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YESTERDAY'S HIGHS: Ukiah 102°, Yorkville 102°, Covelo 100°, Boonville 100°, Laytonville 99°, Fort Bragg 74°, Point Arena 72°
ANOTHER ROUND of seasonably warm weather with fair conditions and hot interior temperatures, expected today. Cooling is expected on Wednesday, followed a warming trend Thursday and Friday. Coastal stratus with patchy fog will likely return around mid week. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): On the coast this Tuesday morning I have 51F under clear skies. Patchy for returns tomorrow for a couple days then clearing for a couple days then, well you know.
KENDRA MCEWEN:
AV Junior/Senior High School sports programs really need more support. If you are a community member who sees their value, or you are a parent whose kids benefit from participating, please understand that these programs are pulled together by (very few) people going WAY over and above what should be expected of them, usually for very little or no compensation. Please get involved. Donate. Coach if you can. If not, ask the coach what they need, and do or find that for them. Offer to drive on at least one trip. Show up to cheer on the team. Bring cookies. Convince others to show up and volunteer too. Support is sorely lacking and I know this community… I know we can do better.
REDWOOD VALLEY WATER BOARD DISCUSSES POTENTIAL SHORTAGES AND BILLING TRANSITION
by Monica Huetll
At the Redwood Valley County Water District board meeting on September 19, 2024, members discussed significant challenges, including a nearly 10,000 acre-foot drop in Lake Mendocino’s water level compared to last year. With only 600 acre-feet sold this year, the district is grappling with reduced inflows from the Potter Valley Project while preparing for the City of Ukiah to take over billing services.…
ANON SAYS: Michelle Hutchins is brave beyond belief. Are these MCOE meetings televised? Can't wait! I hope M.H. wins.
JACOB PATTERSON:
RE: Fort Bragg Hospice. I don’t think it was financial problems that ended in-home hospice. The Coast’s former hospice program was one of a handful of very effective hospice programs, but Adventist ended it because it was not a revenue generator and they wanted to have a different program that they could bill for even though it was funded through the thrift store so revenue wasn’t an issue. I wonder what the “hospice” thrift store money goes to now if there isn’t a hospice? Now AH gets the thrift store money for whatever they want and they also get in-home health reimbursements that they didn’t get under the old hospice model that provided excellent patient care. I am not sure why we are all still paying the Measure C parcel tax if all they do is cut our services. What’s next? As Malcolm Macdonald reported on, rumors swirl that they will close infusion and oncology on the Coast to centralize those services in Ukiah.
PETER LIT:
I think Jacob is correct: Hospice, which should be in home, had its financial support removed by Adventist (the “non-profit” hospital because it didn’t bring in the same revenue as an “in hospital hospice (an oxymoron) program” which they have. The Adventists cite reasons why they couldn’t support it, lack of doctors, lack of nurses etc. I believe it is the lack of revenue.
L. KIELD GARDNER, DM
I've been looking at a bunch of historical documents about Mendocino County, specifically the coast. It's been fun, and the quote mining has been just fantastic. Since we are commencing with fall season, I thought I'd share one. This quote speaks about an area of the coast likely around Navarro:
“It was by now full autumn, and the vegetation had taken on those warm and thoughtful hues that make the season so pleasing. How gracious are these deep and sensitive tones, — the gravity of umber, the dignity of Sienna, the mild magnificence of madder, the serenity of gray! One may call spring the lyric, summer the epic, and winter the dirge of the color year. Autumn is the elegy, the quiet reconsideration, the rich maturity of experience.”
— Found in a book available on the Library of Congress website called California Coastal Trails (1913) by Joseph Smeaton Chase (page 274-275).
Happy Fall, everyone!
MIKE WILLIAMS:
Regarding UC Berkeley Professor of Anthropology Alfred Kroeber and California Indians. Judging his intentions in the context of our time reflects poorly on Kroeber. In the context of his time he was seen as enlightened and compassionate. His Handbook of California Indians was the first comprehensive compilation of the various tribal groups throughout the state. But let’s go one step farther to his first Masters Degree issued in 1908 to Ukiah’s own Samuel Barrett (Ukiah High class of 1899). Barrett’s family owned a local grocery and young Samuel learned to value the quality of Pomo basketry. His Ethnogeography of the Pomo, his Master's Thesis, is probably the greatest historical document to come out of our county. It covers nearly every village site, permanent and seasonal, in every watershed in the county and beyond, covering all of Pomo territory, and includes the name and meaning of each site, with historical details. Barrett went on to a distinguished career, but returned to the area in the early ‘60s to produce Native American Films, where he recorded traditional practices both material and cultural.
Our collective history in relation to the natives is horrifying for the most part. A few academics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries began to study the remnants of the native populations. While they were beholden to their Victorian values, there were a few, like Barrett who respected the people they were trying to understand.
Held Poage may have a copy.
You can read it online through this link.
https://archive.org/details/ethnogeographyp02barrgoog/page/n111/mode/1up?view=theater
There are copies in the library system, but it looks like they are listed as reference, as in library access only.
It used to be available through Coyote Press but no longer. I have given away two copies, the last one was to the Flow Kana people when they were occupying the Masut village site. Boy that was a mistake.
ED NOTE: I immediately went to the link provided by Mr. Williams and was astounded — blown away, as the young people say — by the depth of Barrett's scholarship. He not only provides a fascinating vocabulary of native terms, he identifies lost village sites throughout Mendocino County and into western Lake, retrieving a once-upon-a-time geography of the place now inhabited by heedless us. This remarkable document reveals, for instance, that Indians called Anderson Valley “Taa-bo-tah,” abbreviated by white settlers to “Tabahtea.” Take a look, Mendo, at what once was.
WHEN THE HOPLAND CASINO NABBED A PAPER PLAYER
by Mark Scaramella
Late in the evening on July, 8, 2004, the surveillance camera operator at the Sho-Ka-Wah casino noticed that a man at one of their 16 card tables in the center section of the casino playing Three-Card Poker was betting “irregularly” — betting high on hands when he should have folded.
Three Card Poker was relatively new at the time. It blends elements of blackjack and poker. First you put up your ante on a predesignated spot on the table. Then you put up your bet on the hand — which you win if your three-card hand is better than the dealer’s. You can also bet on how good a poker hand you might get by putting additional chips on the “pair plus” spot on the table. Then each player is dealt three cards, as is the dealer. You peek at your cards and decide if you want to play them. Even if you haven’t put any money on the “pair plus” spot, bonus money can also be won for having at least a pair — three of a kind, a straight, a flush, etc. and win more bonus points.
If you have a poor hand and fold, you lose your ante and your bet against the dealer. The dealer then turns over his cards and compares them to anyone who hasn’t folded. If the dealer doesn’t have at least a queen-high hand the dealer doesn’t “qualify” and all the players who didn’t fold win their bets. If the dealer does “qualify” then you win if your three-card hand is better than the dealer’s.
The house advantage for Three Card Poker is relatively low — derived from the fact that players have to decide to fold or not and concede their ante before the dealer turns over his cards — compared to other table games. And since Three-Card Poker is relatively simple while offering various betting options, it has grown in popularity at card rooms and Indian casinos around the country.
But with low house odds, it doesn’t take much cheating to tip the odds in your favor.
And that’s exactly what a Mr. Tobin James Ohashi was doing in Hopland in July of 2004.
After being observed with his irregular betting pattern, tribal police asked Mr. Ohashi for some ID. He accompanied two tribal policemen out to the parking lot and was held while his plates were checked. Mendocino deputies were also called. When they arrived they discovered that Mr. Ohashi did not have the correct paperwork for the Hertz rental car he was driving. Mr. Ohashi told the deputies that his associate Mr. Ken Fat Cheung Lui, had rented the 2004 Mercury sedan. But, upon further questioning, Mr. Lui admitted that he was driving his own late-model Mitsubishi and had the paperwork to prove it. Mr. Lui was released.
Deputies then returned to the casino and were shown the surveillance video showing Mr. Ohashi’s irregular betting. Upon close examination of the card deck being used at the table where Mr. Ohashi was playing, deputies saw that the queens, kings and aces had been slightly crimped on the corners and then bent back flat, or perhaps gently scratched with a fingernail. Apparently Mr. Ohashi had found a subtle way to crimp the deck’s twelve high cards surreptitiously during the early part of the play without being noticed by the dealer or the surveillance operators. Then, at some point in the play, Mr. Ohashi would have marked enough high cards to be able to tell when the dealer wouldn’t “qualify” with at least a queen-high hand and up his bets even when he had what would otherwise be a losing hand.
Deputies returned to Mr. Ohashi’s rented Mercury and found $15,563 in cash and a laptop computer among Mr. Ohashi’s possessions.
Ohashi was arrested for being in possession of a stolen car, a felony, and for cheating at cards, a misdemeanor under section 337x of the California Penal Code.
From the evidence, prosecutors subsequently theorized that Mr. Ohashi, who was carrying a British Columbia driver’s license, was a “paper player” — a person who cheats at poker using one of various methods of marking cards — touring Indian casinos up and down the west coast, using his clever card crimping technique to shift the Three-Card Poker odds in his favor, but not staying long enough at any one casino to draw much attention.
Mr. Ohashi quickly posted bail and told the court that he needed time to find an attorney before he could commit to a trial date.
But Mr. Ohashi didn’t show up a month later for his arraignment and Judge Henry Nelson issued a bench warrant for his arrest.
The next thing Mendocino County authorities knew, they had received an email from the Kings County jail in Seattle saying that Mr. Ohashi had been arrested again in Seattle for cheating at an Indian casino in Washington State.
At first, Mendo prosecutors were not inclined to extradite Ohashi since he faced charges in Seattle anyway and they’d have to pay a fee to have Ohashi shipped back to Mendocino County. But on further reflection, they realized that if they didn’t extradite him, Mr. Ohashi might have to have his charges dismissed for not getting a speedy trial, which would mean that he could simply show up in Mendocino County after finishing his time in Seattle and pick up the ill-gotten $15,463 as his own.
Because the $15,463 was in cash, it was not clear whose money it was. Technically, it was Ohashi’s unless and until the casinos could show that it was theirs.
Sho-Ka-Wah general manager Charles Skula said at the time that the casino’s attorney would look into making a claim for any amount their records and surveillance video could show was theirs.
There was some indication that Mr. Ohashi had been previously arrested for cheating in June of 2003. The felony stolen car charge remained open. There were other apparent gambling or car crimes in Mr. Ohashi’s past but the records were not definitive, some being on federal/Indian land.
Mendo prosecutors hoped to be able to charge Mr. Ohashi with enough crimes to get him to plead to something which would involve fines of at least $15,000 and at least keep him from profiting from his Mendo casino cheating tour.
Meanwhile, Indian casinos were keeping a close eye on their card tables.
This was the official first case of cheating at cards that Mendo authorities could recall.
“Money is our product,” said Skula. “Cheating and stealing is something that everybody here is on the lookout for.”
Skula said that Sho-Ka-Wah had had incidents of employee and patron thefts in the past, but didn’t remember any cheating arrests in his three-year tenure. “Our security provisions are comparable to the Nevada casinos,” Skula insisted. “We take it very seriously. If you have a weakness in your security system people might be tempted and you might have more of a problem. But the surveillance here is top-notch and that deters people from trying to cheat.”
Skula added that there’s a sign on the casino’s front door notifying people that they are subject to surveillance. “They know the cameras are there,” said Skula.
It’s interesting that Mr. Ohashi was able to disguise his card crimping but not his suspicious betting — at least not from the sharp-eyed surveillance operator at Sho-Ka-Wah casino. While Mr. Ohashi was caught at Sho-Ka-Wah, there’s no telling how many casinos Mr. Ohashi or other paper players may have cheated at. Indian Casinos, which tend to hire friends and family members as card dealers and casino staffers, may be seen by professional card cheats as easier targets than Nevada’s corporate casinos. Local casinos were advised to give their card dealers some additional training in how to spot paper players and how to reduce the value of such cheating.
As of September 2024, we couldn’t find any further mention of Mr. Ohashi on line. As far as we can tell casinos are using fewer physical card games in their array of gambling options; many casino poker games are now machine-based. In addition, poker dealers have become more skilled in limiting the value of marked card cheating by such techniques as strategically “burning” the top card in a deck before dealing so that possible cheaters can’t easily see marked cards.
ED NOTES
WHEN I FLED north for Mendocino County in 1970, an unwitting back-to-the-lander, San Francisco, for all its long-distance beauty had, close up, become a place to get away from. What we have now in the city is a kind of schizophrenia, with many people doing very well served by people not doing well, excluding, of course, the thousands of unhoused walking wounded wandering around streets, most of whom should be in lock-up medical rehab facilities but won't be because the well off don't feel much civic obligation these days and the career officeholders are afraid to tax them. And the streets are dirty, the Muni continues as it has for 50 years as a morass of missed schedules, bunched busses, too many crazy drivers, while street crooks operate in plain view in too many public places, and a small army of people, self-medicating or just plain nuts, live on the sidewalks
EVERY MORNING a fleet of buses from Marin Country drives across the bridge to pick up the sons and daughters of the well-to-do for a day of economically segregated classes in the proliferating private schools of Marin, while City parents who can afford it have also abandoned San Francisco's chaotic, failed schools for San Francisco's private academies.
THE CITY'S school board has been a collection of babbling fools for years. I occasionally monitored their meetings for as long as I could stand listening to them, but an hour of it and your cognitive capacity is half what it was before you tuned in, and what's left is ricocheting between despair and fury. What is it about school boards that turns otherwise intelligent people into muddleheads?
JUST THIS WEEK, SF Mayor London Breed had formed a crack finance team of city specialists to “address the crisis” at SF Unified in a desperate attempt to avoid state takeover of SF Unified.
THE FOLLOWING EPISODE remains with me as a handy explanation of why San Francisco's schools are a mess. That night, listening to their fumbling deliberations, I darn near fell out of my chair when the city school board voted to reimburse an un-re-elected colleague for the 15 years of travel he claimed to have amassed while toting Frisco's edu-bale as a trustee. His former colleagues promptly made a gift of public funds to him in the amount of $13,747.60 which, by the way, included his junket to Beijing a few years earlier. I suppose he went there because San Francisco has a large Chinese population which, in this city, might also be a pretext for tax-paid trips to Russia, Samoa, Vietnam, Cambodia, all of Spanish-speaking America, India, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates. The sole no-reimbursement vote was cast by a trustee who said she thought the grifter should only be reimbursed for three years travel! The chiseler himself, a yobbo called Dan Kelly, casually pimping his own kids, told the Chronicle, “I always knew I was going to ask for the reimbursements eventually, so I kept the receipts. It was really a personal choice and a personal discussion between me and my family.” Who presumably shouted in unison at their patriarch, “If they're dumb enough to give it to you, grab it, daddy, grab it!” This is how the city schools manage money at the top, so is it a surprise that the racially isolated schools of Hunter's Point don't have basic school supplies?
GAVIN NEWSOM was mayor at the time. As he ascends inevitably to the White House, Newsom gets over for the same reason that lots of elected hollow men and women get over — millions of people can't tell glib from reality. Anybody who can get a coherent sentence past his or her big white photo-op teeth while wrapping it in chuckles and implied huggsies is on his way to the top. Or, at a minimum, the San Francisco School Board. Then, again, maybe we can tell glib from reality but settle for glib because the reality is, well, ominous.
A FRIEND leaving work downtown one night called me on his cell phone to ask me why he was stuck in traffic on the Embarcadero. And I'm like all, How would I know? But I said I thought it was probably because the Queen Mary Two was about to go back out through the Golden Gate and lots of people were downtown to gaze at the big boat before it chugged off for Hawaii. “Well,” my friend said, “Every idiot in the City is out here today for sure. I haven't moved for an hour.” I said I was one of the thousands of idiots who'd gone out to the bridge to watch the sea-going behemoth squeeze under the middle span, and if there was a certain amount of absurdity in the spectacle, well, what can you expect with a ship larger than Alcatraz in the Age of Wretched Excess?” (I believe the final statistic was that the QM II made it under the bridge with 13 feet to spare.) A fellow gawker said to me excitedly, “And there's one on the drawing boards that's even bigger!”
THE MYTH THAT WON'T DIE
Re: Lembcke, Spit, Veterans, & The Women
Dear Bruce Anderson:
This is regarding your “How Democrats Captured the Northcoast, Forever” with its reference to spat-on Vietnam veterans, and my book (thank you).
Many AVA readers will have read or at least heard about Kristin Hannah's novel ‘The Women,’ now in its 32nd week and currently #4 on the NY Times bestseller list. Hearing from readers dismayed that Hannah’s lead character, an army nurse home from Vietnam, is spat on multiple times, I shared some of their messages with Marybeth Jarrad, the blog editor at NYU Press. Jarrad replied, “It's stunning that this myth is so firmly entrenched in the collective consciousness! We need to keep doing our part to overwrite it!” With that, I wrote the review linked below.
The reappearance of this myth in best-selling fiction marketed to women — and destined for Hollywood, says one of my readers — is a reminder that the importance of debunking the betrayal narrative for the loss of the war in Vietnam has not only not diminished but expanded into new cultural terrain.
Please let me know of your interest in reposting the review. The link: https://nyupress.org/blog/2024/08/20/veterans-and-victims-in-kristin-hannahs-the-women-by-jerry-lembcke
Jerry Lembcke, Associate Professor Emeritus
Department of Sociology/Anthropology
Holy Cross College
Worcester, MA 01610
508-793-2288
PS. I would love to hear from AVA readers with thoughts about ‘The Women’ and my review. For that, feel free to share my email address: jlembcke@holycross.edu
CATCH OF THE DAY, Monday, September 23, 2024
MARTIN BUCIO-BUCIO, 43, Yorkville. Domestic abuse, domestic violence court order violation.
NOE COLEAZA-BENITZ, 24, Ukiah. DUI, no license.
RUTH DAVIS, 40, Ukiah. Domestic battery.
BRIAN HURTADO, 34, Willits. Transient registration, parole violation.
TROY JACK, 57, Ukiah. County parole violation.
COREY LEWIS, 52, Blue Lake/Laytonville. DUI.
MARIA LITZIN, 44, Covelo. Concealed dirk-dagger, failure to appear.
ADRIAN LOPEZ-FELIX, 37, Covelo. DUI, Domestic battery, vandalism.
NICHOL OBRION, 24, Lakeport/Ukiah. Paraphernalia, probation revocation.
NIA RICH, 21, Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, cruelty to child-infliction of injury, criminal threats.
PEDRO SALDANA-SALDANA, 30, Ukiah. False ID, county parole violation.
ARTURO SANCHEZ-LOPEZ, 30, Ukiah. DUI.
DAVID WILLIAMS, 43, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, illegal camping.
ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
Bum camp, Garberville: I walked into the one across the street from the Redwood Playhouse… what a sight that was. Fentanyl addicts passed out, tweaker dude talking to himself swinging a machete, a really nice 4wheeler(stolen I’m guessing), mountains and mountains of garbage, buckets of shit. Ive seen a lot of things, but it was quite shocking to see the squalid conditions people are living in just barley out of sight on the edges of our town. Like a third world slum. Where’s CDFW and the water board on that?
DEB SILVA:
Ford is trying to patent some scary stuff.
I have Malwarebytes as my security and malware software. They send out newsletters which I occasionally read.
This week's newsletter caught my attention because I drive a newer Ford. Here's the article on what Ford is trying to patent. Yikes!
https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2024/09/ford-seeks-patent-for-conversation-based-advertising
IT’S CLEAR WHAT THEY’RE DOING
Editor,
What the Trump-Vance campaign is doing with its focus on Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, is exactly what the George H.W. Bush campaign did in 1988 with its relentless ads in the media about Willie Horton, a Black man furloughed from prison during Michael Dukakis’s time as governor of Massachusetts. Mr. Horton committed violent crimes when released, the blame for which could not fairly be placed at Mr. Dukakis’s doorstep.
For those voters too young to remember that race-driven tactic, or for those whose memories don’t go that far back, it’s worth looking up. Unfortunately, it was a winning strategy.
John Loughery
Berlin, Conn.
DESPERATE CALIFORNIA WINE GROWERS ARE SLASHING PRICES ON GRAPES. NO ONE IS BUYING
by Jess Lander
For the first time in three decades, Lisa Graul hasn’t been able to sell her coveted Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, which she farms with her husband at their home in Calistoga. Her existing contracts with wineries expired this year and weren’t renewed, so she has slashed her pricing in a desperate attempt to lure in some buyers before harvest’s end — from her typical $9,500 per ton to $2,500.
“Even that is negotiable,” she said. “We just want to make our expenses back at this point.”
Graul isn’t alone. Grape growers across California who can’t find wineries to buy their fruit are offering unprecedented discounts, as they’re running out of time to make a profit on this year’s crop, or at the very least, cover their farming costs.
The issue isn’t the quality of the grapes. The 2024 growing season was steady and mostly void of problematic weather-related events like frost or smoke. Even with record-breaking heat across the state, it’s shaping up to be a good vintage. Rather, other problems are at play: Wineries have too much inventory, there’s an oversupply of grapes and consumer demand for wine is in decline.
The California grape market is experiencing its worst down cycle since the Great Recession, said Jeff Bitter, president of Allied Grape Growers, a cooperative that represents around 400 growers in California. This cycle is “about as bad as it gets,” Bitter said, more severe than the tough times in and around 2008. While grape sales were looking slow to pick up earlier this year, farmers hoped that buying activity would increase as harvest neared.
“Some of our worst fears have come true this year. What we thought could happen in spring or summer is in many ways coming to fruition,” said Bitter. “Some buyers will tell you, ‘I’m not buying at any price.’ It’s pretty ugly.”
All regions and grape varieties are struggling. In Monterey County, for example, Bitter said Chardonnay grapes that typically go for $1,200-$1,600 a ton have sold for as low as $400 — which would typically translate to a $4 bottle of wine. “You’re barely above the cost of picking and hauling the grapes,” he said.
While Allied works only with California growers, Bitter has received calls from growers in Oregon and Washington this year, asking for his help selling their grapes. Chad Clark, Allied’s director of North Coast operations, said wineries that have historically bought fruit through him are now calling and asking him to find buyers for their own vineyards’ grapes. “It’s a scary scenario,” said Clark. “I never thought Cabernet Sauvignon would be a difficult sell in Napa Valley.”
The desperation among growers is palpable in the classified listings on WineBusiness’ online grape market. (In June, the number of listings advertising available grapes was up 113% year-to-date.) The posts tout high scores from critics and impressive rosters of former buyers. “An insane market is playing out this year,” one seller wrote, offering Cabernet from Calistoga for $2,999 a ton. “If you have the capacity, extraordinary Napa fruit is going to be had for Central Valley prices.”
“Call for price negotiation,” wrote another grower with 30 tons of “95 Score” Cabernet priced at $4,500 a ton. “If you don’t like it, don’t take it. No risk, just your chance to make exquisite wine.”
Dylan Sheldon, who manages a 6.5-acre Calistoga vineyard, said he believes he was the first this year to post a listing on WineBusiness for Napa Valley Cabernet under $4,000 a ton — and he got only one response, which didn’t pan out. He started at $8,000, lowered his price to $3,000 and anticipates that he’ll have to go even lower. “I have to go back to 2003 when you could buy Napa Cabernet for under $3,000 a ton. That’s nuts,” he said. “We’re seeing a savage course correction right now.”
These prices are unsustainable. Sheldon estimates that if he sells his grapes for $2,000 a ton, the vineyard’s owners will face a potential net loss on farming costs of $70,000 for the year. If growers can’t sell their fruit, their grapes will likely be left to rot on the vine or the ground; in the past, they could crush leftover grapes and sell the wine on the bulk market, but there’s a major oversupply there, too. “There have been whispers of people having to sell their properties if they’re not able to sell their grapes,” said Clark.
Natalie Collins, president of the California Association of Winegrape Growers, said she has seen a major increase in vineyards listed for sale, including those owned for decades by multi-generational families.
Even growers that have contracts in place aren’t necessarily safe. When one of California’s biggest wine conglomerates, Vintage Wine Estates, filed for bankruptcy in July, it canceled many of its grape agreements, Bitter said. (Bankruptcy courts allow debtors to cancel any executory contracts, which are contracts where not all obligations have been fulfilled.) When Vintage Wine Estates sent cancellation letters to Bitter’s growers, he said, “we lost about half a million in business with them alone, and we’re only a small piece of the pie. They had dozens and dozens of contracts.”
Wineries are also “being very creative” and “finding loopholes to get out of contracts,” said Collins. Wineries can reject grapes if they fail to reach the agreed-upon standards — like ripeness and sugar levels — laid out in their contract. This was a common occurrence in 2020, when many grapes were rejected due to the impact of wildfire smoke. But this year, Collins said wineries are finding less common reasons for rejection, and crop insurance won’t cover the losses.
“We’re hearing situations where a grower is getting that rejection notice 20 hours after they’ve picked (the grapes), and at that point, there’s just no viable use for those grapes,” she said. “The power dynamics are so lopsided. It’s really leaving the grower holding the bag.”
Sheldon said he has heard of wineries simply walking away from contracts this year, and growers can’t afford the legal expense to “force fruit” on them.
The problem could escalate next year. Grape pricing is usually based on the previous year’s average, reported in an annual Grape Crush Report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This vintage’s prices could bring that average down, putting growers at a lower starting point in 2025. “If the market remains weak,” said Bitter, “people will try to negotiate down from there.” What’s more, each year more multi-year contracts will expire, leaving more grapes without a home.
“We need to see wine sales stabilize and begin to bounce back,” said Glenn Proctor, a partner in the wine and grape brokerage firm Ciatti. “There is a high level of cautiousness from all buyers. If we see demand in this area, then buyers can start to have more confidence in their future needs, and we think we will see more market activity.”
But Bitter worries that demand is a long-term issue and believes the best short-term solution to the crisis is to rip out grape vines to correct the oversupply, especially those that are older, underperforming or have less desirable grape varieties, like Zinfandel. Bitter has been outspoken about this, urging the California wine industry to remove 50,000 acres of grapevines statewide this year. Thus far, he estimates about 30,000-40,000 acres have been removed, but given the worsening market conditions, he said he’ll likely increase his recommendation. “Acreage is the one thing we have control over,” he said.
Yet, with only weeks left in the 2024 harvest, many growers must first face a different, seemingly impossible decision. Sell, no matter the price — or walk away and take the loss in the hope it will help preserve the price per ton average for next year.
Graul prefers to sell, maybe to an untraditional buyer, like a hobbyist home winemaker who can “purchase small lots of premium Napa Valley Cabernet at very affordable prices that are not likely to repeat themselves in the future,” she said.
But it’s a lose-lose scenario, Clark suggested. “Do you not put food on your table to save a market? Or do you take what you can get to have Top Ramen for the next year?”
(SF Chronicle)
SLIM PICKENS explains how he got into the rodeo business: “Well, there was this big, lanky, 15-year-old California ranch kid, and he went into the rodeo manager’s office and said, ‘Mister, I want to sign up for the calf-roping but my paw says I ain’t allowed to. So I can’t use my right name.’ And the manager said, ‘Son, no matter what name you use, it’ll be slim pickin's out there today.’ So the boy said, ‘That's as good a name as any, I reckon; put me down as Slim Pickin's.’ The manager spelled it ‘Pickens’ and the boy won $400 that afternoon.”
AFTER 49ERS GET TRIPPED UP BY THE RAMS, HOW DEEP DO NINERS’ TROUBLES RUN?
For most of Sunday’s game against the Rams, it looked like the 49ers would finish Week 3 of the season 2-1 despite playing without Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel and George Kittle. Then L.A. rallied to win in the final seconds. We asked some Chronicle sports staffers for their thoughts:
‘What’s the one thing that troubles you most about the 49ers' loss to the Rams?’
Scott Ostler, columnist: “Nothing! Brock Purdy passed yet another ‘test’ with flying colors. He is elite, so shut up. Ronnie Bell will never again drop two passes. The Rams showed the 49ers just where their defensive weaknesses are, so they can be addressed. Juaun Jennings emerged. If I had to pick an NFL team to follow right now, it would be the 49ers.”
Eric Branch, 49ers beat writer: “The 49ers should be worried about their long-vaunted defensive line, which was at full strength against a makeshift offensive front and rarely disturbed Matthew Stafford. The Rams’ starting center was a rookie sixth-round pick. Their starting left guard had never played a regular-season snap before 1:25 p.m. Sunday.”
Ann Killion, columnist: “I can’t pick just one thing. One loss isn’t a disaster but the 49ers’ bad trip to L.A. showcased several issues that could continue to percolate: special teams problems, an ineffective defense at key moments, a shorthanded offense due to injury, weird play-calling by Kyle Shanahan, an inability to finish, a lack of urgency at times. Those are all signs of a Super Bowl hangover.”
ENVIRONMENTAL AND FISH GROUPS DISAPPOINTED WITH APPELLATE COURT RULING ON SITES RESERVOIR
by Dan Bacher
On Friday, Sept. 20, a California appellate court upheld an earlier trial court ruling and found the controversial Sites Reservoir Project environmental impact report (EIR) to be legally adequate.
Judge Ronald B. Robie, Presiding Judge of the Third Appellate District Court in Yolo County, concluded that “the environmental impact report is not invalid because all the alternatives shared diversion criteria.” Judge J. Wiseman, Retired Associate Justice of the Court of Appeal, Fifth Appellate District, concurred with Robie’s decision.
The Sites Reservoir Project, an offstream water storage facility being promoted by the California Department of Water Resources, would be located on the west side of the Sacramento Valley, approximately 10 miles west of Maxwell in Glenn and Colusa counties.
Governor Gavin Newsom, who is pushing the project along with the massive Delta Tunnel, celebrated the decision as a victory. Environmental and fish groups, who are contesting the project for the impacts that it will have on imperiled salmon and other fish species and Delta communities, said they were disappointed with the ruling.
“The Sites Reservoir project just cleared another major hurdle after Governor Gavin Newsom had streamlined the project late last year, ‘defeating a CEQA legal challenge’,” according to the Governor’s Office in a press statement.
“Today’s appellate court ruling builds on a similar victory in the trial court. The Sites Reservoir will store enough water to support 3 million households’ yearly usage.”
Newsom has no time for “frivolous lawsuits’
“We can’t waste anymore time with frivolous lawsuits to hold up major infrastructure projects, especially building more water storage,” said Governor Newsom. “The Sites Reservoir project will capture more rain and snow to supply millions of homes with clean drinking water. This is exactly why we needed this streamlining law.”
Governor Newsom’s infrastructure streamlining law requires that courts must decide CEQA challenges within 270 days to the extent feasible. Friday’s decision by the Third District Court of Appeal occurred within 256 days. It upholds a trial court decision issued on June 4, 2024 — 108 days ago, Newsom noted.
Newsom claims the project will capture water during wet seasons and store it for use during drier seasons — holding up to 1.5 million acre-feet of water, “enough for 3 million households’ yearly usage.”
Attorney Don Mooney: ‘We will continue to fight this ill-conceived project.’
Don Mooney, attorney for the coalition of conservation groups, including Friends of the River (FOR), California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), Center for Biological Diversity, California Water Impact Network, Save California Salmon, and the Sierra Club (plaintiffs), responded to the appellate court decision:
“We are disappointed in the court’s decision and remain concerned that the public still lacks sufficient information from the Sites Authority to fully understand and appreciate the project’s downstream impacts. We also remain concerned that given the inaccurate information regarding environmental baseline, the project impacts will not be fully mitigated.”
We disagree with the court's ruling that the Sites Authority presented a reasonable range of feasible alternatives. If it doesn't leave enough water in the Sacramento River to protect severely depressed salmon populations, Sites Reservoir should not be permitted. We will continue to fight this ill-conceived, environmentally damaging project.”
In addition to not leaving enough water in the river for imperiled salmon and other fish, fish and water advocates also note that SB 149 requires that the Governor certify a water-related project only if “greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the project will be mitigated to the extent feasible.” (See PRC § 21189.82(4)(C)).
Instead, they said the Sites Project will “move the state backwards on its own ambitious climate goals.” Recent research by Tell the Dam Truth, supported by Friends of the River and Patagonia, reveals that Sites will emit 362,000 metric tons of CO2e annually, mostly in the form of methane, a significantly more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. This is the equivalent to the annual emissions from over 80,000 gas-powered cars.
California salmon and other fish populations are in worst-ever crisis
Friday’s court ruling was issued at a time when California salmon, steelhead and other fish populations and the San Francisco Bay-Delta ecosystem are in their worst crisis ever, according to fish advocates.
All recreational and commercial salmon fishing on California’s ocean waters and all recreational salmon fishing on the state’s rivers was closed this year and last year, due to the low returns of Sacramento River and Klamath/Trinity River fall-run Chinook salmon. Only a small allocation of salmon was allowed for the Yurok Tribe on the Klamath River and the Hoopa Valley Tribe on the Trinity River this fall.
Sacramento River winter-run and spring-run Chinook salmon populations continue to move closer and closer to extinction while the Delta smelt, once the most abundant fish in the Delta that numbered in the millions, has become virtually extinct in the wild.
For the sixth year in a row, ZERO Delta Smelt were collected in the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Fall Midwater Trawl (FMWT) Survey in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta from September through December 2023.
Once the most abundant species in thae entire estuary, the Delta Smelt has declined to the point that it has become functionally extinct in the wild. The 2 to 3 inch fish, found only in the Delta, is an “indicator species” that shows the relative health of the San Francisco Bay/Delta ecosystem.
Meanwhile, the other pelagic species collected in the survey — striped bass, Longfin Smelt, Sacramento Splittail and threadfin shad — continued their dramatic decline since 1967 when the State Water Project went into effect. Only the American shad shows a less precipitous decline.
Between 1967 and 2020, the state’s Fall Midwater Trawl abundance indices for striped bass, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, American shad, splittail and threadfin shad have declined by 99.7, 100, 99.96, 67.9, 100, and 95%, respectively, according to the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.
Between 1967 and 2020, the state’s Fall Midwater Trawl abundance indices for striped bass, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, American shad, splittail and threadfin shad have declined by 99.7, 100, 99.96, 67.9, 100, and 95%, respectively, according to the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.
Taken as five-year averages (1967-71 vs. 2016-20), the declines for striped bass, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, American shad, splittail and threadfin shad are 98.1, 99.8, 99.8, 26.2, 99.3 and 94.3 percent, respectively.
The decline of all of these fish species has been driven by massive water exports by the state and federal water projects to corporate agribusiness interests in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California water agencies, combined with the proliferation of toxics, water pollution and invasive species in the estuary and Central Valley rivers, according to scientists and fish advocates.
Besides opposing the construction of Sites Reservoir, a broad coalition of Tribes, fishing groups and conservation groups opposes the Delta Tunnel and the Governor’s “voluntary agreements,” water diversion schemes that would make the current ecological crash even worse by taking even more water out of the embattled ecosystem.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Sites Project Authority finalized the Environmental Impact Review (EIR) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Sites Reservoir Project in November 2023.
THE DAY OF FRIDA KHALO'S MARRIAGE (August 21, 1929)
She was petite, barely 22 years old when she joined her life with him, a huge, fat man of 43, divorced, and an avowed communist. The party took place in a house in Coyoacán owned by a great friend of the couple: Tina Modotti. To everyone's surprise, the main dish of the banquet: black mole from Oaxaca was prepared by Lupe Marín who was Diego's ex-wife, the same one who had starred in several scandals due to her jealousy. In addition to the black mole, there were a series of Mexican dishes to delight the guests' palates: stuffed chiles, pozole, rice, capirotada and wedding cake, to drink: pulque and tequila, or failing that, fruit water. The bride's mother was heartbroken, she had done everything possible to avoid that wedding, she who had put so much effort into her daughter's education, she who was so Catholic and the groom who was so atheist and so communist. Dear God! The demon had entered his house! The bride's father consoled his wife by making her see that it was not so bad. Together they left the party early. Late at night, Lupe Marín approached the bride, lifted her skirt and pointed to her legs while shouting, calling the guests' attention: Look! See these sticks? This is what Diego has now instead of my legs! The poor bride freed herself as best she could and ran to hide from the mocking giggles and uncomfortable exclamations of the guests who had seen her right leg thinned by polio. This was the marriage celebration of Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón and Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera and Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, 94 years ago.
TUESDAY'S LEAD STORIES, NYT
In Lebanon’s Capital, Israel’s Strikes Stoke Fears of a Full-On War
U.N. Meets Amid a Backdrop of Growing Chaos and Violence
U.S. to Seek Attempted Assassination Charge for Trump Golf Course Suspect
Murder in U.S. Continues Steep Decline, F.B.I. Reports
The U.S. News College Rankings Are Out. Cue the Rage and Obsession
ARMAGEDDON UPDATE
THE U.S. is sending troops to the Middle East in response to the surge in violence between Israel and Hezbollahas the region teeters on the edge of an all-out war.
The Pentagon announced on Monday that 'additional' service members would be deployed to join the 40,000 already stationed in the region along with a dozen warships and fighter jet squadrons.
Israeli forces have ramped up their airstrikes deep inside Lebanon and the State Department has warned all Americans to leave as the risk of conflict spirals to levels not seen in years.
ARMAGEDDON, THE LATEST
Raising the Stakes, Israel Gambles That Hezbollah Will Back Down
Israel’s intensifying strikes show how determined it is to stop Hezbollah’s cross-border attacks — and how far it is from achieving that goal.
by Patrick Kingsley
Israel’s deadly strikes and evacuation warnings in Lebanon on Monday showed its determination to break the resolve of Hezbollah and force the militia, which controls scores of villages across southern Lebanon, to stop its cross-border attacks on Israel.
The moves also reflected how far Israel is from achieving that goal — and how close both sides are to an all-out war.
Israeli officials had hoped that by scaling up their attacks over the past week — striking Hezbollah’s communications tools, and killing several key commanders as well as Lebanese civilians — they would unnerve the group and persuade it to withdraw from the Israel-Lebanon border. The officials believed that if they increased the cost of Hezbollah’s campaign, it would be easier for foreign diplomats, like Amos Hochstein, a senior United States envoy, to get the group to stand down.
For now, the opposite has happened. Despite days of escalatory attacks from Israel, Hezbollah has pledged not to buckle under the pressure.
The group’s leaders have said they will continue their attacks until a Gaza cease-fire is agreed to by Israel and Hamas, the militia’s ally. And on Sunday morning, Hezbollah fired dozens of missiles at targets roughly 30 miles inside Israel, its deepest strikes since the start of the war in October — which one of its top officials warned was “just the beginning.”
Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, has even dared Israel to invade southern Lebanon, a move that could just as plausibly lead to a protracted stalemate as an Israeli victory.
An invasion did not appear to be imminent on Monday, even as Israel intensified its strikes and warned civilians to evacuate villages where it said Hezbollah was storing weapons. Israel’s chief military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the current focus was on an aerial campaign, not a ground operation.
But if Israel runs short of other forms of military pressure, an invasion would be one of the few military options left to the country’s leadership.
The Israeli Army, though, is already stretched thin — still fighting in Gaza while also stepping up operations in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where it mounts regular raids on Palestinian cities.
Military analysts have debated the feasibility of Israel’s attempting to fight three land conflicts at once, especially given the challenges posed by an invasion of Lebanon.
After 11 months of fighting, Israel’s military still has not fully defeated Hamas in Gaza. And Hezbollah controls a larger and more mountainous area than Hamas does in Gaza. The Lebanese militia also is generally considered to have a better trained army than Hamas has, in addition to more sophisticated fortifications.
To invade Lebanon, the Israeli military would most likely need to call up thousands of reservists — many of whom are already fatigued from serving in Gaza during the past year.
EXPANDING WAR IN LEBANON
Israel’s military said early Tuesday that its air force was continuing to strike Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, after hundreds of people were killed the previous day in the deadliest barrage of Israeli attacks there in nearly two decades.
The strikes have unnerved the Middle East, sparking fears of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah as the fighting in Gaza continues with no clear prospect of a truce. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israelis that they were headed into “complicated days.”
(NY Times)
WHEEZING PAST THE GRAVEYARD
by James Kunstler
What could go wrong? Probably more than you might imagine. We have just turned the corner into autumn. Now, things get serious, even gravely dark. America has never been so into dancing skeletons and morbidity. The small-town yards are filling up with inflatable signifiers of hell and death. Don’t you wonder what all this signifies besides good old family fun? The zeitgeist maybe having a little sport with us, you think?
We are chiefly preoccupied with our badly dysfunctional self-governance, of course, and the method for periodically revising it, which we call an election. Nobody has confidence in the process, which has acquired so many layers of absurd, needless complexity for the sole purpose of perverting the outcome that every lawyer in the land will have a hefty guaranteed annual income in the probably futile effort to sort it out come November 6. There is your hell-scape, with overtones of death on a pale horse… and all. Chaos… riots… anarchy… civil war.
The threat of World War Three may have abated for the moment, but in a peculiar and disconcerting way, viz. a coup in the executive branch. The gadfly Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, long ago chief-of-staff to Sec’y of State Colin Powell, reports that the Pentagon has cancelled “Joe Biden,” that is, taken him out of the decision-loop for anything. Well, you ask yourself, how is it possible he had even remained remotely close to any decision-loop this long, in any case, given the problem of his obviously broken brain? But now, it is unofficially official: just eat your mint-chocolate ice-cream and shut up, and let Dr. Jill run those “cabinet meeting” photo ops.
According to Col. Wilkerson, Sec’y of Defense Lloyd Austin told the “president” to his face that there will be no flinging of US-supplied long-range missiles from Ukraine “deep into Russia,” as the neocon-infested White House been chattering about endlessly. Wiser heads deep in the DOD HQ have decided the matter. Lump it, if you must, Tony Blinken and Jake Sullivan. The Russian’s “red-line” on such a caper is so wide you can see it from the International Space Station — that is, if you’re an astronaut marooned up there due to combined NASA/Boeing incompetence… but that’s another story.
Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer was all revved up for the missile operation and flew to Washington for a one-to-one meet-up with “JB” to get the go-ahead. The Brits are avid for another World War. The last two went so well for them that they kissed their vast empire goodbye. Now they want to kiss goodbye their sceptered isle itself, which has almost no economy left and is overrun by cultural hostiles who are not into Shakespeare. The Brits’ floundering government is a posse of monomaniacs fixated on defeating Russia which, at the point in history, is like a dormouse (Glis glis) facing down a brown bear (Ursus arctos).
“Joe Biden,” reportedly “furious” at losing his executive power, was constrained to tell Mr. Starmer that the missile strike op was off, which left the UK PM miffed that he had crossed the ocean for no reason. Who knows, the Brits are so nuts these days that perhaps they’ll try to pull it off on their own. Mr. Zelensky, the no-longer-elected leader of Ukraine was begging them to try it because Ukraine has nothing left. NATO as a whole really has nothing left, either. Not much of a combined military, scant munitions left in the cupboard, and no will to wage war among the depressed citizens of its member nations.
There is nothing left except to come to terms on a settlement that will leave Ukraine not a member of NATO. The entire affair has been a humiliation for NATO and America, especially for the “Joe Biden” management team (whatever it actually consists of these days). The longer they refuse to engage in talks, the less of Ukraine will be left as a sovereign entity — having proven to the world that its sovereignty rests solely on its capacity to be used as a catspaw by the American neocon / intel blob. You’re reminded that for seventy years prior to 2014, Ukraine was not a problem for anyone until we made it a problem on-purpose — our purpose being idiotic and malicious — and Ukraine could, in theory, revert to not being a problem for anyone again. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
The neocon/intel blob’s other catspaw (domestic version), candidate Kamala Harris, is promising all kinds of good things “when [she] is in-office.” For some reason, nobody on The New York Times’s enormous staff of Ivy League germinated journalist-geniuses has informed Ms. Harris that she is actually in-office now, and has been since 1/20/2021. Why no good things for us plebes all these many months? No rainbows, unicorns, tax cuts, or ten-pound blocks of government cheese? Nothing but a disintegrating dollar, floods of savage mutts crossing the border and landing everywhere from Springfield, Ohio, to Nantucket, and endless raging bullshit about fighting “misinformation” — i.e., any idea that contradicts the Democratic Party’s agenda for assisted national suicide.
Ms. Harris’s gaslight-powered campaign has lost its loft in recent days, its most newsworthy event being last week’s cuddle hour with America’s official Care-Bear, Oprah… because, you see, there is nothing left except to pander to the emotional void induced by Woke-ism in the desperately needy minds of X-million voters of the birthing-person persuasion — especially among those unhappy souls who never got around to the birthing. Ms. Harris’s loathsome accessory, Tim Walz, has performed so discordantly that the campaign had to hang him in a closet somewhere, along with all his assorted skeletons, and lock the door. As ever, October surprises await: monsters, demons, ghouls, shrieking ghosts, the walking dead, and all the paid-up minions of the teachers’ union. It’s that time of year!
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY is now the party of labor and of capital; the party of debtors and of bankers; the party that mocks the Ivy League but is largely run by Ivy Leaguers; the party of anti-monopolists and of Silicon Valley; the party for immigrants and for border security; the party of insiders and of the marginalized; the party of the football team and of the sorority; the party of family and of freedom; the party of ceasefires and of the war machine; the party that opposes fascism but abets a genocide. At the convention in Chicago, we were constantly reminded that it was the party of joy, whatever that means. …
Bernie Sanders asserted that “billionaires in both parties should not be able to buy elections, including primary elections.” It was a reference to his thwarted 2016 challenge to Hillary Clinton, but also to the recent defeat of two left-leaning congressional incumbents, Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush, who had spoken out against Israel’s war in Gaza, to candidates funded by AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee). Sanders was followed by billionaire J.B. Pritzker, governor of Illinois and son of the president of Hyatt Hotels. “Donald Trump thinks that we should trust him on the economy,” Pritzker said, “because he claims to be very rich. But take it from an actual billionaire, Trump is rich in only one thing: stupidity!” The applause from the hometown audience was overwhelming – it wasn’t a tough crowd – and the woman to my right, who had spent Sanders’s speech discussing Taylor Swift with the woman on her other side, gushed: “He’s such a badass!” The juxtaposition showed that the Democratic tent is big enough for firebrands who denounce billionaires as well as the right sort of billionaire. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders delivered two of the strongest calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, with Sanders describing the war as “horrific.” He repeated his call for the US to “guarantee healthcare to all people as a human right, not a privilege,” a stance Harris held while campaigning for the presidential nomination in 2019, but which is no longer part of her program.
As for Gaza, Joe Biden said:
“We’re working around the clock … to prevent a wider war and reunite hostages with their families and surge humanitarian health and food assistance into Gaza now to prevent the civilian suffering of the Palestinian people and finally, finally, finally deliver a ceasefire and end this war. Those protesters out in the street, they have a point. A lot of innocent people are being killed on both sides.”
The protesters were also in the building. Outside my sightline and probably outside his, a group of delegates unfurled a banner reading “STOP ARMING ISRAEL” in red, green and black. They were quickly blocked by fellow delegates holding “WE [heart] JOE” signs. On the way out of the United Center I heard a pair of Democrats lamenting that this had happened. “Well, at least they stopped it quickly,” one said. “Doesn’t matter,” the other said. “It’s the pictures that matter.”
— Christian Lorentzen (London Review of Books)
THE MAN FROM THE PAST
Ötzi is the name given to one of Europe's most well-preserved mummified bodies.
The body was found in the Ötzal Alps in 1991, and examinations tells us that he lived over 5000 years ago (Ca.3400-3100BCE). After his death the body dehydrated and his remains were mummified naturally in the glacier ice.
When the operation to take care of his body started, numerous leather fragments, string, pieces of hide and clumps of hay came to light.
This were pieces of Ötzi’s clothing, made from hide, leather and braided grass.
A coat, a belt, a pair of leggings, a loincloth, shoes and a bearskin cap were found.
Other items spread around him were a copper axe, flint dagger, a long stick (later identified as a bow) and a quiver containing 2 finished arrows and 12 arrow shafts.
Also the remains of some kind of backpack and two birch-bark containers, one of them containing traces of maple leaves and charcoal fragments.
Further examinations showed that his stomach contained traces of various types of grains, plants, fruits and meat.
61 tattoos in the form of lines and crosses were found on his body. These tattoos were not made by a needle like modern tattoos, instead they were made by a fine incisions into which pulverised charcoal was rubbed.
Later examinations along with x-ray revealed a flint arrowhead in his left shoulder.
The entry wound was discovered in his back.
The arrow shattered the scapula and damaged nerves and blood vessels indicating that Ötzi might have bled to death. His head also suffered a serious injury, this could have been caused by a fall when the arrow hit him or a blow to the head.
He must have been involved in some kind of fight a few days before his death since his right hand shows a deep cut.
Ötzi was about 45 years old when he died, 160cm (5ft. 3in) tall and weighed around 50kg (110 lbs).
His body and belongings are displayed in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, South Tyrol, Italy.
I guess I didn’t know that I’m the type of guy who slows down and looks at a traffic accident, because I’m really missing the mugshots!
I miss them as well. I wish every newspaper in the country ran a “Yesterday’s Catch” section. Public embarrassment potentially serves as a significant deterrent and also warns the public about these folks.
Copies of Barrett’s book, “The Ethno-Geography of the Pomo and Neighboring Indians” is still available at Amazon.com: Books.
I found it compelling as well, and have since been informed by a Wappo friend and colleague that his tribe uses it as reference.
Barrett captured information that was fading from memory. He and local horticulturist Carl Purdy collected baskets and created word lists of the various Pomo dialects so they could converse with native elders and basket weavers. Around 1900 there was a fever for finely crafted Pomo baskets. Museums and native curio shops competed for baskets both utilitarian and decorative.
Barrett’s book is a valuable reference book. So much history has been tainted by the opinion of the ill-informed. We cannot judge history by who we are now.
It has not been so much ‘survival of the fittest’, but survival of the meanest and toughest. Those that know the history of early Mendocino know that the white settlers were treated unfairly also. “Cattle King White” of Covelo and Northern Mendocino often made local settlers offers that they couldn’t refuse.
“Uncle Jack” Farley of Laytonville led the raid on the Indians that stole and killed his prized horses in the Battle of Bloody Run Creek. He often said that if an Indian killed a white man he would retaliate by killing tenfold Indians. Yet, the Indian people highly respected him as a ‘great warrior’. Farley lived to be over one hundred years old. When asked why he lived so long he replied that the Indian people and their medicine took care of him. Real history.
Doing research on the McNab ranch about 20 years ago, I came across a letter from Ella Butler (of the famed Butler cherry ranch), talking about how the McNabs would surround a homesteaders claim and deny him access to his claim, then when the homesteader took refuge at a nearby ranch their barn mysteriously burned down. The McNabs eventually consolidated over 10,000 acres. Gavin and John McNab became prominent attorneys in San Francisco, and were major players in the Republican Party, Herbert Hoover was a guest at the ranch between Ukiah and Hopland.
Strange that you would mention McNab. Most all of the local cattle ranchers have McNab Ranch dogs, or some cross thereof. I’ve had two McNab dogs, and I would have no other dog. Just last weekend we got a new McNab puppy. We got him from a breeder that has had his strain of McNabs traced clear back to the Ukiah McNab Ranch. The pup is 8 weeks old and has two speeds. Full speed, and dead stop. His name is TJ. My wife and I decided that we should have named him OMG! They are smart and loyal, will not let you out of their sight. They like to keep the herd together.
Thank you Mike Williams for your research on researchers. I was raised knowing people that knew the original people. Both white and indigene.
I wish that I would have paid more attention.
Yes, Alexander McNab brought a few border collies from Scotland and bred them with similar dogs here, to create the McNab shepherd. I’ll bet a few of them were at the sheep dog trials at the fair last weekend. I’ve heard that they are extremely loyal. I hope yours is the same.
My comment today goes out to all of you who say they can’t vote for Kamala Harris because (fill in the blank) or say there is no difference between democrats and republicans. I give you the words of Angela Davis who spoke recently at La Fete de l’Humanite in France;
“When we engage in electoral politics, it can’t be just because a particular individual is running for office, it is to enlarge the terrain of mass struggle, to guarantee a space for the trade union movement to win victories, for people of color to win victories, for working and poor people to win victories.” She went on to say;
“There’s more to think about: Harris is not a fascist, and the other person running for president is”….. there’s “no question about who progressive people and people who identify with radical change will vote for” in the US election.
here is a link to a longer article about the event
https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/angela-davis-electing-harris-will-open-space-for-more-radical-struggles/
If Harris is good enough for Angela Davis, she’s good enough for me
Communists with second homes in the hills of Anderson Valley take a rosier view of things. Cheney, the Democrats, Angela Davis, and dead Palestinians.
Why would anyone from California give rip who I vote for? California is almost totally Democrat. All this fuss is simply trying to prove that you are more politically astute than I.
P.S. That’s an easy hill to climb.
Quiz: Who posted this fact-free all-caps rant this past weekend?
(Hint: “very stable genius”):
“WOMEN ARE POORER THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, ARE LESS HEALTHY THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, ARE LESS SAFE ON THE STREETS THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, ARE MORE DEPRESSED AND UNHAPPY THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, AND ARE LESS OPTIMISTIC AND CONFIDENT IN THE FUTURE THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO! I WILL FIX ALL OF THAT, AND FAST, AND AT LONG LAST THIS NATIONAL NIGHTMARE WILL BE OVER. WOMEN WILL BE HAPPY, HEALTHY, CONFIDENT AND FREE! YOU WILL NO LONGER BE THINKING ABOUT ABORTION, BECAUSE IT IS NOW WHERE IT ALWAYS HAD TO BE, WITH THE STATES, AND A VOTE OF THE PEOPLE – AND WITH POWERFUL EXCEPTIONS, LIKE THOSE THAT RONALD REAGAN INSISTED ON, FOR RAPE, INCEST, AND THE LIFE OF THE MOTHER – BUT NOT ALLOWING FOR DEMOCRAT DEMANDED LATE TERM ABORTION IN THE 7TH, 8TH, OR 9TH MONTH, OR EVEN EXECUTION OF A BABY AFTER BIRTH. I WILL PROTECT WOMEN AT A LEVEL NEVER SEEN BEFORE. THEY WILL FINALLY BE HEALTHY, HOPEFUL, SAFE, AND SECURE. THEIR LIVES WILL BE HAPPY, BEAUTIFUL, AND GREAT AGAIN!”
Ps: re Haitians eating pets, etc etc etc:
“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
― Lyndon B. Johnson
I just ordered a copy of S.A. Barrett’s book through Copperfield’s website.
DESPERATE CALIFORNIA WINE GROWERS ARE SLASHING PRICES ON GRAPES. NO ONE IS BUYING
So sad. What will fish populations do with improved instream habitat? Gee, maybe they will increase. Take a hike wine farmers!
I recall Herb Caen finally saying that calling San Francisco “Frisco” was okay with him…
ENVIRONMENTAL AND FISH GROUPS DISAPPOINTED WITH APPELLATE COURT RULING ON SITES RESERVOIR
Grow up, people. Offstream storage is as dumb as water diversion. Grow up, monkeys, and get your numbers down to carrying capacity of your habitat.
That California Map
“When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them.”
Confucius
It is sad to see Lembcke using these pages to promote his false narrative that men and women in the armed forces in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s were never mistreated. He has chosen to attack Kristin Hannah, author of “The Women” to continue his unusual obsession with this topic. To be fair, Kristin Hannah talks about writing the book and how she relied on her own memories of how vets were treated, she “researched everything”, and she read many memories written by veterans from that period. https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/kristin-hannah-talks-her-novel-173336631.html
The only thing Lembcke seems to be interested in is debunking a myth that is not a myth at all. His only evidence is anecdotal accounts of how it never happened, while dismissing anecdotal accounts of those who actually experienced those things. One may wonder why. Well, he has a book on specifically on debunking this non-myth, and I am sure he would not mind a few extra copies being sold.
Prove your assertion. Plenty of similar tales have been debunked. Apparently you believe that enough decades have passed so that people are more easily swayed to your tale than they have been in the past. You may be surprised!
Prove I’m wrong.
It is impossible to prove a negative, like men and women in the arm forces in the late sixties were never mistreated. Proving mistreatment happened is easy. All it takes is one incident.
YOU made the assertion. You prove it. I actually agree with George on this one. Your answer also strongly suggests that you cannot prove your assertions and are beginning to waffle.
I agree with George, but I think you have misunderstood his post. He points out that it is impossible to prove a negative, such as your contention that members of the armed forces were never mistreated. So your assertion that mistreatment never happened is invalid. It cannot be proven. With regards to my assertion, I know it happened based on my own experiences and on the many accounts I have heard from creditable veterans. The fact that you don’t know that shows an inability to access and process that information, or simply a lack of effort. Either way, that is your problem, not mine.
Wait, are people here trying to say that members of our armed forces weren’t abused and or treated VERY POORLY while in boot camp or thereafter? Why would anyone even try to assert this narrative? What is in it for you?
David – Some Vietnam era veterans were mistreated by war demonstrators and others, when they returned home. There is a false claim being promoted that those vets were never mistreated, and it is all a myth. As someone with firsthand experience, I am compelled to defend all vets who had those experiences. For full disclosure, I never served in Vietnam. But the offenders simply assumed that anyone in a military uniform, or a recently discharged veteran, had served in Vietnam and that they had participated in some type of war crime. Clearly that was not true, and they did not deserve to be treated that way.
Prove your assertion. Mendo seems to have at least two people with odd memories. You, too, fail to provide specific instances to make your case. Being bullied by drill sergeants or whatever, while in the military, does NOT count. Neither one of you has yet to provide a bit of evidence to make your cases. Where’s a nooze article or report in the paper? Where are the police reports? And so on. Some of us still remember the reality of those times.
Obviously you have no evidence to make your case. At most you might be able to provide hearsay testimony, or wishful thinking so people will feel sorry for you.
Dang, Harvey, time to let this one go…….
No way. They need to show some proof of the tales they are peddling. You’re part of the problem. You apparently intend to stand by and let them smear innocent people in “retribution” for actions that did NOT occur. Not standing up for what is reality is a large part of why this country has sunk so low.