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THE LAST remaining impact of the passing cold front will be felt Monday. Ridging building in this coming week will warm temperatures. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 47F under clear skies this Monday morning on the coast. How about a mostly sunny forecast all week! The fog lingers ever close by, & you know the rest.
LOIS STELIGA
In Loving Memory of Lois Steliga
Lois Ann Steliga, a beloved longtime resident of Ukiah, passed away peacefully at her home on South Dora Street on July 11, 2025, at the age of 101.
She was the eldest of three girls born to John and Anna Marie Vejvoda on April 22, 1924, in Wilmerding, Pennsylvania. Lois was 13 years older than her youngest sister, Leila, who now resides in New York.
Lois graduated from Wilmerding High School in 1942 and from Shadyside Nursing School in 1945. After WWII, she served as a cadet nurse at an Army hospital in Virginia. In 1949, she married Henry Steliga, and they welcomed their daughter Marilyn in 1950. In 1952, the three moved to Ukiah where Henry worked at Vevoda Motor Sales. Lois worked as a registered nurse at Hillside Hospital/Ukiah Adventist and taught nursing at Ukiah Adult School and SRJC. Later they welcomed two more children, Greg and Glen. Lois was a devoted sister, mother and grandmother.
She is survived by her sister Leila Bonner, sons Greg and Glen (Jan), and son-in-law Nenad Gojnic. Also, by her grandchildren, Yovana, Dale, Jody, Drew, Paul, Libby, and Kelly, and great-grandmother to ten. She is also remembered fondly by her 15 nieces and 1 nephew. She was preceded in death by her daughter Marilyn 1983, sister Evelyn 2007, and husband Henry 2015.
Lois was never one to sit still. She loved playing softball and volleyball in her younger years. She picked up golf in the 1970s, was an active bowler, and took up Tai Chi in her 70s. She was in her 80s and still working out at the Mendocino College weight room. An avid sewer and gardener, Lois was an expert on the sewing machine and won many ribbons at local fairs for her produce and flowers. She was also an accomplished crossword puzzle-solver, loved playing cards, especially solitaire, and enjoyed playing the organ and piano for her church. Lois sang in several local choirs and was an active member of Faith Lutheran Church, where she taught Sunday School, Vacation Bible School and sang joyfully in the choir. Lois lived a full and faithful life, grounded in her Christian faith and her trust in the promises of Jesus.
In God’s grace and tender timing, Lois passed on the birthday of her late daughter, Marilyn. Lois and Henry lovingly raised Marilyn’s daughter, Yovana, until the age of 3, providing her with a warm and faithful beginning to life.
A memorial service will be held at Faith Lutheran Church, 560 Park Blvd, Ukiah, on August 9, 2025, at 10:00 AM. Contributions may be made to the church or Hospice of Ukiah, 620 South Dora Street. The family offers special thanks to caregivers Miriam, Louisa, Lisa, Shelley, Jill, and Vicki, for their loving care.
Arrangements are under the direction of the Eversole Mortuary.
'ERRATIC' WILDFIRE BREAKS OUT in Northern California, prompting evacuations
by Amanda Bartlett
A vegetation fire broke out in Clearlake in Northern California on Sunday afternoon, prompting mandatory evacuations as it spread over 340 acres within two hours. As of 5 p.m., it has reached 5% containment.
Crews with Cal Fire's Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit first reported the blaze, now referred to as the Lake Fire, at 2:19 p.m. near the 13700 block of Eastlake Drive in Lake County. Firefighters initially described a "moderate rate of spread with two structures involved."
Four evacuation orders warning of "an immediate threat to life" have been issued for zones that stretch north to south from Arrowhead Road to Olympic Drive and west to east from Sulphur Bank Road to Highway 53. Clearlake City Hall, Lake County Tribal Health Southshore Clinic, Burns Valley Mall and Borax Lake are among some of the impacted locations.
Two evacuation warnings have also been issued west of the area for zones running north to south from Polk Avenue to Junction Plaza and west to east from Highway 53 to Ogulin Canyon Road.
As of 3:21 p.m., Cal Fire said 15 engines, five dozers, four hand crews, three water tenders, two helicopters, six airtankers and one tactical aircraft were responding to the blaze. Weather conditions remain hot and dry, with 85 degree temperatures in the area.
By 5:01 p.m., the unit said on social media the fire "has been exhibiting moderate to erratic fire behavior with short-range spotting, but crews are making progress."
"Airtankers have been concentrating at the head of the fire and have a fire retardant line tied into the dozer and hand lines established on the left flank and left shoulder off Pond Road," the update read. "The right (eastern most) flank of the fire is looking good."
No injuries or deaths have been reported.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
(sfgate.com)
ED NOTES
TWO years ago, at age 84, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. The cure was simple; removal of my thyroid, taking with it my voice and senses of taste and smell, leaving me with a hole in my throat. Since, I’ve become not quite infantilized but wholly dependent on my family, especially my martyred wife of sixty years who, perforce, also now functions as my in-house nurse.
MY DAUGHTER is scheduler for innumerable trips to the City for innumerable tests and doctor’s visits. Because I can’t speak, dutiful daughter speaks for me with the doctors, a translator for my mute bulk. And my son serves as on-call driver.
I KNOW people somehow manage all this alone, but in my case I know I’d have been dead in a week without it.
THEN, as I adjusted to being voiceless but pretty much able to function normally, the medical machinery discovered prostate cancer, the treatment for which has been depleting, a total drain on my energy, which an enemy once described as “fiendish.” (I was flattered.)
I WOULDN’T wish thyroid and prostate cancers on my worst enemy, but only because they aren’t painful enough. There’s no pain of the cracked rib type. It’s like being half asleep every waking moment and being constantly short of breath. And there’s loss of appetite, and leaden legs and frequent dizziness. It’s a slog to walk a daily mile and a double slog to get through my daily push-ups.
THE CURE seems worse than the affliction. It commenced the second week in July with catheterization and a regimen of daily and powerfully debilitating chemo-pills, supplemented with periodic shots from a lovely young Chinese nurse whose terrible task it is to plunge a long needle of a magic curative into my aged, appalling buttock.
ANY modesty I may have had, and I had it all, is long gone. “Drop your pants, Mr. Anderson. Yes, Mr. Anderson, this goes into your penis. Yes, Mr. Anderson, remove all your clothing.”
THE PILLS and the shots end mid-September, whereupon a straight month of radiation commences, five days a week, four consecutive weeks.
AND I’m cured mid-October.
OR croak a week later from old age.
TRACKING A CRIMINAL CASE IN MENDOCINO COUNTY JUST GOT A LITTLE EASIER
by Matt LaFever
According to a press release issued by the Mendocino County Superior Court, the former portal is being retired because its technology is no longer supported by the vendor. All users will now be required to register with an email address to access court records in the new system.
The court stated that re:Search CA offers a suite of new features and enhancements not previously available, including customizable dashboards, personal court calendars, and the ability to set alerts for upcoming hearings or newly filed documents. Attorneys and case participants will also be able to view confidential documents and manage their cases more efficiently through the platform.
“All Mendocino court case records are now maintained in electronic form,” the court explained in the press release. “Most civil cases will also be available remotely.”
However, the court noted that under California Rules of Court rule 2.503(c), some case types—such as criminal, family law, restraining orders, conservatorships, and guardianships—must be viewed in person by individuals who are not parties or attorneys. To facilitate this, the court has installed public-access kiosks at both the Ukiah and Fort Bragg courthouses, located near the clerk’s offices and accompanied by instructions to assist with searches.
The press release also clarified that “any time a publicly available case is made confidential by court order or by a change in law, it will no longer be viewable.”
Whether accessing cases remotely or in person, all users must first register on re:Search CA using a valid email address. While non-parties will be able to view only non-confidential records and hearing dates, parties, attorneys, and other participants will have expanded access to both public and confidential materials, along with personalized case management tools.
For more information, the court directed the public to contact Court Executive Officer Kim Turner.
(mendofever.com)
MENDOCINO PRESERVATION FUND
Update on the Fight to Save the Main Street Water Tower!
There’s great news to share: The Mendocino Preservation Fund has secured an agreement and court order from the Mendocino County Superior Court that prohibits alteration or demolition of the historic water tower on Main Street in Mendocino while our lawsuit to enforce environmental laws proceeds. The Mendocino Historical Review Board repeatedly denied the demolition request but was overruled by the County Board of Supervisors.
We formed the Mendocino Preservation Fund to defend exactly this kind of irreplaceable historic structure and preserve the character of the town we all love. Your donations are invaluable in providing the resources needed to keep Mendocino the special place that it is.
How You Can Help
Mail a check to: Mendocino Preservation Fund, PO Box 556, Mendocino, CA 95460
Or drop off a check at any Savings Bank of Mendocino County branch
Online: gofund.me/639a4744
Thank you for standing with us to protect the heart of Mendocino for this generation and the next.
— The Mendocino Preservation Fund Board
John Cavanaugh, Lee Edmundson, Blair Foster, Ed O’Brien, Dan Potash
FRED GARDNER ON DA DAVID EYSTER
Perks routinely devoured by political officeholders, your DA’s $2,500 steakhouse tab is (almost) nothing. Maybe this was a factor when he overreacted to Cubbison questioning his office for that “educational” dinner. Didn’t she know that he was (relatively) a very, very straight arrow? Terence Hallinan, America’s most progressive DA, loved being provided by the ‘49ers with season tickets on the 40-yard line. Nobody ever questioned the propriety of his accepting that gift… When I was paying attention, state legislators used to get all-expenses paid weeks in Hawaii courtesy of the “independent voter project” (a corporate front). Our attorney general Rob Bonta was a grateful beneficiary… Narcs testifying in marijuana cases used to describe the extended training they got on week-long “retreats…” I think the technical term for what happened when Eyster got that pushback from Cubbison is “it blew his mind.”
ALLEN BARR (Covelo Community News & Town Hall)
Our D.A. Dave Eyster is an extraordinary example of someone who keeps our County safe. He has a lot of compassion where that is due and very tough on those he deems beyond reformable.
When I was violently assaulted, went into a four week coma with major ongoing health complications it was his office that took care of my Medical bills as a Victim.
When there was money to be had in the weed business I see nothing wrong in getting money for the county. The Blue line where Policemen are treated special is nothing new anywhere in the Nation or World, it’s unfair but a fact of life. We all treat those we know and like more leniently than those we do not know, It’s how us Humans are.
At least here in Mendocino County they do in fact prosecute small crimes in order to stop criminal behavior from escalating, a far cry from those DAs further South who enable rampant criminal behavior.
AUGUST FULL MOON DRUM CIRCLE is August 9th at Pudding Creek Beach
The August 9th Full Moon Drum Circle will be on Saturday, August 9th at 6PM at Pudding Creek Beach in north Fort Bragg.
We have been Drumming at Pudding Creek Beach on most of the Full Moons for about 3 years.
Come drum with us on the evening of August 9th. We’ll gather in the sand just to the east of the Trestle. Everyone is welcome, and the event is FREE. We’ll start about 6:00 PM and continue till about 8:40 PM. The sun will set and the moon will rise at about 8:35.
Bring drums, shakers, tambourines, bells, washboards, pots and pans. We may have a few extra drums. No experience is necessary.
Bring a friend and you may want to bring a chair.
For more information, contact Sandy at 707 235-9080 or at [email protected]
We are also looking to buy or have donated a few extra drums. If you have one or two you’d like to sell or donate, contact me.
Thanks.
Sandy
WE GOTS DEM OL’ GNARLY BLUES
by Tommy Wayne Kramer
Has anyone figured out why we are so wealthy but so miserable?
When I speak of We I mean us Americans, and when I speak of Wealthy I mean everyone from the bottom to the top of the economic escalator that takes us from poverty to unimaginable riches.
And I mean you. And of course me and everyone I know and don’t know, because we are all rich as kings, and in fact far richer. Do you think King Marvin the 53rd had Eggs Benedict for breakfast with a strawberry shake, a cup of Espresso, and a jumbo snifter of brandy?
Did Cleopatra have an electric blanket and an air conditioned Oldsmobile to roll around the pyramids? Speaking of pyramids, did you know King Tut, the wealthiest man of his time, died of tooth decay?
And here, now, in America, a toothache is not much more bothersome than the Giants getting swept in a doubleheader. By Monday, when SF hosts the Cubs and you go see the dentist, everything will be fine. (NOTE: Your dental visit will cost far less than an afternoon at Pac Bell Park.)
So why are we nervous and tossing back antidepressants? What makes us borderline miserable despite having everything we think we want and a lot of things that haven’t yet occurred to us?
For instance:
A) Not one of us has ever missed a meal, save in service to vanity.
B) Nobody desperate for employment waits around very long before getting hired.
C) Even poor people have flat screen TVs, cell phones, well equipped kitchens, expensive sneakers, food stamps (EBT cards) and free rent.
D) Anybody who wants to visit Paris in 2025 won’t have to work more than a few months to save up enough to purchase a roundtrip flight. You’ll have breakfast at the Maple and be back home in time for dinner tomorrow night at the Broiler. Crazy ain’t it?
And it hasn’t always, or even for very long, been this way.
We needn’t browse far back through our family trees to come across ancestors who dealt with hunger occasionally if not routinely, and who lived long lives without ever seeing an airplane or a pizza or anything made out of plastic.
Until very recently Medical care was hardly worth being called Medical care unless blood-letting leeches count. We do not know how our great grandmother’s dental problems were addressed other than without novocaine or high speed drills.
There is something screwy about our collective anxiety and fretting, especially when it merges with depression, suicidal notions and our lashing out at (mostly) phantom enemies.
We deal with these First World problems by chatting it up among half-wit therapists or life-numbing drugs with side effects that help speed along our suicidal plans.
Why aren’t we sufficiently amused by visits to Disneyland or watching Hollywood comedies and the NFL circus to divert us from sad thoughts and pointless lives?
RITE AID REIMAGINED
That big empty hole of a building at the corner of South State and Gobbi Streets, formerly known as Rite Aid, is in need of occupants, renters, shop keepers, whatever.
This being Ukiah, and us being aware of what the local market rewards in ways of retail, I have several suggestions.
One big store covered in an acre of linoleum seems unworkable at the moment, so a handful of small shops might happily co-exist among one another. The candidates?
1) Tattoo parlor(s).
2) Vape shops.
3) Marijuana dispensaries.
4) Body piercing specialists.
5) On-site Sports betting / gambling den.
6) Methadone clinic with free needle exchange (Plaza Level).
7) Holistic healing center featuring crystal ball readings, Tarot Card specialists, chakra alignments and past lives regressions.
8) A Burning Bridges satellite homeless recruitment center with advocates to explain program benefits and hand out free backpacks and shopping carts.
And what shall we call this Carnival of Muck?
Le grande Malle d’generate!
Reserve your parking space now.
CATCH OF THE DAY, Sunday, August 3, 2025
DUSTIN ALLEN, 35, Willits. Under influence, vandalism.
TIFFANY BAIRRINEHART, 30, Ukiah. Failure to appear, resisting.
KELLY BRANDES, 52, Mendocino. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.
KENNETH DEWITT JR., 44, Ukiah. Parole violation.
JASON DIAMOND, 53, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.
TIMOTHY ELLIOTT, 53, Ukiah. Controlled substance with two or more priors, probation revocation.
JUSTIN GAYNOR, 37, Redwood Valley. Disorderly conduct-lodging without owner’s consent, under influence, controlled substance, resisting.
CONRAD HOESE, 39, Ukiah. Domestic battery.
FRANK JENNER, 47, Etna/Ukiah. Taking vehicle without owner’s consent.
KENDALL JENSEN, 39, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.
KOLTON LINDE-CARNES, 34, Willits. DUI, no license, reckless evasion-opposition direction of traffic.
JONATHAN PARKER, 49, Ukiah. Controlled substance, ammo possession by prohibited person.
SEBASTIAN RABANO, 45, Ukiah. Parole violation.
JOYCE SMITH, 59, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery.
KELLY STANTON, 48, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.
PG&E’S HIGH BILLS
by Jessica Roy
Nobody likes getting a bill. For Northern Californians, the monthly Pacific Gas and Electric Co. statement can be a particular source of frustration.
A reader named Lisa from Oakland wrote to me with a plea: “I am hoping that you might provide an explanation of our PG&E bills. I am a savvy consumer and it still boggles me when I try to figure it out!”
She’s far from the only one among the utility’s 5.5 million electricity customers and 4.5 million natural gas customers dissatisfied with the PG&E billing experience: It ranked dead last in customer satisfaction among U.S. utility companies, according to the 2025 American Customer Satisfaction Index. (Still, the report notes that PG&E’s score has improved from what it was in 2020 through 2023.)
PG&E’s residential rates are more than twice the national average, and have increased by an average of 12.5% annually for the past six years. From January 2015 to April 2025, residential rates have increased by 104%. So despite the state’s mild climate, which requires less heating and air conditioning, Californians have the 13th-highest electric bills in the country, according to a 2023 CNET analysis of U.S. Energy Information Administration data.
(SF Chronicle)
ED OBERWEISER:
Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff both voted to continue supporting Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians. So far Israel has slaughtered 60,000 Palestinians. I am calling on California’s voters to voters to get rid of these two warmongers in the next election. Contact them and tell them to end their support for weapons sales to Israel.
I sent the following letter to both Schiff and Padilla.
I am a California voter who will never vote for you again. You have voted, along with the republicans, to continue your support Israel’s slaughter of 60,000 Palestinians. This was a reprehensible vote on your part. Most Californians do not support the Israeli slaughter.
This is where you have gone on record with where you stand on U.S. complicity in war crimes. Your vote to arm Israel enables Israel’s genocide. I will work very hard against any reelection campaign by you.
I urge all Californians who are disgusted by Israel’s slaughter of more than 60,000 Palestians to vote against these two facists and write them blasting their vote on this issue!!!
THE POLITICS OF ‘WE’RE NOT HIM’
To the Editor,
I think this online exchange is somewhat relevant to the national political moment we find ourselves in.
Hello N, about where do we go from here?: I’l start by suggesting we reform the DNC, and back off the Trump outrage thing a little bit this is the party and DNC, they gaslit us all by telling us Genocide Joe was mentally fit, so they didn’t even have a primary or hold a debate and when their lie was exposed, literally appointed KH, a woman who did not even make it to her California home state primary when she ran for Prez. In some backroom deal, while saying they were defending “democracy” I think their hypocrisy did them in!
And even after her “appointment” she continued to vow support for Israel, and their ongoing genocide, a position wildly unpopular with the Public, it may have cost her the election, it certainly cost her Michigan, so on an issue she could have created ideological space between herself, her boss and T-rump, she could not bring herself to speak up for Palestinian children, it makes me wonder if you or any of your friends on team blue, have a moral red line on any issue, but you guys did get the endorsement of Darth Vader aka Dick Cheney, so hello you got that one goin’ for ya’, and I think Colin WMD Powell prefers you guys too,
The entire strategy of the corporate captured DNC is predicated on T-rump being a felonious S!@# bag. Well hello Capt. Obvious! And on social media I watch in horror as you guys stoke the fires of your outrage, but do nothing to reform the party that keeps losing to him. YOUR party embraces the ideology of “free” trade, Clinton, Obama, etc, sent millions of Jobs overseas, decimating entire communities, and embraced the concept of forever wars, spending trillions of dollars while killing millions of people, and then my supposedly intelligent friends can’t seem to understand how a Demagogue, gets traction? C’mon!
Here’s a book I recommend, I first read it many years ago, but fair warning , it’s the most painful book I’ve ever read. The author meticulously deconstructs the corporate takeover of the DNC, rather than getting endorphin hits by posting against book bans, I suggest people actually read this one. Then you might begin to understand why the Orange man keeps whipping you guys!
https://moonpalacebooks.com/item/Il6kMAbOMSfZ9YkttzkeCQ
Chris Skyhawk
Fort Bragg
YOU TELL ME
Warmest spiritual greetings,
Having a wonderful Sunday afternoon in Washington, D.C. I got up early and went to Chipotle’s for a breakfast bowl, and then hopped on the Metro to get a coffee in Chinatown. Presently on a public computer at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library listening to the OM mantra. Will eventually head back to the homeless shelter to sleep. Or maybe this is all just a dream? You tell me.
Craig Louis Stehr, [email protected]
HOW MUCH GUVMINT?
To the Editor:
I am a boomer and a child of the 1960s, not quite a Deadhead, though I like some Dead music very much. So on the whole I get the sentiment expressed in Jim Newton’s essay. But even Jerry Garcia appreciated clean water when he turned the taps, a flushing toilet that took waste away and that traffic lights and walk signs at intersections were (for the most part) obeyed.
So while it’s true that the scene in San Francisco in the 1960s promoted “a self-contained, self-regulating community,” it is a myth to argue that it was “largely beyond the reach of state and federal authorities.” Then, as now, the ever-present question is: What is the appropriate role for government in our lives?
Harvey M. Jacobs
Rochester, N.Y.
FOR MANY DEADHEADS, ‘SHAKEDOWN STREET’ IS THE MAIN EVENT THIS WEEKEND IN SF
by Anabel Sosa
The heartbeat of Shakedown Street can be felt miles before you get there.
Nearly 60,000 concertgoers, dressed in head-to-toe tie-dye, flooded JFK Boulevard all weekend for the three-night Grateful Dead 60th anniversary celebration in Golden Gate Park.
Another 100 vendor booths participated in a decades-long tradition, called “Shakedown Street,” named after the band’s 1978 song. The informal marketplace outside of Dead shows has become a cultural phenomenon where vendors sell everything from tie-dye band shirts to crystals to wood carvings of the Steal Your Face logo, the iconic skull that first appeared on the Dead’s gear cases before becoming the title of a 1976 live album.
The vendors, all Deadheads with an affinity for art, have followed the band on tour for years and see each other nearly every time the Dead go on tour. SFGATE interviewed several vendors who described the community as a family.
That feeling is true for Dougie Bledsoe, who’s worked Shakedown Street for 40 years selling tie-dye T-shirts. Shakedown Street is where he’s sought refuge.
“I had a bad home life. I got kicked out of Indiana for being a pothead,” he said. “There was nothing left for an artist to do. When you were a little starving artist kid, you came to the Grateful Dead. When you were a homeless kid, got kicked out, had a bad home life, you found the Grateful Dead.”
Back when he was a teenager, before he was even a fan of the band, he found himself at a Dead concert in Berkeley in the 1980s, and soon, in 1989, started selling T-shirts. He followed the band on tour until “the demise of Jerry,” when the lead singer died in 1995 of a heart attack.
Bledsoe now partners with his best friend, the designer of the eccentric tie-dye shirts he sells on tour. “I wasn’t the guy who could draw, but I was the guy who admired people who could draw,” he said. “This has always been my livelihood; it’s all I’ve ever done. What’s a felon to do? Oh, now they’re presidents. But back in the day, we couldn’t get a job.”
He admits the Shakedown Street is “so corporate now,” compared to the old days.
The Dead & Company fan base now spans generations, and the same goes for the vendors.
Lauren Richwine, who runs a high-vibrational lifestyle brand that sells moon-charged crystals, suncatchers and “magical bear oil,” said she works at the Shakedown booth “to make people smile and bring joy to the world.”
Richwine has been a Deadhead since childhood, thanks to her hippie parents, who married at 15 and 18 and raised her in Topanga Canyon. “They were kids raising kids,” she said. Her fondest memories were being taken on cross-country road trips in their Volkswagen van, listening only to the Grateful Dead.
Samantha Watson is a vendor from Santa Barbara who sells candles shaped like the Grateful Dead’s dancing bears on behalf of her sick parents who started the business. She said the vibe on Shakedown Street has historically been territorial but has mellowed. While the culture is “super loving and supportive,” she said, vendors can also be protective of their booth space. “For some of these guys it’s their entire life, their entire career,” she said, joking that “the difference between a Deadhead and a hippie is that a Deadhead will cut your throat … For some people, it’s quite literally life or death, especially in a modern economy.”
Several vendors told SFGATE that profits at the San Francisco show were unlike any other year.
Elvis Carroll, 49, who is originally from Washington D.C., has been going to Dead shows since 1993. He charges $35 for a hat and $65 for a shirt, and said he had his best sales day ever on Friday. Before Saturday’s show, he said: “Today’s gonna be better. It’s been nuts.”
Carroll has a day job as a designer. “It’s good money, I’m not gonna lie,” he said. “But I do it because I love it. For me, it’s about community.”
He studied art at California College of the Arts and started selling sprayed T-shirts at Dead concerts as a kid. After Jerry Garcia’s death, he stopped. “They weren’t the Dead anymore,” he said. But after John Mayer joined the band, Carroll gave it another shot and returned to vending in 2021.
At first, he struggled to find a theme for his T-shirts. Then, during the Dead & Company farewell tour in 2023 at Oracle Park, he started designing sports-themed jerseys. Representing 42 teams, each jersey has the names of band members stitched on the front and back. His New York Mets design, featuring John Mayer’s name, “came to me in a dream,” he said.
Being in San Francisco, “feels like a homecoming. It feels really great to be back in the town where it started.”
Another vendor, Nick Jenkins, from Vallejo, who makes and sells pyrography art and stickers as a full-time gig, often sets up on Haight-Ashbury; he first started selling at Shakedown in Pittsburgh in 2001.
“We’re doing really well here this weekend,” he said, crediting the “300,000 Deadheads in the city” who flooded in for the anniversary weekend. “They’ll all jump into the woods and climb a tree for crying out loud. I come here to sell my art, buy my tickets, and everything else helps me pay my rent.”
(sfgate.com)
GRATEFUL FOR THE DEAD
To the Editor:
Jerry Garcia was one of the greatest improvisational musicians of our time. He was, in my opinion, up there with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and John Coltrane. When we celebrate his justly enduring legacy, that’s what we should focus on — not his “political legacy.”
The notion of Jerry Garcia as a hippie avatar after the mid-’70s is absurd. Jerry designed ties, for gosh sakes. His family sells everything Jerry-related on a website today. He was, in his own way, a capitalist. That he “exercised freedom rather than waiting on the government to grant it” is hardly distinctive to any great artist. But his solo on “Morning Dew” at Cornell ‘77 — that was distinctive.
Matt Adler
Voorhees, New Jersey
MORNING DEW
by Bonnie Dobson (1962)
Walk me out in the morning dew my honey,
Walk me out in the morning dew today.
I can't walk you out in the morning dew my honey,
I can't walk you out in the morning dew today.
I thought I heard a baby cry this morning,
I thought I heard a baby cry this today.
You didn't hear no baby cry this morning,
You didn't hear no baby cry today.
Where have all the people gone my honey,
Where have all the people gone today.
There's no need for you to be worrying about all those people,
You never see those people anyway.
I thought I heard a young man morn this morning,
I thought I heard a young man morn today.
I thought I heard a young man morn this morning,
I can't walk you out in the morning dew today.
Walk me out in the morning dew my honey,
Walk me out in the morning dew today.
I'll walk you out in the morning dew my honey,
I guess it doesn't really matter anyway,
I guess it doesn't matter anyway,
I guess it doesn't matter anyway,
Guess it doesn't matter anyway.
GIANTS’ WHISENHUNT GETS 1ST WIN, Devers and Lee star in rout of Mets
by Susan Slusser
NEW YORK — With not quite two months left in the season, the best bets for the San Francisco Giants’ wild-card hopes are showing signs of sparking to life.
And sure, had Jung-Hoo Lee and Rafael Devers started hitting two or three weeks ago, perhaps the Giants wouldn’t have traded three players last week at the deadline. But an on-base machine and a slugger are welcome any time and Sunday the two helped San Francisco take the series against the NL-East leading Mets, who own the best home record in the game and steamrolled the Giants at Oracle Park last week.
Devers’ three-run homer in the third got the ball rolling in the Giants’ 12-4 victory and Lee had his first career four-hit game.
“This was a very important game, especially after not playing very well at home,” Devers said, with Erwin Higueros interpreting. “Taking the series from the Mets, it gives us a lot of motivation and inspiration to continue moving forward.”
Can the Giants, sellers at the deadline, still make the playoffs? Devers cut off the question before it was finished, saying, “Yes, I think the only thing we need to concentrate on is just winning series moving forward. And I think that we can still do it.”
The new wrinkle for the Giants: Carson Whisenhunt, in his second start, earned his first big league win, going 5⅓ innings and allowing three hits and two runs (one earned), with four strikeouts and two walks. If he can get a little deeper into games and continue to keep teams off balance, the Giants might have a new member of the rotation. (Whisenhunt is pitching in the sport left open when Hayden Birdsong suddenly developed problems throwing strikes; Landen Roupp is out with elbow inflammation and not expected back for a few weeks at least.)
Whisenhunt got the traditional first-win beer shower, “and there was some applesauce and milk thrown in there, but no mustard or ketchup or anything,” he said.
He also got a delightful reaction from future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander after coming out of the game, and congratulations from fellow pitchers Robbie Ray and Logan Webb. “It was pretty cool,” Whisenhunt said.
Lee, who disappeared for long stretches of the season, had a walk and a steal to go along with his four hits and also scored two runs Sunday. His trendline started to tick up this weekend as he went 7-for-12 and in the three games. He said after the game he’s working on trying to get back to being a contact hitter and trying to go the other way more.
“He’s kind of trying to figure out what works best for him right now,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Early in the season, he was driving some balls. I think here recently he’s maybe trying to get away from that a little bit. … I think that’s probably a prudent thing to do.”
Lee is advertised as an excellent bat-to-ball, contact-type hitter, and one indication the Giants are trying to encourage him to get back to that — or are taking advantage of the fact that he’s doing it a little better lately — came in the team’s three-run fourth, when Melvin put on a hit-and-run and Lee sent Casey Schmitt to third with a base hit to center.
“It’s crazy because every time the hit-and-run sign has been put down, I actually got a hit,” Lee said, with Justin Han interpreting.
Schmitt then scored on a grounder by Patrick Bailey, beating the throw to the plate with a nice slide; Heliot Ramos sent Lee in with an infield single and Devers pushed Bailey in with a base hit.
Devers, the biggest bat dealt during the summer, was a massive acquisition for a team in need of power, but entering Sunday he was batting .219 with four homers and 15 RBIs in his first 39 games with the Giants and the team was 14-25 with him in the lineup. “I haven’t been performing very well,” he said, “but I’m finally getting my timing.”
His homer, off Frankie Montas, rocketed into the second deck, and he followed that with singles in his next two at-bats (he was thrown out trying to stretch a double on the second) plus a walk. Schmitt added a three-run blast in San Francisco’s five-run ninth.
New reliever José Buttó turned in great work coming on in the sixth and working 1⅔ innings, allowing one hit and striking out three to help the Giants send his former club to just its fourth home series loss of the season. Joey Lucchesi, another former Met, added a scoreless inning but Ryan Walker, pitching in garbage time, gave up two runs with two outs in the ninth.
Birdsong looked as if he might hold down a rotation spot for a while after putting up a 2.79 ERA through his first five starts, then he walked 18 and gave up 18 hits over his next 17⅓ innings. He has walked three in 8⅓ innings in two starts at Triple-A Sacramento and could become an option again once he dials in his strike throwing.
“Look, it turned on him pretty quickly, the other way,” Melvin said of Birdsong’s sudden control issues. “So I think it could turn quickly for him again, that’s the hope for us. He was quite the contributor for a long period of time and then obviously had some issues.”
Saturday, Roupp threw his first bullpen session since going on the IL retroactive to July 23. He’ll need at least one more before throwing to hitters and probably going on a quick rehab assignment. Reliever Erik Miller (elbow) will throw to hitters Monday.
The Giants did lose one potential pitching option Sunday when the Orioles claimed Carson Ragsdale off waivers. Reliever Sean Hjelle, designated for assignment Friday, cleared waivers and was outrighted to Sacramento.
(sfchronicle.com)
FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA SAID GEORGE LUCAS MADE HIM DIRECT ‘THE GODFATHER,’ SAYS AMERICA MAY FALL LIKE ANCIENT ROME
by G. Allen Johnson
Before he broke through with “American Graffiti,” before he became an instant legend with “Star Wars,” George Lucas became the unsung hero of another American classic that changed cinema history: “The Godfather.”
Or so claims the director of that 1972 masterpiece, Francis Ford Coppola.
“Everyone turned ‘The Godfather’ down, all the wonderful directors of the time,” the 86-year-old filmmaker told an enthusiastic crowd at the Palace of Fine Arts. “So they tried to hire me. Here was the logic: ‘One, he’s Italian-American, so if it gets a lot of flack, they’ll blame him. Two, there’s a script that wasn’t very good, and he’s become a successful screenwriter, so he’ll rewrite the script. And three, he’s young and has two kids and a pregnant wife, so we can just push him around and order him to do everything we want.’
“Well, I turned it down. I had a young apprentice, and we had come together to start a company (San Francisco-based American Zoetrope). His name was George Lucas. He said, ‘We can’t turn it down, we have no money, the sheriff is going to chain our door because we haven’t made the taxes on the thing. You have to do it, we have no other alternatives.’ I said, ‘You’re right George.’”
Billed as ”An Evening with Francis Ford Coppola and ‘Megalopolis’ Screening,” the event in Coppola’s adopted hometown on Friday, Aug. 1, finished off a six-city tour designed to create more awareness and discussion of his 2024 $120 million self-financed dream project that tanked at the box office.
Coppola was certainly generous with his time. The event lasted nearly four hours, with a screening of the two-hour, 18-minute film followed by a 90-minute discussion with the filmmaker simply sitting in a chair pontificating on a wide range of issues while occasionally taking questions from the audience.
Topics included anthropology, history, societal evolution, and the philosophy of human innovation and creativity. “Megalopolis,” which likens the fall of Rome to the current state of American politics and culture, is informed by the development of human civilization over 300,000 years, noting that patriarchal societies began with the domestication of horses.
So, not your typical film discussion.
Still, the audience who paid prices ranging from $61-$205 and mostly filled the 1,000-seat venue were enthusiastic and attentive, giving the auteur standing ovations as he took the stage and as he left it. However, there was a small but steady stream of people who began leaving about 45 minutes in.
One topic that hits close to home for Coppola is homelessness in San Francisco. The director noted that he founded a nonprofit, North Beach Citizens, in 2001 to help the unhoused find housing, food, and services because he felt the city wasn’t doing enough.
“I used to walk to work and see these homeless people sleeping, and people would call them human garbage. What, are we crazy?” said Coppola, who added that the solution to most of society’s problems has to be addressed first at the community level, inverting the top-down aspect of federal government.
Coppola did, of course, give insights to his films, from the two “Godfathers” to the San Francisco-shot, Watergate-era thriller “The Conversation“ (1974); the troubled production of the Vietnam “Apocalypse Now” (1979); and “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992), his biggest non-”Godfather” box office hit.
And, of course, “Megalopolis.” Although he did not address various controversies about its production, including on-set inappropriate behavior (and no one asked about it, either), he believes it serves a warning about America and yet provides hope for the future.
America will get out of its mess, Coppola said, as today’s generation of children matures.
“Look at the world around us right now, wars all over the place, and the most horrible thing of all children being killed,” Coppola said. “The kids being killed in Sudan or in the Middle East, someone was gonna find a cure for cancer or write the most gorgeous music ever been written or make a great film. So to me the children are precious. They are our future.”
For now, Coppola refuses to release “Megalopolis” digitally, content to tour with the movie for special one-off screenings. The film only made $14 million globally after its release in September. He did acknowledge there eventually will be a Blu-ray, and the man known for re-editing his past films teased the audience with an alternate cut of the film.
“Right now I’m working on ‘Megalopolis Unbound,’” he said to laughter, and ended the night.
(SF Chronicle)
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
And for all the people out there who are like, “Oh, my God, I’m so tired of this story”
I can’t even comprehend that complaint. For ten years we heard Russia Russia Russia. Now that it has been exposed as a complete fabrication by politicians, intelligence agencies, and the media, we’re supposed to pretend it never happened?
People are sick and tired of living in a PretendLand and being lectured by liars and airheads. This is a chance to restore a semblance of legitimacy to our American system of governance. This isn’t just a big story, it’s the only story. Short of nuclear war breaking out, there’s nothing more deserving of coverage.
Our leaders have done, and continue to do, things that go against every human system of justice, formal or informal, in all of human history. It is time for it to end.
MARILYN DAVIN
Mainstream News Directors: I offer a bit of free, undoubtedly unwelcome advice on your current news coverage:
1.) Our uneducated, opportunistic president could care less about antisemitism, or for that matter the welfare of any individual group. More Jews live in New York than in Tel Aviv: Trump only cares about this educated and well-heeled voting block to gain its support, ironically blackmailing universities and colleges as the hammer to cement that support. Critically, as news directors, you have a moral and factual obligation to remind your gullible audiences that “antisemitism” is a misleading cop-out interpretation of demonstrations held here and around the world. Most of those demonstrators wouldn’t recognize the Torah if it hit them over the head. It’s the State of Israel’s genocide in Gaza that’s driving the bus. You are responsible for pointing out this critical factual difference.
2.) I get it: There’s nothing easier to gather or more provocative to present than “justice for the families” as part of your coverage of an increasing number of highly publicized murders. What do you expect a family to say about the brutal murder of a loved one? Shame on you, the only lazier way to “report” a story is the dread “man on the street” interview. Violent crime is a matter for our courts, not some vague, incendiary notion of family “justice” (revenge in a nicer package). If families increase their high-profile posturing in these legal proceedings, apparently with every elected official’s public agreement, we might as well go back to clans killing one another directly for wrongdoing, real or perceived. And what if anything does revenge accomplish? “Closure” is a myth, as anyone who has suffered the loss of a loved one knows only too well.
‘I had my time, I fought for 29 years. I survived a plane crash, the army, the navy - and five wives.
All I am is an ex-champ. That’s 40 years ago. I had my day. I lived it. And, today, nobody could care less.’
— Willie Pep
EPISTLE TO THE WOKIANS
Editor,
To the Church of the Wokians, and all those sanctified in Wokeness, and, yea, even to the Order of the Covidians, and the High Priests of Pronouns, grace and peace to you all!
I appeal to you, former brothers and sisters, in the name of all that is Woke, that all of you agree with one another in what you say, and that there be no divisions among you, and that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.
However, notwithstanding your unity of mind and thought, and your undividedness, and agreement with each other, I appeal to you to open your mind and thought to this epistle from a former member of your Church, for I write to you in the spirit of peace and forgiveness and harmony and all that good stuff, albeit in this silly mock-Pauline style.
My former brothers and sisters, what is to be done about the fear and hatred and the political polarization that has divided Americans? Verily, we are as a hodgepodge of fundamentalist churches waging endless cancel crusades against each other. Are we already fighting the next civil war? Is there anything that still binds us together?
Are we even able to talk to each other anymore?
My former comrades in Wokeness and Progressiveness, I intend to find the answer to these questions or make a jackass of myself trying.
Verily, I am going to fly across the ocean, returning to the USA, where I have not lived for over twenty years, rent a somewhat ridiculous automobile, and drive all around the country with my friend Hugo Fernandez, who is a photographer, and who is still fairly Woke (or at least he has not yet been excommunicated from the Church of Wokeness).
Our adventures on the road, the perspectives of the folks we meet along the way, and Hugo’s photos will be published as a book by Arcade Publishing. Strangers in a Strange Homeland: On the Road in 21st-Century America is our working title.
My former brothers and sisters, I need your help to carry out this foolish mission, for the portrait of contemporary America that Professor Hugo and I want to paint would not be complete without the stories and perspectives of the Wokians.
And there’s the rub.
Due to my activities in recent years, my readership is primarily comprised of unWoke apostates like myself, old-school lefties, free-speech absolutists, inveterate individual liberties enthusiasts, and, verily, even conservatives and libertarians. Many of these unWoke blasphemers have generously invited the Professor and myself to come and talk to them about America, and are opening their homes and horse farms to us, and are organizing gatherings large and small in towns and cities throughout the country to help us carry out our quixotic mission.
I am exceedingly grateful to these generous folks, but I also want to talk to the Woke, notwithstanding my apostate status in the Church, and my thought criminal status in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the fact that some of you (i.e., those of you who have even heard of me) regard me as a “Covid denier,” an “anti-vaxxer,” a “conspiracy theorist,” or have some other horrible impression of me.
Therefore, I am reaching out to you, my former brothers and sisters in Wokeness (and to the Wokians I suspect are silently lurking among my 34,000 subscribers). I’m asking you to put aside your low opinion of my unWoke activities and help us paint a portrait of America at this historical, and arguably historic, moment.
I described the spirit of this slightly crazy project, and the origins of the working title of the book, in my previous column
Here’s a brief excerpt:
…in a broader sense, aren’t we Americans all “strangers in a strange homeland,” no matter how far back our roots in the country go, or how long we may have been away from home? Except for the Native Americans, we’re all from somewhere else.
In these times of extreme political polarization, cultural fragmentation, confusion, anger, and fear, what is it, if anything, that still unites us as Americans? How did we get here? Where are we? Where are we headed? These are some of the questions I’m hoping to explore with the people we meet along the road.
See? That’s not so horrible, right?
Below you will find our current itinerary. If you are Woke, and find yourself along our route, and are willing to talk to me about America, or perhaps organize a gathering of local Wokians, please get in touch via this contact form https://consentfactory.org/contact/.
I want to hear and listen to what you have to say.
You don’t even have to talk to me if you don’t want to. As I mentioned above, Hugo is still pretty Woke, or at least quite a bit more Woke than I am. You could talk to Hugo, and then Hugo could lean over and tell me what you said, and then I could tell Hugo what I want to say to you, and then he could lean over and — well, I think you get the idea.
Seriously, all teasing aside, I want to hear your stories and perspectives and be able to include them in this book.
Blessings and Peace to you, my former brothers and sisters, and to all those sanctified in Wokeness!
Yours in Apostasy,
CJ Hopkins
Berlin
WHAT TO DO WHEN THE PRESIDENT ACTS LIKE A FIVE-YEAR-OLD?
by George A Akerlof
Imagine a group of 5-year-olds playing a board game. The rules are clear, the goal is fair, and one child edges ahead — until, suddenly, another child starts losing. That’s when the trouble begins. “He cheated!” the losing child yells. “I’m the winner anyway!” he declares. And then, like clockwork, he flips the board. In the world of kindergarten conflict resolution, we expect this kind of behavior. We chalk it up to development. We teach better sportsmanship.
What do we do when the president of the United States behaves this way? On Friday, President Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics — the nation’s workaday scorekeeper of employment, wages and productivity. Why? Because the data didn’t make Mr. Trump look good. The statistics were inconvenient. So the president didn’t just challenge the findings; he fired the statistician. That’s not governing. That’s board flipping.
For over a century, the integrity of U.S. economic data has rested on a fragile but vital precept: independence. Agencies like the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis operate under the executive branch, but their mandates are to serve the truth, not the administration. Their job is to report what is, not what the White House wishes were true.
Yes, legally, the president can fire the bureau’s commissioner. The position is not protected by statute. But like many pillars of democracy — free press, fair elections, impartial courts — what protects the Bureau of Labor Statistics is not law but a common set of assumptions about how government should function. A basic idea that says: Presidents don’t manipulate the scoreboard.
Past presidents respected this boundary. Ronald Reagan didn’t fire the head of the agency when it reported double-digit unemployment during his first term. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama took bad news from official statistics on the chin. Mr. Trump has charted a different course. This is not his first tangle with truth. He has questioned unemployment numbers and dismissed Covid fatality figures as inflated. Removing the Bureau of Labor Statistics chief because the numbers were off narrative is a new breach. It is not only attacking the game; it is removing the referee.
This may sound like inside baseball, of importance mostly to labor economists. But it’s not. The credibility of American statistics is foundational. It undergirds investor trust. It guides fiscal and monetary policy. It tells businesses when to hire, when to expand and when to hold. When those numbers are tainted or appear to be, the ripple effects are vast. Markets can lose faith in the data and in the country that produces it.
Yes, the BLS made some retroactive changes to its May and June reports, sharply cutting its assessments of job growth. These kinds of revisions are routine as the BLS incorporates new data, even if these were particularly large. The job of counting is getting harder as the response rate to its surveys falls. But this isn’t malfeasance.
What about citizens? When a government fires the umpire, we all have reason to wonder: What game are we playing? One danger certainly is that a future Bureau of Labor Statistics head might feel political pressure to fudge a jobs report. The deeper risk is cynicism, the quiet corrosion of faith in institutions. If we can’t believe the numbers, how do we believe anything?
Most children learn that flipping the board doesn’t make them the winner. It just means the game is over. In a democracy, the same lesson holds. We need our referees. We need our scorekeepers. And most of all, we need leaders who understand that losing the game fairly is far more honorable than winning by force.
Why so? Because when presidents flip the board, it’s not just a game that ends. It’s the pieces of democracy that get scattered to the floor.
(George A. Akerlof is a Nobel-Prize winning economist.)
EIGHTEEN INCHES OF RAIN
by Ian Tyson (1994)
Not a broke horse on the place
Pickup truck won't go
Tractor lost a wheel 'bout a week ago.
The wind is from the east
Blowing hard across the plain
I'm high and lonesome
Waiting for a change
Just give me one broke horse
With a good fittin' saddle
That's easy on your back
One good woman who makes up the difference
For everything I lack
One last chance to sell my calves
Before the prices go to hell again,
Clear blue skies and eighteen inches of rain.
Coffee's kinda bitter
Is it the water or the pot?
Until I get to town
I'll make do with what I got
The Copenhagen's running low
I should quit it anyways
Me and this ol' outfit
We've both seen better days
CHILOCCO INDIAN SCHOOL BASKETBALL TEAM
Long before it was twisted by hate, the swastika held deep meaning for many Indigenous Nations — a sacred symbol of peace, harmony, and good fortune.
LEAD STORIES, MONDAY'S NYT
Texas Democrats Leave State to Block G.O.P. From Redrawing Political Map
Democratic Group Calls on Blue States to Draw New House Maps
Trump Fired America’s Economic Data Collector. History Shows the Perils
Trump Says He Ordered Subs Repositioned in Rare Nuclear Threat to Russia
Ghislaine Maxwell Moved to Minimum-Security Women’s Prison in Texas
Senate Confirms Jeanine Pirro as U.S. Attorney for D.C.
No Passports, No Study Abroad: China Limits Public Employees’ Travel
Why Even Basic Airline Seats Keep Getting More ‘Premium’
NO, the demons are not banished; that is a difficult task that still lies ahead. Now that the angel of history has abandoned the Germans, the demons will seek a new victim. And that won’t be difficult. Every man who loses his shadow, every nation that falls into self-righteousness, is their prey…. We should not forget that exactly the same fatal tendency to collectivization is present in the victorious nations as in the Germans, that they can just as suddenly become a victim of the demonic powers.
— Carl Jung (1945)
WHEN VICTIMS COME TO POWER…
(Marilyn Davin)
Esteemed Editor: I wish you the best. You now have outlasted Loni Anderson.
Oh, Dear Bruce, That is tough stuff you’re dealing with, and now fate’s added prostate cancer to the mix. Just what a guy doesn’t need, but there it is, damn it. I’m glad you’re blessed with lots of loving help from family. Hang in there, Bruce, the world—especially right now—needs brave men and editors like you to tell the truth to all. We respect and love you, don’t forget that. (I wish I’d thought of Kirk’s Loni Anderson comment, that’s a good one, and bet it made you smile.)
+1
Hang in there, Boss, the County needs you to tell the Suits who and what they are…
Thank you, and good luck,
Laz
Now Trump!
The statue found in Gualala also looks like Guan Yin (Avalokiteśvara) with her thousand hands.
RITE AID REIMAGINED
That big empty hole of a building at the corner of South State and Gobbi Streets, formerly known as Rite Aid, is in need of occupants, renters, shop keepers, whatever.
“This being Ukiah, and us being aware of what the local market rewards in ways of retail, I have several suggestions.
One big store covered in an acre of linoleum seems unworkable at the moment, so a handful of small shops might happily co-exist among one another.”
Hey, Tommy, I got the perfect fit for your Rite-Aide bldg and it’s called Savers, a chain of secondhand stores set up and run like a department store back before K-Mart and Wally-World put the others out of business. It’s way cool. Savers hires large crews of employees, to take in donations and provide customer service in all the departments … since Savers moved into our old Rite-Aide they have been the busiest business in all of Walnut Creek, they have multiple checkout stands, and the parking lot always has cars circulating as they wait for a parking spot… all the other businesses including the mall, Target and the tony boutiques are all deserted and dead by comparison…!
I guess Trump can’t put a tariff on used goods so it’s the only place non-billionaires can afford to shop, huh.
Morning AVA’ers, ⭐️🌷
TWK nothing like superiority and classism first thing in the morning. Dam dude, 😂 . Guess you have been out of the job market for a time, things are much different. I don’t know about your ancestry but mine, they used prayer, folk magic and lunar cycles to tend to their ailments, including tying a string around affected tooth and other end around a doorknob then slamming door til tooth came out.
“Even poor People” ….. Jesus F’ing Christ, really, … poor people undeserving of any amenities. Not everyone who is “poor” receives food stamps. Also rent is not free it is reduced.
As far as Rite-Aid goes how about a Homeless Shelter and we can call it Toms Place or TWK’s home for the poor lost folk who deserve nothing.
mm 💕
Mazie, you gotta take Tommy with a few grains of salt—not gunpowder!
hahaha Bruce,
A waste of salt…. 😂 🧂..lol
mm 💕
Yes, but save your powder. And keep it dry.
Lol,😂
Is that in case I need to shoot?
Never shot a gun, just words.. lol😉
What happens if you fire a shot with wet gun powder, all kidding aside, seriously I would like to know. 😁
mm 💕
TWK was funny back in the day when he did bar reviews for The Grapevine. In his golden years he shrouds his bitterness in sarcasm.
Hiya Mike,
I remember the grapevine my brother and I had a paper route delivering those when I was young. Bar reviews interesting, I wonder if they were as cynical then? lol 🤣😉
mm 💕
Mazie, if you could fire a gun with wet powder then all kinds of miraculous things would happen. The starving would be fed, the homeless mental cases not only housed in sumptuous temples, but they would be revered like Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Joe Smith, David Karesh, etc and Tommy Wayne would become an egalitarian gentleman walking the streets of Ukiah, locked elbows with Mike Jameson, praising the trail, picking up trash, and distributing oodles and scads of alms… whereas you would replace the county CEO and bring the supes to heel … and that’s just the beginning of what would happen if you fired a gun with wet powder!
Hahaha — okay Bruce,
No chance of firing a gun with wet powder, I get it now! I didn’t before as I said, I’ve never fired a gun, literally no clue. So thank you for the lesson. 😄
But what you touched on goes beyond soggy ammo you mentioned miracles.
And yes, it would be a miracle if a gun fired with wet powder, because that’s just not how it works. Totally impossible.
Luckily, we don’t need guns for miracles to happen.
Miracles happen all the time.
Sure all the things you listed would be miraculous if they came to life… and honestly, some of them could. Well, maybe not the part about me replacing the county CEO… 🤣⭐️
I believe in miracles.
Hell, I am one. Haha! ☀️
mm 💕
I think the next Revolution might very well start in Illinois, when Abbot sends the Tejas Rangers to extradite the Tejas Democratic lawmakers who fled the state and are denying him his quorum to pass Trump’s illegal Gerrymander. He has threatened to charge them with felonies and jail them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUt0dZXPFoU&list=RDBUt0dZXPFoU&start_radio=1
Marilyn Davin–Powerful ending to MCT this day–those two photos and the title. The current genocide in Gaza really negates the larger meaning of “Never Again.”
Hey Bruce, if that photo’s at all recent, you are looking pretty good for not only your age, but your medical condition. Please know that I wish you as speedy a journey through these upcoming treatments as is possible. I can’t imagine my days without you and the Major and the AVA. With Trump destroying our country, there remains a growing need for the kicking of ass and the taking of names. And that’s always where you shine.
+1
Take care, we do need you and Major and Jim Shields.
Reading Bruce’s column today directs me to reminisce: I came from back East to SF in the late 70’s for graduate school. I fell in love with the city and also Herb Caen. About 1991, now married, we bought property near Philo. Even earlier, I would buy the AVA and devour it’s weekly substance, never failing to read Bruce’s and usually Zack’s, contributions.
I found Bruce’s writing (as a contemporary), relatable, humorous, and informative as to the people of the valley, and everyday politics.
I morphed to the online edition, begrudgingly, as I like to hold a paper in my hand, and over that past few years, have followed his medical odyssey.
I have journeyed some of the same paths myself, but he related the travails more accurately than I could have ever done.
I’m saddened that he is ensconced in SF; the valley misses and needs his voice and presence But I will continue to follow his trek, and sincerely wish him the best this poor world has to offer. Please outlast trump.
Bruce Anderson and Mark Scaramella have been closer to my idea of who and what men should be, in the real world, than anyone. And of what such men should do with their life and talent and sense of honor and sense of humor. One day they’ll be gone, and we’ll all have to adapt to a world measurably shittier and shoddier because they are not in it. There’s no getting ready for that. It’s gonna hit us all like a ton of bricks.
a daily silent prayer for bruce and ling……a fully lived life, and its not over..
we are supposed to “laugh at death” (wendell berry)..it is a challenge.
you will always be my pulitzer prise (no offense intended)…
a Cal Poly athlete and no words to explain how i respect you and yours.
good luck, pal
I have to say that the posts today, expressing heartfelt care and concern for our Editor in various, quite personal ways, are remarkable, memorable and moving. Reading through them at the end of the day, they make a fine collage of tribute for Bruce.
Bruce: The prostate cancer industry is not a very finely tuned one.
I hope you have had a second or third opinion, especially if one of them is from the outfit that seemingly did a good job on your throat.
My sort of cryptic post above was meant to say that I had quite disappointing experiences with the UCSF urological oncology department one after another for three or four years.