Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Cool | Old Doors | Come a'Thistling | Lemons Sandwich | Tailgate Party | AVUSD Jobs | County Notes | Memorial Day | Covelo Killings | Lawnternative | Boonquizless | Cracked Earth | Artificial Thoughts | Neon Sign | Book Sale | Art Explorers | Ed Notes | Baskerville Bachelors | Yesterday's Catch | Future School | 14 Again | Horrible Education | JW Missionaries | Used Truck | Beware Traffic | Hot Water | Poole Chat | Cool Pass | Aging Heroes | Debt Default | French Casanova | Squirrel Training | Ukraine | Beautiful Wave | 18 Leis | Butterfly Plants | Match Girl | Knitted Crown

COOLER THAN NORMAL temperatures will continue today. Isolated showers are possible late this afternoon and early this evening, mainly in Trinity County. A warming and drying trend will begin Thursday with above normal inland temperatures from Friday through Monday. Warm temperatures are also possible at the coast by the weekend. (NWS)

THE AVHS AG DEPT IS LOOKING FOR SOME OLD DOORS

Do you have a door or doors in a shed or barn that you would donate to us? We want the doors to make into an event background.

The pictures are to give you an idea of what we are looking to do with the doors.

Thank you!

WODO VS. THE THISTLES

Navarro Point Preserve thistle removing this Thursday, 10am-noon

You are invited to join us volunteers as we remove the ever-dwindling stock of thistles at beautiful Navarro Point this Thursday, May 11th, from 10am til noon. We hope to see you there!

Tom Wodetski

Albion

From the Mendocino Land Trust:

Navarro Point Stewards, Navarro Point Preserve, 1 & 3/4 miles south of Albion village on Hwy 1, is owned and managed by Mendocino Land Trust. We rely on volunteer stewardship workdays to maintain our network of public access trails and beaches. Volunteers spend 2 hours removing invasive plant species, picking up trash, maintaining the trail, and taking in the beautiful scenery.

Stewardship workdays are scheduled for the 2nd Thursday of each month 10am to noon and are open to all ages and experience levels.

RON’S RESTAURANT REVIEWS: Not the best pic but we got really good deli sandwiches today from Lemons Market in Philo. $10, super fresh, soft bread, quick stop.

SPEAKING OF TACOS on Tuesday…Did you know that BoonMex Taco Truck will be serving Mexican food at the 2023 Anderson Valley Variety Show this Friday night only 5-7 pm? 

Come early for a tailgate party and buy your dinner before the show! Doors open 6:30, show at 7. $10 adults, $5 kiddos under 12. Tix at Lemons in Philo or AV Market in Boonville! A few available at the door. See ya this weekend at the Grange!

COUNTY NOTES:

Saying he was “trying to dispel rumors” that the Board might not honor last year’s Board resolution to allocate all Measure P revenues to local fire agencies according to the resolution, Supervisor John Haschak recommended that the Board add that commitment to the Board’s list of budget objectives on Tuesday.

No one asked, “How could anyone think we might not honor our own resolution?”

We understand that referring to the AVA by name in the Board chambers is considered bad form. But we are the only possible source of those “rumors” based on our oft-stated position (including recently) that 1) there’s been no mention of Measure P in the budget discussions so far, and 2) the Board has scrupulously failed to honor all previous voter approved measures and that there was a good chance they’d backslide on Measure P too, citing their alleged budget squeeze for the next fiscal year.

All four of Haschak’s colleagues agreed. Good for Haschak, at least he got them to reaffirm their commitment. Now all we need to see is a specific line item in next year’s (July 2023-June 2024) budget showing exactly how much Measure P revenue is expected and realized, and exactly when that money will show up in the coffers of underfunded local fire services.

* * *

Another Budget Item of note on Tuesday, was the recent discovery that the County could have been using “realignment funds” to cover the historically tight in-home support services wages going all the way back to 1992, but hasn’t. Instead they’ve been funding those essential services out of the General Fund and being stingy about it in the process. Staff is looking into the problem to see how much General Fund money might have been wasted and might be saved in the future. 

* * *

HERE’S AN INTERESTING CHART from Tuesday’s Board Packet Budget Presentation, put there by CEO Darcie Antle’s budget staffers. The chart went unmentioned by the Board, of course.

Not only does this chart appear to confirm that former CEO Carmel Angelo did indeed leave the County with more than a $20 million reserve when she retired last March, but it also shows that she had been building it up on the backs of across the board vacancies for years. (Angelo was hired as CEO in 2008.) The Chart also shows that despite the Board’s constant complaining about not having last year’s general fund carryforward amount from Auditor Chamisse Cubbison, the budget staff has been quite capable of determining how much is in reserve and how much carryforward from each year to put into reserves (apparently without a formal Board vote). 

If Mendo has almost $28 million in General Fund reserves, a higher percentage than most County’s carry, why aren’t they using it to fill budget gaps (and asking staff for a reserve plan to either maintain or set aside future amounts to sustain a certain reserve amount)?

Nevertheless, that didn’t stop Board Chair Glenn McGourty from complaining about Cubbison again on Tuesday in response to SEUI president Julie Beardsley’s request that the Board do more to staff up and pay competitive wages. McGourty replied that Ms. Beardsley should take her requests to the Auditor! Will this board ever take any responsibility for their own budget mismanagement? 

AFTER RECENT KILLINGS ON CALIFORNIA RESERVATION, TRIBES ASK FOR HELP TO STEM VIOLENCE

by Hannah Wiley

Even for a community already accustomed to some level of violence, the two brutal killings on a rural Northern California reservation this spring were a shock. 

Nicholas Shehli Whipple had been so severely beaten that Round Valley Indian Tribal police didn’t initially notice the 20-year-old had been shot. Three weeks later, 16-year-old Ruby Sky Montelongo’s body was discovered in a vacant field in Mendocino County by her uncle, Gerald “Lij” Britton. 

Lij Britton has been through this before. His daughter, Khadijah Britton, vanished from the remote reservation in February 2018 after “being forced into a car at gunpoint by her ex-boyfriend,” according to the FBI. The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office has a suspect in the case, but without a body, officials say it’s difficult to make an arrest. She was 23 when she disappeared. 

The recent violence, along with Khadijah Britton’s unsolved disappearance, underscore the challenges California tribes face in stemming the crisis of missing and slain Indigenous people. The centuries-long problem stretches back to white settler colonialism and the forced removal of Indian children into boarding schools, worsened by a broken foster-care system and the ravages of drugs, domestic violence and human trafficking.…

latimes.com/california/story/2023-05-08/california-tribes-missing-murdered-women-capitol-laws-violence-native-indigenous

ED NOTE: PLEASE BRING TO THE ATTENTION OF DA EYSTER…

NO BOONVILLE QUIZ THIS WEEK

Relax. Your gray matter can take it easy. Hope to see you next week on the Third Thursday at Lauren’s at the Buckhorn, May 18th, 7pm.

Cheers,

Steve Sparks, Quizmaster

AVA, good issue yesterday. Who and where are Dorothy Parker's contemporaries today? New beer commercials for bud lite with the cowboy trans character describing that swill as "piss taking a piss" was spot on. Hare in the Forest out of Potter Valley is the best by a wide margin in the area. Especially their Brightside Double IPA. Here's a metaphor for current society: Big River Cracked Earth photo.

Carry forth,

Jeff Goll

ARTIFICIAL THOUGHTS

Could it really be
That many eons ago
Our forebears were bots?

And we, their offspring,
Just more bots replacing bots?
Is it that simple?

Feigning our feelings?
Acting like we care or might
Give a good goddamn?

If that’s really true,
Then we no longer matter.
Maybe never did.

— Jim Luther

THE “UKIAH REXALL DRUG” neon sign from the former Ukiah Rexall Drug on the S/E corner of S. State & E. Perkins Streets is featured in this video from Pocatello, Idaho.

I wish the City of Ukiah or the County of Mendocino would do this. The Mendocino County Museum in Willits, CA has the Willits Rexall Drug neon sign in their collection.

It would be nice if the Ukiah Rexall Drug neon sign, now sitting in the window of a store in Pocatello, Idaho, could come home to Ukiah

ARE YOU A BOOK LOVER?

Museum Book Sale May 28

by Katy M. Tahja

Are you a book lover? Set aside the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, May 28, for the best little book sale on the Mendocino Coast. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. retired librarian Katy Tahja unites old books and new owners from the east porch of then Kelley House Museum in Mendocino.

So what can you expect to find? Wonders. From an 1876 copy of “Ropp’s Easy Calculator for Farmers, Mechanics, Businessman and Laborers” to “Mechanical Movements, Devices and Appliances” from 1903. Readers with New England maritime roots might enjoy “Whale Ships & Whaling: Pictorial History During Three Centuries in Colonial New England” from 1925 with 443 pages.

Due to the tremendous contribution of art books and photographic history from Hans and Anne Bruhner in Comptche probably half the books in this sale are coffee table hard cover art books art ridiculously cheap prices. “The Tres Riches Heurs of Jean Duke de Barry” is the history of an illuminated manuscript. “Cartographia: Mapping Civilization” will delight map lovers.

“The Viking Experience” is a slipcased book with removable documents of historical importance. “150 Years of Photo Journalism” featuring the Hulton Deutsch Collection has captions in English, French and German and must weigh five pounds. A real puzzler curator Tahja would love an answer to is a book of music from the early 20th century in an unknown alphabet. Even after a quick on-line search the closest guess is it might be Balinese?

Interested in South America? “Geographica Moderna 1962” is a Spanish language history of Columbia. There are many National Geographic photography collections available. Fluent in German? There is a 1939 Nazi publication “Dokumente Vorgeschichte des Kreiges’ on the war as a 448 page paperback.

Photography books cover artists and the history of the craft-like “Lincoln Illustrated” with 700 photos of the man and “Yesterdays Southwest” from a Palm Springs Museum. Cartooning history is found in “Rejection Collection: Cartoons You Never Saw in the New Yorker” and even the craft of quilting is offered in “Dancing at the Louvre” showing Faith Ringold’s French story quilt.

If you are a fan of old recipes there is a collection of Culinary Arts Institute 48 page cookbooks with titles like “250 Poultry and Game Bird Recipes” from the 1940s and 1950s; 18 titles and over 5,000 recipes. What you won’t find at the event is fiction, kids books, psychology or self help. What you will find is history, art, photography, and a bit of nature, travel, cooking, crafts and gardening.

Any book over 100 years old is five bucks (at least). Prices are cheap and creative bargaining will be entertained for bulk purchases. Fancy art books will be one quarter of the cover price, or cheaper. You want to be there early as there is a line itv 10 a.m.Bring cash or check. Expect to be surprised at the eclectic collection. Contact curator Katy Tahja at ktahja@mcn.org for more info. It’s worth trip to Mendocino, Sunday May 28.

ED NOTES

A JURY has found that Donald Trump sexually abused E. Jean Carroll. The panel of six men and three women also found that Trump injured Carroll and defamed her, awarding her $5 million. Trump denies the allegation that he raped advice columnist E. Jean Carroll at a Manhattan department store in the mid 1990s. There was a last minute hiccup over a social media post by the former President in which he claimed he wasn't allowed to “defend himself.” Trump was allowed to testify but his lawyers did not file an application by the deadline which was set by the judge at 5pm on Sunday. On Truth Social, Trump wrote: “Waiting for a jury decision on a False Accusation where I, despite being a current political candidate and leading all others in both parties, am not allowed to speak or defend myself.” He added he would “appeal the Unconstitutional silencing of me, as a candidate, no matter the outcome!” In court Carroll's lawyer Roberta Kaplan said it was “troublesome” for Trump to be posting that he wasn't allowed to testify when in fact he was. She asked Judge Kaplan to tell the jury that Trump did have the opportunity to come to court but he balked. (Daily Mail)

ED NOTE: The evidence seemed pretty thin that El Slobbo had assaulted Ms. Carroll in, of all places, a fancy department store, but given that he's on tape bragging about assaulting women to another chuckling, approving slob, Trump got what he had coming, registered sex offender status. He is finally paying for all the assaults he got away with over the years. Any other defendant in a thin case like this probably would have been acquitted. That infamous tape, incidentally, was dismissed by Trump as “locker room talk,” the kind of thing men say when they're with the other boys. Hey, I'm a man. Been in many locker rooms, and never heard anything like Trump and that Bush idiot bragging about groping women. 

THIS was one of the lead stories in the on-line NYT this morning: “Why Do American Diners Have Such a Limited Palate for Textures? Complex taste sensations play a crucial role in food around the world — but have long been shunned stateside.”

I READ the article and still don't get the ref to “textures.” Do people really worry about being stymied by their taste buds?

KUDOS and gratitude to Zane Colfax for reviving the Boontling Classic foot race, an event begun by his father and uncles more than a quarter century ago. The 5K contest, a hilly 3-plus miles, was won by Kenny Smith who covered the distance in 16:56. Swiftest woman was Maeva Riley, who zipped up and over the hilly three miles in 21:48. I'm curious who racked up the fastest time ever, assuming it was either Jim Gibbons or one of his two sons, who dominated distance running in this area for more than two decades. Last time I entered I think Yorkville's Bill Cook and I finished neck and neck in about 45 minutes, gasping and desperate for a beer.

WARRIOR NOTE: Great game last night (Monday) but one with a sad note and one minor mystery. The sad note is Jordan Poole. The Warriors have been counting on him to be the fifth guy they so desperately need. Management was so confident that Poole was that guy they gave him a four-year contract for $128 million. But… Desperate for a fifth guy Poole, only 24, has been a bust, as he was again last night. Imagine the pressure on the kid, all that money and unable to earn it, with the whole hoops world on your case. The mystery occurred in the second quarter when Draymond whipped a pass to Gary Payton II who wasn't there. For some still unexplained reason, Payton had dashed off the court and into the locker room. He did a mysterious locker room dash again in the second half.

ED NOTE: A WHAT TOURNAMENT?

CORN HOLE. I'm still slightly jarred every time I see a reference to the term, now, apparently, a game where you throw a bean bag at a board with a hole in it. Back in the day… Well. let's refer the question of lineage to the scholars. According to Random House's Historical Dictionary of American Slang, the late and brilliant J.E. Lighter, editor, “cornhole v. to engage in active anal copulation. 2. To defraud; victimize. Conroy. Santini 68: ‘Of all the group commanders in the world, I get cornholed with that pussy son of a bitch’.” 

ON THIS DAY IN MENDOCINO HISTORY…

May 9, 1922 - James Baskerville passed away suddenly from a heart attack, after suffering from heart trouble for the previous two years. About 18 months before his death, he travelled to San Francisco to consult with a heart specialist who diagnosed his ailment as angina pectoris and “told him he could hope for no permanent relief.”

Born in Devonshire, England in 1848, James was the son of Thomas and Isabelle Baskerville and had twelve brothers and sisters. He immigrated to the United States with his two older brothers, Peter and John, in 1870. They first settled in Cleveland, Ohio, but in 1876 they moved to Mendocino where they worked as woodsmen in the logging camps. None of these three brothers ever married, and they were described by the Beacon as, “a happy and contented bachelor family.”

In 1885, the Baskerville brothers purchased land on the north side of Pine Street from the estate of Captain David F. Lansing, and J. D. Johnson built a home for the brothers there. In 1964, this house was moved easterly on its parcel by CalTrans to make way for the new Big River bridge approach. The Baskerville home still stands today on Pine Street, just east of Highway 1.

Peter died of heart failure in 1909, and John died after a long illness the following year. Soon after, James gave up logging due to his own poor health.

James gifted the Baskerville house to long-term renters Henry and Rosa Flood in 1920 but continued to live on the property. “He had no living relatives and had made his home with Mr. and Mrs. Flood for many years. He lived in a small house adjacent to the Flood home and on the morning of his death Mr. Flood had called him as usual. As he did not come over within the usual time, Mr. Flood went again to see what was detaining him and found him lying on the floor dead.”

Funeral services were held at the Flood home, and graveside services were conducted by the local order of Foresters, of which James was a member. He was buried next to his brothers in Evergreen Cemetery.

Photo: Joe Nichols' Poolroom in Mendocino, c. 1910. Between 1909 and 1918, Joseph H. Nichols operated a poolroom in the building located on the southwest corner of Ukiah and Lansing Streets.

Pictured: 1 - John Chambers, 2 or 3 - Simon Fraser, 4 - Roy Doolittle, 5 - James Baskerville, 6 - Frank Bailey, 7 - Bill Emerick, 8 - Emil Seman, 9 - Leslie Flood, 10 - unidentified, 11- Vick Boos, 12 - Arthur Daniels, 13 - Joseph Nichols, and 14 - Sam Bever.

Kelley House Museum

www.kelleyhousemuseum.org

CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, May 9, 2023

CAYTLIN COLLICOTT, Willits. County parole violation.

ERIC CROUCH, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

SAMUEL EDWARDS, Willits. Domestic battery, elder abuse with great bodily injury, damaging communications device.

STEVEN GARDNER, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

HENRY GONZALEZ, Ukiah. Controlled substance for sale.

JEREMY JEFFERS, Talmage. Controlled substance.

HERNAN NUNEZ-CAMACHO, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Transportation of controlled substance.

DYLAN RUMBLE, Willits. Failure to appear.

CLINTON SALLEE, Fort Bragg. Disobeying court order.

RYAN WHITMAN JR., Albion. Grand theft, controlled substance, conspiracy. 

ELIJAH ZAPATA, Fort Bragg. Grand theft, taking vehicle without owner’s consent, stolen property-vehicle, no license.

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Our entire current educational system will dry up and blow away after the dollar is gone. No resources will be available to support the system which takes huge amounts of energy resources, money, and materials to maintain. Once we are in complete system failure, no resources will exist to pay teachers, to transport students back and forth to schools, to provide climate control in the windowless buildings, no way to even keep maintaining the now useless school infrastructure. When people are having great difficulty making arrangements to feed themselves the school systems will fade away in significance. Eventually we may convert the buildings into something like emergency public housing.

The new school system we will have post collapse will be the very one that worked very well in the 1800’s, and it was simple enough for the average poor person to afford. These new schools will all be within walking distance from childrens’ homes. No fuel will be available for bussing kids to school, and soccer moms won’t be driving anymore in the long emergency. Many kids then will be occupied with performing all sorts of grim chores and vitally necessary work, just as a lot of farm kids in the 30’s and 40’s didn’t have much play time. They will like school just to get some relief from boring and repetitive chores – like feeding and caring for chickens – or pulling weeds and mowing.

I LOVE THE IDEALS OF MY COUNTRY. But I hate that we've been so denied any real knowledge of the world and don't have the education to think clearly, so we vote against our economic interest and believe in our most shallow first thoughts of fear and hatred. I firmly believe that if we don’t revive the study of civics we will be dead before 2050. We’ll have the same name, and it will be a nightmare. We have managed to disconnect education from preparation for the rest of your life. We are addicted to immediate gratification, removed from the necessity to take time for decision making, for rumination and contemplation, thinking things through. George W. Bush said: “Thinking things through is for sissies.” Education is horrible in the United States.

— Richard Dreyfuss

BACK AT THE WHOLE EARTH FESTIVAL FAIR AFTER PANDEMIC PAUSE

Scott and Stacey Lindsay look forward to sharing a message of peace, happiness and creation at the 2023 Whole Earth Festival at UC Davis.

Jehovah's Witnesses Resume Public Ministry At The UC Davis Whole Earth Festival Fair For The First Time In Three Years

When more than 30,000 people visit UC Davis to see the colorful artwork of the Whole Earth Festival (WEF), they will also see vibrant displays about peace, creation and happiness.

After a pandemic pause, Jehovah’s Witnesses and their mobile literature carts are returning to the zero-waste festival that, for more than half a century, has focused on promoting environmental awareness, sustainability and wellness.

“We have missed the opportunity to interact face to face with our neighbors over the past few years and we’re excited to return to our public ministry and reconnect with our neighbors,” said Scott Lindsay, a local spokesman and volunteer for Jehovah’s Witnesses. “Our involvement with the 2023 WEF will give us an added opportunity to share some positivity with all who will attend.”

The event will take place May 12-14, with more than 140 booths of arts, crafts and food options that are in line with the festival’s values. Live music and speakers on environmental education will also be a highlight.

Among these, dozens of volunteers from congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses from Davis to Sacramento will share a Bible message at eight literature carts stationed throughout the campus quad. The carts will showcase artwork and literature focusing on creation, secrets to a successful family life, and how to break the cycle of hatred.

Stacey Lindsay, a volunteer, is also eager to share a Biblical outlook for the future. “It is an opportunity to be outside on the beautiful UCD Quad with a group of people who really care about the earth,” she said. “I look forward to sharing the Bible’s positive message about an earth free from anything that is harmful to mankind.”

Jehovah's Witnesses have incorporated mobile displays of Bible-based literature as part of their public ministry in the United States since 2011. First launched in major metropolitan areas worldwide, this practice rapidly gained momentum and has become a staple at rail and bus stations, airports, harbors, main streets and large events such as the Whole Earth Festival at UC Davis, which began in 1969 as a small art class project.

“We have had an active congregation in Davis for decades and have had a presence on the UCD campus for over 30 years,” said Scott Lindsay. “We have enjoyed our participation at the WEF and really appreciate the efforts of the campus administration and students to hold this unique event.”

To learn more about Jehovah’s Witnesses, their history, beliefs and activities, visit their official website jw.org, which features content in 1,077 languages.

LOOK BOTH WAYS, RUN

Editor: 

I am 74 years old and have a crosswalk rule that I follow. Stop, look both ways. If a car is coming assume it won’t stop, and wait. Cars always win. They have great mass and are made out of metal. Humans are made of much more fragile materials and have a lot less mass. While the law of man says you have the right of way, the law of God says you are dead.

Jack Burger

Cazadero

JORDAN POOLE

by Tim Kawakami

To be totally fair to Jordan Poole in this strained moment for everybody involved with the Warriors franchise, there wasn’t much for him to say late Monday night.

To be totally transparent about Poole’s situation and his mood after he was mostly a non-entity in the Warriors’ gut-wrenching 104-101 Game 4 loss to the Lakers, which put the Warriors on the brink of elimination, he clearly didn’t want to say much when approached by reporters in the locker room. And Poole didn’t communicate much.

“I’ve got nothing for you,” Poole said to me when I was the first one to his locker. He wasn’t unpleasant. He wasn’t exactly genial, but he didn’t bolt or put on his headphones and zone out, either. He sat in his chair and stared directly into his locker, with his back to the gathering crowd of reporters.

Poole, who hasn’t spoken to the media much this postseason, repeated that he had nothing to say a few times, kept looking into his locker but didn’t raise his voice once. Eventually, he answered a few questions with brief answers. Again: Not unpleasant. Not biting. Not angry. Just … not much in the sharing mood.

“We’ve got another game in a couple days; it’s at home,” Poole said of Game 5 coming up at Chase Center on Wednesday. “So we should get that one done.”

Can anything change for you in this series, Jordan?

“Work ethic doesn’t change,” Poole said. “Routine doesn’t change. Maybe opportunity changes, but you can only control what you can control. We’ve got another game in a couple days, at home.”

On the subject of opportunity, Poole only played 10 minutes on Monday, scored zero points, missed all four of his shots and deservedly didn’t play a second in the fourth quarter, which is becoming a glaring trend in the Warriors’ biggest games. Poole is averaging only 8 points per game in this series and shooting 35.3 percent; in the postseason overall, Poole is averaging 10.5 points per game and 34.2 percent from the field and 27.8 percent from 3-point distance. He just started the playoffs in a scramble and hasn’t recovered.

Of course, Poole isn’t the only or probably even the main reason the Warriors are in deep trouble and why this era might be coming to a close. He’s still only 23. He’s not Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson or Draymond Green. They’re the main guys. And Poole’s trying. He’s had a weird season overall, which, of course, began with Draymond punching him during a training camp practice. He obviously hates that the spotlight is on him now even though he isn’t playing much. Bad games or bad series can happen to anybody.

But Poole’s lack of playoff toughness and his lack of interest in discussing what he’s accountable for in this situation just makes Poole seem like something less than a full partner in the Warriors’ operation these days. Like he’s not quite investing his soul into this. Like his teammates and coaches aren’t quite investing in him, either. I mean, how could they?

There are large potential repercussions looming, including the possible end of the dynasty or maybe a revamping of the roster that includes trading Poole. It all has to be on the table given the Warriors’ pending financial crunch. So Poole’s future on a team that prides itself on playoff resilience is absolutely an unknown right now.

And if Poole was surprised we wanted to talk to him after this game, when the Lakers pulled Lonnie Walker IV off the bench and watched him score 15 enormous points while the Warriors were dying for anybody to put the ball in the basket, he shouldn’t have been. Poole signed a four-year, $123 million contract last October because he played well last postseason and the Warriors believed he could keep doing that for years to come.

Well, right when they really, really, really, really could’ve used that again, with the Lakers overplaying Curry and Klay looking harried, Steve Kerr decided to put Gary Payton II into the starting lineup over Poole for this game and then played Moses Moody in that spot for most of the fourth quarter.

Once again, just like in the huge Game 7 victory over the Kings when Poole played limited minutes, Poole wasn’t the right answer. He looks too sped up. His shot isn’t falling. His play can spiral from mistake to mistake to mistake. He’s never going to be an impressive defensive player. And when Poole doesn’t get key minutes, it causes a ripple effect through the rotation simply because the Warriors don’t have anybody like him to supplement Curry and Klay offensively.

Poole wasn’t in, so he can’t be blamed for the Warriors’ woeful 17-point output in the fourth quarter, which they entered with a seven-point lead. But he has to be good enough to earn those minutes. He has to be worth it. Or else there’s a notable void. And we’ve seen it this whole series, which the Warriors now trail 3-1.

“It just wasn’t his night,” Kerr said of Poole. “He didn’t have it going. It’s a game where you’re going possession by possession and we had other guys who were playing well. Moses came in, did a great job. Donte (DiVincenzo) gave us good minutes. Gary obviously starting the game really gave us a lift. Just we went to other guys. That doesn’t mean Jordan can’t come in and play a big role in Game 5.”

Poole’s teammates are aware of the Poole discourse among Warriors fans, I’m sure. They know he’s getting blamed. They probably know that Poole isn’t enjoying this. And it’s not like the Warriors to let one of their own go undefended.

“We get questions about him a lot and it’s our whole team, we’re all together in the sense of trying to figure out how to win playoff games,” Curry said of Poole. “We all have to make adjustments. We all have to play better considering we’re in a 3-1 hole. So there’s no sense in isolating him in this situation. It’s all about collectively what can we all do to be better. The conversations we have in film sessions and on the bench, in the locker room, are all consistent throughout the season, especially in this playoff run, of trying to answer that question.

“He’s a part of that, we’re all a part of that. And if we’re going to get out of this hole, we’re all going to have to play better.”

Maybe Poole will find his footing on Wednesday. He could lead the Warriors’ revival and he could crow about it or be humble about it, either way would be fair. I’ll be there for it if this happens. But I think it’s far more likely that the Warriors will win or lose this series without much from Poole the rest of the way and deal with the consequences later.

The main guys will decide how the rest of this postseason goes. They’ll protect Poole as much as they can, because that’s what the main guys do. But we all know that Curry, Klay and Draymond didn’t need others to protect them like this when they were young. They just performed and won when it was the toughest. That’s how you become a main guy. And if you don’t do any of this, it’s how you show that you probably never will be one.

(courtesy, New York Times)

YOU WON'T SEE A COOLER PASS THAN THIS ONE LAST NIGHT

THESE WARRIORS MADE YOU BELIEVE AGAIN. Now it’s time to brace for the end

by Scott Ostler

You wrote off the Golden State Warriors weeks ago. No, months ago. Maybe you wrote ’em off after The Punch.

You watched the Warriors lose with stunning regularity on the road all season, clear proof that they had lost their fire, if not their heart, and you prepared for the end of a bad season, and maybe of a dynasty. Death happens.

Coming down the stretch you shook your head in frustration as the Warriors groped blindly for that famous switch they needed to flip to become the Warriors again.

You cringed when they had to claw their way into the playoffs, an indignity never endured by your guys in this Steve Kerr era. It was very clear all along that you were witnessing the end of a long, fabulous run. The league had been lifted up by the Warriors’ brilliance and innovation, and the league was now zooming past your aging heroes.

So why are you so worked up, panicked and even infuriated with the Warriors now? They’re down 3-1 to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference semis, with Game 5 Wednesday night at Chase Center. All things considered, losing would be no disgrace.

Hasn’t your team already given you way more thrills and fun than you expected, having gallantly crushed the hearts of the Sacramento Kings, this season’s Cinderella team?

Aren’t you playing with emotional house money now? It’s no disgrace to struggle against the Los Angeles Lakers, a team that a lot of smart people (i.e.: gamblers) pick to wind up in the NBA Finals.

The problem is that your Warriors didn’t fade out of the picture, like they should have. They rose up in defiance, announced that they’re very much alive.

You became Lloyd Christmas telling Mary Swanson in “Dumb and Dumber,” “So you’re telling me there’s a chance!”

You got sucked right back into the dream.

Your guys earned a shot at the Lakers. Not just another foe, they represent so many things that rub you the wrong way. How many preening, bandwagon-jumping Hollywood stars can they cram into those courtside seats?

LeBron James is a player you’ve learned to respect and fear. It’s hard to forget how he baited Draymond Green into that fateful midsection swipe back in 2016, which resulted in Green’s Game 5 suspension that changed the course of basketball history. Or how King James cruelly trolled the Warriors after his Cavaliers came back from down 3-1 to win the Finals that season.

You have been self-deputized as a member of the Flop Police. Sure, flopping is rampant in the NBA, but never before has flopping loomed as a tool that might help defeat your Warriors. Kerr, who for nine seasons has avoided the temptation to rip the refs, or to call out the opposition for dirty tricks (except for Dillon Brooks), is fed up with the devious theatrics.

Now the tension is high. Back in the first season of this run, when the Warriors were down 2-1 to Memphis and Kerr was facing the first crisis of his coaching career, general manager Bob Myers calmed Kerr with reasoning. Look, this is a young team, you’re not even supposed to be here yet. No need for panic. Whatever we do here will help us become monsters next season.

Kerr took that message, or at least that vibe, to his players. They went out and played like kids, had fun, and crushed everyone in their path.

That reasoning won’t work now. Even though the Warriors aren’t supposed to be here, they’re no longer a young team on the upswing. You’re not sure exactly what they are, but a loss in this series would not be a springboard to future greatness. This team is no longer a rosebud blooming, it is a dandelion facing a windstorm.

You’re realistic enough to know that your team is now the underdog, so there’s no shame in losing. But what if they go down like this? What if the end is like Game 4, when your Warriors seemed to beat themselves, their magic gone.

You’re realizing that if this is the end, there’s no easy way out.

But you’re in too deep to shrug it off and move on. Your Warriors made you believe, and you can’t stop.

You remember the time last season when Kerr defended a slumping Klay Thompson by saying, “I’m going to ride with Klay forever.” That’s the kind of faith you’ve seen at work for a decade.

So now you do what you have to do. You saddle up.

(sfchronicle.com)

TRAPPING THE FRENCH CASANOVA

by Warren Hinckle

At one point in my tumultous Executive Editorship of Ramparts Magazine in the 1960s, it seemed time either to retreat or send in reinforcements. So I bludgeoned Larry Bensky, the current victim on the sacrificial altar of the Ramparts Managing Editor’s chair, into catching a night plane to Paris. Bensky was not all that happy about going, since he had been a founder of a Franco-American antiwar group during his previous residence as an editor of the Paris Review and had reason to think the French police would be watching him.

Bensky found Michel to be a very average-looking Frenchman, a chain smoker of Gitanes, a chain lover of women, with a strong taste for luxury, a seemingly inexhaustible supply of pocket money, and many flashily dressed friends with nice apartments and no visible means of support. He was an expert in “pillow-talk intelligence,” having been assigned by French intelligence, with its concern for industrial counterespionage, to infiltrate the social circles of the oil industry in New York and Texas by seducing the daughters of the petroleum magnates. “I learned English to fuck them,” the Frenchman told Bensky.

The French intelligence agent came on as an orgy freak, or, more precisely, he came on as a combination self-voyeur and fetishist about being an orgy freak. He sat in Paris sidewalk cafes ostentatiously picking his teeth, and otherwise acting the part of Terry-Thomas playing the stud. His conversation was that of an after-dinner speaker in a bordello catering to civil servants. He would preface intimate accounts of the sexual proclivities of prominent politicians with the phrase, “It is known in French intelligence that…,” then proceed to the nitty gritty about several American male politicians and their boyfriends.

Michel was in other ways the perfection of rottenness. He pulled off one of the meanest ploys in the book of dirty tricks: He deliberately got one of our men the clap. The victim was a Ramparts lad who had been standing by in Paris, another innocent New Leftie abroad. Michel apparently convinced his young victim that sexual intercourse was a prerequisite to commercial intercourse in Paris and that their discussions could best be held during nightly visitations to Paris whorehouses in which he was a stockholder. There our lad received a sexual mickey. Relying on the young American’s pride not to cry uncle, the fiendish Michel stepped up the whoring pace, putting his negotiating partner at the disadvantage of extreme physical and psychological discomfort.

Bensky arrived just in time to put a halt to this slow torture, which he learned about only by accident. The lad met him at the airport and on the way into Paris asked Bensky to wait for a minute in the cab while he ran up to a doctor’s office to get a “vaccination.” After the meter had ticked by 20 minutes, Bensky, figuring even Ramparts’ expense accounts did not have that much elasticity, paid off the driver and wandered upstairs.

After several wrong numbers in doctors’ offices, Bensky found the innocent American, all blushing red, pale white, and depressed blue, sitting uncomfortably on a folding chair in a VD clinic. The embarrassed investigator confessed his plight, which was redundant in light of his surroundings. He perked up a bit when Bensky explained to him, like Captain Ahab to Penrod, that his extended discomfort was not due to inexperience or bad luck but a trap of the devil, in all his cunning.

Benksy ducked Michel’s efforts to lure him to the whorehouses, where he was certain a trap lay germinating for him, pleading a Benedictine vow of celibacy from a previous incarnation, and instead maneuvered the Frenchman into successive cat-and-mouse encounter sessions of drinking cognac in bistros of Bensky’s choice. On the third night, he beat the Frenchman at the endurance game. As the sensuous intelligence agent wandered drunkenly around the bistro, having left his jacket on the chair, Bensky went through his pockets, discovering business cards and press cards in several identities, only a few of them in Michel’s own name, and a British passport in yet another name.

Bensky dropped these identities on Michel in subsequent conversations, which caused the Frenchman to raise ever so slightly his egg-skin eyebrows and compliment the Managing Editor on Ramparts’ “excellent sources” of information.

UKRAINE, TUESDAY, MAY 9TH

Russia scaled back its annual Victory Day celebrations due to security concerns related to the war in Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin spoke briefly in Moscow's Red Square where only one tank was on display during a toned-down parade. 

Explosions rang out over Kyiv on Tuesday morning as Ukrainian air defenses intercepted cruise missiles fired by Russia, officials said. The Patriot missile defense system was used to down a Russian missile, the Pentagon said.

Ahead of a much-anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive, authorities in Russian-occupied towns along the southern front are ordering the evacuation of thousands of civilians. 

The US announced an additional $1.2 billion in aid to Ukraine, intended to bolster Kyiv's air defenses and ammunition ahead of an expected counteroffensive.

THERE WAS MADNESS in any direction, at any hour. You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastical universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. And that, I think, was the handle–that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. 

Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting–on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high water mark–that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back. 

— Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

EARLY IN FEBRUARY 1941, Hemingway and I set out from San Francisco for Honolulu by boat. We imagined this trip would be like the already distant good old days when one crossed from New York to France, on a French ship, wallowing in delicious food and drink and luxury. U.C. (Hemingway) always had the right idea about pleasure, which is grab it while you can. Instead of the hoped-for delights, we were batted about the decks like ping-pong balls, hurled into nailed-down furniture unless unnailed-down furniture hurled itself into us until finally, incapable of standing upright, we retired to our berths where we lay eating and drinking and trying not to be flung from berth to floor.

Trays crashed off our laps, bottles spilled; the ship proceeded with the motion of a dolphin, lovely in a dolphin and vile in a ship. U.C. muttered a lot: why had nobody warned us? If he had known the Pacific was this kind of ocean he would never have set foot on it, a man should stick with the waters he knew, as a matter of fact he knew and respected many lakes and rivers too, and look at it any way you want, M., this is a bad sign. The sea voyage lasted roughly forever. Somewhere, over those detestable gray waves, Honolulu would be a haven of sun, swimming, peace and stationary land. 

Nobody warned us about the traditional aloha-welcome either. I made a full airmail report to my mother:

“There were finally eighteen leis on each of our necks. U.C. had a face of black hate. He said to me, ‘I never had no filthy Christed flowers around my neck before and the next son of a bitch who touches me I am going to cool him and what a dung heap we came to and by Christ if anybody else says aloha to me I am going to spit back in his mouth.’ You get the feeling?

“Leis were not the end of it. Among the hordes of greeters who swarm aboard, ready to sling leis on their friends, were photographers. A fat man we never saw before came up to us. He was Irish and drunk. He said to U.C.; ‘I’m as big a man as you are and I can drink as much.’ Then he staggered and U.C. caught him. ‘Here,’ he said to a nearby photographer. ‘Take a picture of me too. I’m a fine man where I come from.’

So I said quickly, to forestall worse, ‘You bet you are,’ and this was the picture. Us three. He stumbled away and we never saw him again.”

That photograph is one of the few, the sadly few, which has survived my multiple changes of residence. U.C. is grinning like a wolf with bared fangs above necklaces of flowers; in profile, flower-draped too, I seem to be falling over backwards and look dazed; between us the fat man, flowerless but glass in hand, managed to lean affectionately against us both.

Seeing the way people carry cameras, everyone else has always known the value of recording one’s travels on film. I have only now understood what I've missed: instead of massive albums I have a single thin folder of photos to make me laugh in my declining years.

(Martha Gellhorn, ‘Travels with Myself and Another’)

THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL (short story)

by Hans Christian Andersen

Most terribly cold it was; it snowed, and was nearly quite dark, and evening -- the last evening of the year. In this cold and darkness there went along the street a poor little girl, bareheaded, and with naked feet. When she left home she had slippers on, it is true; but what was the good of that? They were very large slippers, which her mother had hitherto worn; so large were they; and the poor little thing lost them as she scuffled away across the street, because of two carriages that rolled by dreadfully fast.

One slipper was nowhere to be found; the other had been laid hold of by an urchin, and off he ran with it; he thought it would do capitally for a cradle when he some day or other should have children himself. So the little maiden walked on with her tiny naked feet, that were quite red and blue from cold. She carried a quantity of matches in an old apron, and she held a bundle of them in her hand. Nobody had bought anything of her the whole livelong day; no one had given her a single farthing.

She crept along trembling with cold and hunger--a very picture of sorrow, the poor little thing!

The flakes of snow covered her long fair hair, which fell in beautiful curls around her neck; but of that, of course, she never once now thought. From all the windows the candles were gleaming, and it smelt so deliciously of roast goose, for you know it was New Year's Eve; yes, of that she thought.

In a corner formed by two houses, of which one advanced more than the other, she seated herself down and cowered together. Her little feet she had drawn close up to her, but she grew colder and colder, and to go home she did not venture, for she had not sold any matches and could not bring a farthing of money: from her father she would certainly get blows, and at home it was cold too, for above her she had only the roof, through which the wind whistled, even though the largest cracks were stopped up with straw and rags.

Her little hands were almost numbed with cold. Oh! a match might afford her a world of comfort, if she only dared take a single one out of the bundle, draw it against the wall, and warm her fingers by it. She drew one out. "Rischt!" how it blazed, how it burnt! It was a warm, bright flame, like a candle, as she held her hands over it: it was a wonderful light. It seemed really to the little maiden as though she were sitting before a large iron stove, with burnished brass feet and a brass ornament at top. The fire burned with such blessed influence; it warmed so delightfully. The little girl had already stretched out her feet to warm them too; but--the small flame went out, the stove vanished: she had only the remains of the burnt-out match in her hand.

She rubbed another against the wall: it burned brightly, and where the light fell on the wall, there the wall became transparent like a veil, so that she could see into the room. On the table was spread a snow-white tablecloth; upon it was a splendid porcelain service, and the roast goose was steaming famously with its stuffing of apple and dried plums. And what was still more capital to behold was, the goose hopped down from the dish, reeled about on the floor with knife and fork in its breast, till it came up to the poor little girl; when--the match went out and nothing but the thick, cold, damp wall was left behind. She lighted another match. Now there she was sitting under the most magnificent Christmas tree: it was still larger, and more decorated than the one which she had seen through the glass door in the rich merchant's house.

Thousands of lights were burning on the green branches, and gaily-colored pictures, such as she had seen in the shop-windows, looked down upon her. The little maiden stretched out her hands towards them when--the match went out. The lights of the Christmas tree rose higher and higher, she saw them now as stars in heaven; one fell down and formed a long trail of fire.

"Someone is just dead!" said the little girl; for her old grandmother, the only person who had loved her, and who was now no more, had told her, that when a star falls, a soul ascends to God.

She drew another match against the wall: it was again light, and in the lustre there stood the old grandmother, so bright and radiant, so mild, and with such an expression of love.

"Grandmother!" cried the little one. "Oh, take me with you! You go away when the match burns out; you vanish like the warm stove, like the delicious roast goose, and like the magnificent Christmas tree!" And she rubbed the whole bundle of matches quickly against the wall, for she wanted to be quite sure of keeping her grandmother near her. And the matches gave such a brilliant light that it was brighter than at noon-day: never formerly had the grandmother been so beautiful and so tall. She took the little maiden, on her arm, and both flew in brightness and in joy so high, so very high, and then above was neither cold, nor hunger, nor anxiety--they were with God.

But in the corner, at the cold hour of dawn, sat the poor girl, with rosy cheeks and with a smiling mouth, leaning against the wall--frozen to death on the last evening of the old year. Stiff and stark sat the child there with her matches, of which one bundle had been burnt. "She wanted to warm herself," people said. No one had the slightest suspicion of what beautiful things she had seen; no one even dreamed of the splendor in which, with her grandmother she had entered on the joys of a new year.

(Hans Christian Andersen: The Complete Fairy Tales and Stories)