlawful diversions” of water needed to maintain water quality. Westlands thus became a strange bedfellows ally of the Natural Resources Defense Council, which complains that the federal Central Valley Project gave farmers with senior rights too much Lake Shasta water in the spring, leaving too little to support salmon spawning runs.

As drought becomes more frequent, California will — or should be — compelled to re-think its entire water system and the status of water rights will be a central and very volatile factor.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

This [Bell] fire was a little too close for comfort. I have a go bag for everyone in the house and a list of things I may forget in a rush, ready to go at any moment. But these last few years have been sooo stressful for the family.

It seems like just a matter of time before the whole damn state is on fire and we all burn down, so I always have extra to help my fellow neighbors if need be and try to our part in property prep and what not but people this is the new normal and we need to prepare our families AND our community.

Thank you to the firefighters who work these fires at a moments notice in extreme weather to try to save our homes and communities.

In 1942, the United States was faced with a severe shortage of pilots, so an experimental program to replace males with female pilots was created. 

The group of female pilots was called the Women Airforce Service Pilots — WASP for short. Shirley Slade was one of about 1,100 chosen. She was trained to fly the B-26 and B-29, and that got her put on the cover of Life magazine in 1943 at about 23 years old.

I HEARD A FLY BUZZ (465)

I heard a Fly buzz – when I died – 
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air – 
Between the Heaves of Storm – 

The Eyes around – had wrung them dry – 
And Breaths were gathering firm
For that last Onset – when the King
Be witnessed – in the Room – 

I willed my Keepsakes – Signed away
What portions of me be
Assignable – and then it was
There interposed a Fly – 

With Blue – uncertain stumbling Buzz – 
Between the light – and me – 
And then the Windows failed – and then
I could not see to see –

— Emily Dickinson

COULD BE A TEN PERCENTER

Editor,

How the recall works – Don’t Skip this one!

I know many people are upset with the drought, the fire season, COVID, and our nation’s politics. It’s easy to find fault with anyone who is in office when we have so many worries.

This recall is not a referendum on Newsom’s effectiveness.

If more than 50 percent of the people who bother to vote support the recall, our Governor becomes whoever got the most votes in the second question. That could be someone who is only supported by 10% of Californians. That is not representation.

This is not the time to create more disruption in our state. Let’s wait until the 2022 Gubernatorial election to decide if we still want Newsom or who the majority of California voters want as their leader.

Your vote does matter. When you get your ballot, please vote and send it in!

Dale Perkins

Fort Bragg

FIVE SURPRISING KEYS TO THE GIANTS’ FAIRYTALE SEASON

SF Giants: A resurgent Buster Posey, new names becoming stars, and great defense have helped the Giants hold the best record in MLB.

by Dieter Kurtenbach

And with a five-game lead over the Dodgers in the National League West and a four-game lead for the best record in baseball, overall, it’s becoming increasingly likely that the Giants will hold onto both top slots once the final 30 percent of the season is played. 

How did this happen? How did the Giants turn from a team amid a long-term rebuild in a tough division into a juggernaut seemingly overnight? 

There are countless reasons, but I think these five surprises go a long way to explaining this magical San Francisco season: 

A new star

Let’s be honest, you didn’t know who LaMonte Wade Jr. was when he was acquired from the Minnesota Twins this past offseason. I know I needed to look him up. 

At the time, Wade was viewed as a depth piece – another Farhan flyer who would spend a lot of time in Triple-A Sacramento. 

But the outfielder/first baseman has carved out a place in the Giants’ best lineup this season by being one of the better hitters in the game. 

His 132 wRC+ (weighted runs per plate appearance where 100 is league-average) is better than or on par with some of the biggest names in the game: Freddie Freeman, Manny Machado, and Giancarlo Stanton are just a few. The Giants didn’t make a big splash on the trade market, but Wade has been, statistically, a better player this season than Trea Turner – one of the Dodgers’ big acquisitions — and Joey Gallo, the power-hitting outfielder who was one of the Yankees’ big moves at the deadline. 

What turned Wade from a quadruple-A player into one of the better hitters in the game? To start, Wade is swinging more than he ever has at the Major League level, both in quantity and percentage. And when he does hit the ball, he’s pulling it more often and it’s more frequently in the air than in the past. In short, he’s swinging for the fences, and it’s turning line drives into home runs. 

Easy enough, right? 

He’s making it look that way. And if this keeps up, the guy no one knew when he was acquired will be a household name across baseball soon. Think the next Mike Yastrzemski without the famous lineage. 

Buster Posey has found the fountain of youth

The future Hall of Famer made the difficult decision to step away from the game last season, skipping the shortened 2020 campaign. 

But there’s no question that decision is paying dividends in 2021. 

The seven-time All-Star is arguably having his best season as a pro at age 34. The only fair comparison is his MVP season of 2012. 

The catcher has found the fountain of youth. Well, sort of. 

Heading into Friday night’s game, Posey is slashing .336/.429/.988 — right in line with that fabled age-25 season. The counting stats won’t match as Posey has only 301 plate appearances, less than half of what he had back in 2012, but that’s what comes with age and modern baseball. 

A year away allowed Posey to recalibrate both physically and mentally and the Giants’ constantly rotating lineups have done a solid job of keeping him fresh when he’s available. 

It’s highly likely that Fernando Tatis Jr. will win the National League MVP. If it’s not him, Bryce Harper will take it. They’re the big names doing flashy things for teams that baseball fans enjoy talking about. Remember, the Giants are effectively the Tampa Bay Rays with a few veterans, like Posey. 

But as of this week, you could land Posey at 100-to-1 to win NL MVP. 

I really don’t see it happening, but I didn’t see this season coming in the first place. By the end of September, he could make the argument that he’s the best player on the game’s best team. That could be a strong one. 

Logan Webb is an ace

The Giants didn’t add to their starting rotation at the trade deadline, despite it being Farhan Zaidi’s declared priority. That lack of a move is looking foolhardy after two Giants’ starters went on the injured list in recent weeks. 

But San Francisco has been able to manage because of the emergence of their youngest starter, Logan Webb. 

The Rocklin native was outstanding in the Cactus League this spring, leading to plenty of speculation — especially from me — that he could be poised for a breakout season behind an elite changeup. 

In his first start of the season, the Seattle Mariners sat on that changeup and knocked him around. One start later, he was out of the rotation. 

Webb spent April and May bouncing back and forth between the bullpen and starting before he went on the IL in late May. 

But since returning, he’s been a starter, and he’s been one of the best in baseball. 

Webb has the second-best ERA in the National League since his return to the mound on July 9 at 1.71. Only Dodgers’ace Walker Buehler has been better. 

Webb has also been nails against high-level competition. He’s shut down the Dodgers twice and the Astros once during that stretch. 

The key has been a move to using his two-seam fastball to get ahead in the count and then more usage of his slider, which is a plus pitch. It’s a more mature arsenal. And paired with that wicked changeup, it’s getting serious results. 

The Giants now have two aces in their rotation — Kevin Gausman and Webb. 

The Giants’ rotation can’t compare with the Dodgers’, but with Webb pitching at this level, the gap is a bit closer. 

Lineup summersault

A few days ago, Giants manager Gabe Kapler openly marveled at the depth of his lineup. Not yet at “full strength”, the Giants, with new acquisition Kris Bryant, were going to be able to put one of the strongest teams in baseball out night after night. 

The joke was that the Giants could flip their lineup — No. 8 bats No. 1 and vice versa, all the way down — and it wouldn’t be a problem. 

And given the success of the No. 8 batter for the Giants this season, that might not be a bad idea every now and again. 

This is a bit of a strange stat, but the Giants have the second-best production from the No. 8 spot in the lineup in the National League this season. And given the fact that pitchers still bat in the National League (Why? I don’t know), that’s huge. 

There hasn’t been one particular player slotted in the No. 8 hole this season. Twenty-one players have seen a plate appearance at the spot, with nine hitters seeing 20 or more. 

Thairo Estrada and Steven Duggar have been best in the eight-hole. In 39 plate appearances, Estrada has a 203 wRC+. Duggar has a wRC+ in 55 plate appearances. 

In all, the Giants’ No. 8 hitter is doing better than a league-average hitter. Only a handful of teams — most in the American League — can make that claim. 

That’s the kind of sneaky production that helps a team have the best record in baseball.

More than a flash of the leather

Typically teams that are put together the way the Giants are — in a Moneyball style — don’t spend much time worrying about defense. 

Who needs to field when you can lead the Majors in home runs? 

Well, the Giants might be hitting homers, but they don’t seem to subscribe to that overall theory. 

This season, San Francisco is the best fielding team in baseball, per MLB’s Statcast metric Outs Above Replacement. To date, the Giants have prevented 25 runs from scoring with their defense. The next-best National League team is the Mets at 15. 

Why’s this a surprise? 

Well, the Giants were astoundingly average with the gloves last year. 

But whether it’s ranging to the left or right, moving backward or forwards, the Giants are a plus defensive team. Even Donovan Solano and Wilmer Flores — widely seen as defensive liabilities — have been positive defensive players this season. 

A big part of the Giants’ defensive success is Brandon Crawford, of course, but also Yastrzemski, who is 26th in baseball with six outs above replacement. The Giants have moved Yastrzemski to center field full-time this past week to allow average defender Kris Bryant to play a corner outfield spot with the return of strong fielder Evan Longoria imminent — he subsequently made one of the best catches of the season for any team. 

So the Giants have elite hitting, strong pitching, and top-of-the-league defense. 

What more is there in this game? 

REAL ESTATE DEALS, an on-line story: 

Way back in 1973 an old Spanish land grant in New Mexico was subdivided into 5 acre lots and offered up for sale as a place in the sun with an airstrip and fun for everyone.

25 miles in either direction from the closest paved road, it occupied a high desert plateau of scrub juniper and cholla cactus. Inaccessible during the monsoon season for the muddy roads and blasted by winter winds, the thousand or so parcels sold quickly for as little as $500, by the time I bought one over the internet one dark desperate Michigan winter in 2004 the 5 acres cost $1,500. I ran out there, actually found enough half buried survey markers to locate the property and from a pay phone at the nearby national wildlife refuge called the land company agent in Texas to tell him I wanted it.

A much longer story condensed, that scrap of nothing in the middle of nowhere became a pivot point in my life, eventually moving to New Mexico and the closest small town where I bought an old adobe house and embarked on a late life career with the US Forest Service as a firefighter and recreation/forestry tech.

All the while I paid the $15 a year property taxes and occasionally camped out at the "ranchita".

The utter solitude and emptiness of that place was its greatest value, the development never happened, the airstrip completely grown over and other than a couple of desiccated small trailers scattered about... no one there. A few traces of other would be settlers remained, a couple piles of rocks and weathered to the point of being illegible 'No Trespassing' and 'For Sale by Owner' signs, it was the habitat of jackrabbits, pinyon jays and the occasional pronghorn antelope.

It was beautiful.

TALIBAN LEADERSHIP

Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban leader freed from a Pakistani jail on the request of the US less than three years ago, has emerged as an undisputed victor of the 20-year war.

While Haibatullah Akhundzada is the Taliban’s overall leader, Baradar is its political chief and its most public face. He was said to be on his way from his office in Doha to Kabul on Sunday evening. In a televised statement on the fall of Kabul, he said the Taliban’s real test would only just beginning, meeting the expectations of the Afghan people..... 

— Guardian, UK

ASSIGNMENT: UKIAH - EARLY ADVOCATES OF SAVING THE WORLD

by Tommy Wayne Kramer

Recycling was my generation’s first great triumph. Holding an empty ketchup bottle aloft in suburban kitchens we’d scold our parents for their wasteful, wicked, ignorant ways.

How could it be, we’d sneer, that an empty bottle of ketchup or jar of pickles is finished and destined for the dump, never to be re-used, never to decompose, to stay in the ground forever, killing worms and reducing our dwindling supply of glass habitats on this, our lonely, fragile planet?

As our parents shrugged and stammered and tried to explain.

So we were righteous and we had logic on our side. If only we’d stopped there.

But we were early advocates of saving the world, perhaps even social justice warriors in the larval state, and a single smashing victory over capitalism, corporations and our parents was never going to be enough.

Next: paper products, plastic anything, disposable diapers and food scraps. All could, would, should and shall be recycled, we said, as we unwittingly gave birth to yet another bureaucracy camouflaged as a planet-healing exercise that was hard to refute because A) pickle jars really ought to be recycled, and B) we lied about the rest. (The biggest and most repeated lie was that there was no more room in landfills.)

The call went out to stop cutting down trees for newspapers, magazines, cereal boxes, paper airplanes and everything else. All we had to do, we explained to each other, was recycle old newspapers. A thousand trees would bloom. The reality? Trees grown specifically to harvest for paper require less energy than recycling. A tree planted to be harvested is no different than harvesting corn, wheat, cotton or marijuana.

Mendocino County was fertile soil for recycling enthusiasts, meshing comfortably with anti-logging sentiments and the simple living ethos that captured the imagination of simple-minded newcomers who believed recycling, composting, legalized marijuana and killing everyone in the timber industry would be a healing gesture upon which Mother Earth would smile. Yes children, we really were that simple-minded.

The journey from recycling pickle jars to closing down the county landfill was a short one. No matter that Mendocino County had been putting trash in holes and covering them with dirt for as long as anyone has been here, including Native Americans, pot farmers, Russians, grape growers and Greenfield Ranch residents.

A landfill located a few hundred yards west of Ukiah was nothing but heaps of junk, trash, old cars and garbage until about 75 years ago when it was closed down, filled up, covered with dirt and turned into Low Gap Park. You’ll still find old bottles, spoons, even some ancient truck fenders peeking out from creek bed banks.

(NOTE: As yet there have been no reports of higher rates of childhood cancer traced to the ex-dump, nor injured worms or dwindling supplies of automobiles on our fragile planet.)

Next we closed the landfill east of Ukiah because crafty self-serving hippie bureaucrats, masquerading as earth-loving saviors, had a better idea: transfer stations.

Ask yourself if big trucks roaming our neighborhoods hunting down Pringles cans, Legos and vodka bottles to be hauled to transfer stations and then trucked somewhere else, trailing carbon all the way, is the answer to anything. Factor in the costs of manufacturing, buying, maintaining and fueling those trucks, all hauling trash o’er the far horizon and you’ll see that our vast recycling behemoth has devolved into an industrial polluter absorbing huge amounts of public money.

Then ask yourself if it makes more sense to recycle things that are easily and profitably recycled, like glass, aluminum and copper, but gently place the remaining in big pits called landfills. A landfill 14 miles southeast of Laytonville, let’s say.

Years ago Penn & Teller, comedians and social critics, showed that all the rubbish in America could be dumped into a single hole one mile across by another mile wide, and one mile deep. It would take 50 years for America to fill it.

When the dump in Laytonville was topped out we’d cover it in thick layers of soil with rolling mounds, small ponds, and call it a public park. It’s done all over the world; lots of golf courses are built atop old landfills. And urban areas, chronically short of space for landfills, happily pay big bucks to park their trash in other peoples’ backyard. Let’s be those other people. Let’s rake in the cash.

Archeologists love to discover treasure mines of debris buried in Egypt, Mexico, France, Italy and Africa. These are like underground museums filled with relics teaching us the ways and lives of the ancients.

Future archeologists will marvel at what those vast, deep troves of junk reveal about 21st century life: Exercise bicycles, Pop Tart boxes, Paris Hilton dolls, malt liquor bottles, deodorant containers, cassette tapes, Yugo automobiles and 150 years of Ukiah Daily Journals.

Why not sprinkle a few dozen big-enough landfills around the country, each a quarter-mile wide and a thousand feet deep? We’ll put one in Maine, another in Florida, another in Pennsylvania, one in Missouri and one in Colorado. And on and on.

Ultimately we’d get a garbage pit just outside Ukiah and 17 more in Lake County.

With the downtown street project nearly finished Tom Hine says let’s vote to see how many would like to just keep the blinking red lights at intersections versus the old Official Timeout, Two Minute Delay models. TWK’s license has been suspended so he doesn’t care.