Mendocino County Today: Friday 12/19/2025

Rain | Canary Rockfish | Mendo Audit | Berry Plucked | Philo Rental | Jail Grads | Haschak Farewell | Local Events | State Audit | Floating Panels | Gaskill School | Yesterday's Catch | Cloverdale Water | De-Icing | Bauer Books | Wine Shorts | White Rabbit | Standing Still | Psychedelic Timeline | Monkey Wrenchers | Fine Romance | December Dawn | Opposite Direction | Lead Stories | Education | Battle Order | Suspect Found | Discussion | American Cassandras | Mister Fantasy | Friday's Child | Green Grapes

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MODERATE to heavy rainfall will taper off to the south through Friday afternoon. More heavy rainfall returns Sunday. An active storm track will bring additional heavy rainfall and a flooding threat, strong winds, and lowering snow levels much of next week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): This has proven to be an erratic forecasting week, .04" today & 1.46" total rainfall this week, much less than forecasts have offered. It has barely rained the last 2 days. Going forward the forecast is suggesting some good rainfall amounts but, we'll see. A sprinkle with 54F this Friday morning on the coast. Rain today then increasing rain into the weekend, so they say...... Forecast for next week even wetter ?, to be seen.

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MENDOCINO FISHERMAN lands 10.25-pound canary rockfish, likely setting state record — (The Mendocino Voice)

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STATE CITES DA’S ‘GIFT OF PUBLIC FUNDS,’ ASSET FORFEITURE SPENDING

by Mike Geniella

In a sprawling report critical of how Mendocino County manages its finances, the California State Auditor accuses District Attorney David Eyster of wrongly using public funds to host annual steakhouse dinners.

It specifically cited DA Eyster’s use earlier this year of $3,600 in drug asset forfeiture funds to pay room space and dinner for staff and their guests, which he described as “continuing legal education and team building business meeting.” State Auditors found that in fact it was a “gift of public funds.”

Eyster has been holding the controversial annual dinners for years, racking up expenses totaling thousands of dollars since taking office in 2011. He has repeatedly shrugged off criticism and ignored questioning by local County Auditor Chamise Cubbison. Her questions in fact triggered a bitter feud between the two independently elected county officials and led the DA to make a failed effort earlier this year to criminally prosecute Cubbison for unrelated pay issues within her office. The felony case was tossed by Judge Ann Moorman at the preliminary hearing, and Cubbison returned to office.

On Thursday Cubbison supporters noted the irony of state auditors accusing Eyster of gift of public funds, the same allegation for which he attempted to criminally prosecute her.

As it is, local taxpayers so far have paid in excess of $400,000 in outside legal fees to pay for an outside prosecutor hired by Eyster to attempt to try Cubbison on a felony criminal charge, and defend the county in a civil lawsuit subsequently filed by Cubbison seeking damages and compensation for loss of salary and benefits during the 18-month-long suspension ordered by the county Board of Supervisors. The lawsuit is still pending and is likely to cost the county hundreds of thousands of dollars more.

Conclusions of the exhaustive special state review, authorized by the Legislature at a cost of $800,000, were released Thursday along with county responses and the State Auditor’s responses to those responses.

The scope of the 97-page state report is sweeping, focusing on the county’s declining financial condition and the need for corrective action. It looked at a variety of issues including an election snafu and questionable sole-source agreements on splitting contracts with outside vendors.

State auditors concluded the county’s current procurement and financial reporting practices “leave it vulnerable to waste, fraud, and abuse of public funds.”

It reviewed thirty expenditures across three county departments and found problems with documentation or justification in half of them.

“For example, staff purchased items (a $1,000 wide screen television for the DA’s office) without documenting the reasons why and did not reconcile advance payments to staff for travel with the actual costs of those trips,” according to the state report.

Besides DA Eyster’s “gift of public funds” by providing annual dinners for staff and their guests, the state report also focused on how the DA and the local Sheriff’s Office spend asset forfeiture funds, money or property seized during law enforcement criminal investigators.

State auditors concluded that the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors or the executive office have not “sufficiently overseen the use of the asset forfeiture funds spent by the Sheriff’s Office and District Attorney’s Office.”

State auditors said the county management must beef up its oversight efforts.

“We recommend that the county establish greater oversight over spending and create accountability for the use of asset forfeiture funds by having offices or departments that spend those funds report to the board annually about their use,” the state urged.

“As a result, we found that these offices were making donations of these funds without adequate safeguards against improper spending,” according to state auditors.

They cited a Sheriff’s Office donation to a “religiously affiliated school that violates state and federal constitutional provisions.”

State auditors said the DA’s Office in February of this year made a gift of public funds when it used asset forfeiture money to cover $3,600 on an end-of-year gathering and dinner for its staff and guests. The steakhouse dinners have been a regular practice of Eyster since he took office in 2011.

Eyster did not respond Thursday to requests for comments on the state Auditor’s findings.

However, in an earlier response to state auditors, the DA asserted in a concluding statement that “no improper payroll practices, financial irregularities or personal enrichment by District Attorney staff were uncovered, and all transactions were supported by at least some degree of documentation.”

In rebuttal, state auditors replied, “to provide clarity and perspective.”

“The District Attorney’s Office asserts that its use of asset forfeiture funding has been lawful. However, as our report notes on pages 30 and 31, the office’s use of asset forfeiture funding has violated state and federal constitutional prohibitions on direct funding for religiously affiliated schools, as well as the California Constitution’s prohibition on gifts of public funds.”

State auditors also said the DA’s Office “has not accurately summarized our findings regarding the presence of waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement with respect to the office’s expenditures.”

“We noted that some of the District Attorney’s Office documentation, such as undocumented justification for its purchase of a television,” a wide screen, $1,000 version for the DA’s conference room.

“These issues place Mendocino and the District Attorney’s Office at greater risk for waste, fraud and abuse,” state auditors concluded.

Sheriff Matt Kendall readily discussed the state's findings on Thursday, especially as they related to asset forfeiture funding.

“All in all, I think the recommendations are valid, and we will implement changes as recommended,” said Kendall.

Kendall said in 2024 federal guidelines surrounding asset forfeiture funds and how they are spent by local law enforcement were changed.

“Many of the areas brought forward in the audit are no longer of concern,” said Kendall.

The state report noted a $5,000 Sheriff contribution to St. Mary’s School for an athletic-related program and violated a doctrine of separation of church and state.

Kendall said the state, however, “found no pattern of donations to religious organizations and noted I have donated funding on several occasions for sober graduations, and various equipment drives that schools have had.”

Cubbison declined to comment Thursday on the state's findings.

Cubbison, however, in a letter to the state, said her office “accepts the California State Auditor’s recommendation.”

“We would like to thank the audit team for their professionalism, thorough review, and willingness to discuss their observations and recommendations with our team,” wrote Cubbison.

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BERRY LOCKED

On December 18th, 2025, at approximately 12:00 PM, Ukiah Police Department officers received a notification via the FLOCK automated license plate reader system regarding a stolen vehicle being driven in the City of Ukiah. The system indicated the stolen vehicle, a Ford pickup truck, was last seen in the area of North State St. near Garret Dr. This vehicle had recently been reported stolen in Cloverdale, CA.

Officers began a search of the area and an officer located the vehicle being driven southbound onto Hwy 101 from Gobbi St. The officer continued to follow the vehicle onto Hwy 101 and initiated a high-risk traffic stop with the assistance of other UPD units. The vehicle exited on the Hwy 253 offramp and came to a stop. The driver and sole occupant, identified as Kenneth Berry, exited and was taken into custody without incident.

During a search of the vehicle, a loaded .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol was found next to the driver’s seat. The pistol had no serial number, which appeared to have been removed. Berry, is a convicted felon and prohibited from possessing firearms. Additionally, multiple hypodermic syringes loaded with suspected methamphetamine, a methamphetamine pipe and several rounds of shotgun ammunition were located. Berry was transported to the Mendocino County jail where he was booked on the charges of Possession of stolen vehicleFelon in possession of a firearm, Felon in possession of ammunition, Possession of unregistered firearm, Possession of controlled substance while armed, Possession of controlled substance, and Possession of drug paraphernalia.

As always, our mission at UPD is to make Ukiah as safe a place as possible. If you would like to know more about crime in your neighborhood, you can sign up for telephone, cell phone, and email notifications by clicking the Nixle button on our website; www.ukiahpolice.com

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MENDOCINO SHERIFF:

Big Congratulations to the Incarcerated Men and Women of the Mendocino County Jail!

We are incredibly proud of those who completed their educational and life skills courses this semester! Their dedication to growth and self-improvement is truly inspiring. Special shoutouts to:

• Jason Vigil, Daniel Holmes, Soryia Ramos for completing college course AGR 140 - Introduction to Horticulture and various other life-changing courses.
• Benjamin Keator and Steven Leard for earning their High School Diploma and completing career-focused programs. Steven Leard also completed CAM 152 – Food and Equipment Safety.
• Nicole Sanderson for completing Motherhood is Sacred and continuing her educational journey.

We also want to take a moment to acknowledge the incredible support that makes all this possible:

• Buffey Wright Bourassa, Restorative Justice Program Manager, whose vision and dedication ensure that these programs continue to thrive and provide opportunities for transformation.
• Karina Guzman Alvarez, Inmate Services Coordinator, whose unwavering commitment and care for this population have been instrumental in their success.
• Joshua Sternberg, Instructor & Garden Manager, for your guidance in college course AGR 140 – Introduction to Horticulture, and for fostering an environment of growth both in the garden and in the hearts and minds of your students.

The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office is incredibly proud of their hard work and achievements. We look forward to seeing the incredible things they will continue to accomplish in their lives. We hope they keep pushing forward and know that they have a community rooting for their success.

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HASCHAK WON’T SEEK ANOTHER TERM

by Justine Frederiksen

Third District Mendocino County Supervisor John Haschak, who has another year remaining in his second term, announced this week that he will not be seeking a third term.

“For the past seven years, I get up each day with the clear intention of making the county a better place for its residents, (and) I am proud of having accomplished that goal on many days,” Haschak said during the Board of Supervisors meeting this week. “Whether it is connecting a senior citizen in need with the right service, or working with service providers and healthcare professionals when the federal government is cutting away the safety net for too many of our neighbors, it has truly been my privilege to be a public servant.”

However, Haschak continued, “I have decided not to run for re-election. While this was not an easy decision because I love doing the work … I cannot commit to another four-year-term.”

Haschak, who is currently chairman of the board, was first elected as supervisor in 2018 along with Fifth District Supervisor Ted Williams. The Third District he represents includes the inland areas of Willits, Laytonville and Covelo, and he said he plans to serve until the end of his current term in January of 2027.

“Serving on the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors has been a great honor,” Haschak said at the board’s Dec. 16 meeting, summing up his decision to not seek re-election by quoting Henry David Thoreau, who “when he was asked why he left the woods, he replied, ‘Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live.’”

Reached Wednesday morning for comment, Haschak said his decision not to run again was “partly personal,” but that also “eight years is a long time to serve, and it was time for me to step down.”

When asked what he still hoped to accomplish in the coming year, Haschak said “the (county) budget needs a lot of work still, so I am looking forward to that,” noting that despite the opposing opinions expressed by many regarding every topic the board tackles, he felt that serving as supervisor was still “fulfilling and important work.”

Also during this week’s board meeting, Haschak summed up the supervisors’ work in 2025 as addressing “some difficult situations, some problems were resolved while others are still pending, and certainly the budget issues will continue to be with us: Roads will continue to need more money than we have, and the safety net issues will become more problematic for us, and the residents of Mendocino County.

“I feel that we as a board are working on these problems and giving our best efforts to resolve them,” he continued, noting that he appreciated that “each of us, along with staff, is giving our best effort. This year we started the two-day board workshop, which helped set the tone for more efficient and effective meetings this year. I appreciate my colleagues asking questions of staff before the meetings so that staff are prepared to answer such questions during the meetings, and I look forward to the January workshop, which gives us more time to work on the more pressing problems that we face.”

He also acknowledged his fellow board members for “putting more effort into their reports this year; I think that has been very effective, and we’re communicating more with the public about what each and every one of us is doing. That’s been a goal of mine, and I appreciate everyone putting in their best effort in that regard.”

(Ukiah Daily Journal)

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LOCAL EVENTS (this weekend)

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STATE AUDIT OF MENDOCINO COUNTY FINDS STRAINED FINANCES AND FRAYING SYSTEMS

Auditors found District Attorney's steakhouse dinner to be a prohibited gift of public funds

by Elise Cox

For years, Mendocino County’s financial troubles surfaced in fragments: late reports, concerns about property tax collection expressed at public meetings, a costly and ongoing court battle over asset forfeiture funding, and a 2024 primary election marred by ballot errors. This week, a sweeping state audit brought all those fragments together into a single, unsettling picture.

In a 97-page report released Thursday morning, the California State Auditor concluded that Mendocino County’s financial condition is “gradually declining” and that key administrative systems — from accounting and procurement to elections oversight — are vulnerable to waste, error and abuse. Without corrective action, the report warned, those weaknesses are likely to persist.

The audit was ordered by the Legislature and the governor after a convergence of red flags: delayed financial statements, public confusion among county supervisors about the county’s overall fiscal health, ballot mistakes during the 2024 presidential primary, and a criminal indictment — later dismissed — of the elected auditor-controller–treasurer-tax collector.

At the center of the report is a long-term imbalance. From fiscal year 2019–20 through 2023–24, county expenditures rose more than 30 percent while tax revenues stagnated. During that same period, the county’s general fund reserve fell slightly below the minimum level recommended by the Government Finance Officers Association — a threshold meant to cushion governments against emergencies and economic shocks.

Property taxes, one of the county’s largest revenue sources, played a significant role. Auditors found that problems with Mendocino’s property tax system contributed to delayed assessments and growing unpaid balances. As of the audit period, the county had $30.6 million in unpaid property taxes, interest, penalties and fees — more than half of it tied to the three most recent tax years.

The county’s tax collection rate has also slipped. While Mendocino once collected nearly 98 percent of property taxes within the year they were billed, that figure dropped to just over 94 percent by 2023–24. Auditors said the trend points to increasing delays, even as county officials attributed the figures to backlogged bills, staffing shortages and disruptions caused by software upgrades.

Financial reporting delays compounded the problem. The Auditor-Controller–Treasurer-Tax Collector’s Office, responsible for producing the county’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, missed recommended deadlines in multiple recent years. Those delays, auditors said, limit the ability of supervisors — and the public — to understand the county’s true financial position in real time.

The report also flagged weaknesses in procurement and contracting practices. Nearly half of the 30 expenditures reviewed lacked sufficient documentation or justification, according to auditors.

“We noted that county departments did not consistently obtain required approvals for purchases, such as purchases from online retailers, or document the reasons for purchases, such as for a television, making it unclear if they were made for justifiable reasons,” the report stated.

Some expenditures violated constitutional prohibitions on gifts of public funds, including payments connected to religiously affiliated organizations. Others reflected weak oversight, such as poorly justified sole-source contracts and agreements split across fiscal years to avoid approval thresholds.

The state auditor singled out a $3,600 end-of-year staff gathering at a steakhouse hosted by the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office as an example of a prohibited “gift of public funds.” The dinner was paid for using asset forfeiture funds.

“The office paid based on the number of individuals in attendance, and its records indicate — and the District Attorney’s Office acknowledges — that attendees included both its office’s staff and their guests,” the report noted. The District Attorney’s Office shared its perspective that including spouses and significant others at the event fostered a more inclusive and positive work environment. It also stated that the county’s chief executive officer had preapproved the expenditure, although auditors said they saw no independent evidence of that approval.

The auditors warned that current practices leave the county exposed to waste, fraud and abuse, even in the absence of proven misconduct.

Election administration was another area of concern. While the county’s Elections Office was not responsible for a vendor error that sent incorrect ballots to most voters in the 2024 primary, auditors found that the office itself assigned some voters to the wrong precincts — leading to a second round of incorrect ballots. More troubling, the report said, was that those assignment errors had not been fully corrected by the time of the audit, raising the risk of repeat mistakes.

Mendocino County officials offered varied responses to the report. The Board of Supervisors and the county’s chief executive officer generally agreed with the findings, while responses from independently elected officials were more mixed.

County Assessor/Clerk-Recorder Katrina Bartolomie said her office is working with the county’s Information Technology Division and evaluating tools used by other counties to create an “aging” or “workflow” report by March 2026. The tool would help staff sort properties by change-of-ownership dates or permit issuance dates, improving workload management and identifying properties at risk of lost property tax revenue.

Registrar of Voters Katrina Bartolomie said the Elections Office agreed that a contract with its ballot printer would be beneficial. A contract with a ballot-printing vendor is currently being processed and is expected to include performance standards and remedies for errors.

Auditor-Controller–Treasurer-Tax Collector Chamise Cubbison said she largely agreed with the draft report sections provided to her and accepted the recommendations directed to her office. Those include continuing efforts to hold regular default tax property auctions by October 2026; revising timelines for completing policies and procedures related to key responsibilities such as bank reconciliations and journal entries by March 2026; and working with the CEO’s office to make greater use of the county’s accounting system by September 2026, including increased automation.

District Attorney David Eyster disagreed with the auditor’s conclusions about his office’s operations and submitted a lengthy response defending its use of asset forfeiture funds.

Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall agreed with the report’s conclusions and said his office removed donations from its list of allowable asset forfeiture expenditures in mid-2024 in response to changes in U.S. Department of Justice guidelines. Auditors, however, noted that the Sheriff’s Office made a donation using asset forfeiture funds in November 2024.

The California State Auditor’s Office said it expects to receive updates on specific recommendations as part of its formal follow-up process.

(mendolocal.news)

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UKIAH VINEYARD GOES 100% SOLAR WITH FLOATING PV SYSTEM

by Kelly Pickerel

Nelson Family Vineyards in Mendocino County, California, is powering 100% of its operations with renewable energy following the installation of a floating solar system on an irrigation pond. The innovative project enables the 74-year-old, 1,800-acre family-run farm to operate entirely on clean energy without taking any agricultural land out of production.

Together with an existing solar system on the roof of the winery, the floating photovoltaic (FPV) system is expected to generate around 200,000 kWh of electricity annually — enough to power the winery, agricultural pumps, tasting room, shop and 12 on-site homes. This is projected to save Nelson Family Vineyards an estimated $90,000 annually, significantly reducing operating costs while also supporting its commitment to sustainable operation.

“With the cost of grid electricity rising so sharply, becoming energy independent will have a major and immediate impact on our operation. This investment will save us a tremendous amount of money year after year,” says Tyler Nelson, the owner of Nelson Family Vineyards. “Best of all, because the system floats on a pond, it does not take a single acre of land out of production. That means our full 1,800 acres can be used solely for what matters most — agriculture and supporting wildlife habitat.”

The FPV installation will also serve as a key field site for a study on the ecological impacts of FPV technology. Scientists from the UC Davis Wild Energy Center will use the system to examine how FPV systems influence water quality, aquatic species, microclimates and biodiversity in an agricultural setting.

A major focus of the study will be to determine whether shading from the floating solar panels can help control invasive zooplankton (water fleas) and aquatic weeds that frequently clog the vineyard’s high-efficiency drip irrigation filters — an issue that requires hourly maintenance during peak season. By limiting sunlight, the panels are expected to slow the growth of the water fleas and aquatic weeds, reducing both labor-intensive maintenance and chemical use.

The floating solar system was designed and installed by Noria Energy, a local contractor and an affiliate company of Sunrock Distributed Generation.

“It’s been a privilege working with the Nelson Family and UC Davis to help the winery save money, achieve energy self-sufficiency, and conserve natural resources,” says Noria Energy’s President, Ron Stimmel. “This project demonstrates how FPV technology can turn underutilized water surfaces into reliable, highly productive power sources, enabling growers to improve both the sustainability and efficiency of their operations while keeping farmland fully productive.”

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

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OLD SCHOOLHOUSE PHOTO HAS A STORY

by Katy Tahja

The lovely image of the old Gaskill School made me think that readers might want to know more about this survivor, empty now more than 75 years.

The school, in an area then called Hermitage, was named for early settler Silas Gaskill.

It was the eastern most school district in that part of the county organized in 1860. The first Gaskell school was on a flat place on a south slope of a hill west of Hwy. 128 about one mile north of the existing school according to Alva Ingram. In 1866 there were 45 kids. When it was moved or rebuilt at this current location was not noted. (What was noted was that Silas Gaskill shot and killed a stranger in 1869, was arrested, posted bail, then fled the county).

In 1899 one and a half acres were obtained at this current site located halfway between Hermitage and Haehl Hill. In 1903 there were 25 kids (all White) and the teacher earned $60 a month The teacher in 1915, Laurence Hazel McCready Pittman and in an oral history interview she said that with a note from home the kids could swim in the creek before lunch. Parents were farmers and sheep ranchers. Fall session was over in November as it was too mountainous and they had a long winter vacation and started again in the spring. Student population varied, in 1931 there were only 9 students.

By the 1940s, parents wanted their kids in a school with grades and joined the AV School District. But the Gaskell School faced another problem.

The state of California passed a law ins 1947 that said all schools must have flush toilets and there was not enough land to put a septic system in so the school closed and the kids were bussed. The school was offered as a museum by the Glenn Johnson family if it could be moved to what is now the AV Veterans Hall grounds, but Caltrans said it was too wide to move on the highway and it was too costly to dismantle and reassemble so the idea was dropped.

Stories and facts like those above can be found in the five volumes of “What Became of the Little Red Schoolhouse?” produced 35 years ago by the Mendocino County Historical Society and the Mendocino Coast Genealogical Society. Local museums and libraries have reference copies to browse.

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Thursday, December 18, 2025

ROBERT BELL, 42, Laytonville. Under influence, controlled substance, probation revocation.

KENNETH BERRY, 40, Cloverdale/Ukiah. Stolen vehicle, felon-addict with firearm, ammo possession by prohibited person, controlled substance, paraphernalia, loaded firearm.

STEPHEN BREVIK, 66, Petaluma/Willits. DUI with blood-alcohol over 0.15%.

JOSEPH BUCKINGHAM, 45, Ukiah. Unspecified offense.

MATTHEW FAUST, 51, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol. (Frequent flyer.)

CASANDRA GUERRA, 34, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

BRENDA MASSEY, 57, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, paraphernalia, failure to appear.

EVAN MURDEN, 33, Willits. Grand theft, failure to appear, probation revocation.

ROGER ROTH, 54, Willits. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

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ESMERALDA'S PHONY CLOVERDALE WATER STUDY

Editor:

How could the Cloverdale City Council vote to accept Esmeralda Land Co.’s hired consultant’s water study, knowing that it was based on environmental studies completed in 2004 and revised in 2018? Both studies were completed before the recent Potter Valley River Project “two-basin solution.” This decision will establish limits on diversions to the Russian River, affecting Cloverdale’s water supply, especially in drought years. Recent developments in Cloverdale — Baumgardner Ranch and others — did not exist when those studies were done. Cloverdale needs to require a more recent environmental study, using a consultant of their choosing, paid for by Esmeralda.

Lynn Caruso

Cloverdale

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HOW TO DE-ICE PEACEFULLY

1.  Blow our whistles 3 times.
2.  Do our Monty Python Silly Walk.
3.  Spray the air with lively fragrances.
4.  Hand out It’s-Its for everyone to eat.
5.  Give each other frequent warm hugs.

Sincerely and respectfully submitted,

— Jim Luther (Proud Descendant of Proud Immigrants)

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ESTHER MOBLEY: What I'm Reading

A soon-to-take-effect state law will allow vineyards to host tastings even if they don’t have a full winery permit, but it wasn’t clear how Napa County would allow its implementation — until Tuesday. The board of supervisors approved a plan that sets parameters for how these vineyards can conduct their tastings, including limits on visitor counts, Edward Booth reports in the Press Democrat.

Canada isn’t buying any more American alcohol products, in retaliation for President Trump’s tariffs, but many stores have a stockpile of bottles that they pulled from the shelves earlier this year. Some of those retailers are now selling them off, Michael Levenson writes in the New York Times, driving a rush of bourbon enthusiasts to get their hands on the last American liquor that will be available in Canada for the foreseeable future.

P.S. Tickets for the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition’s public tasting are now on sale! Join us on March 7 at Fort Mason Center for a mega-walkaround tasting. New this year: Jess Lander and I will each lead an intimate, 45-minute tasting for small groups (a separate ticket will be required for those). There’s a Chronicle subscriber-exclusive discount on General Admission tickets that ends today!

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WHITE RABBIT

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you're going to fall
Tell 'em a hookah-smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
Call Alice
When she was just small

When the men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you've just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving low
Go ask Alice
I think she'll know

When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's off with her head
Remember what the dormouse said
Feed your head

— Grace Slick (1967)

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MERRY PRANKSTERS & ASSORTED PSYCHEDELIC TIMELINE

from Ryan Place's 2020 interview of Ken Babbs

NOTE: this is a raw, unpolished timeline compiled from my research notes. I approach interviews like doing detective work and always try to assemble a timeline for story coherence. Thought I’d include it since it might be a helpful resource to others. Cheers! Ryan

• January 14th, 1936-Ken Babbs is born in Ohio
• 1938-LSD synthesized by Dr. Albert Hoffman @ Sandoz Lab (Basel, Switzerland)
• 1939-Al Hinkle and Neal Cassady, both 12, meet in Denver at a YMCA gym circus class
• April 19, 1943-Dr. Albert Hoffman unintentionally takes the world’s first acid trip
• April 30, 1943-Sandoz files the first LSD patent application in Friborg, Switzerland
• 1946-47-Neal Cassady moves to NYC, meets Jack Kerouac
• 1949-Dr. Max Rinkel brings LSD from Sandoz Labs in Switzerland to the USA, Boston
• 1951-Dr. Nicholas Bercel, a neurophysiologist at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles) supposedly becomes the first American to experience LSD
• 1951-Dr. Humphry Osmond moves from London, England to Saskatchewan, Canada. He begins testing the therapeutic effects of LSD on schizophrenics and alcoholics at Weyburn Mental Hospital.
• 1951-Neal’s son John Cassady is born @ 29 Russell st, San Fran; Kerouac also lived here for a bit; Carolyn Cassady took the famous photo of them across the street
• 1953-CIA chemist Sidney Gottlieb buys the entire known world supply of LSD so the CIA can conduct mind-control experiments with it, thus kicking off the MK-Ultra Project
• 1953-City Lights books opens in SanFran, owned by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. A plucky young sci-fi novelist, Philip K. Dick, is a frequent customer.
• 1954-Dr. Gottlieb starts Operation Midnight Climax where the CIA gives unsuspecting customers of prostitutes LSD inside a house (225 Chestnut Street, SanFran) so they can study their behavior
• 1954-68-the Hungry I nightclub in San Fran
• 1954-Neal Cassady buys house in Los Gatos (18231 Bancroft ave, Monte Sereno, CA). Lives here periodically until his death in 68. His wife Carolyn sells the house in 87 and it gets bulldozed.
• 1955-Babbs attending Case Tech school in Cleveland, then Miami University (Oxford, OH)
• 1955-Ginsburg reads Howl poem in San Francisco
• 1955-Baltimore, MD-Spring Grove State Psychiatric Hospital, founded in 1797, becomes early LSD experimental ground in Cottage 13, a small cottage on the property. Over 700 people are given LSD by Dr. Albert Kurland from 1963-76 when the program was “officially” running and was funded by NIMH. In 1968, Dr. Stan Grof arrived.
• 1957-Kerouac’s book On the Road comes out
• 1957-Dr. Humphry Osmond coins the term ‘psychedelic’
• 1958-Ferlinghetti’s book Coney Island of the Mind is published
• 1958-Ken Kesey and his wife Faye Haxby move to California
• Fall 1958-Babbs gets a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship and enrolls at Stanford grad school writing program where he meets fellow outsider Ken Kesey at a cocktail party at professor Wallace Stegner’s house
• 1959-Pasadena, CA-Ken Babbs wedding. Ken Kesey is groomsman
• May 1959-Babbs enters the military; trains with USMC in Quantico, then Pensacola, FL flight school and learns to fly choppers
• 1959-Naked Lunch WSB
• 1959-Jerry Kamstra runs the Cloven Hoof Bookstore (Grant ave, SanFran)
• 1959-After being encouraged by Dr. Vic Lovell to sign up, Kesey volunteers at Menlo Park VA hospital (795 Willow rd, Menlo Park, CA) to take mind-altering drugs as part of MK-Ultra (financed by the CIA; they paid Stanford University; also supposedly tested LSD on monkeys). Kesey takes drugs under the supervision of Dr. Leo Hollister.
• 1960-Kesey lands job as psychiatric aid at the VA
• 1960-Cambridge, MA-Tim Leary and Richard Alpert conduct LSD experiments on themselves and others
• 1960-Los Angeles-Bernard Roseman and Bernard Copley produce underground LSD.
• 1960-HST first encounters LSD in Big Sur but does not take any
• 1960-while working at Dow Chemical in Berkeley, a young Alexander ‘Sasha’ Shulgin has his first psychedelic experience in the form of a mescaline trip at Dow
• 1961-Springfield, OR-Ken Kesey, Ken Babbs, John Babbs all take IT-290 (aka: alpha-methyltryptamine)
• 1961-Ken Babbs moves to Ganado Road, San Juan Capistrano, CA. He’s stationed at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in Irvine before shipping off to Vietnam.
• 1961-while living briefly in Paris, France, psychedelic researcher Dr. James Fadiman is introduced to psychedelics by friend Ram Dass when Dass, Tim Leary, and Aldous Huxley pass through town. Soon after this, Jim and Dorothy Fadiman become Perry Lane neighbors of Ken Kesey.
• Fall 1961-Kerouac writes novel Big Sur @ Ferlinghetti’s cabin in Bixby Canyon, Big Sur. Later, Kamstra writes The Frisco Kid here
• September 1961-Cambridge, MA; Leary takes LSD for the first time via Michael Hollingshead
• 1962-Tim Leary’s Good Friday psilocybin experiment in Boston
• 1962-Kesey’s One flew over the cuckoo’s nest published; breakout success, instant bestseller
• 1962-under the supervision of Dr. James Fadiman, Stewart Brand (soon to join the Merry Pranksters) has his first LSD experience at Myron Stolaroff’s International Foundation for Advanced Study in Menlo Park, CA
• 1962-63-Babbs is USMC helicopter squadron in Vietnam (wrote novel Who Shot the Water Buffalo, unpublished until 2011); stationed down south in Delta, then north in Da Nang; he was flying a Sikorsky H-34D “Dawg”
• Late 1962-Neal Cassady hangs out with Kesey in Palo Alto
• 1963-Babbs returns from Nam, hangs out at Kesey’s house (9 Perry Lane, Palo Alto) bongos and wine and pineapple chili. Pot wasn’t even on the scene yet
• July 21, 1963-Perry Lane ends, bulldozed
• 1963-Leary fired from Harvard, moves to Millbrook
• 1963-Hermosa Beach, California-Douglas George is making LSD underground. He gives Owsley his first acid experience.
• 1963-Owsley synthesizes his own LSD in Berkeley. He then starts manufacturing homemade LSD via ‘Bear Research Group’
• November 22, 1963-JFK assassinated in Dallas
• 1964-Kesey publishes Sometimes a Great Notion
• March 1964-sci-fi author Philip K. Dick takes LSD and says the experience transports him to Latin-speaking ancient Rome. He then writes the Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch during extended amphetamines binges at his house (3919 Lyon ave, Oakland, CA)
• Early 1964-Kesey moves to La Honda (7940 La Honda rd, La Honda, CA) a large house on 3 acres in the middle of a beautiful redwood forest
• 1964-the Merry Pranksters are named by Babbs at San Gregorio Beach, CA. The Merry Pranksters form (core group of 14 people) = zapping the “squares” out of their conformity to the Establishment by using LSD, a day glo bus, music and laughter
• Spring 1964-Prankster Hagen sees classified ad for 1939 International Harvester bus for sale by Andre Hobson in Atherton, CA. Kesey buys it for $1,200 with his ‘One flew over cuckoo nest’ money
• June 17, 1964-the famous Furthur bus trip starts from Kesey’s house (La Honda, CA) to “Madhattan”; “Kesey wanted to see what would happen when hallucinogenic-inspired spontaneity confronted what he saw as the banality and conformity of American society”
• June 29, 1964-Pranksters arrive in NYC. While in NYC, Neal Cassady introduces the Pranksters to Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg at Chloe Scott’s apartment (Madison Ave and 90th St)
• August 1964-the Furthur bus returns to La Honda
• 1964-San Francisco area-Pranksters help give birth to the counterculture
• 1964-HST first reports on the Hell’s Angels
• August 2nd, 1964-Gulf of Tonkin incident in Vietnam
• October 1964-the Hip Pocket Bookstore opens (1500 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz) Run by Ron Bevirt (aka: Prankster Hagen) and Peter Demma. Neal Cassady is the stores first sales clerk.
• February 21, 1965-Owsley’s home/LSD lab (1647 Virginia st, Berkley, CA) raided by police
• March 30, 1965-Owsley creates first big batch of LSD
• April 12, 1965-Tim Scully first takes LSD. Shortly afterwards, Owsley hires him as a roadie for The Warlocks (whom in a few months become The Grateful Dead). After that, he becomes Owsley’s lab assistant in Point Richmond.
• 1965-Roy Sebern, Prankster affiliate and artist, invents the liquid light show
• April 23, 1965-Kesey’s La Honda estate raided by Agent Wong (Willie Wong, SF Chinese narc) but the Pranksters had a few days heads-up and ended up pranking the cops. Kesey and 13 other Pranksters arrested
• May 1965-HST first article on Hell’s Angels appears in The Nation magazine
• 1965-Wes Wilson creates the world’s first psychedelic concert poster (San Francisco)
• 1965-Lafayette Hills, CA-While working for Dow Chemical in Berkeley, legendary chemist Alexander ‘Sasha’ Shulgin synthesizes MDMA at his recently built home laboratory.
• 1965-Vietnam big surge US troops 500,00 (Marines to north, Army to south)
• July 1965-Dow Chemical Company (Midland, MI), the makers of saran wrap, score a $5 million dollar Department of Defense contract to become the US military’s only supplier of Napalm. Until 1969, they manufacture Napalm-B, a jellied mix of gasoline, benzene, polystyrene.
• Aug 7, 1965-La Honda party w/ HST and some 40 Hells Angels; “amusingly incongruous cast of characters, a microcosm of an unsustainable social movement”; also present were Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsburg; 100 people total, all on LSD, HST’s first LSD experience; Lord Byron Styrofoam (aka Sandy Lehmann-Haupt) the KLSD radio station DJ, “800 micrograms in your head”
• August 13th, 1965-Jefferson Airplane debut at The Matrix (3138 Fillmore st, SanFran)
• August 24th, 1965-The Beatles first take LSD together @ Zsa Zsa Gabor’s house (2850 Benedict Canyon rd, Beverly Hills, CA) with Peter Fonda, David Crosby, and others
• September 02, 1965-The Beatles concert @ SanFran Cow Palace (bad vibes, Pranksters leave early, return to La Honda to see 400 people there and Owsley, the world’s greatest acid chemist)
• September 5th, 1965-the word “hippie” first appears in print in the San Francisco Examiner
• October 15, 1965-Kesey and the Pranksters @ the Vietnam Day Committee protest @ University of Berkeley, Sproul Hall Plaza, some 15,000 people. Paul Krassner’s first encounter with the Pranksters
• October 31, 1965-Babbs says that an informal Acid Test party, a precursor to the official Acid Tests, takes place during a Halloween costume party at his house “The Spread” (Soquel dr and Dover, Soquel, CA) on 400 acres
• November 21, 1965-Lysergic A Go Go @ AIAA Aviation Academy Auditorium (7660 Beverly blvd, LA) event put on by Hugh Romney (aka: Wavy Gravy) and Del Close for 500 people
• November 27, 1965-Soquel, CA-Babbs house ‘The Spread’ first Acid Test; advertised at the Hip Pocket Bookstore; Pranksters home movies, Cassady, Ginsberg
• 2nd test = December 4, 1965-San Jose Acid Test @ Big Nig’s house= The Warlocks first performance as the Grateful Dead; took place right after the Rolling Stones played San Jose Civic Auditorium
• December 10th, 1965-Bill Graham takes over The Fillmore (1805 Geary blvd)
• 3rd test = December 11, 1965 = Muir Beach, CA feat. Grateful Dead, strobe lights; 300 people; Hell’s Angels, Owsley has LSD freakout, claims he goes into “parallel time dimension” with Count Cagliostro
• December 18, 1965-acid test @ the Big Beat (998 San Antonio rd, Palo Alto)
• January 1966-October 1967-Ron and Jay Thelin run the Psychedelic Shop (1535 Haight, SF)
• January 8th, 1966-Fillmore acid test. Paul Krassner attends.
• January 15th, 1966-Portland, OR acid test
• January 19, 1966-Kesey arrested again for weed. Busted on Stewart Brand’s rooftop (Vallejo Street @ Grant St, North Beach, SanFran). Kesey along with Mountain Girl busted for only 3.54 grams of marijuana.
• January 21-23, 1966-Pranskters put on the Trips Festival, a 3-day long Acid Test @ Longshoreman’s Hall SanFran (considered the first true hippie festival/official gathering?) Babbs does the sound system and builds scaffold control tower; 10,000 attendees drinking LSD punch; Stewart Brand, Bill Graham
• January 23, 1966-Kesey moves into Babbs house, The Spread, in Santa Cruz where he plans to, rather than do 5 years in prison, fake his death and become an outlaw in Mexico. Mountain Girl, Lee Quarnstrom, Ron Bevirt, Space Daisy, also move in.
• January 31, 1966-Kesey’s abandoned vehicle is found in Orick, California. Inside is an 18-page long suicide note reading “O Ocean, ocean, ocean, I’ll beat you in the end”
• February 04, 1966-Kesey becomes an outlaw in Mexico
• February 1966-Ken Babbs becomes unofficial leader of the Pranksters. The Pranksters acquire the Sans Souci (saan soo see) old mansion in Stinson Beach. They have acid test at nearby Sawyer’s Church in Northridge.
• Feb 12, 1966-Watts Acid Test (either 13331 S. Alameda or 9027 S. Figueroa, Compton, CA) 200 people; 30 gallon plastic trash can full of “Electric Kool Aid” (coined by Wavy Gravy), Grateful Dead
• March 1966-Pranksters take the bus to Mazatlán, Mexico to visit Kesey. They do several small Acid Tests in Mexico. Kesey sneaks back into USA via Brownsville, TX.
• 1966-Mountain Girl has child with Kesey & also marries and separates from fellow Prankster George Walker. She later marries Jerry Garcia.
• 1966-Grateful Dead and Mountain Girl move to 710 Ashbury, SanFran
• Summer 1966-1969-Lithuanian Leon Tabory takes over ownership of ‘The Barn’ in Scotts Valley from Big Daddy Nord. The Barn was a well-known beatnik, Prankster, hippie community gathering place located off Highway 17, just north of Santa Cruz. The Barn address (Granite Creek road and Santa Village Dr, Scotts Valley, CA).
• July 24, 1966-Pranksters Lee Quarnstrom and Space Daisy (aka: Judith Ann Washburne) are married at The Fillmore. The best man is Julius Karpen.
• September 1966-The Oracle newspaper begins
• October 1966-Prankster affiliate Julius Karpen becomes the manager of rock band Big Brother & the Holding Company for one year.
• October 6, 1966-LSD becomes illegal in the state of California (note the overtones of 666)
• October 20, 1966-Kesey arrested on freeway in San Francisco
• October 31, 1966-final Acid Test graduation @ Winterland Ballroom (SanFran) strange end to the Pranksters acid tests. The group gradually go their separate ways afterwards, periodically hanging out.
• January 14, 1967-The Human Be-In @ Polo Fields (Golden Gate Park, SanFran) 30,000 people
• Jan-Feb 1967-Tom Wolfe’s first articles on Pranksters run in New York Magazine
• 1967-Ken Babbs moves to Oregon
• 1967-Owsley living and making LSD at 2321 Valley st, Berkeley, CA
• 1967-Hugh Romney (aka: Wavy Gravy) starts the Hog Farm (West Conover St, Sunland-Tujunga, CA). This is a 33 acre commune in the hills above Los Angeles. To find it on a map, use the address 9401 Tujunga Valley st, Shadow Hills, CA. In 1969, the Hog Farm moves to Llano, New Mexico.
• Feb 1967-HST book Hell’s Angels published
• March 1967-Prankster Denise Kaufman (aka: Mary Microgram) joins all-female rock band The Ace of Cups. She does vocals, guitar, harmonica.
• March 16, 1967-Houston acid test @ Rice University. Teacher and novelist Larry McMurty was a Stanford Univ pal of Kesey’s.
• May 26, 1967-The Beatles release Sgt. Pepper album
• June 16-18, 1967-Monterey Pop Fest in Monterey, CA (feat. Hendrix, the Who, Shankar, Joplin, etc)
• June 23, 1967-Kesey goes to work farm for 5 months for marijuana charge. This is the San Mateo County sheriff’s Honor Camp (7546 Alpine rd, La Honda, CA). 11 acres. Former Boy Scout camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains above Pescadero Creek. It is hilariously located only 1 mile SE of Kesey’s house.
• Summer 1967-San Fran-Summer of Love-“flower children followed by the sharks; Bay Area wasn’t kind of place we wanted to be around anymore”
• 1967-Lenny Bruce protégé & quasi-Prankster affiliate Paul Krassner founds the Yippies (Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman)
• 1967-Tim Leary moves to Laguna Beach to live with the Brotherhood of Eternal Love (250 Woodland Dr)
• 1967-Quasi-Prankster affiliate Norman Hartweg car accident in Las Vegas, leaves him a wheelchair-bound paraplegic. He spends 1yr in hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, then stays in Ann Arbor until moving back to LA in 1977. Norman’s father, Dr Norman E. Hartweg, was curator of reptiles at the University of Michigan, he was an international expert on reptiles.
• October 21, 1967-Washington, DC-a group led by Abbie Hoffman attempt an exorcism of The Pentagon. They sing and chant, trying to get it to levitate so they can perform an aural exorcism
• November 1967-Rolling Stone magazine begins
• November 1967-Kesey gets out of work farm after 5mnths and moves to Kesey Farm (64acres) in Pleasant Hill, Oregon
• November 27, 1967-The Beatles release Magical Mystery Tour album
• December 1967-William Leonard Pickard moves from Cambridge, MA to Berkeley, CA and gets a job at UC Berkeley inside Latimer Hall at the Department of Bacteriology and Immunology
• December 1967-Owsley’s LSD lab raided in Orinda, CA; Owsley arrested; the Brotherhood of Eternal Love takes up the mantle of LSD production
• Feb 1968-Neal Cassady dies mysteriously some 2,000 miles south of La Honda, CA in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
• 1968-Sausalito, CA-William Mellon (aka: Billy) Hitchcock introduces the Brotherhood of Eternal Love to chemists Nick Sand and Tim Scully
• August 1968-Tom Wolfe publishes book ‘The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test’ detailing the fascinating exploits of The Merry Pranksters
• September 1st, 1968-Stewart Brand (Prankster) publishes the first Whole Earth Catalog
• Late 1968-the hippie scene starts getting ugly as the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood turns seedy and violent after an influx of street predators move into the neighborhood
• October 24, 1968-Congress passed Staggers-Dodd Bill, effectively criminalizing the recreational use of LSD-25. LSD is made illegal in USA
• November 05, 1968-Nixon elected President
• December 9th, 1968-the Mother of All Demos introduces email, hypertext, and the computer mouse via Prankster Stewart Brand and computer scientist Douglas Englebart at San Fran’s Brooks Hall, Civic Center Plaza. Stewart was at SRI HQ in Menlo Park working one of the computers
• March 1969-LSD chemists Tim Scully and Nick Sand make the famous Orange Sunshine acid at their farmhouse (Mitchell Lane west of Baldocchi Way, Windsor, CA). They make 3 pounds (4.5 million hits) of Orange Sunshine LSD
• July 20, 1969-NASA on the Moon
• August 9-10, 1969-Charles Manson’s cult the Family kills 5 people
• August 15-18, 1969-Pranksters attend Woodstock, along w/ an estimated 400,000 people
• September 1969-The Beatles breakup
• October 21, 1969-Kerouac dies
• December 6, 1969-Altamont Free Concert (Grateful Dead hire Hell’s Angels as security, one of whom stabs a man to death)
• 1970-LSD declared Schedule One controlled substance in USA
• 1971-Prankster Mountain Girl (Carolyn Garcia) and Jerry Garcia move into the Sans Souci mansion (18 Avenida Farralone, Stinson Beach, CA)
• 1971-Mark McCloud’s house (3466 20th st, SanFran) becomes an LSD museum called the Blotter Barn. He has over 30,000 blotter works of art here.
• Nov 1971-HST publishes Fear & Loathing
• 1972-Watergate
• 1973-Pigpen dies
• 1973-Nixon creates the DEA
• November 1973-Billy Hitchcock rats out the Brotherhood of Eternal Love
• 1974-81-Babbs involved with Spit in the Ocean publication
• 1975-Vietnam War ends
• 1975-One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest movie released starring Jack Nicholson
• 1978-Mountain Girl finally officially divorces George Walker
• 1982-Owsley moves to Australia
• 1983-Babbs editor of The Bugle (Eugene, OR zine)
• 1984-Kesey’s son Jed dies in car accident
• 1985-Prankster Stewart Brand & Dr. Larry Brilliant co-found The Well. Larry, a native Detroiter, is the guy who delivered a Native American baby on Alcatraz Island in 1969 during the Indians of All Tribes Occupation of Alcatraz. And then in 1975 he led the UN effort that successfully eradicated smallpox in India (eradicated globally by 1980).
• 1994-Norman Hartweg dies
• 1994-Kesey and Babbs co-author The Last Go Round
• 1995-Jerry Garcia dies
• 1997-Kesey sells his La Honda house
• 1999-Babbs plays Frankenstein in Twisted, a play he co-wrote w/ Kesey
• 2001-Kesey passes away
• 2001-Jim Irsay (owner of Indy Colts fb team) buys original Kerouac scroll for $2.45mil
• 2001-Sandy Lehmann-Haupt dies
• 2003-work camp where Kesey served time is permanently closed
• 2003-Paul Foster dies
• 2005-HST suicide
• 2005-Ken’s son Zane Kesey pulls the original Furthur bus out of the swamp at Kesey’s Oregon farm
• 2008-Dr. Albert Hoffman dies at the ripe ole age of 102
• 2010-George Walker published a chapbook
• 2011-Babbs book ‘Who shot the water buffalo’ published (thanks to Sterling Lord)
• 2011-Owsley dies
• 2012-Ken Babbs brother and noted fly fisherman John Babbs (his Prankster name is ‘Sometimes Missing’) passes away
• Dec 2018-Al Hinkle (92; San Jose) dies; he was with Kerouac and Cassady in the On the Road story in the 1949 Hudson Commodore; Al was a brakeman and conductor with Southern Pacific Railroad for 40yrs
• Dec 2018-Babbs publishes chapbook ‘We Were Arrested’ (talks about 14 Pranksters busted for pot at Kesey’s house; and the first acid tests)
• July 2019-Paul Krassner dies
• October 2019-Chloe Scott passes away. She was a Perry Lane neighbor of Ken Kesey’s. The Merry Pranksters stayed a night at her cousin’s apartment in New York in 1964 where they met Jack Kerouac.
• February 2021-Lawrence Ferlinghetti passes away at 101 years old

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A FINE ROMANCE

A fine romance with no kisses
A fine romance, my friend, this is
We should be like a couple of hot tomatoes (to-mah-toes, dear)
But you're as cold as yesterday's mashed po-tah-toes (potatoes)

A fine romance, you won't nestle
A fine romance, you won't even wrestle
You've never mussed the crease in my blue serge pants
You never take a chance, this is a fine romance

A fine romance, my good fellow
You take romance, I'll take Jello
You're calmer than the seals in the Arctic Ocean
At least they flap their fins to express emotion

A fine romance, my dear Duchess
Two old fogies, we really need crutches
You're just as hard to land as the Ile de France! (Fronce)
I haven't got a chonce (chance), this is a fine romance

A fine romance, my good woman
My strong, aged-in-the-wood woman
You never give those orchids I send a glance
They're just like cactus plants, (oh boy)
This is a fine romance

— lyrics by Dorothy Fields (1936)

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“I WISHED I was on the same bus as her. A pain stabbed my heart as it did everytime I saw a girl I loved who was going the opposite direction in this too-big world of ours.”

— Jack Kerouac, ‘On the Road’

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LEAD STORIES, FRIDAY'S NYT

What We Know About the Shootings at Brown and M.I.T.

Trump Moves to End Gender-Related Care for Minors, Threatening Hospitals That Offer It

Trump Signs Order to Ease Restrictions on Marijuana

Trump’s ‘Warrior Dividend’ for Troops Will Be Paid for by Pentagon Housing Funds

The D.N.C. Is Scrapping Its Report on What Went Wrong in 2024

Europe to Lend $105 Billion to Ukraine, Without Touching Russian Funds

Lemon-Shaped World Is the Most Stretched-Out Planet Ever Seen

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Education has two purposes, to mature children’s brains to become members of society, and to socialize them into the culture of their society. A good example is today. The college educated person is having a tough time today with the advent of AI. College grads are having a tough time finding jobs that are high paying. Wages are growing for blue collar jobs as industry is looking to hire more and more. Engineering jobs will increase but be integrated into AI design. So is education helping out? Looking at the idiots on college campuses, I doubt it. My grandson is dumping his non-productive marketing degree in favor of becoming a fire fighter.

IMO, a great move and I will support him.

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SUSPECT IN BROWN UNIVERSITY SHOOTING FOUND DEAD IN NEW HAMPSHIRE

The man, a 48-year-old former Brown student, was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a storage unit, officials said. They believe he was also connected to the killing of an M.I.T. professor this week.

by Glenn Thrush, Chelsea Rose Marcilus, Maria Cramer & Alan Binder

Col. Oscar Perez, the chief of police in Providence, R.I., identified the suspect as Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a Brown student and Portuguese national, whose last known address was in Miami.

The body of a man suspected in the killing of two students at Brown University and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor was found in a storage unit in New Hampshire on Thursday night, law enforcement officials said.

The authorities had swarmed the storage facility, in Salem, N.H., earlier in the evening in pursuit of a man wanted in connection of with the two deadly attacks, which had stunned New England and set off days of frustrated searching.

Peter F. Neronha, the Rhode Island attorney general, said it remains unclear if the suspect spoke in the classroom. “Some witnesses said he said nothing. There are some that say he made a barking noise.”

Officials said the suspect’s motive remains unclear, even as details come to light. “I think there’s a lot of unknowns with respect to motive,” said attorney general Peter Neronha.

Special Agent Docks, with the F.B.I., said that it is believed that the suspect attended the same university in Lisbon as the slain M.I.T. professor.

Colonel Perez, the police chief in Providence, R.I., said the suspect worked alone and that the killings were not antisemitic in nature.

Peter F. Neronha, Rhode Island’s attorney general, said a man who appeared to have crossed paths with the suspect approached the police with information and “blew this case right open.” He said, “That person led us to the car, which led us to the name,” as well as other photographs of the suspect.

The authorities said they traced the suspect to a rental car location in Massachusetts, and then to a storage facility in New Hampshire, where he was found dead along with a satchel seen on video footage and two firearms. “We got ’em,” said Ted Docks, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I. office in Boston.

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TOBY BUCKET WRITES:

They weren’t time travelers but saw what was coming clearly enough. They called Trump’s movement fascist from the very start, and often predicted specific milestones of our democratic decline well in advance. They were convinced they were right—and often beside themselves with worry. Accordingly, they did everything they could to get others to listen.

But not enough people did, and many attacked them—even as events proved them right, again and again. As late as February 2025, respected legal commentator Noah Feldman was casually asserting our constitutional system was “working fine” and Jon Stewart was scolding people who used the word “fascist,” claiming all they had done “over the last ten years is cry wolf.”

…The first thing to say about fascism’s Cassandras is they’re usually women. Not all women are Cassandras (most aren’t), but most Cassandras are women. My sense is that Black Americans, of either gender, are likelier than whites to be Cassandras, and trans and nonbinary people are heavily overrepresented within the group.

Cassandras live across America; from coast to coast, in urban, suburban, and rural areas, in red, blue, and purple states. The assumption that Trump Derangement Syndrome, to use the right’s mocking phrase, is a malady peculiar to big, blue coastal cities could not be further from the truth. I met Cassandras from Brooklyn, but I also talked with many in smaller towns and cities across the South. A very, very common trait—even for big blue city Cassandras—is having lived in a heavily Republican, deeply conservative area for a long period of time….

All the Cassandras, in their own way, would lay out these elements—he says it, he means it, the base will back it. They didn’t condescend at all, but clearly felt they were reviewing fairly obvious facts about the world.

And looking back, it was all obvious. The mythical Cassandra hardly needed divine gifts to sense that the enemy army vanishing and leaving behind a giant horse statue was—to paraphrase the ancient Greek sources—“a bit sus.” Her modern counterparts were not uncovering some carefully concealed secret, but simply using their eyes, ears, and basic reasoning.

So why did so many fight them so hard?

Americans associate, often subconsciously, our two main political tribes with gender stereotypes. Conservatism is presented and understood as male, liberalism as female. Republicans are the “Daddy Party,” Democrats the “Mommy Party.” This affects how we hear the claims made by either side, and how seriously we take them….

Anti-alarmists invariably conflate talking in a calm tone with being rational. Any expression of fear or anger from Cassandras is proof they’re not to be taken seriously.

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FRIDAY’S CHILD

(In memory of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, martyred at Flossenbürg, April 9, 1945)

He told us we were free to choose
But, children as we were, we thought—-
“Paternal Love will only use
Force in the last resort

On those too bumptious to repent.”
Accustomed to religious dread,
It never crossed our minds He meant
Exactly what He said.

Perhaps He frowns, perhaps He grieves,
But it seems idle to discuss
If anger or compassion leaves
The bigger bangs to us.

What reverence is rightly paid
To a Divinity so odd
He lets the Adam whom He made
Perform the Acts of God?

It might be jolly if we felt
Awe at this Universal Man
(When kings were local, people knelt);
Some try to, but who can?

The self-observed observing Mind
We meet when we observe at all
Is not alarming or unkind
But utterly banal.

Though instruments at Its command
Make wish and counterwish come true,
It clearly cannot understand
What It can clearly do.

Since the analogies are rot
Our senses based belief upon,
We have no means of learning what
Is really going on,

And must put up with having learned
All proofs or disproofs that we tender
Of His existence are returned
Unopened to the sender.

Now, did He really break the seal
And rise again? We dare not say;
But conscious unbelievers feel
Quite sure of Judgement Day.

Meanwhile, a silence on the cross,
As dead as we shall ever be,
Speaks of some total gain or loss,
And you and I are free

To guess from the insulted face
Just what Appearances He saves
By suffering in a public place
A death reserved for slaves.

— W.H. Auden (1958)

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