Moderate Swell | Ukiah Loses | Lit-Boat Parade | Donetta Torres | New Chief | Brother Eryll | High-Priced Skunk | County Code | Christmas Bazaar | Water Storage | Broken Tree | Holiday Dinner | Lighthouse Talk | Ukiah Grammar-School | Yesterday's Catch | Cloverdale Concerns | Chollas | Zero-Zero Rules | Marco Radio | Active Elder | Assisted Euthanasia | Diet Important | Trump Awards | SNAP Lawsuit | New Bach | Couple Bucks | Autumn Leaves | Lead Stories | Rebel Nuns | Rebranding Genocide | The Prisoners | Happy Songs | Crumb 2025 | Oh No | Abracadabra Boys | Almond Blossom | Celery | Green Light | The Lobsterman
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): An overcast (fog & high clouds) 49F this Saturday morning on the coast. A mix of fog & sun is all our forecast offers for the next 10 days. Go figure.
A MID PERIOD westerly swell will bring a moderate risk for hazardous beach conditions Saturday afternoon. A much more energetic westerly swell group will bring a high risk for sneaker waves Monday through Tuesday next week. Otherwise, dry and seasonably cool weather is forecast for the next 7 days. (NWS)
UKIAH FALLS TO EL CERRITO in NCS championship game
By Christian Vieyra
Ukiah High School’s football team, playing in just its third-ever North Coast Section title game, lost 32-21 to El Cerrito on Friday night at American Canyon High School.
This was the Wildcats’ first appearance in a section title game under head coach Paul Cronin, who took over the program three years ago.
The game didn’t start well for Ukiah, seeded fifth in the Division 3 bracket.
El Cerrito’s Mike Boyer scored a shifty touchdown on the opening kickoff, where he cut far left before running back to the right and scampering about 70 yards to the end zone to put the third-seeded Gauchos ahead.
Ukiah was able to respond with a 19-yard touchdown run by junior running back Christopher Thompson. Since El Cerrito missed its extra point and the Wildcats made theirs, Ukiah led 7-6 — but the advantage didn’t last long.
The Gauchos scored 13 straight points to lead 19-7 at the half. Ukiah cut the lead down to five in the third quarter before El Cerrito broke away for good.
El Cerrito rushed for 145 yards and passed for 165 in the game. Gauchos wide receiver Gary Youngblood had a big performance with 122 yards, including two touchdowns (one for 90 yards) on five receptions.
“They played super hard,” Cronin said of his players afterward. “Love to clean up the little things technically that would have made us play a little bit better, just small things, but when you get into a game like that there’s a lot of nerves to it.”
Despite the loss, the game can serve as a stepping stone for the Ukiah program going forward, the coach said.
“The more games you play in like that, the better you get in those games,” Cronin said. “What the seniors did for our underclassmen has paved the way to be back there next year and be in that same situation and play a little bit more precise with our eyes.”
Cronin said this year’s senior class played a key role in building the program because a lot of them were brought up to the varsity team as sophomores.
“It had been awhile since they’d won consistently; we had to bring guys up,” Cronin said. “They came up and they’ve been a part of two league championships, sections final runner-up and got to the playoffs every year.”
Wildcats players were visibly emotional after the loss.
“It just means that they really care,” Cronin said.
This year’s Ukiah squad, which shared the Redwood Empire Conference Bay division title with Maria Carrillo and St. Vincent, was able to figure out how to win close games, Cronin said.
Cronin thought back to winning his first section title at Cardinal Newman and compared that group to his current team.
“They are still in my head because they allowed for later success,” Cronin said of that Newman team. “It’s cool to see it over again now 20 years later.”
For Ukiah, it’s now time to turn the page to the 2026 season.
“It’s going to be a really exciting year for Ukiah football next year,” Cronin said. “Right now we’re in that spot of trying to get to the top.”
Cronin expects the Wildcats to have more depth next season than the last three years.
“I’m super pleased with where the program is at right now,” he noted.
Ukiah’s senior quarterback Beau David, who finished the game 14-for-27 for 148 yards and two interceptions, said he is also excited for the future of Ukiah football, even though he will be graduating.
“It’s only going to go up from here,” David said.
As for this season, David said his team surprised him every week.
“We had a choppy preseason but we never gave up, and I think this team has so much fight in them and I think that’s why we were able to make it this far,” David said. “I haven’t been more proud of a group of people than these guys right here.”
Thompson finished Friday’s game with 128 yards on 14 carries and three touchdowns.
Thompson said the Wildcats’ stretch run plays worked well thanks to frequent practice.
“I was able to see holes and make the right cuts,” he said.
Thompson, who will be returning next year for his senior season is excited for the future.
“We’re going to miss the seniors for sure next year, but I hope we can get some new guys, some JV guys to come up and play their hearts out, too,” Thompson said.
(The Press Democrat)
LIT BOAT PARADE TONIGHT 7 PM
Bundle up and come down to Noyo Harbor for our annual LIT BOAT PARADE, SATURDAY NOVEMBER 29th!
Co-hosted by Misfit Mariners and Mendocino Mermaids, both non profit 501(c)3
This is a sweet yearly community event for EVERYONE to enjoy, with beautifully decorated Lit Boats cruising through Noyo Harbor, past all the restaurants and under the bridge and stars for all to admire.
Grab a cozy seat in your favorite restaurant or bring your family, hot chocolate and blankets down to the river for the gorgeous show.
Santa will be in the parade on the Telstar charter boat and will arrive at Sea Pal Cove after the parade for pictures on the deck until 9 PM.
Don't forget to come by and vote for MOST LIT BOAT after the parade.
BOATS ARE NEEDED! WIN a PRIZE FOR MOST LIT BOAT!
To REGISTER LIT BOATS contact Heather Baird @ 607-437-8465 $20
Be sure to come by Sea Pal Cove after the parade so you can pick up your Schnaubelt distillery vodka and gift certificate as a thank you for your participation.
We will be announcing the prize MOST LIT BOAT AROUND 9 PM
Gather with other boats at south harbor boat ramp and shove off around 7pm for a leisurely cruise through the harbor, and under the bridge for a few circles before cruising back through the harbor. All boats are welcome!
LIGHT 'EM UP!
PLEASE SHARE AND INVITE YOUR FRIENDS!
Contact me to register 607-437-8465
Thanks and Happy Holidays!
DONETTA TORRES
It is with deep sorrow and heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Donetta Maria Torres, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, sister, and friend, on November 19th, 2025, at the age of 78.
Born on June 6th, 1947, in the city of Ukiah, Donetta was a vibrant spirit whose warmth, kindness, and love touched all who knew her. A lifelong resident of Hopland, she devoted her life to her family, always putting the needs of her loved ones before her own. Her nurturing heart and unwavering strength created a home filled with love, laughter, and joy.
Donetta’s legacy lives on through her devoted husband, Jesus Torres, and their children, Jessie, Donetta, Bettina, and Beatriz. She was the proud grandmother of Victor, Payton, Aerianna, Laila, and Lucas, each of whom she cherished deeply. She is also survived by her loving siblings Chester, Jane, and Wilma, who will forever hold her memory close.
Donetta’s love extended beyond her family to her community, where she formed lasting connections with friends and loved ones. Her selflessness, wisdom, and laughter were gifts to all who had the honor of knowing her. Her memory will be carried forward by the many lives she touched. While she will be profoundly missed, the love she shared will remain in our hearts forever.
A memorial service will be held with close family and friends, Monday, December 1, 2025, at 11:00 AM at the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians Rancheria Gym. Visitation will start on Sunday, November 30, at 12:00 PM.
SMALL TOWN, BIG SCRUTINY — FORT BRAGG’S PROCESS FOR SELECTING A NEW POLICE CHIEF
A town hall. Three public panels. And a meet-and-greet with finalists.
by Elise Cox
For small, rural communities, hiring for high-profile positions of trust—like police chief—presents unique challenges. Information — confirmed or not — can race through coffee shops, supermarket lines, farmers’ markets and Facebook groups outpacing official announcements. That dynamic, City Councilmember Lindy Peters said, came into play when Police Chief Neil Cervenka announced his retirement in August.
“The city manager wanted to make sure we had a completely transparent policy to select the new chief,” Peters said.
Fort Bragg, a general law city, shifted the authority to appoint its police chief from the city council to the city manager years ago, Peters said. “A prospective police chief would probably rather work for one person than five people on a council that rotates every two years,” he said. But that made it even more important to have a clear, public-facing process.
In response, City Manager Isaac Whippy adopted an expanded, multi-panel vetting model. Peters said Whippy designed the structure to counter “charges whether they’re erroneous or not that the police department hasn’t been that transparent.”
A Three-Panel Review And A Structured Scoring System
Six finalists — narrowed down by a professional recruiter — met with three separate interview panels of at least seven members each. The panels included community members, public safety committee members, the fire chief and police chiefs brought in from outside the region.
Questions were standardized to ensure legal compliance and consistency. “We have to be careful in the interview process,” Peters said. “We stuck to basic police policy and experience.”
Peters and fellow councilmember Scott Hockett served on the community panel. “We started at eight in the morning and didn’t finish until close to five,” he said. After the interviews, each panelist ranked the candidates one through six. The full group later convened to discuss their reasoning, and Whippy took notes and compiled the ratings to compare overall scores.
Notably, the three highest-scoring candidates were all local: interim Chief Eric Swift, Capt. Thomas O’Neal and Cmdr. John McLaughlin.
“That wasn’t because people wanted a local,” Peters said. “The local candidates happened to have the highest scores.”
Community Access Added A New Layer
With recognition that building trust requires broad input, Whippy also hosted a public gathering where residents could meet the finalists and submit optional surveys.
Peters added that Whippy personally called each council member before issuing a press release. “He told us how he came to the decision and then told us who his selection was so that we didn’t have to read about it on social media.”
A Difficult Job To Fill — And An Unusually Strong Field
Peters, who has participated in police chief and city manager searches over his 22 years on the council, said rural recruitment is often difficult. “It’s not that easy to get a qualified candidate who wants to live in a remote area,” he said. “Sometimes the spouse or kids don’t want to live somewhere without big-city amenities.”
But this cycle was different, he said. “I really felt we couldn’t lose with the three finalists. Any one of them would have been fine.”
Peters described O’Neal as someone who “handles the homeless and transient population with the utmost care and respect,” and praised McLaughlin as “the guy who knows people by first name and can calm situations down.” But Swift’s experience, leadership style and work ethic stood out.
A Interim Chief Who Worked Shoulder-To-Shoulder With Patrol Officers
Peters said that Swift regularly shows up for work at 6:30 a.m. for the shift change. “He actually came in at one or two in the morning to help with a jail transport because the officers were tied up,” Peters said. “That’s pretty rare for a police chief.”
Swift’s résumé includes experience in Santa Rosa, Napa County and Georgia, along with SWAT and military service. Since becoming interim chief earlier this year, Peters said Swift has “really done a good job of providing transparency for the press and the public.”
Mayor Jason Godeke also praised the broad-based process. “It brought a lot of different ways for people to interact with the process and give some input,” he said. “And that just seemed like a really healthy, important way to do something like this.”
(Mendo Local is free to read and staffed by volunteers. But we have startup costs and ongoing bills for software, mileage, and the insurance that allows us to do investigative reporting. If you would like to help us pay these costs, please consider making a pledge. There will be more information to come about our fundraising efforts. www.mendolocal.news.)
MIKE MCPHEE: Happy Heavenly Birthday to my younger Brother Eryll, formerly of Anderson Valley. He would've been 64 this year.
YVETTE FLEURY (Ukiah):
Wow…. I’m truly heartbroken over this. I took my children on the Christmas (Skunk) Train in Willits several times and they were wonderful memories. This was years ago. So out of curiosity, I decided to see how much it would cost to take my two children, my fiance and myself. Almost $400!? Nearly $80 a ticket? For what? A two hour event and a short ride on a train? Who can even afford that in this economy? Way to ruin Christmas for kids who don’t have wealthy parents. How sad. Thankful for the memories I have long ago I guess, since clearly I’ll never be able to afford to do that again. Shaking my head. It’s even more insulting for them to offer a ticket for your DOG for $12 while they charge $80 per child.
MARIE MEYER:
Call for help: Found out today from the county that the many popular units being made by companies known as "tiny homes on wheels" are not allowed as sole residential dwelling units anywhere within the coastal zone (up to 5 miles inland). This policy is preventing many people of the lesser or middle class from being able to develop and live on land here. Home owners: you may not care; because you are free to have one ADU on your property to rent out or do with as you please. But — just one?! No wonder rent prices are so high here! 2) Environmental Health does not allow the installation of incinerating or composting toilet systems unless a traditional septic tank system is already in place. This makes no sense. Incinerating waste into ashes is the most sterile way to deal with it. I'm pretty sure it's what the sewage plants do… ? Think about how much waste is being pumped out of septic tanks and trucked out to Waste Management. How is that better for the environment than incinerating it on site? Worried about what burning waste would smell like? That's where catalytic conversion technology needs to be utilized to sequester carbon into compostable liquid. Soon they'll be telling us our well water is being taxed and we can't have new homes being built with wood burning stoves! This is bad policy leadership in CA using the environmental concerns as an excuse instead of pushing for the use of technologies we already have and are primarily being used in other countries. If you are interested in helping affect policy change, write to someone who has the potential to appeal for it. Please join me in sending an email to Marlayna Duley at [email protected].
Or why not just write the Governor while you’re at it? I'd love to see the coast become a place where people can afford to develop. I've known a few long-time landowners over the years who are eternally living in fear of the county because they are still using illegal outhouses (giant holes in the ground) because they have never had enough money to permit and install septic. It’s sad. We should have better solutions for all the seniors and people of lower or middle class.
WATER STORAGE OPTIONS FLOATED FOR MENDOCINO COUNTY’S POTTER VALLEY AS PG&E ADVANCES DAM REMOVAL
by Amie Windsor
The daunting question faced for years now by a small farming valley in Mendocino County is where it will turn to for irrigation water once the Lake County dam that impounds its main source, Lake Pillsbury, comes down.
Dam owner Pacific Gas & Electric Co. is seeking federal approval to decommission the dam and the connected hydropower project that for more than a century has funneled Eel River flows through a mountain tunnel into canals that feed Potter Valley, and eventually emptying into the Russian River, boosting its supplies for downstream cities and farms.
As expected, once Scott Dam is gone along with its downstream waterworks — a removal project PG&E estimates to cost $500 million — Potter Valley growers, ranchers and residents worry they could be left high and dry.
Officials in Mendocino and Sonoma counties have been working on backup storage options to avoid that scenario and sustain the valley’s $35 million agricultural output, the lifeblood of its rural community.
At a Monday meeting in Ukiah, they unveiled some of the early concepts, little more at this stage than just “cartoon drawings,” as Tom Johnson, engineering consultant with the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission, or IWPC, acknowledged at the meeting.
The federal decommissioning process is not a fast one, and any dam removal project, should it be approved, is likely years away.
But building new water storage in California is not easy or cheap.
“We need to figure out storage before Scott Dam goes away and before we have little water,” said Scott Shapiro, legal counsel with the water and power commission, the joint powers entity that oversees water use and quality in the Eel and Russian River watersheds.
The infrastructure at issue actually consists of two dams — Scott and the smaller Cape Horn Dam at the foot of a holding reservoir downstream — plus the idled 117-year-old powerhouse fed by the diversion tunnel between the two watersheds. The shorthand name for it all is the Potter Valley Project, and PG&E began taking steps in 2019 to abandon it.
Under a historic agreement reached early this year involving tribes, local governments, environmental interests and water entities, both dams are set to come down — in what would be the nation’s next big dam removal project, freeing up the headwaters of California’s third longest river to help revive its troubled salmon and steelhead trout runs.
Officials said this week that any demolition date is likely at least six years out.
Some area residents and dam removal opponents, including many Lake Pillsbury property owners, are determined to halt that work and reverse those plans. They continue to press the Trump administration to intervene.
Todd Lands, the city’s mayor and a candidate for Sonoma County supervisor next year, has emerged as a leading figure in that pressure campaign.
“Let your voice be heard! We will be there to answer questions about how this affects everyone in our region!” Lands said in a Facebook post.
Others say they see the writing on the wall and that such efforts are a waste of time and energy.
“We need to support, not prevent the decommissioning … to ensure diversions continue,” Shapiro, the water commission attorney, said during the Monday workshop at the Ukiah Valley Conference Center.
New Plumbing To Link Watersheds
About 100 people attended the meeting, and dozens more followed the discussion online.
Johnson, the water commission engineer, explained some of the work already going into how to capture and sustain the supplemental flows that come from the Eel River into the Russian River system, which provides water to 700,000 residents, plus vineyards, farms and ranches, stretching from Ukiah to northern Marin County.
Over the past two years, officials from the IWPC, Sonoma Water, the region’s dominant water wholesaler, as well as the Eel Russian Project Authority — the joint powers entity that will be responsible for managing future water diversions — have forged ahead with planning for a future without the dams.
Doing so requires two major efforts: ensuring diversions continue as called for under the historic pact once the Cape Horn Dam is gone; and adding enough storage options for that diverted water to make up for the loss of storage once Scott Dam is torn down and Lake Pillsbury is drained.
The first effort, the new diversion plumbing and framework for when flows can be pulled from the Eel into the Russian River, is further along. Sonoma Water expects to construct a new diversion tunnel as Cape Horn Dam comes down; the current tunnel will be made unusable at that time.
“We are trying to coordinate with PG&E,” said Sonoma Water Environmental Resources Manager David Manning. “We don’t want to have a gap in time where we can’t divert. We are very aware that any gap in time is akin to a ‘no diversion’ scenario. We want to minimize that.”
The diversions would occur only during high-flow periods, and max out at roughly 30,000 acre-feet annually. (An acre-foot is equivalent to the amount of water needed to flood most of a football field one foot deep, and can supply the needs of three water-efficient households for a year.)
“The pumping rules lay out a schedule of how the flow can be diverted seasonally to protect the fish,” Manning said.
That new framework has alarmed farmers and residents along the upper Russian River, who are used to relying on year-round diversions from the Eel, and at historically higher annual average volumes.
Manning, a longtime Sonoma Water official and fisheries biologist who now leads the newly formed Eel-Russian Project Authority, said while he understands concerns about the loss of dry-season diversions, the new waterworks and rules governing how they are used are the best option for a future without PG&E’s equipment in place.
Without the new waterworks, diversions would be “about half of what they currently are,” he said. “Diversions haven’t been that low except in the very depths of the worst droughts.”
Many Storage Options To Replace One
Going forward, because year-round Eel River diversions are set to be phased out, expanded water storage is seen as critical by most interests who rely on those flows in Potter Valley and the upper Russian River watershed.
Engineering teams, including outside experts hired by the IWPC, are in the early stages of exploring a range of options for Potter Valley, where irrigation supports about 2,300 acres of cropland.
The engineers have pinpointed six options so far to replace between 30,000 and 60,000 acre-feet of water typically held in Lake Pillsbury.
While none of the proposed options are a “silver bullet,” said Johnson, some could store more water than Potter Valley Irrigation District customers could use, providing benefits for customers downstream.
One concept — an enlarged network of storage ponds — is already in place in Potter Valley. Farmers have built 55 water storage ponds, capable of holding 775 acre-feet of water over 125 acres of land.
Johnson estimates the valley needs at least 5,000 acre-feet of additional storage capacity. To get there, storage ponds would need to cover another 500 acres, eventually accounting for 10% of valley floor space.
The estimated cost for additional storage ponds ranges from $15 million to $28 million, which does not account for the cost of the distribution systems eventually needed to fill and drain the ponds.
Another potential project for the valley would rely on storing more water underground in a method known as groundwater recharge. The number of wells in the valley would grow about five-fold to tap into the 3,500 acre feet of groundwater made available each year.
That project could cost between $19 million and $22 million, plus the expense of more pipes to expand what’s already in place, Johnson said.
While grants and federal funding are available for both projects, much of the cost would likely go back to Potter Valley Irrigation District ratepayers. Potter Valley irrigators pay $35 (general delivery) per acre foot per year for water or $125 to $175 for so-called garden rate users, according to district documents.
New Dams To Offset Lost Ones?
Another option floated Monday is adding new storage — in the form of dams — along tributaries.
Two streams within Potter Valley, Busch and Boyes creeks, could be candidates, according to Johnson, who said they would add storage equivalent to up to 25,000 acre feet.
Another idea would involve carving a small reservoir, impounded by a new dam in the lower portion of Potter Valley, Johnson said. The reservoir could span about 60 to 640 acres, he said.
Still, both options involving dams would be costly — running between $115 and $250 million — and highly difficult to permit, he added.
Banking On Lake Mendocino
Another option, Johnson said, would be to build a pump station and 10-mile pipeline extending north from Lake Mendocino to Potter Valley. The pipe project could be designed to divert 10,000 acre feet of water from Lake Mendocino to Potter Valley each year.
Such projects are fairly straightforward from an engineering standpoint — Shapiro pointed to recycled water pipelines built in cities like Eureka and Healdsburg — but water rights could prove a sticking point.
“All the current storage is fully subscribed,” Johnson said of the supplies captured by Lake Mendocino. “That’s a big problem.”
That hurdle could be addressed by another concept already under federal study: raising the height of Coyote Dam, which impounds Lake Mendocino. That would allow the reservoir to store more supplies, possibly equivalent to the amount needed and controlled by Potter Valley irrigators.
Key Questions And Concerns
Monday’s workshop prompted several overriding questions: How do such concepts move from the drawing board to execution? Who pays for them? And who stands to lose land, should that come to pass?
Those unknowns spurred some in the audience to speak out, pressing key officials with their concerns.
Johnson acknowledged the uncertainties still dominating the discussion. But, he added, now is the time to “prioritize what is needed.”
(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)
AV GRANGE HOLIDAY DINNER
AV Foodshed and AV Grange are teaming up again for the annual Community Holiday Dinner. This year it's on Sunday December 7th, starting at 5:30 pm.
So, come have a delicious free dinner at the AV Grange, turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy along with coffee, tea, water and we hope apple juice provided by AV Foodshed and AV Grange and all the extras provided by everyone else, we're talking a monster potluck here with you bringing desserts,salads,drinks,vegetarian options etc., and we ask that you bring your own utensils, (there will be a wash station). Make a list of ingredients so people will know whats in your offering.
We aim to have live music to eat by and a kids zone as well. Don't forget the loooong line where you get to hang out with friends and neighbors, (there will be a bit of finger food served as we wait),
As always there is much need for volunteers to cook turkeys, smash those potatoes and make stuffing before the event, and folks to pitch in, working the kitchen, serve, set up, decorate, clean up and on and on. It's a great way to meet and greet both new and old members of our community.
Signing up to volunteer to help with our Holiday Dinner on December 7th couldn't be easier this year. Just follow this link and type your name next to the task you want to do. 2025 Holiday Dinner Sign up Sheet
Every time someone signs up the list is automatically updated, you may revisit the link at any time and please share the link. If you have any questions you can call Rainbow at (707) 472-9189 or (707) 895-3807
All are welcome! See you all soon.
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MENDOCINO COUNTY: HISTORY TALK: LIGHTHOUSES OF MENDOCINO COUNTY
The Historical Society of Mendocino County invites you to a special program on December 7th at the Caspar Community Center. The Point Arena Lighthouse Keepers will present the history of the Point Arena Lighthouse and Point Cabrillo Lightkeepers will present on the history of the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse.
Following the presentations, weather permitting, attendees are invited to visit the nearby Point Cabrillo Lighthouse.
The history talk is free to attend without lunch.
For those interested, a light catered lunch will be served. $20/each at the door. Please RSVP for lunch by Dec. 5
Where: Caspar Community Center, 15051 Caspar Rd, Caspar, CA 95420, USA
When: Sunday December 7th at 1PM
https://www.mendocinocountyhistory.org
UKIAH BACK WHEN (Ron Parker): Ukiah Grammar School
CATCH OF THE DAY, Friday, November 28, 2025
DAVID DIAZ-SANTIAGO, 45, Clearlake/Ukiah. Brandishing, concealed dirk-dagger, resisting.
JEREMY HOLZ, 51, Fairfield/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-under influence, paraphernalia.
JOSALYNN JONES, 21, Ukiah. Under influence, tear gas.
CAMEO LIMA, 30, Ukiah. Domestic battery, probation revocation.
CHRISTOPHER LINTON, 32, Ukiah. Domestic battery.
JENNIFER MARTIN, 60, Ukiah. DUI-any drug, controlled substance with two or more priors, contempt of court, offenses while on bail.
JORGE MARTINEZ, 29, Ukiah. Petty theft with two or more priors, controlled substance, paraphernalia, probation revocation.
TYLER MURRAY, 34, Fort Bragg. Failure to appear.
AMY STURGES, 47, Ukiah. Unauthorized agricultural burning, unspecified offense.
ESMERALDA DEVELOPERS NEED TO LISTEN TO CLOVERDALE RESIDENTS
Editor:
The recent Press-Democrat coverage of the proposed village-style megaproject in Cloverdale reflects a familiar pattern: outside groups arriving with sweeping visions but limited understanding of the communities they hope to reshape.
The early backlash mirrors what happened with the California Forever proposal in Solano County, where ambitious plans faltered because developers failed to engage residents meaningfully.
Cloverdale is not a blank slate. It is an intergenerational, working-class town rooted in agriculture and manufacturing, with deep community ties. That identity should not be overshadowed by importing a predesigned concept shaped by external priorities rather than local needs.
The Esmeralda development team’s heavy emphasis on hospitality and destination-style amenities may generate revenue, but tourism rarely strengthens rural communities and often benefits investors over residents. Trails and open space are welcome, but they do little on their own to integrate a large new development with the town.
If the goal is to support Cloverdale’s future, affordable housing for young families matters, but so do the needs of the county’s fastest-growing group: older adults. The limited research behind this plan raises concerns.
Developers who want to be welcomed should start by listening and shaping their vision with the community, not over it.
Angela Conte
Santa Rosa
STATE’S PROPOSED RULES FOR FIRE PROTECTION GO TOO FAR
Editor,
The California Board of Forestry is finalizing its “Zero Zero” rules intended to help protect homes during wildfires. The rules will be implemented immediately for newly built homes and will be imposed on existing homes and landscaping within three years.
My wife and I have lived in Sleepy Hollow for more than 30 years. We planted, and water extensively, fruit trees and roses, as well as camellias, near to our house. We also have a pre-existing gardener’s shed that we moved to the far end of our property shortly after we moved here. The shed is not fire-resistant to current standards.
I have several problems with the state imposing what I consider to be draconian new rules on existing homes.
I am retired on a fixed income and the cost of removing existing trees, other plants and fences would be extensive. Additionally, we would be required to remove landscaping, particularly fruit trees and roses, which we planted long ago in compliance with all laws in place at the time. They give us pleasure and make our home look good.
If I follow these rules, I am concerned our property will look more appropriate to a desert area like Las Vegas, but not here in Marin County. I do not like the government telling me how to live without what I consider to be representation or fair warning on this issue. I am concerned the new rules will make our property less attractive and, therefore, less valuable if we were to sell it.
In my opinion, this fits the definition of inverse condemnation, which I think should be frowned upon under existing laws. Imposing these rules upon existing, previously compliant properties is unfair.
Peter H. Behr Jr.
San Anselmo
MEMO OF THE AIR: Good Night Radio all Friday night on KNYO and KAKX.
Soft deadline to email your writing for tonight's (Friday night's) MOTA show is six or eight. If that's too soon, send it any time after that and I'll read it next Friday.
Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio is every Friday, 9pm to 5am PST on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg and KNYO.org. The first three hours of the show, meaning till midnight, are simulcast on KAKX 89.3fm Mendocino.
Plus you can always go to https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com and hear last week's MOTA show. By Saturday night I'll put up the recording of tonight's show. You'll find plenty of other educational amusements there to educate and amuse yourself with until showtime, or any time, such as:
Bess, you is my woman now. You is. You is. https://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2025/11/porgy-and-bess-american-folk-opera.html
This is why Vulcans always clean you out at pool when they've crashed on Earth in 1958 just outside a coal mining town in Pennsylvania and they need some local money for food and shelter while they wait for rescue, wearing clothes in plain sight that they stole from a clothesline, when there are only like 400 people in the whole place. https://twitter.com/i/status/1993547765444755762
Speaking of which, the importance of confidence. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/g7b3yztliKE
Marco McClean, [email protected], https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com
THIS 90-YEAR-OLD SWIMS IN S.F. BAY, TRAIL RUNS AND SKATEBOARDS. WHAT’S HIS SECRET?
by Peter Hartlaub
I was at the top of the Dipsea Trail’s “Cardiac Hill” near Mill Valley on June 8, cheering friends during the most grueling stretch of the Bay Area’s most grueling trail race, when a shock of white hair power-walked by.
Others were suffering visibly on the ultra-steep 1,200-foot climb up the side of Mount Tamalpais, but this man was smiling.
“Who’s that fast 70-year-old dude?” I recall asking one of the trail-running veterans spectating under the same redwood grove.
“That’s Lloyd Kahn,” he answered. “And he’s 90.”
The journalist inside me saw a possible story. But the aging athlete — only slowing down at 55 — also had questions. What’s his exercise routine? Why is he still running? Does he worry about taking a bad fall? Does he fear death?
And the most important question: What can the rest of us learn from Lloyd Kahn?
I spent the next month thinking about super-agers, people over 80 with minds and bodies that appear decades younger. I asked more running friends about Kahn and learned he’s a former carpenter and book publisher who lives on a homestead in Bolinas, where he continues to run, paddle in the ocean and ride his skateboard.
After reading a particularly charming post on his Substack — about being “maybe the USA’s only 90-year-old Swiftie” — I wrote a list of questions and set up a video interview.
It took some arranging. Kahn has a regular Tuesday meeting with fellow runners at the Pelican Inn in Muir Beach. Fridays he drives into San Francisco, swimming in the bay at Aquatic Park before grabbing an Irish coffee at Buena Vista Cafe. He also paddles prone on a 19-pound board, hikes local trails, takes care of his half-acre home and, yes, still skateboards.
Kahn smiles on the other end of the video call, somehow looking younger than he did two months earlier on the trail.
“Moving is so necessary as you get older,” he says. “If I’m depressed, I find that if I go out and run or go paddling, especially if I get in cold water, it makes me feel good.”
Kahn was born in San Francisco in 1935, and describes himself as a “B-level athlete,” excelling on the track in the half mile and in the breaststroke in swimming. He went to Stanford, where he recalls surfing as his vocation and studying as a side project.
He traveled Europe by motor scooter, worked in insurance, published mostly niche high-quality books about building through his Shelter Publications imprint and spent five years assembling and advocating for geodesic domes — then admitted he was wrong about the benefits of the counter-culture housing.
Kahn was ready to leave publishing in the 1970s when he came across Bob Anderson’s self-published book “Stretching,” aimed at athletes, that had sold a few thousand copies. When the stretches relieved Kahn’s carpentry injuries, he offered to revise the book, encouraging the author to include moves for builders, plumbers, waitresses and truck drivers. He also alerted his distribution contacts at Random House.
“Stretching” has since sold 3.75 million copies — and Shelter Publications added fitness books to its catalogue of tomes on homesteads and tiny homes. It was also a pivotal moment for Kahn, in his 40s at the time, who had allowed aches and pains to accumulate.
“For (the next) 20 years I hung out with jocks and learned how to stay in shape,” Kahn said.
He surfed, swam and stretched regularly. And the B-level athlete learned he was an A-level trail runner, with a compact frame, tolerance for pain and exceptional balance. Kahn ran his first Dipsea in 1987 at age 52. Two years later he won a coveted “black shirt” — a top 35 finish out of 1,500 runners in a race that handicaps start times by age. He black shirted nine more times between 1990 and 2001.
As I go through my questions, Kahn is a fount of advice. Admit when you’re wrong. Don’t focus on regrets. Get out of your comfort zone. Keep trying new things. Kahn is working on becoming a better cook, and is mulling a YouTube channel. He sold his book business, and now calls himself a newsletter journalist.
Age, he says, really is just a number.
”Ninety is a lot older than 89. It’s a whole different thing,” he says. “When I say I’m 90 it’s like ‘Whoa!’ You know, it’s got gravitas.”
I have enough from our conversation to write my story. I have enough for five stories.
But I still drive the hour and a half on winding roads to Kahn’s Bolinas homestead, walking into a wonderland of unlicensed structures, abalone shells, bleached animal bones, skate shop stickers, cactus gardens, benches built from recycled wood and beautiful quilts made by Kahn’s late wife and longtime homesteading partner Lesley Creed.
Kahn’s commitment to longevity is built into the house, where exercise equipment appears in unexpected nooks. A worn balance board for skate and surf practice sits in the sunniest part of the living room. A stick hangs from a rope attached to a ceiling beam, so he can row and stretch in front of the TV.
Exercise is rarely obsessive in Kahn’s life. But it also never seems to really stop.
Kahn says he loathes celebrating birthdays, but friends and relatives rebelled and threw a party for his 90th at Smiley’s Saloon in Bolinas, with a blues band and lots of laughter.
The vibe is more melancholy on the homestead, which is a marvel of design and function, but also missing a piece. The buildings and gardens were a half-century collaboration with Creed, who died in 2024 from cancer. He lost two close friends and a brother in the same year. Class reunions are increasingly lonely.
“If you stay alive long enough,” Kahn says, “everyone else is gone.”
Around the house, the only sign of the owner’s age is a birthday card that says “F—in’ 90” in cursive, propped beneath a living room mirror. Kahn turns 91 in April.
The most unexpected answer comes when I ask about limitations.
“You’ve got to go into unknown territory,” Kahn says. “I think that falling is not an entirely bad thing to do as you get older. I know how to fall, and I know how to roll. People who don’t fall for 20 or 30 years, they break their hips. Their bodies aren’t ready to handle the impact.”
Kahn has a philosophy about discomfort, which can best be described as a leap of faith. He doesn’t want to go swimming in the San Francisco Bay, where temperatures drop into the low 50s. He doesn’t enjoy the pain when he runs. But he knows he’ll feel reborn when it’s done. He knows any dread and discomfort will be paid back tenfold. He knows it’s keeping him alive.
When Kahn runs the last stretch of Dipsea’s 7.5 miles, and the Stinson Beach finish line is in sight, he almost always thinks, “How am I going to make it?”
“I was in such bad shape. So much pain,” Kahn says. “The thing is, one or two minutes after I cross the Dipsea finish line I feel good. Then I feel great.”
Nerves set in for me as Kahn scoops up his orange-wheeled long board and leads a caravan to his favorite skateboarding spot, surrounded by green scrubby grass and descending into marshland. Kahn broke his arm at age 85 skating in San Francisco and somehow managed the stick shift to drive himself across the bridge to Marin General Hospital.
“The doctor said, ‘You’re too old to be riding a skateboard,’” Kahn remembers. “I said, ‘F— that.’ I just have to be more careful.”
He got second opinions … from skaters. One told him to attach hockey pucks to the palms of his gloves, so he can land on his hands and slide when he falls. (He did.) As the 90-year-old outfits himself with a helmet and thick knee and elbow pads he looks ready to skate in the X Games … or tackle Christian McCaffrey.
Kahn pushes the skateboard up the 150-yard hill as I follow on a bike to take video, and photographer Ben Fanjoy sets up on his own skateboard. But Kahn doesn’t wait, slaloming down the smooth asphalt, gathering speed to the point where I think, “This definitely qualifies as a hill bomb.”
My last question on the video call seems relevant in this particular moment.
“Do you think about the end?”
Kahn answers that one with the same clinical calmness as his advice on home repairs. He recently gave up surfing, because it’s too hard to hop up on the board. But he plans to paddle, bike and swim indefinitely.
“I think I can do that up until the end,” Kahn says. “If I get to a point where I have a disease or something, whatever it is, and I don’t want to live any longer, I’ll take it into my own hands. Nature is looking for ways to take us down. I just don’t want nature to torture me to death.”
That may be the ultimate gift of the super-ager: optimism for our own futures.
With the sun about to set, I watch Kahn take one more shot at this hill, and think of all the adventures to come.
(SF Chronicle)
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
People who denounce medically assisted euthanasia are forcing their own fear of dying onto those for whom it is a great relief.
My mother lived to 95 and her last five years (at least) were hell. She couldn't go anywhere on her own, was totally dependent on others for basic life support. She had terrible insomnia but her doctors wouldn't give her sleep meds because -- wait for it -- they didn't want her to become addicted. She saved up other meds that she could use to dispatch herself but didn't, because she feared they'd fail to kill her but leave her in a vegetative state.
I wouldn't wish my mother's condition in her last years on anyone. Until you've experienced it yourself or in another, you can't know why for some who are in extremis it's a blessing (with proper safeguards to ensure it's truly voluntary).
A HUMAN BEING is primarily a bag for putting food into; the other functions and faculties may be more godlike, but in point of time they come afterwards. A man dies and is buried, and all his words and actions are forgotten, but the food he has eaten lives after him in the sound or rotten bones of his children. I think it could be plausibly argued that changes of diet are more important than changes of dynasty or even of religion….Yet it is curious how seldom the all-importance of food is recognized. You see statues everywhere to politicians, poets, bishops, but none to cooks or bacon-curers or market gardeners.”
― George Orwell, The Road To Wigan Pier
DEFENDING FOOD STAMPS
California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit [on Wednesday,] challenging the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) recent guidance illegally restricting eligibility for the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP). SNAP provides monthly food benefits to low-income families in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In California, SNAP, known as the CalFresh Program, is administered by the California Department of Social Services and is an essential hunger safety net to 5.5 million Californians each month. In the lawsuit, Attorney General Bonta, along with a coalition of 21 other attorneys general, argue that USDA’s guidance for implementing the “Big Beautiful Bill” erroneously excludes certain lawfully residing non-citizens from SNAP eligibility, when they in fact are eligible when they become lawful permanent residents. The attorneys general raise the alarm that, without court intervention, the guidance will cause errors in eligibility determinations, which could deprive thousands of legal permanent residents of food assistance and lead to devastating financial penalties for states.
“The Trump Administration is effectively depriving thousands of lawful permanent residents of food assistance benefits that Congress intended be available,” said Attorney General Bonta. “SNAP recipients are still recovering from the whiplash President Trump and his Administration put them through in seeking to block November SNAP benefits during the government shutdown. No President has ever worked harder to deprive hungry Americans of access to basic nutrition. Ahead of the holidays, we’re not giving up the fight. We’re asking a court to step in and stop the USDA from applying its faulty new guidance before any further damage can be done.”
Section 10108 of the Big Beautiful Bill amended the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to eliminate SNAP eligibility for individuals who entered the U.S. as refugees, were granted asylum, or were granted humanitarian parole based on this status at the time of their admission or parole. The Big Beautiful Bill did not, however, prohibit individuals who once held the status of refugees, asylees, or parolees from gaining eligibility for SNAP if and when they adjust their status to become lawful permanent residents. In a letter to USDA last week, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition explained that USDA’s guidance incorrectly list refugees, individuals granted asylum, parolees, and deportation withheld as “not eligible” rather than stating they could become eligible for SNAP if they become lawful permanent residents. USDA’s guidance also incorrectly conveys that humanitarian entrants must wait five years after becoming legal permanent residents to qualify for SNAP benefits when these individuals should be eligible immediately after obtaining legal permanent resident status.
USDA’s multiple errors and late-coming guidance have caused significant confusion for the states that have been tasked with implementing new substantive limitations on SNAP eligibility. As a result, there is serious risk of an increase in errors as states struggle to reconcile their obligations under the federal statue with faulty, misleading agency guidance that strays from the law. Although federal regulations require a 120-day exclusionary period following the application of a new implementing memorandum of a mandatory change, USDA incorrectly states that the exclusionary period ended on November 1, 2025, just one day after the guidance was issued on Friday, October 31, 2025.
In today’s lawsuit, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition argue that USDA’s guidance is contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act and should be vacated. They ask the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon to bar USDA from applying the guidance and from using effective date for the purpose of calculating states’ error rates.
Attorney General Bonta has vigorously defended SNAP benefits from attacks by the Trump Administration. During the recent government shutdown, Attorney General Bonta sued USDA to force them to fund November SNAP benefits. Not one, but two federal district courts determined that the Trump Administration acted unlawfully. And when the Administration responded by asking the U.S. Supreme Court to pause one court’s order requiring USDA to pay full benefits, Attorney General Bonta vigorously challenged that request, which was ultimately withdrawn after the government reopened. The SNAP program is now fully funded through September 2026.
Attorney General Bonta joins the attorneys general of New York, Oregon, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia in filing the lawsuit.
NEW BACH, OLD DOUBTS
by David Yearsley
Bach is back, bigger than ever and just in time for the holiday buying season in this 275th year since his death.
The bicenterquasquigenary Bach buzz reached a frenzied fortissimo after last week’s officially sanctioned—not to say sanctified—addition of two keyboard pieces to the Baroque master’s hefty catalog already running well beyond the 1,000 mark.
A touch broader than bagatelles but a long way from blockbusters, the works have now been awarded numbers 1178 and 1179 in the BWV (Bach Werke Verzeichnis—Catalog of Bach’s Works). The archival source that uniquely transmits the music can be admired in high-resolution scans accessible through Bach Digital. The news of the “discovery” has been trumpeted and trilled by legions of global media outlets. We should all be thrilled at the rare opportunity to talk so much Bach—and buy more Bach too.
The two freshly ennobled numbers are suave and occasionally swashbuckling organ chaconnes, a well-worn genre in which a repeating bass line of a few bars is elaborated on by the player/composer. Like later jazz musicians, organists before and after Bach improvised such things by the bucketload, occasionally committing their flights of technique and imagination to paper in order to document, refine, and augment their art, but also as a way of providing notated models for their students.
Those learning the craft, the young Bach included, often collected useful examples, copying them from manuscripts circulating among colleagues or lent them—usually for a fee—by their teachers.
Now housed in the Royal Museum of Belgium, the early 18th-century manuscript that contains the two pieces just elevated to Bachian heights begins with a section of such bass-driven works, the title page describing them as Chacconen. (The pieces themselves are given the designation Ciacona (omitting one of the Cs of the more usual Italian spelling, Ciaccona).
Beneath the word “Chacconen,” a later owner of the volume, the north German organist J. J. H. Westphal, wrote out in a hand that is clearly distinct from that of the title itself: “von J. C. Graff und Joh. Pachelbel und andern berühmten alten Componisten und Organisten”—by J. C. Graff and Johann Pachelbel and other famous old composers and organists. Born a half century after the manuscript was copied, Westphal is unlikely to have known who those other organists, if any, might have been. Three of the six Ciaconas do have composer attributions: two to Pachelbel and one to Graff. There is no mention of Bach.
Yet the ascription to him is now being universally accepted. Credit for the (re)discovery has gone to musicologist Peter Wollny, Executive Director of the Bach Archive in Leipzig, though his “team” has also been thanked, as at those trophy-award speeches that come at the end of Grand Slam tennis tournaments. At a formal presentation of the new/old pieces in Leipzig’s St. Thomas Church, the very place where so many of Bach’s cantatas were first heard, German Federal and State Ministers for Culture and Tourism spoke of “a great gift to humanity,” wrapping Wollny’s valiant three-decade quest for holy truth in mythic tones. His find had also rekindled hopes for greater funding in “challenging times” and renewed faith in Germany’s cultural patrimony. Wollny himself has revealed his own “sense of duty”—a musicological crusader’s unquenchable thirst finally slaked at the Bachian grail.
Wollny claims “to be 99.99% sure” of his findings. In particle physics, the standard for certainty is something called 5-sigma, which allows only a 1-in-3.5 trillion chance that the result is a fluke. Even I know that there’s a big difference between muons and manuscripts (although there are gazillions of the former in the latter), yet I can’t help but raise a skeptical eyebrow on behalf of the silent, doubting .01% micro-minority.
It was back in 1992 that Wollny, then a graduate student at Harvard, came across the Brussels manuscript and was struck by the high quality of these two pieces nestled in among supposedly more workmanlike efforts by Pachelbel and Graff. One of Germany’s leading organists around 1700, Pachelbel was a teacher of Bach’s older brother with whom the young Sebastian lived after being orphaned just before he turned ten.
Buttress for Wollny’s initial impression of the anonymous chaconnes (that’s the more usual genre designation, one taken from the French) and his inkling of Bach’s possible authorship came in 2012, when research team member Bernd Koska found a 1727 application for an organist job written by one Salomon Günther John in which he declared that he had studied in the town of Arnstadt, where Bach had held his first post, leaving it in 1707. Another letter of 1716, also written by John, was discovered in 2023. Analysis of these and other handwriting samples confirmed John as the scribe of the chaconnes.
I wouldn’t dare to doubt Wollny’s impressive, confidently brandished forensic skills, but bringing John definitively into Bach’s orbit and establishing him as a copyist of the manuscript doesn’t get me anywhere near 99.99%.
In his remarks that come after those of the politicians, all delivered at the base of the pulpit in St. Thomas Church, Wollny acknowledged the labors of 19th-century Bach devotees who collected and curated the master’s work. But Wollny also criticized these “enthusiastic pioneers” for some of their attributions “based on intuition rather than rigorous analysis that did not always withstand critical scrutiny.”
Like the 19th-century predecessors Wollny criticizes, his attribution of the chaconnes rests on his intuition, clad now in 21st-century certainty and robustly supported by the Bach establishment. Eminent performers like the pianist Angela Hewitt and the conductor-organist Ton Koopman, who scurried through the pieces at the public presentation in Leipzig last week, discerned the unmistakable signs of Bach’s young genius.
The recent Leipzig performance by Koopman was hailed as the first in more than 300 years. Can we please entertain the possibility that previous owners of the manuscript—Westphal and Fétis—were more than simply rabid collectors but also might have eagerly played through their acquisitions for friends or maybe even for strangers, possibly even on big church organs? A modern edition of the Ciacona in D minor prepared by Christian Hesse has been up on IMSLP since 2024, there attributed, apparently agnostically, to either J. C. Graff or J. S. Bach. More accurate would be to call last week’s event in Leipzig the first performance of the chaconnes as works by J. S. Bach—maybe not just in 300 years, but ever.
Whatever the evidence gleaned from archival research, the now-accepted attribution, agreed on by acclamation, relies ultimately on inferences and judgments about the style and quality of the pieces.
The more interesting and impressive of the two is that in D minor, now BWV 1078. The piece brims with confidence, even bravura, proud of its bold flourishes and haughty shifts of register. If one so chooses, one could decide to hear and see in these conceits something of the brash young Bach, already known in Arnstadt for his impudence and temper. Uniquely among the chaconnes in the manuscript, copyist John added red ink to indicate manual changes that yield fun and flashy echoes. A winning innovation comes when the bass line frees itself from the shackles of repetition. The liberated theme then launches a four-part fugue in which all voices participate equally. It’s an idea that Bach ran with (in place at the organ bench) when creating his most colossal chaconne—dubbed instead a passacaglia—in C minor, BWV 582. That mighty work is dated by scholars sometime around 1710, only a few years after John copied out the far more diminutive D-minor essay in the genre.
The Ciacona in G minor (BWV 1179) that comes next in the manuscript is more generic, as is particularly evident in a final pair of passes through the bass pattern that trot out some showy but utterly predictable footwork on the organ pedalboard. Herein lies one of the many problems of seeking the singular in works that traffic in trusted clichés. These patterns for improvisation are necessary elements for any student to learn and for working organists to apply as needed: rinse and repeat. These tricks of the trade are pedagogically potent precisely because of their generic qualities. Such practical attitudes to composition and performance are often hard to square with expert commentary that seeks signs of greatness to come, duly finds them, though with the proviso that the youthful genius is not yet fully formed.
If not Bach then who? So goes the standard response to doubting counterarguments like the one I’ve given only an outline of here.
How about good old Georg Böhm, teacher of the teenage Bach? Böhm was a terrific organist of Pachelbel’s generation, practiced in francophone poise, Germanic gravitas, and transalpine fantasia. He hailed from Bach’s native region of Thuringia but held forth for decades on a massive organ in an ancient, echo-rich church up north in the Hanseatic city of Lüneburg, where Bach was his pupil. That student sojourn concluded a couple of years before the young S. G. John turned up to learn from Bach, twenty years old in 1705 and by then back in his clan’s heartland.
Böhm could have handily served up the sallies and swerves of these chaconnes on the organ, then put them on paper and passed them on to Bach, who could have duly added them to his own portfolio.
But a possible ascription to Böhm or a prudent question mark after Bach’s name won’t garner headlines, lure political bigwigs in front of cameras, or bump up the bottom line.
The two just-elected members of the BWV Club could well be by Böhm. They could well be by Bach. He built many Böhmisms into his early works. Or these chaconnes could find Bach collaborating with Böhm or masquerading as him, copying him in every sense. Or they could be by some other B of the Baroque, though I do agree probably not Bachelbel—a common contemporary alternate spelling of Pachelbel. I’m offering even money on a Bach-versus-Böhm wager. Unlike Wollny, I admit that I could be wrong. I welcome that uncertainty, indeed revel in it.
One of the Guardian stories on the “discovery” quoted Wollny’s apparent assertion, perhaps taken somewhat out of context and presumably now regretted by him, that, “If a doctor makes a mistake it’s not such a big deal. But if I make an error, it will sit in books for hundreds of years.”
Bach himself might have had a different view on the relative importance of physicians and forensic musicologists. He was blinded by a quack eye doctor in the last months of his life, and here’s betting (again) that he would rather have opted for a few more days of failing sight than posthumously bask in the limelight reflecting off a couple of pieces that might not even be by him and probably wouldn’t mean much to him if they were.
(David Yearsley is a long-time contributor to CounterPunch and the Anderson Valley Advertiser. His latest albums, “In the Cabinet of Wonders” and “Handel’s Organ Banquet” are now available from False Azure Records.)
AUTUMN LEAVES
Mother gave birth to me in the fall
in the midst of grieving trees and withering leaves.
Winter came home right after
accompanied by winds of solitude.
My earliest memories revolved around cold weather
yet I remember meeting with summer
before ever blowing my first candle.
I saw these same trees shimmer in full bloom.
I saw their branches clothed in vivid green.
Early on,
I learned not to shed a tear when autumn leaves
for I know that summer comes home through the shiver.
— Margaret Daramola (2021)
LEAD STORIES, SATURDAY'S NYT
In Firing His No. 2, Zelensky Loses Both a Negotiator and an Enforcer
Russia Bombards Ukraine for Nearly 10 Hours in a Deadly Assault
Inside Trump’s Push to Make the White House Ballroom as Big as Possible
Trump Announces Pardon of Honduran Ex-President in Major Drug Case
Latin American Leaders Face Both Trump and Deported Voters
REBEL NUNS CAN LIVE IN OLD ABBEY, if They Give Up Social Media
After the octogenarian nuns refused to return to their senior center, the abbot has finally folded. But he has some conditions.
by Christopher F. Schuetze
When three octogenarian nuns escaped their senior center in September, their unlikely quest for freedom set off a bitter standoff with the abbot who leads their Roman Catholic order.
The three rebel nuns forced their way back into the Austrian abbey where they had lived for decades, before the senior center. That put them at odds with the abbot, who had wanted to keep them out, while capturing the global imagination with their lively social media feed and even prompting the involvement of Catholic leaders in Rome.
Now, after a monthslong standoff in which the nuns refused to return to the care home, the standoff seems to have a winner.
Abbot Markus Grasl appeared to admit defeat on Friday, announcing in a statement that, after talks with Rome and the local archdiocese, he would finally allow the sisters to continue to live in the abbey at Castle Goldenstein, close to Austria’s border with Germany.
In another concession, Abbot Grasl said that the nuns — Sister Rita, 82, Sister Regina, 86, and Sister Bernadette, 88, who are all known only by their religious names — would be provided with round-the-clock care, an on-call doctor and a priest to hold weekly services in the abbey’s chapel.
In return, the abbot listed several conditions: The women must stop letting laypeople into their cloisters, and — most likely much more important — they must end their social media feed.
(nytimes.com)
REBRANDING GENOCIDE
by Selma Dabbagh
When the ceasefire was announced on October 9 there were videos of Palestinian journalists, who had been targeted for months, taking off their helmets. Children chattered about going back to school and I felt their relief. I was captivated by videos of men and women returning joyfully, tearfully to their homes: brick huts or marble-floored apartments, messed up, with the windows blown in, but still standing, intact. I watched the clean-up videos on repeat, mesmerized by time-lapse footage of rubble being removed with wheelbarrows, floors being swept, makeshift kitchens cobbled together out of planks, buckets used as sinks. Brilliant.
Something delusional took a grip on me. I wanted to believe it was over. I don’t think I was alone, but I do know that I was entirely wrong. That period, it has transpired, was merely a transition to a new form of torment, another phase of land grabbing. The killing of Palestinians has continued, sometimes surpassing pre-ceasefire levels and accelerating viciously in the West Bank, where armed settlers, backed by the army, strut freely into Palestinian homes and gardens. New “seam zones” are declared, new checkpoints and gates are set up, and there are Israeli raids on villages, universities and religious sites, all while President Trump tells us “the war is over.”
By October 21, Israel had violated the ceasefire more than eighty times, killing a hundred Palestinians. It justified its bombing on October 19, which killed 44, as a response to an alleged Hamas attack in Rafah – which according to some reports was unexploded Israeli ordnance triggered by an Israeli tank. This was also used as an excuse to further restrict the humanitarian aid that enters sporadically at best, with many crossings still closed and aid kept waiting at the border.
By mid-November, Israel had violated the ceasefire 282 times, destroyed more than 1500 homes, raided areas beyond the Yellow Line twelve times and bombed Gaza 124 times. The C word gave Germany cover to resume its arms exports to Israel; France reauthorized Israeli companies to exhibit at arms fairs.
After two long years during which use of the word “ceasefire” was enough to put you at risk of losing your livelihood or political career, after resolutions calling for a ceasefire were blocked repeatedly by the US at the UN Security Council, “ceasefire” has become something we are expected to be grateful for, now that “ceasefire” means continued genocide. As the journalist Bisan Owda in northern Gaza has pointed out, genocide has just been rebranded. “Don’t let them lie to you,” she says. International journalists are still not able to access the Gaza Strip.
Since October 9, Owda’s social media videos have shown the depopulated, rubble-strewn streets of Shuja’iyya in Gaza City, which used to be so thick with people coming to the souk that cars couldn’t enter. Up to 90 per cent of Gaza’s housing has been destroyed, which means up to 90 per cent of the population are living in leaky tents.
There is no equipment to remove the rubble – not for the Palestinians, anyway. Any heavy-lifting machinery is being used by the Israelis to move the Yellow Line, which is creeping inwards, cornering the Palestinians in the Strip’s center and cutting people off from their homes, their agriculture, their land. Nearly 60 per cent of the Gaza Strip is under Israeli control. Drone strikes continue across the entire territory.
On November 17, the UN Security Council approved Trump’s resolution green-lighting a US colonial presence in Gaza and the use of foreign armed forces there. “By endorsing an illegal plan,” the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy said, the UN “has effectively abandoned its identity as a guardian of international law.”
My friend Atef Alshaer, who teaches at the University of Westminster, described his childhood in Rafah in the anthology Daybreak in Gaza. Speaking of his family (now displaced in Khan Younis) this week he said:
“Anybody who crosses what they call the “yellow line,” which is very arbitrary and keeps changing from one day to another, is shot at and killed … What is very difficult for people psychologically is that … they can’t visit their land. It’s like another Nakba for them. They have lived with these stories of the Nakba of 1948 and now again it is happening, this land that looks so close, yet it’s so far and so dangerous … You can’t go there. You will be shot … My brother, who’s a teacher, is really sad about not being able to visit his land and his destroyed house …This is very hard.”
I asked Atef if anything has improved in terms of food supplies, humanitarian aid. Not in terms of tents, he said, but some items are cheaper. The price of avocados, for example, has plummeted. Earlier this month, Bisan Owda reported that no meat, fish, eggs or fresh fruit and vegetables were entering Gaza. What is being allowed in, Atef said, is not necessarily what people want or need: new smartphone models and sugary processed foods that “make the people fat” – surplus Israeli products and junk food dressed up as humanitarian aid, for what is not a humanitarian crisis but a political one. Most of the agricultural land on the Israeli-controlled side of the Yellow Line has been seized, compounding the systematic ecocide by Israel that prevents Palestinians from growing their own produce.
Israeli bombing of Lebanon intensified this month, with strikes on Beirut suburbs and the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh, which has a population of 120,000. The pope is scheduled to visit Lebanon next week. My friends in Beirut say everyone is anticipating a further bombardment after he leaves.
Atef’s in-laws in Khan Younis had to conduct a “long intensive search” to find a place to pitch a tent and ended up on a street: “All day long it’s busy with cars or lorries and there’s just no sense that they exist somewhere. It’s just constant harassment, whether from natural forces or the social, the logistical.” Another problem, Atef says, is the rise of Israeli-backed criminal gangs.
As Israel intensified attacks on Gaza City in late September, my friend K., who has been repeatedly displaced, moved to the south with her family. She returned to Gaza City this week. With the heavy rains, most of the tents have been waterlogged. K. sent me videos of women bailing them out. The labor is beyond Sisyphean, as women and girls try to sweep the high, brown (probably stinking) waters from their tents. “The situation is bad like this for many people,” K. said. “I will write to you soon.”
(London Review of Books)
HAPPY SONGS
There’s a surprisingly long list of upbeat, feel-good songs that have triggered intense backlash from certain corners of the political left — often for being perceived as “toxic positivity,” class-blind, politically complacent, or even covertly right-wing. Here are the most notable examples:
- Bobby McFerrin – “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” (1988) The original template. Accused of Reagan-era “just pull yourself up by your bootstraps” messaging, ignoring systemic racism, poverty, etc.
- Pharrell Williams – “Happy” (2013) By the mid-2010s it was being called “the neoliberal happiness industry in song form,” especially after cities and corporations used it in feel-good propaganda videos while austerity and police brutality continued.
- R.E.M. – “Shiny Happy People” (1991) Even the band hates it now. At the time it was just ironic bubblegum, but in the 2010s–2020s it became the go-to example of “sinister enforced happiness.” Left-leaning music critics started citing it as everything wrong with early-90s denialism about the Gulf War, AIDS, recession, etc.
- The Beatles – “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” (1968) Believe it or not, this one has been catching strays lately on TikTok and music forums for being “oblivious colonialist cheerfulness” and “Paul McCartney’s privilege showing.”
- Louis Armstrong – “What a Wonderful World” (1967) Regularly dragged during the Black Lives Matter era (especially 2020) when it’s played over videos of protests or police violence. The complaint is that telling Black people “the world is wonderful” while they’re being tear-gassed is obscene
- Israel Kamakawiwoʻole – “Somewhere Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful World” medley (1993) Same problem as the Armstrong original, but amplified because it’s become the default “wholesome ukulele” soundtrack for commercials, charity PSAs, and political ads that critics see as papering over real problems.
- Cyndi Lauper – “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” (1983) In academic feminist circles and some online spaces it’s been re-examined as “white feminist consumerist escapism” that ignores intersectionality.
- The Beach Boys – “Good Vibrations” / “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” (1966) Periodically roasted for “sunshine fascism” or “California ideology” – basically the idea that endless summer and good vibes are a privileged fantasy that erases the Vietnam War draft, Watts riots, etc.
- Jason Mraz – “I’m Yours” (2008) Peak 2000s/2010s “chill bro” positivity. Got retroactively slammed as the soundtrack of Obama-era complacency.
- Walking on Sunshine – Katrina and the Waves (1983) Shows up on “toxic positivity” playlists right next to Pharrell.
OH NO
Oh no
I don't believe it
You say that you think you know
The meaning of love
You say love is all we need
You say
With your love you can change
All of the fools
All of the hate
I think you're probably
Out to lunch
Oh no
I don't believe it
You say that you think you know
The meaning of love
Do you really think it can be told?
You say that you really know
I think
You should check it again
How can you say
What you believe
Will be the key to a
World of love?
All your love
Will it save me?
All your love
Will it save the world
From what we can't understand?
Oh no
I don't believe it
And in your dreams
You can see yourself
As a prophet
Saving the world
The
Words from your lips
I just can't believe
You are such
A fool
— Frank Zappa (1970)
THE ABRACADABRA BOYS
The abracadabra boys—have they been in the stacks and cloisters? Have they picked up languages for throwing into chow mein poems?
Have they been to a sea of jargons and brought back jargons? Their salutations go: Who cometh? and, It ith I cometh.
They know postures from impostures, pistils from pustules, to hear them tell it. They foregather and make pitty pat with each other in Latin and in their private pig Latin, very ofay.
They give with passwords. “Who cometh?” “A kumquat cometh.” “And how cometh the kumquat?” “On an abbadabba, ancient and honorable sire, ever and ever on an abbadabba.”
Do they have fun? Sure—their fun is being what they are, like our fun is being what we are—only they are more sorry for us being what we are than we are for them being what they are.
Pointing at you, at us, at the rabble, they sigh and say, these abracadabra boys, “They lack jargons. They fail to distinguish between pustules and pistils. They knoweth not how the kumquat cometh.”
— Carl Sandburg
CELERY
Celery, raw
Develops the jaw,
But celery, stewed,
Is more quietly chewed.
— Ogden Nash
MOST OF THE BIG SHORE PLACES were closed now and there were hardly any lights except the shadowy, moving glow of a ferryboat across the Sound. And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes—a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.
And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… And one fine morning—
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
For those interested in controlling their end of life choices I can suggest exploring Final Exit Network.
Thanks, but I’ll stick to (maybe…) finding out when it happens. I had no choices regarding being conceived and being born, after all…and all the religious hokum be damned. One thing I am sure of: I am NOT one the so-called chosen ones (and neither are they, except in the sense of “choosing” themselves!).
Re: SMALL TOWN, BIG SCRUTINY…
The City of Fort Bragg Cult is operating in violation of California Government Code 1099:
“Incompatible Offices.”
Still beating the same drum? What do your allegations regarding incompatible offices have to do with hiring the Chief of Police? He only has the one position, after all.
Perfection
That MCT ending for the day– the classic, elegiac, words that end “The Great Gatsby” and then the man in the rowboat out on the rough waters….
I would love to know more about how you AVA guys find the great photos and the great quotations, melding them together, and sometimes getting it just right. Is it all 3 of you doing this fine work every day, or is one of you the genius at this task? No matter, really, what you are doing works very well. And it must be kind of fun…
I don’t follow every sentence or issue of the AVA, though I believe the AVA brought in an editor last year who is in New York, and provides content.
No New York, Eric. Just the three of us as always.
chuck d. : isnt the lido shuffle, the best song ever?
Yes, that’s a good one, still hear it on the radio sometimes.
I’m a little confused regarding the concept of pumping water from Lake Mendocino to Potter Valley. Doesn’t most of the water in Lake Mendocino already flow through Potter Valley? And, as the article notes, all the storage in the lake is “fully subscribed”. Finally, are there studies that show that enough water would flow into the lake to warrant raising the dam? Recent history tells us that the lake is seldom full at the current dam level.
Just another piece of the flim-flam.
Yes, RRFC had filed in the past for additional water rights, for the enlargement of Lake Mendocino, which would accommodate wet years, for the two years drought water storage capacity, might be a broad brush summary. Potter Valley in general has a fractured bed rock lens, which leaks and is not conducive for significant water storage, although certain locations and innovations have benefit.
If water were to be pumped from Lake Mendocino upstream, because of the cost, a related step could be a wastewater treatment plant for housing in Potter that uses less water than intensive agriculture, and to benefit the past financed low income loan constructed residences now on downtown Main Street Potter Valley, who may be using their toilet septic as well water.
The rotating group of a dozen big ag families or conglomerates in Potter Valley, generally have spread out their interests, whether farming in Ukiah, Napa, Kentucky, or with upscale and distant careers, and vacation retirement homes on the coast. This story on Potter Valley water is not new.
I had exactly the same question. So much pure entertainment- wonderful paintings and R. Crumbs and quotations and poetry and brilliant nature photos- amongst the angers and upsets and rants (some of them mine) and opinions and histories and announcements and all the rest of the stuff that we read the AVA for. Thanks for the many pleasures whoever You are.
Yes, michael, to this fuller list of all the pleasures of the daily AVA–I left out a lot.