Mendocino County Today: Monday 9/8/2025

Light Rain | Lichen | Bridge Washout | County Fair | Boontworks | Spiderworks | Ukiah Mysteries | Wonder Art | Mendocino Heroine | Zebra Property | Chili Cook-Off | Yesterday's Catch | ICE Victims | Berlin Beggar | Oakland Shootout | Debt Matters | Coin Toss | Niners Win | Giants Lose | Broadside #63 | Grocery Tips | Mr Nostril | Radical Trans | Great Cause | Disney Letters | Mandami Ad | Jive Bullshit | Lead Stories | Chronic Disease | Narcoterrorist Warning | Ukraine Neo-Nazi | Salute | Demonstration Day | Rigid Personality | Bar Fun | City Arts

---

PERIODS OF RAIN and thunderstorms are forecast today through mid week. Drier weather will be possible toward the end of the week, followed by another chance of rain during the weekend. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A cloudy 51F on the coast this Monday morning. Our approaching weather system is just offshore, poised to arrive by midday with a small amount of rain forecast today & tomorrow, smaller rain chances on Wednesday. Dry skies Thursday & Friday then another shot of rain this weekend. The first rains are a bit early this year, no?

ON MONDAY, a weak surface low guided by the upper-level trough will slide toward the California-Oregon border. Its associated cold front will bring widespread light rain showers to Northern California, with upward of a tenth to a quarter-inch of rain across parts of Humboldt, Shasta and Mendocino counties. That same cold front will slowly approach the Bay Area on Monday evening, kick-starting a few scattered showers mainly focused in the North Bay. (AP )

---

---

BILL KIMBERLIN: THE BAILEY BRIDGE

My correction to local reports of why our Boonville bridge is being replaced.

Let us try to get the story straight here. The bridge did not exactly fail, “after the heavy rains washed out the old 1930s bridge”.

Caltrans insisted on running a culvert from the storm drain near the ice cream shop on Hwy 128 down Lambert Lane dumping near the foundation of the original bridge.

Bill Holcomb, who was in charge of our roads at that time, wrote an official letter to Caltrans that informed them that this error in official plumbing would eventually wash out the bridge. Bill’s official letter was ignored.

---

---

BOONTWORKS TO THE RESCUE

Dear Friends,

Over the next five years, Boonville will see some really big changes with tens of millions of dollars in new infrastructure projects reshaping the Highway 128 corridor through town. Pending drinking water and sewer projects make it possible for AT&T and PG&E to move their lines underground, and the Caltrans Clean California Act covers ADA sidewalks as well as parking/striping/repaving improvements.

We can either sit back and let bureaucracies shape our community, or we can take this rare opportunity to make our own creative contributions. Ultimately, we want to ensure that the above projects are implemented in harmony with a cohesive, well-considered vision that reflects the spirit and character of our distinctive town.

We’re calling this effort BoontWorks. We’ve gathered a local creative team (listed below) and engaged Ned Forrest, architect and partner of a respected Sonoma firm. Ned has graciously offered to help create a local general plan that combines community input and professional oversight to inform these projects.

Ned has a vested longtime interest in Anderson Valley and has helped us pro bono so far. But to create a document that Caltrans will consider—and also to work towards a much needed “general plan”—we need to raise $25,000 to $50,000 over the next six months.

The Caltrans issue is urgent as the time window for submitting our creative input for their consideration will close soon.

One dynamic possibility that can only happen with community involvement includes using permeable surfaces and landscaping rather than the usual concrete pavement, which not only exacerbates heat issues on hot summer days, but also generates runoff into our streams. The current Caltrans plan imposes an unnecessarily wide thoroughfare that encourages speeding, whereas keeping the road a comfortable width and incorporating traffic slowing measures will keep traffic moving but moderated. Design aspects like these will result in a roadway that protects small businesses, maintains our sense of community, and helps keep people both safe and happy.

Our initial team has partnered with the Community Foundation of Mendocino County seeking tax deductible donations ranging from $250 to $1,000 and beyond. Those contributing $1,000 or more will be invited to a private dinner to meet Ned Forrest and the rest of the BoontWorks team at the Boonville Hotel. Other than Ned, all of us are donating our time and services.

The natural landscape of Anderson Valley is exceptionally beautiful, and with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, we can make Boonville’s public infrastructure beautiful as well. BoontWorks can help make our corner of Mendocino County something we can be proud of, leaving a lasting legacy for our children and theirs.

Please reach out via email or phone to learn more and to get involved. The CalTrans Boonville re-paving project would truly benefit from your help and input.

With Gratitude,

The Boontworks Team, Boontworks.org

Boontworks Team: Sasha Williams, civil engineer; Johnny Schmitt, business owner, Donna Pierson-Pugh, retired educator; Lauren Keating, retired busiess owner; Jed Pogran, retired designer; Patrick Miller, landscape architect; Steve Wood, architect; Ned Forrest, architect.

PS. Tax deductible Donations by check can be made to CFMC/Boontworks and sent to: CFMC, 204 S. Oak St., Ukiah 95482 (Memo: Boontworks)

---

---

UKIAH, AMERICA’S MYSTERY SPOT

by Tommy Wayne Kramer

We were at Todd Grove Park and he was explaining where the old Chevy pickup truck with a For Sale sign was parked.

“You take Dora here,” he said, pointing east down Grove Street, “and when you get to Dora you make a right and it’s just across the street. Big house with a picket fence.”

Some blinking and some furrowed brows, some exchanging of glances and rolling of eyes. None of us know much but we know enough to know he didn’t know nothing about the streets of Ukiah.

Not that anyone does, at least not anyone I know, and I also don’t know much either. But the point in this distribution of misinformation was the fact it marked the 25,000th time (I’m a journalist, I keep count) someone in my presence has utterly flubbed directions from anywhere in Ukiah to somewhere else in Ukiah.

How? Why? How can people who have lived in Ukiah all their lives be unfamiliar with the half dozen streets that criss-cross their own neighborhoods and blocks? Is it collective geographic amnesia?

No one knows where anything is, or least how to find it, or at least how to give coherent directions to a stranger to help him find it. Ukiah is the Mystery Spot of American cities.

Newcomers quickly realize they are dealing with a genuine, bonafide local when they stop to ask for directions, and the answer is a puzzled, cloudy face and a vague gesture in the direction of over there.

The fellow at the top of this story giving preposterous and incoherent directions to a parked truck on the west side, has himself lived half a century within a few blocks of the truck, but doesn’t know where it is or at least is unable to tell anyone else where it is.

The same guy could throw a baseball from his backyard into Anton Stadium, but I’d bet $100 he couldn’t give accurate directions on how to walk from his house to the ol’ ballpark.

I judge not. I’ve lived on the west side of Ukiah for 50 years and don’t know Hope Street from Wiltshire Boulevard. I have walked dogs all around my own neighborhood for a big percentage of my life and still can’t predict the next intersection.

Oh, ha ha it’s Hope Street. I knew that.

It will surprise me again tomorrow when I stroll the same route.

And this only proves our ignorance among the few blocks that surround us. But what of the wild, unexplored regions south of town, out where rumors of lands called Tedford and Wabash lie, or the vast, mysterious Deerwood territory and the estates of Eldorado? Know anyone who has ventured into these unmapped jungles? Did they return? Were they able to draw crude maps depicting where they’d been and the marvels they’d encountered?

West Stephenson and South Pine? A longtime resident will bumble around for 15 minutes trying to find the intersection before realizing he lives three blocks away, and has for 30 years.

As a freshly minted reporter for the (late, lamented) Cleveland Press starting in 1969, I had a better grasp of its hundreds of streets, blocks, acreage and alleys than I have of Ukiah’s. Other Ukiahans report a similar disquieting phenomena.

Wife Trophy lived part of a decade in San Francisco, and whenever we return to it she displays a photographic mastery of the city layout.

The same woman has done more than 40 years in Ukiah, but if required to name a few streets around our house (north-south-east-west) she’d lapse into pure guessery by the time she got to Willow or Barnes. She’d break out in hives before she could tell you where North Pine Street terminates.

But it’s not all our fault. You live in a town with a Brush Street, a Bush Street, two streets named Betty, where a street called Main Street isn’t, and where North Pine Street ends at Cypress Avenue heading north only to resume a few hundred yards distant, except now it’s heading east. North Dora terminates going west.

I’ve written about this before but it’s gotten no better. With my friends getting older and more forgetful it’s bound to be so much worse in another five years that we’ll all need self-driving Teslas to get us to the bowling alley, skating rink or drive-in movie.

---

“TO BOLDLY GO…”

‘Art of Wonder’ panelists discuss new approaches to artmaking

by Roberta Werdinger

On Thursday, Sept. 11, from 7 to 8:15 p.m., the Grace Hudson Museum presents “Artists Talking Wonder,” a virtual panel featuring four artists who have contributed to the Museum’s latest exhibit, The Art of Wonder. Antoinette von Grone, Micah Sanger, Jazzminh Moore, and Red Wolf are all Mendocino County residents and seasoned artists who combine formal innovation with bold and uniquely personal visions that draw on the past to craft new futures.

It’s no surprise, then, that Micah Sanger founded and runs the Visionary Arts Gallery in Mendocino village. Visiting the gallery, one can almost feel the paintings on the walls buzz with movement. While struggling to capture the outward forms of a landscape in a plein air painting session, Sanger realized the truth of Unified Field Theory as formulated by Albert Einstein who believed that all forces of nature and fundamental particles exist as part of a single physical field. This transformed Sanger’s vision, leading him to create landscapes and portraits experienced from the inside out. Since then, he has created large, light-saturated paintings wherein people’s bodies are shown saturated by cosmic rays, and landscapes that layer, in vertical rectangles, realistic colors and shapes with simplified outlines. Gratified that 20th-century scientists have echoed the insights of ancient mystics, Sanger celebrates that people who visit the gallery “get a sense of deeper mystery and wonder in terms of how awake the world really is.”

Willits artist Jazzminh Moore was on the fast track for showing her paintings in New York City galleries when she decided to return to the rural West, where she had been raised. Working in collage and layering it over paintings helped her to enter new artistic and personal territory-- confirming Curator Alyssa Boge’s point that many artists in the exhibit like to “push the boundaries of their mediums.” Indeed, Moore allows that “I am always challenging myself technically.” She was also challenged in other ways, when the COVID crisis spurred the shutdown of public institutions in 2020 and she found herself unemployed. “I was allowed to be the introvert I truly am,” she recalls. “I just sat in my studio and made art and walked in nature.” The result was “Setting Sail,” in which a brightly colored sailboat navigates roiling waters, on top of which sits a house with “a little acrobat” and a small patch of clear sky. Producing this painting helped Moore realize that “no matter what is going on underneath, there’s going to be blue skies overhead.”

Raised in Northern Germany and long-time resident of Anderson Valley, Antoinette von Grone portrays whimsy as well as wonder, in her richly painted canvases of animals both common and endangered. Her “Animal Ancestors” series has appeal for both children and adults, as cats, birds, goats, deer, and other species, dressed in pre-20th century European aristocratic attire, appear against the backdrop of a country estate. Leaning against a fence or poised pertly on a blanket, resplendent in red jackets, lace collars, and voluminous skirts, von Grone’s animals pose for portraits while often cavorting with other animals. The result is at once playful and loving, breaching the gap between humans and non-humans. Aware that many animals are now endangered or have gone extinct, von Grone’s intentions are serious as well. Her portraiture of humans and animals treats them equally, imbues them with dignity, and brings out their inherent life force. “This is joie de vivre with every stroke of the brush,” she declares.

As to crafting new futures, Red Wolf seems to be the artist in the exhibit who is the most interested in doing so. Based in Potter Valley, he has created art installations internationally and shown work in galleries in Silicon Valley, where California’s flourishing tech industry influenced his materials and outlook. Red Wolf is fascinated with recent discoveries of structural color--diffraction of light rays as seen through an electron microscope. Created when light bends, or refracts, through a material; or diffracts, by passing through it and dispersing light in many directions, structural color has numerous possibilities for artwork that is optically generated, not by pigments. Several of his artworks use special effects films and acrylic paint layered in epoxy and laid on treated metal substrate that create illusions of depth. Red Wolf states, “Today’s photonics nano particle research in physics enables new abilities to mimic and create Structural Color materials that have never, in all of prior human history, been possible to achieve.”

‘The Art of Wonder,’ featuring 15 Mendocino County artists whose work highlights the fantastical and the spiritual, will be on display through October 19. To access the event, visit the Museum’s website at www.gracehudsonmuseum.org, and go to the Events page. For more information, call the Museum at (707) 467-2836.

---

WHO IS YOUR MENDOCINO HEROINE?

Kelley House Museum invites you to share stories of historic Mendocino Coast women with influence in the community. They may be used for an upcoming exhibit on the theme “Women’s Work,” highlighting the vital contributions women have made to the Mendocino Coast, often behind the scenes, shaping the fabric of society.

Consider a great-grandmother, a beloved aunt, or a visionary leader. Perhaps a woman whose dedication to family, community, or a particular craft or trade embodies the spirit of “women’s work” (however you define it).

The deadline for submissions is September 15, 2025 (but it may be extended). Depending on how many nominations we receive, we hope (but can’t promise) to include most of your submissions.

To submit a nomination, send an email to [email protected] and include:

1) Nominee’s Information: Full name and relevant dates.

2) A three-sentence summary explaining how this historic woman’s life exemplifies “women’s work.”

3) A photograph of her or some of her memorabilia, if you have any.

4) A link to any other relevant information.

5) Your contact name, email, and phone number.

---

HOME ON RARE STRETCH OF CALIFORNIA’S LOST COAST HITS MARKET FOR $11M

The estate features a rare, walkable mile of Lost Coast shoreline

by Matt LaFever

When Alex and Miranda Moore bought a historic Humboldt County ranch on the edge of the iconic Lost Coast five years ago, the deal came down to a single condition. It wasn’t financing, insurance or whether the century-old barn still stood square. It was the zebras.

“When we bought the property, you know, my wife was adamant that the zebras came with it,” Alex Moore told SFGATE. He brought it up with the realtor, who assured him right away: “He said that, ‘You can have the zebras. Like, absolutely, they come with the property.’”

The animals — five of them now — are a legacy of previous owners who tried to transform the ranch into a French country estate, complete with imported thatch roofs and hand-chiseled stone walls. That vision fizzled, leaving behind half-finished projects and a herd of zebras that have since claimed the property as their own. “They don’t want to leave the property. They don’t want to go out of the gate,” Moore said. “That’s their place, and they make that well known.”

The Moores’ 788-acre property sits at 26000 Mattole Road in Humboldt County, found on the western edge of the Mattole Valley and about a 45-minute drive south of the Victorian village of Ferndale. It lies just below Cape Mendocino, the westernmost point in California, and just north of the King Range Wilderness, the federally managed sweep of mountains and shoreline that defines the Lost Coast. The ranch is now on the market for $10.95 million. Locals sometimes call it the “Zebra Ranch.” Moore pointed to its older roots: “The barn that is on the property was the first barn that was built in the Mattole Valley.”

Unlike the sheer cliffs that dominate much of the Lost Coast, this property offers a rare mile of gentle, walkable shoreline. “There’s no, like, big erosion or cliffs or slides like you see in a lot of … California’s really rugged coastline. This one is really gentle,” Moore said.

Beyond the beach, the land cuts inland into forests and meadows, threaded by a year-round creek that’s crossed by a stone bridge, which earlier owners had built. These landscapes support thriving wildlife habitats for deer, elk, wild hogs, bears and turkeys.

Ownership has changed hands several times, each leaving its own imprint. A contractor from Los Gatos once added a helicopter pad, a storage building and paved driveways. When a couple from Los Angeles took over, they tore all of that out — along with an almost finished renovation of the historic house. “They tore down the 80% completed, you know, historic renovation of this house,” Moore said, “and they kind of started building their vision there, which was … like a French, countrylike estate with the thatch roof houses and all this stonework.” That vision relied on an artisan who had worked in Napa Valley. Moore said the previous owners “shipped in stone from a quarry in Napa, and the guy hand-chiseled every block that is assembled.”

At the center of that effort stands a 5,500-square-foot custom stone residence and a 900-square-foot garden house with a walled courtyard. The same artisan had previously worked on Napa Valley’s famed Castello di Amorosa, and the resemblance shows: Massive hand-carved stone walls anchor the buildings, along with a sleek black metal roof, glass dormers and expansive windows and doors that open the house to the landscape. Inside, the kitchen has a Sub-Zero fridge, wine fridge and 60-inch double range oven, while radiant-heated concrete floors and a gas fireplace line the main living space. The home’s second story is raw and unfinished, with conceptual plans drawn for four bedrooms and three baths.

One of the most unusual legacies left behind by past owners is the zebras. Moore believes the first pair arrived 10 to 15 years ago. Since then, they’ve bred into a small herd that treats the ranch as home turf. “They like to hang out around the house. They like to be near people, but they keep their distance,” Moore said. “But surprisingly enough, they could easily just jump the fence and leave if they wanted to, but they don’t.”

The zebras even mingle with cattle grazed on the land by a neighboring rancher, Moore said, having watched the zebras “work with the cattle a little” and “wanting to, like, naturally kind of corral them and keep the cattle together. It’s interesting.”

Roads lace the ranch from its inland pastures to the shoreline, making it unusually accessible for a coastal property of this size. “I can drive a two-wheel drive vehicle from the east end of the ranch, where the house, the garden house and the barns are at, all the way to the beach on the opposite west end of the ranch,” said listing agent Nathan Baxley. “It’s pretty incredible.”

For buyers, he added, there’s little to compare it to. In real estate, “comps” — shorthand for comparable sales — are the standard way agents set prices. But here, he said, none exist. Baxley reviewed the “West Coast of the United States trying to find similar, like, properties,” but nothing compared.

Interest has been brisk. “It’s only been on the market for seven days,” yet Baxley said he is already fielding calls from prospective buyers. One interested party is “talking about flying in on their private planes to our local airport, and me picking them up and then doing some tours out on the ranch.”

The Moores never planned to part with the property so soon. They live full-time in Ferndale, about a 45-minute drive north, and had imagined retiring at the ranch. But with kids in school and one daughter “doing every sport and every after-school thing you could ever imagine,” weekends at the ranch grew rare. “It’s really hard to let go of this property,” Alex Moore said. “I’m telling you, it’s one of the most incredible properties I’ve ever seen.”

Baxley echoes that: “Opportunities like this don’t come up very often, if at all.”

And yes — in case anyone is wondering — the zebras still come with the place.

(SFGate.com)

---

---

CATCH OF THE DAY, Sunday, September 7, 2025

JOSUE ALFARO, 47, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. DUI, suspended license for DUI, probation revocation.

JOSE CALDERON-RODRIGUEZ, 60, Willits. DUI.

MARCUS DUMAN, 42, Redwood Valley. Controlled substance, county parole violation.

JASON HAMBY, 60, Stafford, Virginia/Ukiah. DUI-alcohol&drugs, controlled substance, paraphernalia, suspended license, probation revocation.

JOEL HERNANDEZ, 39, Ukiah. Failure to register, probation revocation.

AARON JARAMILLO, 31, Willits. DUI.

SCOTT LINDEBLAD, 47, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia.

VICTOR MARQUEZ-RAYGOZA, 32, Ukiah. DUI.

HEATHER MICHAEL, 43, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

FLORENCIO PEREZ-VAZQUEZ, 34, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. DUI.

ARTEMIO ROSALES, 25, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Suspended license for DUI.

REALIA SPECIALE, 42, Willits. Under influence, probation revocation.

---

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

ICE isn’t finding drug runners and criminals any better than our existing Law Enforcement already was. That’s why they’re catching gardeners, and firefighters, and lurking around immigration hearings for people doing their diligence. Talk to any immigrant who went through the “legal” process and you’ll hear a story that spans a decade and is full of silly hurdles, long waits, and long drives to distant hearings.

---

---

SATURDAY NIGHT IN OAKLAND, MIDNIGHT IN AMERICA:

Huy Nguyen, president of Oakland’s police union, said in a statement Saturday that “multiple armed groups engaged in a shootout” on the 1900 block of Telegraph Avenue around 2:20 a.m., striking and wounding an innocent bystander.

---

WORRY ABOUT THE DEBT, NOT JUST THE ECONOMY

Editor,

The economy matters, but so does the debt — and it is spiraling out of control.

Federal debt has climbed from less than 40% of the gross domestic product in the 1970s and 1980s to over 120% today. A major reason was repeated Republican tax cuts — presidents Ronald Reagan (1981, 1986), George W. Bush (2001, 2003) and Donald Trump (2017, with more set for 2025). Each was sold under supply-side economics: tax cuts would boost growth so much that revenues would rise. That never happened. Deficits swelled and the debt burden kept rising.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the debt-to-GDP ratio will grow another 20 percentage points by 2035. But those estimates assume falling deficits and low interest rates — assumptions already obsolete. With more realistic numbers, debt could rise by nearly 40 percentage points.

The consequences are already visible. Interest payments have topped $1 trillion a year, surpassing defense spending. Within just a few years, they will exceed Medicare. By 2035, they could even surpass Social Security, turning interest — not health care or retirement — into the government’s largest single program.

At the same time, the Social Security trust fund and Medicare Hospital Insurance fund are projected to run dry in the early 2030s. That would force benefit cuts of 25% or more, harming retirees and destabilizing hospitals.

That’s not some distant concern. It’s a looming fiscal crisis. Ignoring the debt won’t save us — it will guarantee that interest payments crowd out the very programs Americans depend on.

Yes, worry about the economy. But dismissing the debt is reckless. The debt matters.

Gaetan Lion

Mill Valley

---

---

49ERS FACE ABUNDANT ISSUES, BUT NONE LOOM LARGER THAN JAKE MOODY’S MISFIRES

by Ann Killion

The San Francisco 49ers popped the top on a brand new 2025 season on Sunday in Seattle. But, almost immediately, the ghosts of the past emerged.

Injuries. A disastrous Jake Moody performance. Shoddy red zone defense. Forced Brock Purdy passes. Penalties. The 49ers have been so determined to put last year’s horrors behind them but that 2024 season just refuses to go away.

Despite all that, the 49ers won their opener 17-13, beating Seattle in a way that felt more like an escape than a resounding victory.

The difference in the game might have been that, while Kyle Shanahan doesn’t trust his place kicker at all, Seattle’s Mike MacDonald might trust his kicker too much. MacDonald settled for taking the lead with a field goal with more than three minutes to play, rather than trying to score a touchdown and give himself more cushion. The 49ers got the ball back and scored the go-ahead TD and then Nick Bosa recovered a Sam Darnold fumble to end the game.

The biggest takeaway from the game is that the 49ers have to do something about their Moody situation. He missed a very makeable field goal with a minute left in the first half and 50 seconds later Seattle’s Jason Myers nailed a much more difficult 48-yard attempt, to give the Seahawks a 10-7 halftime lead. On the sideline, Shanahan looked ready to explode. Then, on a drive in the third quarter, with a chance to tie the game with a field goal, Shanahan didn’t even consider kicking. Instead he called a successful pass play.

But it’s not realistic to completely avoid your place kicker. So later in that same drive, Shanahan turned to Moody again, to try to tie the game. The result? A blocked kick, which was picked up by the Seahawks and returned eight yards. As the Fox broadcast crew reported, the reaction on the 49ers bench was not happy: helmets were thrown, players were angry.

Moody did eventually hit the tying field goal early in the fourth quarter. But what’s a struggling team to do?

One would assume general manager John Lynch already has a call into veteran kicker Greg Joseph. He was supposed to compete with Moody for the starting job, but was let go relatively early in camp because injuries made it impossible for the 49ers to devote two roster spots to kickers. Yet being freed of competition didn’t seem to improve Moody’s confidence or his consistency.

The Moody situation has to get resolved. As much as fans would love to turn back the clock to 2023, this is not going to be that year. As the opener demonstrated, the 49ers are not going to dominate and are going to be in many close games. Can you continue to turn to a kicker who looks like he has lost confidence? Who has clearly lost the confidence of his teammates and coaches? No, you can’t.

The day started with excellent news: Christian McCaffrey was active. Despite the scare from last week, when McCaffrey showed up on the injury report with a calf injury, he was ready to go. And Shanahan, predictably, used him as a workhorse. He touched the ball 31 times — rushing for 69 yards on 22 carries and pulling in nine receptions for 73 yards — and was essentially the 49ers entire offense for most of the second half.

But the resurrection of the calf injury before the season had ever started sowed the seeds of doubt and nervousness

There were other early red flags for the 49ers. The 49ers lost George Kittle midway through the second quarter, to a hamstring injury. Kittle, who has a history of dominating the Seahawks, scored the 49ers first touchdown and was targeted four times early in the game. But it wasn’t long before he was on the bench, with a red baseball cap finished, done for the day.

During the course of the game both Trent Williams and Fred Warner left the game with injuries. Jauan Jennings left the game in the second half, never to return with a shoulder injury.

Losing key targets to injury and facing constant pressure had the same effect on Purdy that it did a lot of last season: he tried to force things. He threw two second-half interceptions, including one with a little over seven minutes to play. But he rebounded on the final drive, with a beautiful pass to Ricky Pearsall and lofting a pass into the corner that backup tight end Jake Tonges stole from a Seattle defender for a touchdown.

The 49ers opened the new season with a win against a division rival. But the ghosts of the 2024 season aren’t going away quietly.

---

49ERS GAME GRADES: ONLY SPECIAL TEAMS FAILS TO CARRY DO ITS SHARE

by Sporting Green Staff

The San Francisco 49ers beat the Seattle Seahawks 17-13 on Sunday behind an efficient offense and a stout defense — and despite a troubled kicking game.

OFFENSE: B-

Remember the name Jake Tonges. It might help you win local trivia contests for years. The Los Gatos High and Cal alum literally snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with his TD catch with 1:34 to play. Before that, the offense had been three-headed, but hardly a monster with Brock Purdy (26 of 35, 277 yards, 2 TDs and 2 INTs), Ricky Pearsall (4 receptions, 108 yards) and Christian McCaffrey (142 total yards). There will be nervousness this week as the game-ending injuries to George Kittle and Jauan Jennnings are assessed.

DEFENSE: A-

The victory-securing Nick Bosa-caused Sam Darnold butt fumble will be in all the highlights, but everyone in this unit not assigned to cover Seattle’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba had a solid game. The 49ers won despite JSN pulling in nine catches for 124 yards. But removing him from the stat line, the rest of the Seahawks generated only 106 yards of offense. One question, though: Did anyone see first-round pick Mykel Williams? (His stat line: 1 assisted tackle.)

SPECIAL TEAMS: F

An abject disaster. Tonges’ catch might not have been needed had kicker Jake Moody not doinked his first field goal, a 27-yarder, off the left upright and then had his second, from 32 yards, blocked. Thomas Morstead, opening his 17th NFL season, averaged 48 yards on two punts. In his 49ers debut, Skyy Moore averaged 9.8 yards on his four punt returns and took his lone kickoff back 24 yards.

COACHING: B+

Kyle Shanahan eschewed field goal tries in favor of going for it on fourth down twice. Both worked, but the eventual outcomes varied: a blocked field goal in the third quarter and Moody’s lone make (a 32-yarder in the second quarter). The offensive depth was on display — out of necessity — with eight receivers hauling it at least one pass. Welcome back Robert Saleh, the defense looked as stout in your return as it did during your first DC tour of duty.

OVERALL: B+

Seattle has traditionally been a tough place for the 49ers to play, but San Francisco on Sunday might have had Seahawks fans questioning the pedestrian debut of $100 million QB Darnold. This is exactly the kind of one-score game the 49ers are going to have to show they can win. They had eight such outings last season and came away with just two victories.

(sfchronicle.com)

---

GIANTS’ OFFENSE SLOW TO GET GOING IN SECOND STRAIGHT LOSS TO ST. LOUIS

by Susan Slusser

In the final game of the series at Busch Stadium, the San Francisco Giants got interesting looks at two men who might be rotation considerations next year.

Giants starter Kai-Wei Teng at times has pushed himself forward as an in-house possibility, though his sudden walk-itis cost the Giants in a 4-3 loss at Busch Stadium, and San Francisco missed a chance to gain a game on the Mets, who maintained their four-game lead over them for the final wild-card spot despite losing Sunday.

Also on the Giants’ radar: Cardinals starter Sonny Gray is very much a potential trade target for numerous reasons, including the fact that St. Louis, in retrench mode, may well look to dump his $35 million salary for next year.

Teng was terrific through four, allowing two hits and striking out seven before losing the strike zone entirely, walking the bases loaded with no outs and surrendering an RBI single to Lars Nootbar, All three men he walked wound up scoring and Nootbar came in when reliever José Buttó induced a double play.

Gray no-hit the Giants into the sixth, when Rafael Devers knocked an RBI single to center. That gives Devers four consecutive seasons with 30 homers and 100 RBIs, matching Pete Alonso as the only players with four such seasons since 2019.

Willy Adames walked and Dominic Smith provided another RBI single to center, driving out Gray. Matt Chapman followed with a hit to left to send in Devers, but Casey Schmitt flied out to deep right center to leave the bases loaded. The Giants got another man in scoring position in the eighth when Wilmer Flores rapped a two-out pinch-hit double but after an intentional walk to Chapman, Jung Hoo Lee struck out.

Schmitt opened the ninth with a single and Drew Gilbert hit a flare that looked as if it would fall in right, but Nathan Church robbed him with a plunging catch, one of several fine plays St. Louis made Sunday. Patrick Bailey’s double-play grounder ended the game.

Gray is precisely the type of starter the Giants are likely to target this season, especially if Justin Verlander does not re-sign with the team. They’d like another veteran to go along with Logan Webb and Robbie Ray, and while Gray’s deal is eye-popping — no current Giants will earn as much as $30 million next year, Rafael Devers is at $29,500,000 — he’d cost very little in terms of prospects. If the Cardinals were to pick up a portion of the deal, San Francisco could offer a more significant package.

Gray’s deal also includes a club option for 2027 at $30 million, with a $5 million salary, and he has a full no-trade clause. He’s more than familiar with the Bay Area, of course, after spending the first four-plus years of his career in Oakland and, like most pitchers, he likes Oracle Park a lot.

On basically a one-year deal, he might be very inclined to approve a deal to a team that’s wheeling, dealing and spending to win, especially if his former A’s manager, Bob Melvin, remains at the helm. Melvin and Gray remain close, Gray is one of Melvin’s all-time favorites and the feeling is mutual.

Webb, Ray and Landen Roupp are the only sure things in the 2026 Giants rotation, but Carson Whisenhunt is likely to be a frontrunner for a spot — and there is still some chance could be back on the mound for the Giants this month if he can recover soon from some back discomfort. Hayden Birdsong also would be in the mix if he can consistently throw strikes; he was a plus much of the first half until he lost the strike zone. Carson Seymour’s outing Friday was excellent and he earned his first big-league win, and Teng’s previous start was a good one.

Anyone of those four or others from the system, though, will be relatively lacking in experience, so a third veteran is a must for a team that expects to compete. And Gray does that well.

Melvin, asked about the differences between Gray in Oakland and at this stage of his career before Sunday’s game, said, “He evolves, every year he’s a little different. His velocity is not quite what it used to be, but the pitch mix — you see a particular complement one day, and it could be different the next. He throws a cutter sometimes, sometimes doesn’t — it’s a sweeper. He’s very aware of what’s working for him on a particular day.

“It’s kind of tough to think along with him. You try to get him up in the zone. He gets a pretty good ground ball rate, and he competes. I think that’s what he’s done, better than or as well as any pitcher I’ve ever had — that competitive desire he has on the mound.”

The free-agent market for veteran starters will include Framber Valdez, Dylan Cease, Zac Gallen, Chris Bassitt and Merrill Kelly, and if the Giants want another 42-year-old, Charlie Morton, or another future Hall of Famer, Max Scherzer. Jack Flaherty isn’t a free agent, but he’s in a situation similar to Gray’s, with a $20 million option for 2026. Possible starters available via trade include a Giants target last winter, Seattle’s Luis Castillo.

(SF Chronicle)

---

---

MONEY SAVING GROCERY SHOPPING TIPS

by Gretchen McKay

About half of all Americans say the cost of groceries is a “major” source of stress.

These are anxious times to feed our families.

Grocery shopping is not just wildly expensive these days — the Consumer Price Index in July was up 2.7% year-over-year, with the price of some foods reaching record levels — but also filled with uncertainty.

Just when you think the price of a box of Honey Nut Cheerios couldn’t be higher (seriously folks, $7?) we have to worry about how big a hole President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs will burn in our pockets going forward.

Nearly 75% of U.S. food imports will be affected, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax policy nonprofit. A 25% tariff on all Mexican imports all but guarantees the cost of fresh produce will go up, and we also can expect to pay more for household essentials like coffee and bananas.

The price of eggs is (maybe?) down to a bearable level. Recently, a dozen Good & Gather large white eggs were on sale at Target for $2.79. But the cost of ground beef is still climbing along with prices for dairy.

As someone who grocery shops several times a week — always within a set budget — I feel your pain. I’ve probably been caught on a security camera more times than I can count cussing the price of a single tomato or a pint of orange juice while checking out at the register. And I’ve got plenty of company: About half of all Americans say the cost of groceries is a “major” source of stress, according to a poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Because I’m well acquainted with every grocery store within a 10-mile radius, and am tasked with keeping recipe costs down, I’ve become a more savvy shopper in recent years. You can, too, if you follow some of these tips.

In a nutshell, it involves putting pen to paper, doing some basic arithmetic and forcing yourself to plan ahead. But trust me, in the end you’ll save some of your hard-earned dollars.

Learn to budget

Most of us have a certain amount of money coming in and going out each month for fixed expenses like mortgage or rent, utilities, insurance and childcare. So it’s important to budget so you don’t overspend what’s left over for grocery store purchases.

“It’s a four-letter word,” says Vic Conrad, of Pinnacle Financial Strategies, “because nobody wants to live with strains on them.” But knowing exactly how much money you have for food shopping prevents you from spending beyond your means.

“It’s the reality,” says Conrad. “It’s basically blocking and tackling” — football-speak for focusing on the essential tasks needed to accomplish a goal.

But budgeting only works if you actually stick to the dollar amount you’ve set aside for meals. Not good at mental math? Use your phone’s calculator to keep a running tally of what goes into the cart.

Or as Conrad puts it, “Go in with discipline.”

Plan and shop with a list

If you shop without a plan, you’re more apt to buy haphazardly. So decide what you’re going to cook that week (the PG website has tons of great recipes!), make a written or Google list of all the ingredients needed and take the list with you to the store. Then, stick to it! Impulse buys will drive up the total, and can also lead to food waste if you buy something you don’t end up using.

Afraid you’ll still go wild, even with a list? Order curbside pickup.

Shop your fridge first

Always, always do an inventory of what you’ve already got on hand before heading to the store. We all forget about the boxes of pasta, bags of rice, frozen meat and veggies we got the week before at our favorite farmers market but haven’t used yet. Repurposing leftovers will also save you a few bucks. I believe almost any leftover protein, grain or vegetable can be turned into a taco, for instance, and don’t forget we’re heading into soup and stew season.

Redefine dinner

Does dinner really have to be a complicated, three-course meal? Think grilled cheese sandwiches, scrambled eggs, pancakes, stir-fries that don’t need a lot of meat, and beans and rice instead. A bowl of cereal topped with fruit also makes a good supper.

Don’t shop hungry

Head to the grocery store with an empty stomach and you’re just asking for trouble. A rumbling tummy makes everything look sooo good, especially bad-for-you snack foods that will never make it onto the dinner table. Shop after a meal and you won’t crave what you don’t need.

Go generic

According to Consumer Reports, many store and generic brands taste just as good and have the same quality as national brands. And they can cost substantially less. While we’d never tell you to buy no-name ketchup instead of Heinz, choosing generic cereal and grain products, over-the-counter medications, frozen produce, canned goods, pasta and baking staples like sugar, salt and flour will save you money.

It also pays to occasionally visit discount grocery chains like Aldi, which offer lower prices on essential goods.

Compare unit prices

What’s cheaper — a 14.5-ounce can of diced tomatoes for $1.59 or a 28-ounce can for $2.69? Get into the habit of comparing unit prices, the price-per-ounce/pound/item displayed on the shelf tag beneath the product. If the grocery store doesn’t list it, use your phone’s calculator to divide the total price of the item by the number of units (e.g. ounces, pounds, items).

Use coupons and shop sales

Clipping coupons might seem old school, but actually, it’s never been easier, says extreme couponer Shayna O’Brien of Houston, Pennsylvania.

That’s because instead of sitting down with the newspaper and a pair of scissors (though that still works!), “every store has an app you can download onto your phone with digital coupons,” she says.

Take a few minutes to peruse and save them before you head to the store (remember, you’re planning meals and making a list) and you’ll instantly save money at checkout when you provide your phone number.

You’ll also find the weekly specials and sales that are so smart to shop on your store’s app.

Oftentimes, coupons are stacked with in-store promotions — buy two of something and save $1, for instance — which leads to even bigger savings, says O’Brien, a mother of one, who says she saved about $300 on a recent shopping trip at Walmart and Shop ‘N Save.

“That’s when the magic happens,” she says.

If you don’t mind having to upload receipts, rebates that offer cash back from manufacturers can also often be found on grocery store apps. And don’t forget the exclusive offers and perks that come with loyalty programs, says O’Brien.

Don’t know where to start? Pick a store you’re comfortable with, then eventually branch out, she advises.

“Yogurt, crackers, toothpaste, cleaning products … you can pretty much coupon everything these days.”

Explore Flashfood app

This mobile app connects grocers that have surplus product or product that might be nearing its “best before date” with consumers who are looking for a great deal. Savings can be 50% or more. For instance, you can get a 10-pound box of produce for $5.

Shop farmers markets

During the peak growing season, produce is often cheaper at your local farmers market or farm stand. It’s definitely fresher, which can mean you’ll actually eat it. It’s also good for the local economy by supporting local families and helps reduce your carbon footprint because the fruits, veggies and other foods don’t have to travel long distances from farm to table.

Buy in bulk (when it makes sense)

If you have a large family or routinely purchase a lot of one certain product like paper towels or canned tomatoes, it can be good business to buy in bulk. But you’re going to need storage space, and to be able to use what you purchase before it goes stale or spoils.

Best bets are nonperishable items like canned goods, dried beans and grains, paper products and cleaning supplies. But still check unit prices to see if you’re actually getting a deal.

Pay with cash

It’s easy to overspend when you’re swiping a credit card or using Apple Pay instead of handing the cashier a $20 bill. Pay with cash, and you’ll be acutely aware of every single penny spent.

(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

---

---

SUSAN RUSSELL:

When I was a little kid our next door neighbor was vice president of a huge media company when that meant something, before there were 67 vice presidents for everything under the sun. He was British and urbane, and I thought him stunningly handsome. He drove one of those really curvy old black Jags. His plainish, feminine blonde daughter got married -- lots of hoopla and happiness. The couple had no sooner left on their honeymoon then she returned home alone, inconsolable, and sobbing. Then she disappeared for a while. I don’t remember ever seeing her again. My mother was not a gossip. At least she didn’t share extremely sensitive things with a child. It was only years later, I was probably 30, that the subject of this family came up, and I asked why Blank had come back sobbing. Mom told me Blank was a hermaphrodite. It boggles the mind that she/her well-educated parents hadn’t known that until it was “discovered” on her honeymoon. No doctors pointed it out? It wasn’t noticed at birth? She didn’t notice? She was so sheltered she thought it was normal? We don’t turn our society upside down to normalize or celebrate hermaphrodites by calling everyone in sight nebulous pronouns. Nor should we do it for someone who claims to be a woman, but is not, or vice versa. That also tramples everyone else’s right to call something what they perceive it to be.

I don’t think many would say anything other than if that’s what you are or want to be, fine. There’s a massive difference between acceptance and mainstreaming and prioritizing-bathrooms, sports, one of each in every formulaic cable series in which checked boxes and propaganda obviously take priority over substance and entertainment; supposed “sitcoms” or film, or re-education fairy tales in which the original and normalcy is not only diminished but the tail end of the tail. It’s propaganda. Don’t tell a six-year-old kid his or her sexuality is fluid and “assigned.” Don’t make it a fad, or mutilate or screw up these kids for life. Don’t propagandize and then keep an eight-year-old’s “decision” -- really! -- to become a boy from her own parents. Don’t ever claim as was done in Virginia that teachers had more rights than parents. That’s destabilizing the dominant society. It’s depraved and unethical.

These occurrences in nature, with mammals, are infinitesimally small.

There used to be something called aberrant or abnormal psych. I don’t know if it still exists since everything is now normal, even crime. I remember learning that men who dressed as women were in this category, a subset that included J. Edgar Hoover. A set of women, lesbians, Gertrude Stein, dressed as men. So did George Sand, Aurora Dupin, who had a series of male lovers, including Chopin, after she left her husband, and Dietrich.

Then drugs and surgery entered the picture. The number was always a fraction of a fraction until very recently, when it seems every Hollywood denizen suddenly has a trans kid. Reportedly, I think it was Bill Maher who did this, not sure, they boast and compare notes at dinner parties. There are trans and gay kids in the same brood of children. Coincidence?

Intersectionalism exploits factionalism. Madison warned of factions. He thought they could disturb the equilibrium in a balanced and disparate society. He wrote that as long as most factions remained peaceful, and one faction agitated or rebelled, the country would be okay. The danger would come if they all rose up at the same time. Welcome to the DEI hierarchy/tent. Marcuse and other socialist-communists thought they could finally crack America by uniting the marginalized and disenfranchised, by race, class, and gender, “misfits.” Imagine the depressive and malevolent mindset of immigrating to a free country and wanting control, to tear it to pieces. We weren’t depressed enough for Marcuse.

Radicals glommed on to “transgenderism” because it was so anomalous and damaging to stabilizing norms they were trying to decimate -- family, sex, standards, tests, law enforcement, capitalism, speech, citizenship. That a man could claim he was a woman and everyone had to abide by that, call a him a her, was Orwell’s big lie, the one people know isn’t true but can be forced or bullied into saying it is.

---

---

DISNEYLAND — LETTERS TO SUNDAY’S NYT

To the Editor:

Re “Disney Used to Be for Everyone. Not Anymore,” by Daniel Currell, with photographs by Paola Chapdelaine (Opinion guest essay, Aug. 31):

I am Abigail Disney, and my grandfather Roy Disney and my great-uncle Walt Disney founded the company and its famed theme parks. I read Mr. Currell’s essay with a mixture of recognition and sadness.

Back when the parks were created, they were deliberately affordable. Both Roy and Walt believed that magic could and should be accessible — that joy shouldn’t come with a luxury price tag.

Mr. Currell outlines the disheartening fact that the ultrawealthy have become the primary customer base for the ultimate Disney experience. But Disney is not the only place that has lost interest in the middle class.

Catering to the wealthy has become a guiding principle for nearly everything. On July 4, President Trump signed into law a spending bill that cuts social services for everyday Americans (roughly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts, excluding millions of children from the child tax credit and imposing major reductions for SNAP) while giving even more tax breaks to the wealthy.

As someone with a high net worth, I should pay my fair share of taxes so everyone can have affordable and accessible health care and other services. Without a thriving middle class, neither Disney nor any other corporation can continue to function well for long.

Accessibility and affordability aren’t minor concerns; they should be guiding principles in a country that claims to be free and equal.

Abigail Disney

New York

(NYT Note: The writer is a member of Voices for Progress, an advocacy group that supports a healthy climate and environment, a strong democracy and economic and social justice.)

---

To the Editor:

In 1978, my mother — divorced and working as a teacher at a private school by day (and paid practically nothing) and nights as a hostess in a restaurant — had saved $1,000 and took my sister and me to Disney World with plans for “blowing through” the money.

We spent four nights at the Polynesian Village Resort, mentioned in the essay, rode every ride (yes, some lines were long, but nobody was jumping ahead) and had a fabulous time.

She told us during the flight home that she had “change” left over from the kitty and took us back-to-school shopping upon our return.

I am glad to have these happy memories, as this is no longer the world we live in.

Dina B. Cohen

New York

---

To the Editor:

In 2007, my husband and I took our three kids — ages 9, 6 and 3 — to Disney World for the first time. I had planned the trip and therefore had a good sense of the admission pricing; I had not shared that information with my husband.

When he reached the ticket booth and asked for five three-day passes, the friendly worker told him that would be $800. My husband laughed, assuming her response was part of the jovial Disney magic spirit, until she repeated the total and asked for his credit card.

Catherine A. Sanderson

Amherst, Mass.

---

To the Editor:

It would have been considered extremely un-American when Disney World was created to allow people to pay to jump the line. Now it seems like the most American thing someone could do.

Brad Carty

Wexford, Pa.

---

MANDAMI AD

by Fred Gardner

A 30-second spot for Zohran Mandami: The screen shows a poster for the movie Casablanca. Dooley Wilson is singing "You must remember this…." Dissolve to footage in which Bogart, at a table in his cafe, is being questioned by Major Strasser and Herr Heinze. Claude Raines looks on, bemused.

RICK … I was born in New York City, if that'll clear things up any.
STRASSER I understand you came here from Paris at the time of the Occupation.
RICK Well, there seems to be no secret about that.
STRASSER Are you one of those people who cannot imagine the Germans in their beloved Paris?
RICK It's not particularly my beloved Paris.
HEINZE (with a slight laugh) Can you imagine us in London?
RICK When you get there, ask me.
RAINES (laughing) Oh! Diplomatist!
STRASSER (Digging into the caviar) How about New York?
RICK Well, there are certain sections of New York, Major, that I would not advise you to try to invade.

Cut to a Mandami for Mayor poster as Dooley Wilson sings, "…The fundamental things apply, as time goes by."

---

R. CRUMB:

Jesus. Fuckin’ raging, epithet music comin’ out of every car, every store, every person’s head. They don’t have noisy radios on, they got earphones; like, “motherfuckin’, cocksuckin’, son of a bitch. Lot of aggression. Lot of anger, lot of rage. Everybody walks around, they’re walkin’ advertisements. They’ve got advertisements on their clothes, you know? Walking around with “Adidas” written across their chests, ‘49’ers on their hats. Jesus. It’s pathetic. It’s pitiful. The whole cultures’ one unified field of bought-sold-market researched everything, you know. It used to be that people fermented their own culture, you know? It took hundreds of years, and it evolved over time. And that’s gone in America. People now don’t even have any concept that there ever was a culture outside of this thing that’s created to make money. Whatever’s the biggest, latest thing, they’re into it. You just get disgusted after a while with humanity for not having more, kind of like, intellectual curiosity about what’s behind all this jive bullshit.

---

LEAD STORIES, MONDAY'S NYT

How JPMorgan Enabled the Crimes of Jeffrey Epstein

Russia Unleashes Largest Drone Assault of War, Setting Government Building Ablaze

What We Know About the Hyundai-LG Plant Immigration Raid in Georgia

Grand Juries in D.C. Reject Wave of Charges Under Trump’s Crackdown

Anthropic Agrees to Pay $1.5 Billion to Settle Lawsuit With Book Authors

Why Your Zodiac Sign Is Out of Date

---

RFK JR.:

“This morning, I got the latest numbers from the CDC that 76.4% of Americans now have a chronic disease. This is stunning. When my uncle was President, it was 11%. In 1950, it was 3%… That’s why we have to fire people at CDC. They DID NOT do their job. This was THEIR JOB to keep us healthy. I need to fire some of those people to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

---

---

THE NEO-NAZI WHO KNEW TOO MUCH?

by Kit Klarenberg

On August 30th, Andriy Parubiy was shot dead in broad daylight in Lviv, Ukraine. A key figure in the foreign-fomented Maidan putsch and a prominent and influential politician locally for many years, he was mourned by a welter of British, European and US officials. Within three days, Parubiy’s murderer was arrested and pleaded guilty. Wholly unremorseful, the assassin claimed his actions were “revenge on the state” for his son having disappeared - presumed dead - while fighting in Bakhmut in 2023.

Yet, there is almost certainly more to this story than meets the eye. In the immediate aftermath of Parubiy’s slaying, claims emerged he had months earlier requested formal protection from the SBU, only to be rebuffed. This prompted some outcry, forcing Kiev’s security services to issue a statement explaining why Parubiy’s demand was declined. Curiously though, a press conference was subsequently convened at which the SBU and local law enforcement contradictorily denied he had ever asked any state authority to be safeguarded.

Whatever the truth of the matter, Parubiy took an enormous number of sensitive secrets to his grave, which a great many individuals and entities have a significant interest in remaining concealed forever. A longstanding, outspoken ultranationalist, in 1991 he cofounded the openly Neo-Nazi Social-Nationalist Party - later rebranded Svoboda - and 1998 - 2004 ran its paramilitary wing, Patriot of Ukraine. The unit, like its parent political party, aggressively advocated insurrectionary violence, and espoused virulent, genocidal hatred of Russia and Russians.…

https://www.kitklarenberg.com/p/the-neo-nazi-who-knew-too-much

---

---

DAY OF DEMONSTRATIONS

by Sharon Olds

Another Grand Jury
does not hand
an indictment down (“I Can’t Breathe”), and for a
moment it seems as if I could be dreaming,
the helicopters there in the dream,
the sharp, loud
sounds of the chopping
of the air, the cutting it in thousands of pieces,
fissioning its atoms—yet the tower is there,
safe as houses, thousands of houses
balanced on top of each other. The falcons
who hunt above the roofs in Lower Manhattan
might be the descendants of the falcons who were hunting and
eating that morning, tearing the fur and
feathers in chunks and dust off their prey.
Where were you, where were the ones you loved.
I was sleeping in, that morning, 13
years ago, a hundred blocks north,
the choppers loud in my dream, louder, then
the phone rang in my dream, and a friend said, A
plane hit the World Trade Center, I
pictured a biplane, like a damselfly,
knocking a few chips off,
cells from a small wound to a body, like
knuckle skin. And then, on the screen,
the world began, and ended, and began,
and ended. This morning, the story of this country
is being told again,
on the street corners, the story of destruction,
of race, and rage, the law choppers and the
news choppers are chopping, and the child
of the two towers stands alone, its narrow
isosceles faces glinting in the white air.

---

---

YOU NEVER KNOW WHO YOU’LL MEET AT A BAR

by Jeff Burkhart

And just like that, summer collapsed into fall, once wrote someone, I’m sure. That’s just too pretty for me to have come up with on my own.

The man in the quiet afternoon bar didn’t get the memo. Here we were post-Labor Day, and there he was wearing white shorts. But to each their own in this neutral zone between actual summer and actual fall.

Technically, autumn begins on Sept. 22, as if autumn cares about such things.

The man had me switch the channels on the TV several times, not because he was indecisive but rather because it appeared as if he had nowhere to be and all day to get there. Some people are lucky that way. After a few changes, I just handed him the remote. It wasn’t because I had something else to do; I just didn’t want to do that.

He didn’t mind, and he happily kept changing the channels until another man came into the bar. They say three’s a crowd, and they just might be right. With two people, things seem rather more intimate, and whether the circumstances are is another story entirely. But with three people, things tend to triangulate. And boy do the therapists have a lot to say about that. Look it up; I’ll wait — just like I waited then.

If there are two people in a room — bartenders not withstanding — sooner or later they’re going to chat. And when the first man put down the remote, he made my first impression — and that last one — seem solidly accurate.

First, they chatted about the weather. And then about the drinks. In this so-called era of mixology, I find it rather comical how little people actually talk about drinks. Next time you’re in a cocktail bar, take a look around; you’ll be surprised at how few people have specialty mixed drinks — or talk about them.

Then came sports, and I assumed the next topic was going to be women. Beating them to that conversational punch, two women arrived dressed to impress: all heels, hair and hosiery.

“What are you guys up to?” asked one of those two women, as they sat on the two stools immediately adjacent to the two men.

An entire bar of seating, and they chose to sit directly next to the two men — not an idle decision. It was deliberate. One might even say calculated.

“Waiting for you,” said the newer man, exhibiting some charm.

“Well, here we are. Now what?” one woman asked.

Spring, they often say, is for lovers, but the weird fact is that most babies in the United States are born in August, with the fall months coming right on its heels. Since human gestation is 40 weeks, just over nine months, that means that something more is going on in the late fall. Another fun fact to consider is that the least number of babies are born in February, which doesn’t quite comport with spring being for lovers. Funny how sometimes what we hear, believe or even feel is so easily disprovable by a few simple stats.

The two men might not have been familiar before sitting down. But many a male friendship has been cemented over a conversation with two amiable women on a warm afternoon in a bar.

Just as summer had crashed into fall, the late afternoon descended into early evening. The two women flirted with the two men, and not surprisingly, the two men flirted back.

Shots were ordered, and shots were consumed. First it was tequila, then it was on to drinks with more suggestive names. It’s a game as old as bars. If inhibitions can be broken down by alcohol, then they probably weren’t as inhibiting as it might have initially seemed.

Meanwhile, the bar stayed quiet; it was just the four of them — and me. But I didn’t count, not to them anyhow. And that’s fine with me. I don’t have to be the center of attention; in fact, I’d rather not be. Sometimes it’s just fun to be a fly on the wall.

The laughter came easily now. There were furtive touches: a forearm here, a brushed knee there. Nothing I haven’t seen a thousand times over. It was all just good fun, the way bars are supposed to be. It didn’t go much further than that, and just as promising as the evening had started, it ended unresolved. The two women and the two men exchanged friendly hugs.

“Two autumn angels,” one of the men said after they left.

Leaving me with these thoughts:

• I might have never seen those men before, but I was sure going to see them again — probably every Wednesday at 4 p.m. for the next few months or so.
• The most interesting things often happen when you’re least expecting them.
• One person’s night out can have different rules, different expectations and different results than someone else’s.
• “People learn more from observation than they do from conversation,” once opined Will Rogers.
• When did angels start wearing high heels, skirts and hosiery? Asking for a friend — or two.

(Jeff Burkhart is the author of “Twenty Years Behind Bars: The Spirited Adventures of a Real Bartender, Vol. I and II,” the host of the Barfly Podcast on iTunes (as seen in the NY Times) and an award-winning bartender at a local restaurant. Follow him at jeffburkhart.net and contact him at [email protected].)

---