- Another Victim Of The Rollinses
- Non-Standard Septic Fee Mendo County
- Remembering Bill Bailey
- Appreciating Vonnegut
- Auld Aing Sine?
- Ukiah/Gibson Creek Clean Up Project
- Don't Restrict It
- Burgers
- Death Valley Days
- Corporations, Mega Rich Need To Pay More In Taxes
- Have Republicans Dropped Second Amendment Talk?
- How 'Bout Ol' Bone Spurs?
ANOTHER VICTIM OF THE ROLLINSES
Dear Editor,
Thoroughly enjoyed your “blast from the past” article on the New Boonville Hotel.
I worked there during the summers in the early 1980s. I was living primarily in Mexico and came to the Valley during the summers. Tom Cronquist was the dining room manager and hired me to be a wait person over the weekends and I also worked as a bartender.
The Rollins’ were first-class crooks cashing in on the incredible free PR they received from the Bay Area foodies. Yes, they were crooks before they fled. All of the employee payroll checks had the normal deductions – social security, disability, etc.
Those monies were never sent to government entities. Vernon kept it. The annual Social Security print out that most of us receive showed no income on the years that I and all of the other employees worked at the New Boonville Hotel.
Yes, he kept all of it.
The place was a joke. To serve the bread they raved about, a server first had to remove the cat that was sleeping in the breadbasket, shake out the napkin and put in the fresh bread.
Vernon had the habit of going to the walk-in cooler and drinking milk out of the carton that was used to be served to customers. Charlene and Vernon had no sense of appreciation of the staff and never once offered any of us something to eat at the end of our shift.
I could go on but couldn’t resist adding on my two cents on this fiasco.
Susan Bridge-Mount
Boonville
NON-STANDARD SEPTIC FEE MENDO COUNTY
Editor,
Just curious if anyone else has received a non-standard septic invoice from the County?
Seems like the tri-annual fee has more than doubled from $160 to over $380.
The logic of the program seems ludicrous to me: keep paying fees so others can benefit from the non-standard system that grants waivers for certain conditions (e.g. total size or shallow soils) to allow for new installations.
The County should have tabulated the total fees for the lifespan of the system and added into the cost of the original permit, particularly in light of the fact that the County does not seem to conduct any monitoring of their own.
Kirk Vodopals
Navarro
REMEMBERING BILL BAILEY
Hello Observer Fans,
Here’s this week’s edition of the Observer, as always chock-a-block jammed with all the required reading necessary for the comprehension/retention test I’ll give you in a few days. Be sure and read B. Anderson’s column where he recounts “My Most Memorable Birthday.”
Speaking about what appears in this newspaper, before we had the opportunity to get to know each other, the late/great/inimitable Bill Bailey, of Laytonville and Bailey’s Logging Supplies, told me, “You don’t even read your own newspaper because if you did you wouldn’t print half the crap that’s in there.”
I responded, “You don’t know me but I’ll tell you this, you’re going to come around and see things differently. I actually know what I’m talking about, at least most of the time.”
About a year later, Bill called asking if I had time for a drink at Boomer’s. We met and he started off saying, “I think I may have jumped the gun on you. You’re a little bit like me. Sometimes we’re telling people what they don’t want to hear or believe because it makes them mad as a son-of-a-bitch. And then they think about it and realize, ‘Godammit, that son of a bitch is on to something, maybe he’s right.” This was delivered with a healthy dose of humor.
After that Boomer’s session, we never had another problem or a cross word. Bill would call me up and ask, “Hey, you got time to bullshit?” And he’d come by my office, or I’d go to the his building and we’d sit on the bench at the entrance and talk politics, town rumors and gossip, U.S. and world history, American literature, and a grab bag of random topics.
His nickname for me was “The Mayor.” I believe he came up with that moniker because in the mid-1990s I founded the first municipal advisory council in the county. He was a bit suspicious that my goal was to incorporate Laytonville into a city.
I assured him that I had studied that issue and it was not in the cards. Incorporation was not feasible for numerous reasons, the most important being the huge expense of maintaining an ongoing municipal government. Laytonville did not have a large enough stable revenue base to fund a city government. He agreed.
On one occasion after his new home north of town was built, he gave me a tour of it and the surrounding grounds. Inside the house, he showed me a room that he identified as the place where, once he retired, he would write his poetry. He was definitely a guy who valued literature, poetry and history. He was a good writer.
I miss Bill, he was a real character, exceptionally bright, helped a lot of people, was politically savvy, wrote poetry, local history and political pieces, and once he accepted and trusted you, he’d never bail on you.
In other words, Bill Bailey was a good man.
In my book, that’s about the highest compliment you can bestow on a person.
Hasta Luego,
Jim Shields, Editor
Mendocino County Observer, Laytonville
APPRECIATING VONNEGUT
Dear Editor,
I recently read Morris Dickstein’s exceptionally perceptive, erudite and insightful “Gates of Eden: American Culture in the Sixties.” In a chapter devoted to literary “black humor” of the early 1960s, he discusses the novels of Joseph Heller, Thomas Pynchon and Kurt Vonnegut. He mentions three Vonnegut novels of that period, none of which I had read: ”Mother Night,” “Cat’s Cradle” and “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater.”
Having now finished “Mother Night” and begun “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater,” I am struck by the power and resonance of Vonnegut’s comic sensibility. ”Mother Night” features a white supremacist organization called the Iron Guard of the White Sons of the American Constitution. The organization is led by a dentist in his 70s whose chauffeur was known in the 1930s as “the Black Fuehrer of Harlem.”
Kurt Vonnegut, Gore Vidal, Alexander Cockburn — where are the great wits equal to our own era of genocidal absurdity?
Doug Loranger
Walnut Creek
AULD AING SINE?
Editor,
I ran into John Fremont yesterday in the line at Safeway in Fort Bragg. Gawd, we've all grown so much older now. Asked how he was, what he was up to. Told me he was involved in the Rename Fort Bragg movement. OK.
Pointed out to John that Fort Bragg had not been named for the (Inept) Confederate General Braxton Bragg of the Civil War (the War Between the States where I was born and raised), but had instead been named for the brilliant United States Army field artillery Lieutenant Braxton Bragg from the Mexican American War circa 1837.
Lieutenant Hudson -- I believe it was, please correct me if I'm mistaken in this attribution -- named Fort Bragg after his artillery commander in the war with Mexico. OK so far? 1837 Mexican War. Way before the Civil War.
The Fort Bragg Lt. Hudson commanded was tasked with protecting Indigenous peoples, not decimating them. The history here is clear as a bell. Check the historical records.
Lt. Bragg was an honored and decorated member of US Army in the the Mexican-American War -- whatever you might think of this Imperialistic exercise on our part.
So? I want to finish this little missive with this: I told John that the given name Lee never appeared in my family's lexicon until after the Civil War (Between the States). My Great-Grandfather had served in the Georgia Militia as a young man and had been with Lee at Appomattox. Had been wounded in the war (his niece had seen the scar). he walked home from Appomattox to Georgia after Lee's surrender.
He gave the name Lee to his second son. Deronda Lee Edmundson. I am David Lee Edmundson. Obviously, the given name Lee is in honor of General Robert E. Lee. Never had shown up in my family's genealogy, ever before. For all the recorded decades.
What to do about this? I asked John. He said, "Keep It".
And so I say to all the "Re-Name Fort Braggers" -- Keep it. And try your utmost to make the most sense of it.
It is a compelling history that serves everyone better when we do not try to erase it.
I am Lee Edmundson. I will always be Lee Edmundson. General Robert E. Lee not withstanding.
Fort Bragg will forever be Fort Bragg. Braxton Bragg notwithstanding.
Kudos to John and his cohorts. But their efforts are misplaced. Maybe they can see the light. Maybe not. Time will -- as it is in all things temporal - tell.
We all have greater fish to fry.
Let's consider these greater things.
PAX
Lee Edmundson
Mendocino
UKIAH/GIBSON CREEK CLEAN UP PROJECT
Editor,
I am interested in organizing community beautification days, cleaning up some of the most blighted, most visible areas in and around Ukiah.
I am wondering if anyone would be interested and available to clean up Gibson Creek adjacent to Orchard Plaza Saturday August 31st. Start in the morning at the Orchard Street underpass and head east. I can arrange supply's-garbage bags, grabbers, etc. I can request UPD provide security if anyone living in the creek objects to the clean up. This would not be a kid friendly event. There is human excrement and hypodermic needles. Wear gloves and maybe even a Tyvek suit. I can probably also supply coffee and snacks.
I am looking for at least 5 volunteers, hopefully 10-20. The more the merrier.
Call. 707-272-5477.
On facebook: Ukiah CA Vagrant Watch
Adam Gaska
Redwood Valley
DON'T RESTRICT IT
Editor:
I am incensed that the state Board of Pharmacy is seeking to severely restrict Californians’ access to Category 1 compounded substances including glutathione.
Compounded substances have been proven over and over to be safe and effective. To have Big Pharma throwing roadblocks in the path of compounding pharmacies and compounded medication that provides real, documented help to firefighters and others experiencing prolonged exposure to carcinogens and forever chemicals, or PFAS, is outrageous.
It leads me to speculate on the real reason behind this move. Could it be that in this time of fires and chemical pollution everywhere, there are huge fortunes to be made by restricting glutathione?
It was not so long ago that herbalists and midwives were forced into secrecy or even accused of witchcraft, for which many were burned at the stake. Under the banner of the church, power was consolidated among the few with the result of great suffering being inflicted upon whole populations.
Gina Cloud
Bloomfield
BURGERS
Editor,
It’s funny when someone complains on the Hey Garbervile facebook page about a bad burger, or other dish, that they had at some local restauRANT. First of all, if you want good healthy food make it at home, everybody knows that, or should. Secondly, you made the choice dude, or dudette, the accumulation of your life experience brought you to this decision, to this eating establishment, or maybe a friend recommended it, you’ve tried other things there, or maybe you were just curious about how the food was. I don’t want to blame the “burger victim,” but I’m pretty sure this one’s on you.
200 reactions and 148 comments later you’ve churned up quite a burger storm, both pro and con about the restaurant in question. I know that the reason anyone comments or posts is to get attention, which is alright as we all need attention, but when you decide to go negative on an alleged guilty burger to get your attention, it leaves me wondering if that was the best choice.
Paul Modic
Redway
DEATH VALLEY DAYS
Editor:
What if the normal temperatures of Phoenix became the normal temperatures here in Sonoma County? Phoenix has been over 105 degrees for weeks now. Is that our destiny? Most local people can handle a hot day or two now and then. But what we are experiencing is unparalleled. People who love the heat live in Palm Springs and Phoenix. Do we want to become the next “heat city”?
We see in the news every day people protesting a wide variety of issues. Why are there no large crowds protesting climate change? The other issues may be significant, but they are meaningless if our planet ceases to be habitable. Has civilization become so complex that it is impossible to pay attention to even the most existential issues?
Polls show that over 70% of Americans believe human activity is a source of climate change. We are told to shop local, plant trees, eat plant-based meals, install solar panels. If people are doing these things, they are obviously insufficient. This is a national and global issue. How do we apply more political pressure? Where is the outrage?
Gene A. Hottel
Santa Rosa
CORPORATIONS, MEGA RICH NEED TO PAY MORE IN TAXES
Editor,
I was astounded to read that the national debt reached $35 trillion. It should make every American pause. While this number is huge, the taxes the very rich paid was on average less than 3% of income, while hardworking Americans making $70,000 a year paid an average of 14% per year in taxes.
One study shows that 55 companies, all part of the S&P 500 or Fortune 500, would have paid a combined total of $8.5 billion last year if they had paid at a 21% rate (the statutory federal corporate tax rate) on their profits. Instead, not only did they avoid paying any taxes on their profits, but they received $3.5 billion in tax rebates. This is wrong and can’t be sustained.
It seems to me that if these corporations paid their fair share along with the mega rich in our country, we could bring down this number quickly without hurting anyone’s lifestyle or corporate investments. I know that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris want to do this and I agree. It’s time we all pay our fair share in taxes so that the debt doesn’t cripple future generations.
Project 2025 guidelines include more tax cuts for the very rich and corporations. I think doing so would destroy our economy and our middle class. It would increase the wealth disparity between all Americans. That’s just another reason I’m voting for Harris and Democrats up and down the ballot.
Paul Bartolini
Santa Rosa
HAVE REPUBLICANS DROPPED SECOND AMENDMENT TALK?
Editor,
Forgive me if I missed it, but did anyone else notice a rather unusual feature of the platform that emerged from this year’s Republican National Convention? As far as I could tell, there was no mention of support for the Second Amendment.
Dr. Martin Blinder
San Anselmo
HOW 'BOUT OL' BONE SPURS?
Editor,
J.D. Vance has really done it.
While bad-mouthing the Democratic vice presidential nominee’s military service record (24 years) and attempting to laud his own four-year non-combative efforts, he’s left out one important factor in the Republican party’s comparison of military services: Donald J. Trump.
I am the same age as Trump. I lived on the UC Berkeley campus through the protests in the ’60s, stood in line at the Oakland Induction Center for my physical as I learned about the death of my schoolmate Jim Arbuthnaut in ’65. Jim was drafted, fought in Vietnam and along with 50,000 other American servicemen women died there. He was only 19.
My father, two of my brothers and one sister served in the military as did six of my brothers-in-law. I couldn’t serve, having failed the Army and Marines physicals) much to my regret. But I digress.
J.D., if you’re through dumping on Tim Walz, care to discuss Donald J. Trump’s military record?
I didn’t think so.
Maybe best to stick to the old cat ladies.
Richard A. Olson
San Mateo
Dough Loranger,
You ask, “Kurt Vonnegut, Gore Vidal, Alexander Cockburn — where are the great wits equal to our own era of genocidal absurdity?”
The era you referenced surely includes Tom Wolfe.