Mendocino County Today: Friday 1/3/2025

Altocumulus | Showers Likely | Baby Duwehni | Handyman Stefan | RCS Numbers | Unity Club | Bumspotting | 2024 Deaths | Knight Stories | Crab Feed | Coast Painting | Martinis & Popcorn | Way Back | Sideways Screening | Delightful Resolution | Mendo Lansings | Yesterday's Catch | 108' Wave | Eschewing Sugar | County Highway | Outing Bragg | Abbie & Amy | Giant Mary | Modic Memories | Militarization | Debunker | Bleeding Heart | Copyright Expirations | Atlantic City | Common Good | Her Fancy | Bottle Episode | Street Musicians | Legalizing Psychedelics | Native Inmate | Foreigners Gross | Lead Stories | Don Meredith | By Heart

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A PERIOD OF HEAVY RAIN sweeps over the area this morning as cold front moves through. This may result in minor street flooding for Del Norte and northern Humboldt counties. Showers and a slight chance of thunderstorms are expected behind the front this afternoon. Periods of light rain are expected over the weekend and Monday mainly in the north, before a longer stretch of drier weather develops next week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A rainy 51F on the coast this first Friday of 2025 with .75" collected overnight. Rain today then a dry period starts tomorrow thru at least next weekend. Cool temps next week is all I see in the forecast.

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MENDO’S FIRST NEWBORN OF 2025

New year, newborn: Welcome the first baby of 2025 in Mendocino County.

Join us in welcoming Baby Duwehni, who made his grand entrance a little after the ball dropped on January 1, at exactly 1:34 am at our Family Birth Center. Coming in at 7 pounds, 8 ounces and 19 inches tall, Baby Duwehni’s proud parents, mom Xelin Fred-Mota and dad Chunn Carrillo are overjoyed to welcome their third bundle of joy during such a special time.

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STEFAN STAFFORD:

Looking for work here in Anderson Valley and surrounding areas. Can install flooring, replace a sink, faucet, toilet, small electrical jobs replacing outlets and light fixtures… I also do tree removal and and property management clearing brush. My rate for most work is $35/hr. (facebook)

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MAZIE MALONE

I went on Propublica to see if they had updated their nonprofit portal that shows you the income/assets/expenses… Thought I would share with you.

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Redwood Community Services Executive Salaries

• Victoria Kelley*, CEO, $150k/yr
• Brittany Lucas, CFO, $113k/yr
• Tawny Bailey, COO, $121k/yr
• Denise Addison, Program Supervisor, $185k/yr
• Heather Eccarius, Mental Health Rehab Specialist, $147k/yr
• Sarah Llvingston, Crisis Program Director, $146k/yr
• Paulita Peredia, Program Supervisor, $121k/yr
• Jolene Treadaway, Clinical Program Director, $120k/yr

*Victoria Kelley is Camille Schraeder’s daughter.

(Salaries do not include benefits.)

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UNITY CLUB NEWS

by Miriam Martinez

Happy New Year to all. Next Thursday, January 9th at 1:30, we will all be together for the first Unity Club meeting of 2025. We will meet as usual, in the Dining Room, Fairgrounds. Our program will be presented by Una Morgan and Moon Honey Tree, featuring "Dreaming a Business". This ought to be fun. Our hostess crew will be Victoria Center, Christine Clark and Eileen Pronsolino.

The lending library will be open Saturday the 4th of January from 12:30 to 2:30 and will continue to be open regularly on Tuesdays from 1:00 to 4:00 and Saturdays 12:30 to 2:30. We have some new titles to be checked out and many pre-loved books for sale at $1 for hardbound and $0.50 for Paperbacks. Come and check us out.

Thank you everyone who came to the Holiday Bazaar, and especially those who participated. Come to the January 9th meeting and find out how well we did with the Bazaar.

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THERE GOES ONE, DEBBIE!

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GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN, 2024

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ARTHUR KNIGHT

This is my grandfather Arthur Knight. Hopland and Yorkville Pomo. He was raised on the June Ranch, him and Jack June grew up together as best friends. His grandmother Effie Luff and Grandfather Frank Luff raised him as his mother passed away pretty young. My Grandfather worked the backhoe for Smokey Blattner and eventually for Dean Titus. He helped develop a lot of properties, ponds and septic systems. I love hearing stories about him…do you have any stories to share. (Facebook post)

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CRAB FEED BENEFIT

Make a Resolution to attend the 48th Annual Knights of Columbus Crab Feed at St. Anthony's Parish Hall on Friday and Saturday, January 24-25.  Choose from a VIP crab feed, an Early Bird luncheon, crabby takeout, or traditional crab feed.  For more details and to purchase tickets, please visit kcmendo.org.

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JIM MUSIL:

Number 1 on my Top 10 Paintings of 2024

For this painting, I wanted to try something a little moodier and mysterious. In my opinion, one of the most mysterious stretches of coastline in the US is where the Pacific Ocean meets far northern California. This foggy, rugged coast with its epic ocean views seemed like the perfect subject for me. It was both a challenge and a blast to paint.

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IF ANYBODY IS IN TOUCH WITH MARY LEE DAVIS…

Re: https://theava.com/archives/143379

Wow, I used to be her neighbor, at 639 North Spring St., I first bought that house in 1985, met her and Eugene that summer of 1985 and we were close friends until I left Ukiah in 1999 for a job in Fort Worth, Texas

Also, one of the facts about myself is that I am her blind neighbor, she attended my masters degree graduation in 1994, and she was a huge support system when I was struck down by a car in that same town.

I used to go every single evening to enjoy a wonderful martini with her and Eugene. Every day at 4 PM, martinis and popcorn. Occasionally, I would be invited to join them for the evening meal.

And often, when I was home, I would join them for cappuccinos at 10 AM, we would all sit out on their back patio and just enjoy the weather. I remember all of the beautiful jasmine flowers.

I have not been able to make contact with her recently while she’s in Rohnert Park, I don’t know whatever happened to her phone number, but I would call about once a month, and often, every year I would call on her birthday. I would also call close to Christmas, this year, I have not been able to make contact. If anybody is reading this, would you please let her know that her friend, out here in Kansas City, Missouri, would love to call her again.

One more thing I do remember well about her and Eugene is that they love my daffodils. Those flowers would pop up every single spring and would stay there for several weeks. They love my little garden. I have such fond memories of that house and of these people.

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MENDOCINO COUNTY WAY BACK WHEN (Ron Parker)

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GET SIDEWAYS WITH THE MENDOCINO FILM FESTIVAL

Celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Film

January 3, 2025. Come celebrate the 20th anniversary of Sideways, the film that launched the ascendancy of Pinot Noir as the darling of the wine world. As part of its year-round film series, the Mendocino Film Festival presents a screeening of Sideways on Saturday, January 25 at 7:00PM in the Abalone Room at the Little River Inn, 7901 N. Highway One, Little River, CA. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased online at https://tinyurl.com/MFF-Sideways-2025.

Two decades after Miles Raymond (Paul Giamatti) proclaimed Merlot to be dead, Twomey wines will be on hand to re-educate us about the grape with a complimentary taste of their Merlot included in the ticket price. Glasses of Twomey Pinot Noir will also be available for purchase.

Sideways is a delightful comedy about Miles, a wine snob, who spends a raucous week-long road trip in Central California wine country with his boisterous friend Jack Cole (Thomas Haden Church). Hijinks ensue and Miles utters the line that knocked Merlot off the top of the wine charts. The film won an Oscar at the 77th Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay for director Alexander Payne.

Now in its 18th year, the Mendocino Film Festival has become an internationally recognized showcase for new independent films. In 2025, the Festival takes place from May 29 to June 1, screening more than 65 films. Stay informed about upcoming festival news, membership and sponsorship opportunities, and submission deadlines by joining the Mendocino Film Festival mailing list at https://mendofilm.org.

Angela Matano Executive Director Mendocino Film Festival Office: 707.937.0171 Cell: 310.883.5107

ED NOTE: I saw this unamusing film in Eugene where several women hissed throughout. I thought they were right to hiss this thing.

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It’s resolution season, people! And this year, I’m shifting my approach a little bit. Sure, I’m going to recommit to goals around health and productivity—the ones that inconveniently require some measure of discipline—but I am also resolving to intentionally incorporate delight into my calendar.

www.wordofmouthmendo.com

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LANDED GENTRY

by C. Michael Berghash

When David Lansing arrived in Mendocino in 1852, his plans included bringing his family up from San Francisco as soon as possible. To make this possible, he built one of the first houses in Mendocino. Because the wood cut by the local mill was green rough stock, Lansing considered it unsuitable for the construction of a residence, so he purchased the lumber in San Francisco. Today the house is still standing across Main Street from the Presbyterian Church.

Lansing is credited with building the first railroad in Mendocino County in 1853. The railroad was about 180 feet long and was located at the west end of Main Street in Mendocino. Many more rails were laid until the Point was a maze of curved tracks that served the milled lumber storage area there.

Through a land deal with William Kelley, Lansing assumed ownership of all the land in Mendocino east of Lansing Street, north of Main Street, and south of Little Lake Road. In 1868, William Heeser surveyed and platted the town, naming the street on Lansing’s western boundary after him. Lansing donated the land for the first elementary school [near the northeast corner of Lansing and Ukiah Streets], and the local mill contributed the lumber. Lansing also served as a trustee for the school. In 1865, Lansing granted the land for the first Catholic Church vicarage [now it’s Patterson’s Pub] though he was not himself a Catholic.

Charlotte and David Lansing were instrumental in the founding of the Presbyterian Church, along with Jerome Ford and Peter Kelley, William Kelley’s father who had followed him here from Prince Edward Island. Lansing and Jerome Ford donated land on Main Street for the church building. Land sale records in the Kelley House archives show that Lansing’s largesse was made possible not only by his generosity, but also by the returns on his extensive holdings.

According to Walter Jackson’s book, “The Doghole Schooners,” [Mendocino Historical Research, 1977], Lansing was a very quiet, strong, and private man with a gruff personality. Not one to suffer extensive sermonizing gladly, he was known to stand with his hat in his hand waiting for the benediction at the back of the Presbyterian Church when Reverend David McClure attached an exceptionally long sermon to the scripture reading.

The Lansings had lost little Charlotte in 1851, but they had three more daughters in Mendocino: Katherine, Julia and Helen. The family flourished and was closely identified with the growth and prosperity of the town. When David died of a stroke on November 14, 1877, he was 68 years old. He was survived by four daughters; his wife and eldest daughter Mary had died in 1867. His daughter, Julia Lansing Morrow, inherited the house and, with her sister Helen, much of the property. When the sailor came home from the sea, he did very well.

His obituary noted his honesty and fair dealings in business affairs. Hundreds of people attended his funeral, one of the largest in early Mendocino's short history (Mendocino Beacon, November 17, 1877). In respect to his memory, businesses closed and flags were displayed at half-mast. He and his wife and baby daughter are buried in Evergreen Cemetery.

— Excerpted and annotated from the Mendocino Historical Review, Spring, 1985.

(kelleyhousemuseum.org)

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Thursday, January 2, 2025

JOSEPH ANDERSEN, 37, Ukiah. Burglary, burglary tools, controlled substance, paraphernalia.

FERNANDO CAMPOS-REYES, 29, Covelo. Failure to appear.

MELISSA CROW, 37, Willits. DUI-alcohol&drugs.

ERIC GARCIA, 35, Redwood Valley. Probation revocation.

JOSE GRANT, 44, Willits. Parole violation, resisting.

NATHANIEL HAYES JR., 31, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

THOMAS HIDALGO, 22, Ukiah. Battery by gassing of law enforcement officer.

CYNTHIA PHILLIBER, 33, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs, probation revocation.

DEEPAK SHARMA, 23, Willits. Domestic battery.

SAMUEL SIERRA, 35, Ukiah. Probation violation.

ADALBERTO TINAJERO, 19, Ukiah. DUI-alcohol&drugs.

ANTHONY TOLBERT, 36, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, parole violation.

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MITCH CLOGG:

My new year's resolution is to eschew sugar-added foods. Gonna be a bitch, but I'll eat way more fresh fruit.

Too bad fruit is so pathetic in stores these days. Go to the Safeway fruit-&-veggie section and you won't smell a damn thing--strawberries, peaches, mangoes, tomatoes--not a whiff. When I was a kid and I walked into the A&P, the scents from the produce were wonderful--melons, citrus--didn't matter. You picked it up and sniffed. You knew if it was ready or not. Now, not only is it not ready, it's never going to be. Store-bought fruit goes straight from unripe to spoiled, with no tasty interval between. Buy a plastic thing of strawberries--what an abortion! Put your nose to one of the slits in the box: barely a SCENT of strawberries, while the ripe fruit, still on the plant, ripened to that dark, dark red that I refer to, passionately, as "black," makes you swoon. You can smell the perfume of a strawberry patch a mile away.

The wretchedness of "fresh" fruits and vegetables is because they are so perishable. For many varieties, perfect ripeness only lasts, at best, a few hours. Then, if you're the Safeway shelf-stocker, you gotta throw it out, which is no great loss because the stuff has been altered so it never reaches the sugary perfection God intended fruit to have. No snake would tempt you, whether you were named "Eve" or not, nor would you tempt your boyfriend Adam, with the crap that passes for fruit these days. Goodbye original sin; hello crummy fruit. Figure it out. Arrange to eat sweet fruit in '25. Grow it yourself. Stuff WANTS to grow! End the year younger than you started.

If I make a few bucks this year, so help me God I'm gonna build a plastic enclosure out front, bigger than any I've built. It's freakin magic! Pot, strawberries, heat-loving flowers--within sight of the chilly sea and the chilly ocean wind, you get stuff growing that normally you'd have to move inland a mile or more for. I'll make it tall so Ellie, I and frenz can go in standing, relax and laugh it up, rain & cold notwithstanding. (A little music, tender lighting, comfortable chairs and chaises: Fuck Trump, Isis and all the sons and daughters of medieval beliefs. Keep away. This is for adults and agreeable kids, sane ones.)

Anyway, this is the oneth of a miserable year, first of many, many. I intend it to be excellent. DO THOU LIKEWISE. In spite of the stench coming from places of greed and power all over the world, MAKE THIS YEAR YOUR BEST EVER--AND SHARE IT!

Oh, and I'm learning to cook with stevia, ho ho!

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Ed note: I also subscribe, and admire what they're doing to keep long form journalism alive outside the highbrow press. I also suspect they may have gotten their format idea from, ahem and in all modesty, America's last newspaper, the AVA, one clue being that Wanda Tinasky is on the masthead as is my friend, Jonah Raskin. Whatever the origins of America's Only Newspaper, you won't go wrong subscribing. It's the goods, and it really is, at this point, America's Only Newspaper.

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N.R. DE MEXICO

by Fred Gardner

The obviously pseudonomynous author of "Marijuana Girl," N.R. de Mexico, "was identified by folklorist and erotica historian Gershon Legman as Robert Campbell Bragg, a Greenwich Village bohemian and novelist, and one of the people who, along with Anais Nin and Henry Miller, wrote erotica for the wealthy Oklahoma collector Roy Milisander Johnson." So I learned from Booktryst.com. Legman was the go-between.

"The Bragg-N.R. De Mexico connection was recently cemented for all time when a fellow named Fender Tucker, one of the yeoman, blue-collar fan-bibliographers who've taken it upon themselves to do the messy and difficult work of investigating the world of vintage paperbacks… found Robert Bragg's son, corresponded with him, and definitively nailed Bragg as N.R. De Mexico.

Also, "'Marijuana Girl,' served as Exhibit A in Congressman Ezekiel C. Gathings's House Select Committee on the proliferation of literature he considered a pox on American society, refering to the novel as 'A Manual of Instruction for Potential Narcotic Addicts.'

"The artwork on the original edition (Universal, 1951) is a painting by Robert Edward McGinnis, an American artist and illustrator renowned for illustrating more than 1,200 paperback book covers, and over 40 movie posters, including Breakfast at Tiffany's (his first film poster assignment), Barbarella, and several James Bond and Matt Helm films."

My love is an actress, she can weep like a willow, her laughter is somehow the same.

All the world is a mattress, the moon is a pillow, and half the world thinks it knows her real game.

Shout out bravo for her my friend. Clap just as loud as you can.

Stars were made to shine and never fade, and the planets go round like blades on a fan.

The first act is ending, the outcome seems certain, I quietly get up to leave.

How can I bear their velvet curtain Falling on all of the things I perceive?

Shout out bravo for me my friend. Clap just as loud as you can.

If her valet says “which way’d he go?” You can tell –but don’t tell how fast I ran

Past stage-door Johnies with dozens of roses, They clutter the sidewalk for miles.

I look at the hookers striking their poses, They pierce my heart with their 12-year-old wiles.

Shout out bravo for no one now, No need to clap your hands.

Stars were made to shine and never fade and the planets go round like it’s all in the plan.

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THE ABBIE & AMY SHOW

by Jonah Raskin

It wasn’t Abbie Hoffman’s finest moment. But it was one of them. It was a critical moment in 1987 when he and the daughter of a president protested against the presence of the CIA and CIA recruitment on the campus of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Abbie was 50. Amy was less than half his age. Together, they spanned the generation gap that sprawled across much of the 1980s. The daughter of a president and the co-founder of the Yippies and one of the eight defendants at the Chicago Conspiracy Trial showed that the American spirit of defiance had not evaporated into the thin air of the Reagan years. Nationally acclaimed lawyer, Lenny Weinglass, came out of semi-retirement and led the defense team for Amy and Abbie.

Along with Bill Kunstler, Weinglass had defended the Chicago Eight in a federal courtroom before Judge Julius Hoffman. Nearly two decades after that infamous trial, Weinglass was in a Massachusetts district courtroom, where Judge Richard Connor allowed testimony about the role of the CIA in Nicaragua. Weinglass argued “the necessity defense.” He insisted that the protesters had to commit a minor crime to prevent major crimes by the CIA from taking place. Amy had been charged with disorderly conduct.

Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame and Ramsey Clark, former US attorney general, testified for the defense. Abbie and Amy were found not guilty.

For the trial, Abbie coined and popularized the slogan “What’s so intelligent about the CIA?” which brought smiles to many of the faces of the spectators in the courtroom.

When Jimmy Carter died at 100, his daughter was briefly back in the news. The New York Times ran a story with the headline “Amy Carter, Thrust into the Public Eye at a Young Age, has since receded.“ The Times didn’t get the full story. Initially, Amy became newsworthy because her father was president. But she also intentionally thrust herself into the public eye years after Jimmy Carter left the White House.

One of her fourth grade teachers observed, “She is a private person and likes to live a private life.” That’s true, but she also chose to live a public life when it mattered greatly to her, to Abbie and to students at the University of Massachusetts. Amy chose to take a stand, albeit briefly, with one of the least private radicals of the 1960s/1970s. “Every time a person sacrifices themselves for a larger injustice, it aids in the cycle of change,” she said. Abbie might have said much the same. They were a knockout team and helped to educate a generation or two about the global crimes of the CIA.

(Jonah Raskin is the author of Beat Blues, San Francisco, 1955.)

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ON THE SLOPES OF MT. SHASTA, A GIANT VIRGIN MARY STATUE IS STIRRING UP THE LOCALS

American naturalist John Muir called Mount Shasta an "object of religious worship"

by Matt LaFever

A story disputed by historians claims that when a Spanish explorer first saw Mount Shasta, he dubbed it “Jesus and Maria,” inspired by what appeared to be its double peaks. Now, around two centuries later, that mythic name has been brought to life with the installation of a towering Virgin Mary statue on the slopes of the mighty volcano.

The 20-foot statue sits in the Mount Shasta Ski Park, California’s largest ski resort north of Lake Tahoe. When a prominent Northern California family purchased the park in 2017, patriarch Ray Merlo envisioned a massive bronze statue of the Virgin Mary overlooking the slopes. Though he passed away in July 2020 before seeing his dream come true, his wife Robin fulfilled it in December with the unveiling of “Our Lady of Mt. Shasta.”

Standing at about 6,600 feet on Shasta’s slope, the statue has become a focal point for discussions on the intersection of faith, culture and the natural landscape. While some view it as a meaningful tribute, others see it as an unwelcome addition to one of the region’s most revered mountains.

A December 2023 Facebook post by the ski park describes the statue as a “personal” project that was “very important to our owner as this was a shared goal with [Robin’s] late husband and business partner, Ray Merlo.” Robin Merlo reflected that, “This statue is a promise fulfilled and a true representation of the dedication to family that we all value so much here at the Ski Park.”

The protectors of Shasta

Opposition to the statue began brewing once the plans for it were announced. A year ago, a Change.org petition, launched by an individual known as “Joe Skibum,” gained 3,315 supporters who argued the statue would “threaten to disrupt this cherished environment” and potentially “alienate members of our diverse community who do not share the same religious beliefs.”

The petition’s author celebrated the nearly 6,600 foot summit of Douglas Butte as “one of the most beautiful natural vistas” the ski park has to offer. The placement of the Virgin Mary's statue at that particular spot would blemish the summit’s untouched beauty and spiritual essence, free from the intrusion of religious symbols, the petition said.

The petition called on the Merlos to “cease and desist this construction project immediately” and urged the U.S. Forest Service, which grants the ski park’s use permits, to halt the statue’s installation.

Commenters on the petition were outspoken. Ann from Chico, California, declared, “Keep religion out of skiing!!!! We ski to enjoy the beauty of nature — not to be preached at by religious NUTS.” Donny from Redding called the statue “an annoyance and waste of resources.”

Shawnee Kasanke, a critic of the statue who was raised near the mountain, told SFGATE the statue symbolizes a painful history. “These types of statues erected on sacred land represent the devastation caused by missionary colonizers and their disrespect for and attempted erasure of Native traditions, sacred spaces, and ways of life to many of us,” she said.

While she acknowledges the intent to honor a beloved family and community member, Kasanke argued that the statue’s placement perpetuates harm and said the ski park “has a long history of infringing” on tribal rights and land. “The placement of this statue is just another slap in the face to some of us who have been fighting to defend sacred land and natural spaces from further defacement by colonization, especially by Christian symbolism,” she said.

A recent graduate with a doctorate in environmental science, Kasanke’s concerns extended beyond cultural implications to the environmental impact of such projects. “This goes beyond indigenous culture to the need for intact natural spaces to be conserved without unnecessary infrastructure that only caters to a few very entitled people,” she told SFGATE.

Traci Roberti, a lifelong skier from Anderson, California, which is about an hour south of Mount Shasta, told SFGATE, “I don’t personally care if the statue stays or goes.” However, she said that Native American tribes and New Age practitioners “are able to enjoy their form of worship without planting a flag or erecting statues, leaving room on the mountain for all faiths to feel welcome.”

Roberti recounted the tale of Shasta’s Old Ski Bowl, the mountain’s first ski park, which met its demise when a catastrophic avalanche destroyed its ski lifts. To her, the story serves as a cautionary tale for Mount Shasta Ski Park to respect the mountain’s power. Operating from 1959 to 1978, the Old Ski Bowl was perched above the tree line and lay exposed to Shasta’s relentless winds and freezing temperatures.

“The resort wanted to grow and expand and was trying to fight the government for more permits, but the mountain decided and bankrupted the company with disaster,” Roberti said. That disaster came in January 1978, when a massive avalanche obliterated a major section of the ski lift, causing over $200,000 in damages.

Denied the permits needed to rebuild or expand, the owners couldn’t recover. “The mountain won,” Roberti said.

The Spirits of Shasta

Long before the Virgin Mary statue, Mount Shasta has captivated spiritual and cultural imaginations. Indigenous peoples such as the Modoc, Wintu, Shasta, AjumawiAtsuwegi, Karuk, and Klamath wove the peak into their myths, including one where an ancient chief commanded giants to pile baskets of earth to create the mountain and glimpse the ocean.

Later in 1875, naturalist John Muir described the volcano as “a colossal cone rising in solitary grandeur,” worthy of reverence as “an object of religious worship.” And in his 1905 book, “A Dweller on Two Planets,” Frederick Spencer Oliver described a temple hidden deep within Mount Shasta. The book then inspired Wishar S. Cerve’s 1931 “Lemuria: The Lost Continent of the Pacific,” which proposed that an ancient population was living in caverns beneath the mountain.

The link between Mount Shasta and spiritualism is so profound that academic research has explored how spiritual pilgrims impact resource management in the area surrounding the mountain. Even in a Dec. 14 statement shared with SFGATE, the ski park described the purpose of “Our Lady of Shasta” almost prophetically. Without directly responding to criticisms that it was evangelizing or disrespecting the faiths that had come before, it called the statue a symbol of “a deep connection to the area’s beauty and tranquility,” aimed at promoting “faith, kindness, love, and peace on earth.”

For now, the Change.org petition remains online, a reminder of the community opposition to a 20-foot Virgin Mary standing on the volcano. But while the Virgin Mary statue has its critics, it also has countless supporters. Comments on the Ski Park’s social media post announcing the statue installation ranged from “Beautiful” and “This is amazing” to “Thank you for this incredible gift to our community” and “It’s stunning!”

(SFGate)

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PAUL MODIC:

Gregory Corso

Besides talking to Orlovsky, who had a large box of poetry books at his feet, once outside the post office in New York, pestering Ginsberg about Kerouac a few times on 14th Street (he said Jack saw a communist under every bed), and peeing in Burroughs’ backyard in Lawrence, Kansas, I later encountered beat poet Gregory Corso once in San Francisco.

It was a rainy winter day in about 1981, I was visiting Carl in his cabin on Fern Ridge in Whale Gulch, and we decided to just take off hitchhiking to San Francisco to go to a poetry reading featuring Kathy Acker, and her take on Semiotics.

A neighbor picked us up and took us to town, then we got a few easy rides to Willits where we came upon a waiting Greyhound and rode that the rest of the way. (We went to North Beach and I was the rude boy who lit up a joint outside Vesuvios.)

After the poetry reading we were milling around outside and Corso was going up to each woman and saying, “Have you ever been fucked in the ass?” I lit the rest of the joint, shared it with Carl and Corso, and there was talk about going to an afterparty.

“This is your shot,” Corso said to me, which I figured meant I could bring my weed to the party, but I was such a timid kid of twenty-seven that soon the group dispersed and we went back to the Swiss Hotel, our $4.50 a night flophouse.

(Twenty years later Carl was building his house, planning to have just a small loft upstairs, and I said, “This is your shot,” and convinced him to build a whole second story instead.)

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Bedding

When first came out to the hills, I slept out during summer nights in my army surplus sleeping bag, the next year I had a down bag and kept that thing around for a few decades like a museum piece. When I moved indoors I slept on a foam pad, still in the sleeping bag, and after that came the futon days, that dense and uncomfortable pad must have seemed like a good idea at the time. (My creative neighbor Yerba made it, I still have it in the attic forty years later, and it’s still just as hard.)

When I remodeled my cabin, adding a kitchen, bathroom, and living room, I finally got a real bed with boxsprings, though unfortunately it was king-sized (I was probably trying to model myself after that ladies man Humberto, who had a king and multiple girlfriends, or maybe I was dreaming of orgies? I found a king very impractical: it was supposedly bad feng shui, took up a lot of space, and when I would have a fight with my girlfriend she hid out far away in the “back forty” of that mattress, though she always came back for the heat.)

I finally got sheets and blankets, put the old down bag in a box to mold away in a plywood shed, though I rarely laundered them and they became very hard and crusty, had the billions of mites (trillions?) calcified as they lived and died? (The psoriasis didn’t help either.)

Then I got a clue and started laundering them every three weeks, until I met a woman (a Bernie Sanders delegate) who told me she laundered hers every week, which inspired me to split the difference and clean mine every two weeks.

Ten years later, it’s laundry day!

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Hey NBA, Stop Complaining

I’d like to see basketball players, and their coaches, stop complaining about any call, for one day. Maybe just for one game, you cannot whine, complain, or even express body language of protest on the court, or you will be immediately ejected from the game. (Maybe not the whole league, how about just one game?)

Let’s try it! I know this is an impossible idea on a few levels but, oh well, someone had to say it: Stop whining and complaining about every call! (I don’t think this is necessarily a racist thing, as some of those white coaches get seriously apoplectic, with a negative intensity five times worse than the players, in fact they look like they could keel over with the next outburst and never get up.)

This could happen near the end of the season with two teams which aren’t going anywhere anyway, so it wouldn’t really matter, right? But wait, why not go all the way, do it for the 7th game of the finals? (C’mon, gimme my dream, just one whine-free game.)

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BETSY CAWN:

Circa 1945, the US military had the enormous task of repatriating millions of active GIs returning to the domestic era of post-war “prosperity” and saw the conversion of weaponry factories into manufacturers of goods and services sold to the former soldiers and their war brides using a system of indebtedness that harnessed their confidence as successful survivors of the harsh battlefield conditions and “winners” of the arduous campaign in Europe — newly invented mortgage lending and buying of goods “on time” — swapping their Eisenhower jackets and bombardier helmets for 3-piece suits and dashing fedoras.

“Civilian” life requiring moral and mental “adjustment,” the rise of psychology and “management” theories processed these ground troops and junior officers into corporate ladder climbers, while their “dependents” gave birth to the “boomer” generation — luxuriating in new cars and back yard Saturdays lush with mass manufactured toys and “snacks.”

In a recent edition of the Hoover Institute’s Goodfellows story telling, retired General H. R. McMaster, who was Trump’s former National Security Advisor, cautioned against the loss of the “warrior ethos” if the US Military continues to dilute the capabilities of war-making by including LGBTQ+, Trans, DEI, and politically disaffected members, and misapplying appropriations for updating old weaponry and inventing new armament to overcome Putin decisively but leaving Israel in charge of the middle east — while turning our exploitative expertise to Africa as a region of uncalculated raw wealth.

Goodfellow John Cochrane, the British economist, urged environmental reform to permit extraction of valuable minerals (including uranium) on American lands.

And historian Sir Niall Ferguson, the Scottish hipster, recommended reading the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings for lessons on co-opting the collective will of the dissenting opposition. Plus 1960s rock and roll.

Go figure.

The militarization of domestic law enforcement that created our “embedded” population of armed janitors and grounds keepers, churning helpless and haplessly deranged social misfits — by returning numbers of ex-veterans (many of whom suffer from untamed post-traumatic stress disorders and pre-enlistment eligibility factors) sheltered amidst brethren contemptuous of the un-woke consumers of government services that claim to keep them safe and free to join any social or civic activity sanctioned by our elected “representatives.”

Thank you for reminding us of the importance of language and how easily we come to know our “place” in the System.

Note: I work with and appreciate great law enforcement officers in agencies across the country and in our small county governments. Their gestalt, too, has been molded by the “defenders” of our co-called great nation. I only wish that Lake County’s Sheriff and his administration were as accessible and friendly as Matt Kendall’s.

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BILL KIMBERLIN:

After I worked on Star Wars and a bunch of other science fiction movies my colleges and I had fun debunking the photos and videos people brought us as evidence of aliens in our midst. Lately, I made this response to yet another investigator, who I refer to as, “UFO PI's.”

The modern cell phone has been around now about 20 years. It has photo and video capability. There are about 8.5 billion cell phones on the planet earth. They are all over the world, in every country. But we have no credible photos or videos of any alien anything. How could that be? Also, when the Pentagon Papers were release and when the Wiki leaks papers were released we saw huge dumps of government and Pentagon files and emails made public. Thousands of secret documents and emails. Yet, not one word in any of it about secret alien bodies or space craft or anything. How could that be if we are being fooled by the government?

As Albert Einstein once said, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence Where is yours?”

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MORE POP CULTURE CLASSICS LOSE COPYRIGHT PROTECTIONS ON JAN. 1

by Katie Dowd

Get ready for a proliferation of Popeye merchandise: On Jan. 1, 2025, the iconic American cartoon character loses copyright protections and goes into the public domain.

Each year on Jan. 1, copyright protections expire on a new batch of media, like books, movies, characters and music. Public domain laws vary from country to country, but in the United States, 2025 marks the year that works that debuted in 1929 are no longer protected by copyright. Two of the biggest pop culture figures to go into the public domain are Popeye and Tintin, heavyweights of the 20th century cartoon scene.

Tintin, the creation of Belgian cartoonist Hergé, debuted first in French in Europe before being translated into English. Along with his trust dog Snowy, Belgian reporter Tintin had adventures all over the globe. Popeye the Sailor debuted in January 1929 as part of King Features’ daily comic strip. In short order, E.C. Segar’s creation became King Features’ most famous figure. (Popeye’s girlfriend, Olive Oyl, actually predates him; she debuted in 1919, which means she’s already in the public domain.)

It’s a somewhat less momentous year for Disney, which saw Mickey Mouse lose copyright protections last year. This time around, Horace Horsecollar, a somewhat forgotten pal of Mickey’s, enters the public domain.

It’s a big year for literature and film. Ernest Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms” and William Faulkner’s “The Sound and the Fury” both become public domain works. In 1929, America saw its first crop of truly modern movies. Among them are “Blackmail,” Alfred Hitchcock’s first talkie, and “Cocoanuts,” the first Paramount film starring the Marx Brothers. It was also the year of “The Broadway Melody,” the first sound movie to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Once the copyright protections for a work have expired, you’re a lot more free to utilize it. (Look for upcoming horror movies to feature Disney characters, for instance.) In short, you don’t have to get anyone’s permission to republish “The Sound and the Fury,” because no one owns it as of Jan. 1, 2025. But don’t go thinking you can open your own Mickey Mouse theme park: Companies can still own newer versions of their creations or sue you for impersonating them. Legal experts think the safest bet is to ensure your product includes a disclaimer that you are not affiliated with the company in question.

(SFGate)

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WHY TRUMP WON

Editor:

Instead of endlessly grumbling about Donald Trump’s policies and depraved character, why not ask the question, “What is it about the American political and economic systems that allowed him to rise to the top — twice?” What could persuade half of U.S. voters to vote for a man who refuses to operate by the traditional and constitutional rules of government?

For 50 years both political parties have promised the poor and powerless that they would receive help — only to ignore them after each election. Inequality is now at its highest since before the Great Depression, according to Pew Center research, and getting worse. The poor are now at the point of desperation; some may resort to violence. What do you do if you are suffering and no one pays any attention?

If we want a peaceful, orderly society, we must reduce inequality — which means we must all make sacrifices, especially the billionaire elite. We are witnessing the consequences of a hyper-individualist, capitalist society. Are we willing to accept less so the working poor can have more? Doesn’t every adult worker deserve a living wage? We must somehow change the system to operate for the common good — or watch it spiral into chaos.

Gene A. Hottel

Santa Rosa

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PAINTINGS BY ANDREA KOWCH are a favorite of Art Guide, we love the mystery and drama that unfolds in each descriptive scene.

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‘THE SIMPSONS’ NEW WINE EPISODE CAUGHT ME BY SURPRISE

by Jess Lander

When I learned that wine would be at the center of one of the longest-running television shows in U.S. history, “The Simpsons,” I had to tune in — even though I’ve never been an avid fan.

The “Bottle Episode,” which aired Sunday, teased a Rudy Kurniawan-inspired, wine forgery scheme. I was curious to see how the oafish, beer-drinking Homer Simpson might stumble into the complex, multi-billion-dollar criminal trade of wine counterfeiting. (It seemed like quite the stretch.) I also wanted to look out for misnomers, which are common when wine and pop culture converge. But mostly, I wanted to see whether the episode could potentially have some kind of impact — good or bad — on the teetering wine industry, which is in the middle of a major downturn.

Wine rarely gets to move from the background to a starring role in mainstream media, but when it does, the effects can be major. A 1991 “60 Minutes” segment on the French Paradox — the idea that a French diet of cheese, fatty meats and red wine can reduce heart disease — is often credited with igniting a 25-year wine boom. In 2004, the movie “Sideways” simultaneously destroyed the reputation of Merlot and exploded demand for Pinot Noir.

Wine offers TV and film writers some, pun intended, low-hanging fruit. It’s easy to poke fun at the snobby side of wine, so I wasn’t surprised when that was the first thing the episode did. Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Down in billionaire Mr. Burns’ wine cellar, his assistant, Waylon Smithers, describes the taste of a 1945 Bordeaux from Baron Cadet, a play on Mouton Cadet, one of the top-selling red wines in the world and the low-cost label from First Growth house Chateau Mouton Rothschild. (Mouton Cadet was created by the chateau’s longtime leader, Baron Philippe de Rothschild.) Smithers identifies plausible aromas of cigar smoke, saffron and sandalwood, but then adds, “cupcake frosting from a child’s birthday party, with notes of petting zoo on the finish.”

The episode moves to Homer’s job at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, which Mr. Burns owns. Smithers tasks Homer with transporting a million-dollar bottle of red Burgundy, produced by the legendary Gevrey-Chambertin, to Mr. Burn’s mansion. The bottle, Smithers proclaims, was once owned by Napoleon Bonaparte, and it’s immediately obvious that something will go very wrong.

Homer, miraculously, gets the bottle home without major incident. But while he’s napping, his wife, Marge, accidentally uses it in dinner, a stew recipe pulled from her “The Joy of Spiking” cookbook. Fearing the wrath of Mr. Burns, Smithers agrees to do what Homer does best: Cover it up.

Homer, Smithers and Marge turn to the questionable scientist Professor Frink, who analyzes the remaining drops of the Burgundy to create a replica. The concoction is a nonsensical combination of ingredients: diammonium phosphate, calcium carbonate, and “14 ccs of Manischewitz.” This was obviously satire, but perhaps Professor Frink had a tiny bit of winemaking knowledge. Diammonium phosphate can inoculate the yeast and help kickstart fermentation, and calcium carbonate can help reduce acidity.

Later, at a meeting of Mr. Burns’ wine tasting group, nobody can tell that there’s something amiss with Napoleon’s Burgundy. “Now that’s Million Buck Chuck,” one of the members exclaims. The scene serves up a spicy jab at wine’s elitist reputation and exposes the vanity-driven side of collecting: Spending millions of dollars on wine doesn’t make someone a wine expert.

Back at the Simpsons’ home, Marge and Smithers drink leftovers of the con wine and gripe about wealthy men like Mr. Burns. “With the money those billionaires spend on one bottle, they could buy every poor person in the world an inexpensive but very drinkable rosé,” Smithers says. That gives a tipsy Marge an idea. They can produce one more bottle of fake Burgundy, sell it and use the money for good.

At the wine auction, attended by Francis Ford Coppola and famed wine critic Robert Parker (who voices himself), the wine sells for a whopping $2 million. But before they can celebrate, Marge and Smithers are arrested on a wine forgery charge. At trial, Marge poses a seemingly reasonable question: “If no one can tell the difference, how is that a crime?”

After making fun of wine for most of the episode, the writers suddenly shift to romanticizing it. “Wine is much more than a beverage,” the prosecutor says in an emotional speech. “For centuries, it’s told the story of civilization.” She goes on to refer to wine as “rare, unique and beautiful,” and the “jewel of our society” that needs its “integrity kept intact.” It felt like a big moment for the wine industry, which could certainly use this boost from a major TV show. Wineries are also desperate to engage younger consumers; data shows that 76% of “The Simpsons” audience is under 40 years old, and nearly 20% belongs to Generation Z.

I don’t see this half-hour of television becoming a watershed moment for the wine industry, but I don’t think it was meant to be either. It’s “The Simpsons,” after all. Ultimately, “Bottle Episode” was light-hearted and funny; the writers, a father-son duo, came off as knowledgeable wine lovers who don’t take wine too seriously.

My favorite parts of the episode were the witty bread crumbs sprinkled in for the true wine geeks. Mr. Burns’ wine tasting group was named the “Oen Percenters.” (Their credo: “Never drink something younger or date something older than you.”) The Gavelby’s wine auction was a nod to wine auction giant Sotheby’s, and during the auction, Parker rated a pretentious conversation with composer Andrew Lloyd Webber a lowly “36 points.”

There was even an ode to San Francisco: Marge and Smithers were booked at the Alca-Shiraz wine jail.

(SF Chronicle)

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CALIFORNIA ALMOST LEGALIZED PSYCHEDELICS. NOW, SUPPORTERS ARE LOOKING FOR A GOOD TEST CASE

by Ana B. Ibarra

Last year was supposed to mark a milestone in the psychedelic movement. Lawmakers and advocates were set to make California the next frontier in allowing the use of “magic mushrooms.”

They were hopeful because Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2023 — after vetoing a bill that would have decriminalized the possession of psychedelics — asked legislators for a bill that would prioritize the therapeutic promise of these drugs.

Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, responded to Newsom’s request with a proposal that would have allowed for psilocybin and other hallucinogens to be ingested in a controlled setting and under the supervision of licensed and trained facilitators.

But that bill, like three similar ones before it and after it, went nowhere. Skeptical lawmakers expressed concerns about funding, standing up a complex program and safety as they turned down the measures.

Undeterred, advocates now are regrouping to try again.

…

One of the first things on advocates’ wishlist is a memorandum promising states that the federal government would not pursue charges in states that legalize and regulate psychedelics, said Sam Chapman, a political strategist and former campaign manager for Oregon’s measure that legalized psilocybin use there. The Obama administration issued that kind of guidance to states in 2013 with regard to marijuana.

“The states are going to continue to lead,” Chapman said. “The states passing laws are the reason that the federal government will eventually get off the bench and do something.”

(CalMatters.org)

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TRUMP SUPPORTERS have been at each other’s throats as the Elon Musk techbro faction feuds with the white nationalist anti-immigrant faction over H-1B visas. Trump sided with Musk and declared that “We need a lot of people coming in” to the country, enraging his racist supporters who seriously believed their favorite oligarch was going to stop cheap immigrant labor from coming into the United States. 

Yeah guys, big surprise there. I thought for sure the “we give billionaire corporations everything they want” party was going to take cheap immigrant labor away from the billionaire corporations this time.

When I tweeted about this earlier somebody asked me, “But after Bernie Sanders hasn’t it been the so-called left that’s been very open borders oriented? Many accusing others of being racist for not allowing cheap foreign labor or will this change now because Trump is for it?”

The Democratic Party supports immigration for the same reason the Trump does: it’s a cheap source of labor for their corporate owners. From the perspective of the authentic left the issue isn’t immigration in and of itself, it’s that it is always destructive and immoral to exploit the labor of people from impoverished countries at extortionate rates. This is true whether that exploitation is outsourced to other countries via globalization, or implemented at home via immigration. 

Everyone loses under this model besides the capitalist class: both the foreign workers whose labor is being purchased at vastly reduced rates, and the workers at home whose labor is being undercut by this exploitation. The ones who win are those few who are reaping immense profits via the exploitation of foreign labor; they actually benefit from the impoverishment of the global south, and from ensuring that global wealth remains wildly unequal.

For the left the issue is the unjust exploitation of workers, while for the right the issue is not wanting a bunch of foreigners to come into the country. They both criticize the practice of giant corporations using H-1B visas to bring in droves of cheap labor, but for very different reasons. Rightists are fine with exploitation, they just find foreigners gross.

— Caitlin Johnstone

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BY HEART

— John Hollander, from Picture Window: Poems, Alfred A. Knopf (2003)