Mendocino County Today: Friday, Dec. 9, 2016

• Orgasm Ranch
• Another Suspect
• Maria Young-Falkenberg
• ER Visit
• Triple Junction
• Tailored News
• Severe Toxemia
• Little Dog
• FB Stairway
• Chuck McDuck
• Yesterday's Catch
• Tri-marriage
• Oil Frauds
• Bill Mandel
• King Honored
• Emerald Cupping
• Obamacare Story
• Conspiracy Theories
• Mister Emolument
• Trump Rallies
• Arena Theater
• Craft Fair
• Annoying Locutions
• DAPL Controversy
• MCBG Events
• Community Grants
• CraigFast
• Attack Eyewitness

SHENOA SOLD! The Philo resort has been bought for six-plus million by a peculiar group called OneTaste whose improbable bona fides can be found at these links:

http://onetaste.us/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OneTaste

ANOTHER SUSPECT IN THE LAYTONVILLE HOMICIDE ARRESTED

The San Diego Sheriff's Department has arrested Abdirrahman 'Richie' Mohamed, 28, in connection with the murder of Laytonville marijuana grower, Jeffery Settler. Mohamed is one of as many as eight trimmers wanted by Mendocino County authorities for the November 11th slaying. Three of them are now in custody, Zachary Wuester, Gary “Giggles” Fitzgerald, and now Mohamed. The remaining at-large suspects are: Frederick ‘Freddy’ Gaestel, 27 year old white male, Clifton, New Jersey Gary Blank III, 34 year old white male, Elgin, Illinois Jesse Wells, 32 year old white male, Binghamton, New York, and Michael Kane, 25 year old white male, Pleasantville, New York.

(Courtesy, KymKemp.com)

A WOMAN WHO ABANDONED HER CRASHED CAR over the weekend on Highway 101 north of Willits was found dead Thursday morning in a nearby marsh area, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office said. The body of Maria Shelley Young-Falkenberg, 35, of Willits, was found by search and rescue workers under about 3 feet of water about 1,000 feet from the Saturday night crash site, Capt. Greg Van Patten said. The exact cause of her death has not been determined but initial indications are she died of exposure to freezing weather, Van Patten said. “It was snowing in that area yesterday,” Van Patten said. An autopsy was planned for early next week.

According to the California Highway Patrol, a northbound silver Subaru Impreza on Highway 101 near milepost 50 drove into the southbound lane about 9:50 p.m., hit a dirt embankment on the shoulder of the road and was disabled in the southbound lane. About five minutes later, a white Dodge Dart driving southbound crashed into the Subaru, said CHP Officer William Wunderlich. The driver of the Subaru — Young-Falkenberg — fled on foot before officers arrived, but the Dodge driver described her as apparently uninjured, Wunderlich said. Deputies learned Young-Falkenberg told another motorist she did not want law enforcement to contact her, Van Patten said. Despite help from a hand-held heat detection device and assistance from the Little Lake Fire Department, deputies were not able to find the woman that night, Van Patten said. The CHP also searched the area and could not find her. Three nights later, deputies began hearing community reports that Young-Falkenberg might be a missing person in connection with the Saturday crash.

Deputies began investigating whether she had gone to Humboldt County, where she had family, Van Patten said. They determined Wednesday afternoon that Young-Falkenberg was not in Humboldt County and none of her known family or friends had heard from her. The Sheriff’s Office began a search near the crash site at 7 a.m. Thursday. Young-Falkenberg’s body was found at about 9:30 a.m. Young-Falkenberg was arrested in September on suspicion of drunken driving, driving with a suspended license and giving false identification to an officer, Van Patten said. She was released on bail, he said. Van Patten said there was no evidence to suggest Young-Falkenberg was under the influence Saturday night, but more information would be revealed through toxicology testing. Test results would take up to six weeks, he said. An autopsy was planned for Monday or Tuesday, Van Patten said. He said there was no evidence of foul play.

(courtesy Press Democrat)

COAST EMERGENCY

by Rex Gressett

The emergency room is a place that by definition you don't want to go to. A week or so ago, I was stricken with food poisoning or something heinous and mysterious. I was taken (first time in one) in an ambulance to this place that stands for desperation.

For those of you who want to cruelly admonish your children to not be irresponsible slackers lest dire consequences be their appointed lot, I suggest that one very powerful image that you could bash them with would be the emergency room. You don't want to end up there do you, sonny? And you could, you know, if you are sufficiently disenfranchised and have no other option. Without health insurance and a responsible attendance to ones own interests the ER just might be all you have. It is all a lot of people do have and woe is them.

The emergency room serves several community functions. Certainly and principally, as it were by definition, it is there for the treatment of trauma.

In that it is a kind of equalizer, a place of democratic leveling when the blood is flowing. Here they handle car crashes and broken bones, all of the horrible incidents of circumstance for which no one can really prepare. For those grim inevitabilities be glad that an emergency room does exist. You might not want to go, but when you are badly hurt it is where you are going, no matter who you are.

It is also historically the place that you go if you are uninsured. They are innovating on that one. As I will relate.

It is also the preeminent spot where you can get drugs. There are other ways to acquire the hard stuff, arguably better, nicer, less stressful ways. With not much difficulty anyone can find a private medical hack who will fill your prescriptions easy as pie in Mendocino.

But that of course takes a little time and a tiny bit of planning. The hustle on the street is not tolerant of either. The emergency room is known to be at one unvarying location, easily manipulable, and conveniently open at any hour. Naturally this ease of public access, coupled to the demand driven and insatiable appetite for drugs on the street has made the dispensation of opioids a principal, perhaps the principle function of the Fort Bragg ER.

The people who work there do not like it.

The sweeping national epidemic of opioid addiction is changing our small local community in ways that are evident to every one of us. It is as if something atmospherically dismal had descended in an invisible cloud on the whole region. Reluctantly and gradually we have discovered a sadness and futility that grinds at us in ways variously subtle and egregious. It is not a mystery, not any more. We have become involuntarily adept at recognizing clear symptoms and obvious signs.

We know anecdotally, personally and through the range of our experience what an addict is, and what addiction means to them, and what it means to those who love them. It made itself a part of many, many lives. Really it hits us all. Directly or indirectly but unavoidably opioids are now a part of the texture of our lives.

Heroin has always been in the culture of my time, throughout the ascendancy and reign of the baby boomer. A gateway drug, if I correctly understand the propagandists, is a drug with which it is hard to find fault with in itself, but which with sinister inevitability leads to something more dire.

That would be heroin.

Over the decades, the anti-drug establishment spent so much energy in the defamation of heroin and her sister opioids that for that specific drug to be the default recourse to virtually any patient who quivers quibbles or complains is passing strange. But then so much is. I suppose that the bow tie wearing doctors with their obtuse professional inscrutability would sneer at me that Oxycontin is not actually heroin. But it is, you know. It really is.

A few months ago, I attended a seminal seminar on the effects of opioid addiction in the local community. I arrived a few minutes late (as I usually do somehow) and who of all people is there but the estimable publisher of the Advocate, Sharon Dimuro, handing out cookies in the back of a packed hall. She made sure that I got a couple and a seat. She is always nice and keeps her long knives in her purse. I have been (almost) utterly blacklisted from her paper for a decade now.

The panel of experts was there to give the community the rundown and the facts and the stories about the opioid epidemic that everybody knows about. But this time all the stories were officially told to a packed audience.

One of the panelists (not a doctor) marveled that when her daughter had gone in for a tooth ache to her considerable surprise her daughter, was given 35 oxycontins, enough to change a life.

A contemptible nerd (excuse my expression) doctor on the panel explained to the audience that doctors are limited by their exhaustive schedules to spending only a few minutes with each patient and that such a brief allotment of their valuable time was not enough to get to the bottom of anything. Neither saith he by law could a doctor withhold medication from a patient that stated in plain terms that they were suffering pain. The volumes of addicting pills that they sent home with every customer (35) was also set by law.

Having told us this in smiling good humor he seemed to feel the matter had been thoroughly addressed.

Someone disclosed that there were 1200 addictive pain pills issued for every one thousand residents of the county. Or it might be the other way around.

Up spoke the spokesman for our state representative, James Wood, (a dentist) had tried to stop it all, she said. He really tried hard but the backlash was fierce and he had to give it up. She smiled blandly. What backlash, from whom, why? I silently raged. Everyone seemed to know that but me.

No real outrage was expressed by anyone. I wanted some talk about ruined lives and dead children. I wanted it all to matter. Foolishly, I came to the seminar expecting contention, confrontation, outrage, indignation, but no, the panel of experts was there apparently to reassure us that a social epidemic of staggering consequence was being properly addressed and that the doctors themselves were as innocent as lambs.

There were no hard questions taken from the audience. We were asked to write our questions on cards, but they did not actually read more than one or two of them. There was patently no audience participation. Afterwards, there was no press. Sharon of the Advocate seemed to have an organizing role in the seminar and a direct responsibility for the cookies, but not one word about any of it ever appeared in her paper.

The whole seminar was conducted in a kind of open secrecy. It was intended to be (I guess) reassuring that someone was thinking about things, and reassuring also that a panel of “experts” had been convened. Unto this opportunity they had come to make us understand that medical doctors were safely in charge and bad as we might think that it is, we were in the hands of professionals.

I left the seminar thinking that I understood things a bit better. Some people (not a few) have learned to use the automatic dispensation of addicting drugs as a convenient means of paying of the rent. I understood now how that worked. I understood now about the number of pills dispensed, which is enough to hook you but not necessarily enough to happily live the rest of your life on.

The bumping of people off their medically proscribed pain meds provides an opportunity for them to make the formal transition into (street) heroin, which with a little application is even easier to get and actually cheaper than oxycontin. Watch out for the phenol. And have a good life.

The doctors just follow the law. The seminar made that much very clear.

The actual dispensing of drugs, if it is not done in an official visit to an actual doctor's office, is taken care of for the masses at the ER.

When I showed up there on my gurney, I was in no shape to make judgments. So they made them for me.

To say that the ER personnel that I encountered were jaded is hardly adequate. To say that they were hostile, prejudiced and vicious is less than the situation merited. These were people who were fully expecting to be played and cunningly savvy to any game, even when one did not have one. They do not take any shit. An encouraging or gentle bedside manner is nowhere on their radar.

Predictably, a doctor strolled through and asked me the pain question. I knew from the seminar that they had to. I told them that I was horribly nauseous and that I had a terrible suspicion that I might be dying, but that in terms of getting dosed I was not actually in pain. It did not go well.

Some days later, I talked to the comparatively new hospital administrator, Mr. Edwards, and his assistant Julie, the administrator for customer satisfaction.

They were very nice. They struck me as smart and professional. They knew there was a problem. They were dismayed that I thought that I had been handled roughly and sorry that I felt bigotry and hostility were standard at the ER. It had been that way for me. I told them I thought the personnel were burned out from being made to be drug pushers and continually gamed by the desperate. The administrators thought so too. Julie explained to me that now they have Immediate Care which is a way for anybody even the uninsured to bypass the ER altogether. She told me that she had a new cellphone ap to monitor customer satisfaction at the ER, which was on the threshold of being implemented. I thought that was a good idea.

(Rex Gressett: rex.gressett@aol.com)

6.5 QUAKE: NOT A BIG DEAL

A USGS seismologist called the 6.5 magnitude earthquake that rattled the Northern California Coast Thursday morning typical.

The quake struck the Mendocino fracture zone at 6:50 a.m. in the Pacific Ocean, about 100 miles off coast of Ferndale, and Ole Kaven, a research geophysicist with the USGS, says shakers of this size are normal for the region.

The event occurred at the Mendocino Triple Junction that's one of the most seismically active regions of the San Andreas transform system.

Since 1983 the region has generated about 80 quakes with magnitudes over 3.0 each year, and historically the region has experienced larger quakes.

Magnitude 7.2 and 6.6 quakes hit the region in June 2005, and a 6.8 shaker struck in March 2014.

"This activity is generated in response to ongoing plate motions between the Gorda, North America, and Pacific plates," Kaven wrote in an email. "The Gorda plate is converging on and subducting under the North America plate and experiencing transform (shearing) deformation along its southern boundary with the Pacific Plate, which is where most of the seismicity including today's event occurred."

While quakes are frequent, they rarely cause any damage since their epicenters are usually off the coast.

"While it's widely felt there's no real damaging shaking," Kaven said. "They will feel shaking but damage associated even with the 6.8 in 2014 was very limited. It's just cosmetic damage like dry wall."

FACEBOOK MEDIA EXCHANGE, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016:

Mike Geniella: I'm old school, I know. Count me among a generation of journalists who took their jobs seriously, researched subjects, interviewed multiple sources and tried to present a fair and balanced account of any given issue. Things change, but not necessarily for the better. So discount the "media," and run with the 'fake news.' Why not? Donald Trump does, and gets away with it.

Sheri Graves: I retired from The Press Democrat in Dec. 2004 — just in time. Everything has gone down hill and it makes my heart hurt. I'm proud to say I worked with some of the best people in journalism and all of us did our best to do our best. In my 42+ years on the job, I don't think I ever met anyone who just "made up" crap.

David Eyster: MG? Are you still at this? I don't believe that one side or the other in the last election cycle should now attempt to claim the high ground. Fake news, fluff, deception, and bald-faced lies were epidemic in the last cycle and that epidemic unfortunately crossed party lines. It also infected many previously reliable media outlets. What we remember from you and those of your era as objective old school reporting has gone MIA. Perhaps it is time to send out a search party, find it, and bring it back? Where should we begin the search?

Mike Geniella: PolitiFact, the Pulitizer Prize winning news review, on an almost daily basis debunks Trump's statements. Yes, politics today is full of half truths across the board. Few public officials are as transparent as Mendocino County DA Dave Eyster. But let's not kid ourselves about the fact that the president-elect has installed as his senior White House adviser Steven Bannon, the master of 'fake news.' I've accepted that the election is over. What I don't accept is the reckless disregard for the facts surrounding important issues facing this great country.

Bob Padecky: The NYTimes "all the news that's fit to print" has been morphed into "all the news that fits my opinion."

Bruce Anderson: There's a lot more fake news with the onset of social media, and the obvious fact that millions of people now produce what are basically their own newspapers. But fake news isn't new, really. Defective reporting, spine-free editors, neanderthal media owners and, of course, millions of credulous people, and just as many highly literate credulous people who seem to think their bullshit detectors work just fine when they accept, say, The New York Times as the paper of record. The Times, we will recall, via a reporter called Judith Miller, simply relayed the Bush Two administration's transparently false line that Saddam Hussein possessed "weapons of mass destruction." Has a Trumpian fake news site, singly or collectively, done, or is likely to do, anything as damaging as Bush and his stenographers at the Times have done, not only to the US but to the entire world? That particular bit of news fakery ushered in global mass murder. Finally, Joe Shmoe, average citizen and news consumer, bears his share of the responsibility for his talismanic faith in the written word, for not challenging everything he reads. As the man, ahem, responsible for the most successful hoax ever on the Northcoast, the ersatz Bosco Interview (and the only one attempted), I can tell you the idea was that even the dullest reader would get about a third of the way in before he said to himself, "No way a Congressman, even Bosco, would say anything like this." The tipoff line was something like, "All my constituents care about is their next joint." Under torture, a Congressman would not dare say anything like that. That one brought down all hell on my pretty little head, as Mike Geniella will recall, and I was denounced by national media, threatened with lawsuits and so on. In other words, it was very successful, and a good lesson that people bring varying levels of education, experience, credulity and so on to the daily media deluge. Myself, I think people come away from it all of it everyday believing what they NEED to believe. Truth is the least of it.

* * *

Susan Massini: On a more local note, there was the series of stories about Dave Eyster and I meeting in the bus station bathroom in Portland. And then went on to say something about Dave's dad's "unlawful behavior". That all occurred after we had the audacity to prosecute Bruce for battery after he punched out the superintendent of schools at a board meeting. Creative reporting was Bruce's forte for awhile.

Paul Ingalls, Exactly. Bruce Anderson railing about fake news is like Lance Armstrong railing about performance enhancing drugs.

Mike Geniella: Well, I believe Mr Anderson's conclusion - "I think people come away from it all of it everyday believing what they NEED to believe. Truth is the least of it." - goes to the heart of the matter.

Paul Ingalls: Geniella, you and I have been around the block a whole lot of times and if there's anything we understand about each other its that we share the same journalistic values. But where we have parted company for some time is on our respective opinions of Bruce Anderson. Anderson's one and only talent is invective. It's not that he's incapable of recognizing factuality, it's just that his overriding anger at the world in general prevents him from acknowledging it most of the time. If Anderson ever speaks the truth, it's entirely accidental. He's not an admirable journalist, or person.

Susan Massini: Paul Ingalls, where have you been all my life!!!!

Mike Geniella: Paul Ingalls, I feel you're judging Bruce Anderson as if the years haven't brought change. Like you and I, he is older and a tad more mature in his reflections. I've become friends with Bruce over the years, and I have found him to be a thoughtful lover of conversation. As the years pass the AVA continues to evolve into being the best source of local information about what's really going on in and out of county offices, and the courts. Bruce, nor the AVA, are the same as in the era of your experience.

Paul Ingalls: Susan Massini, to answer seriously, I spent half of it as Geniella’s fellow reporter and drinking buddy and the other half as his editor and drinking buddy. I'm not sure which of those multiple roles was worst!

Paul Ingalls: Geniella, fair enough. I'll try to remain open to the concept that people can change ... even though, of course, I haven't.

Mike Geniella: Paul Ingalls, We understand that about each other....

Susan Massini: I knew all that-- wish I'd been in on some of the drinking! Lived in Santa Rosa for 9 years before my life in Ukiah, so was aware of you.

CAYENNE CAPSULES, MR. HOLTS

Editor,

Regarding J.S. Holts’ ‘Meth, Muck & Mold Manor’

That is so sad, my deepest sympathies! Plus, you should have taken a photo survey of the mess and cleanup, and reported it. Everybody is letting this family commit unlawful and dangerous acts. And who does not report them is enabling them. Also, please take a lot of vitamin C, and cayenne in capsules routinely — one a day w/food, and a tablespoon of raw vinegar in your orange juice (8 oz) with your vitamin C-1-2000 mgs, it will help your body to recuperate and perk up your thyroid which cleans the blood of toxins. You have severe toxemia. Also it wouldn’t hurt to check up on the grandfather to be sure he is ok. Take care!

Kathy Young

Fort Bragg

LITTLE DOG SAYS, "This very morning, me and all the neighbor dogs, including the two lunkhead pit bulls next door, launched a group yowl. We all felt that big earthquake west of Petrolia just before it happened this morning. And people say it's a myth that dogs feel quakes first!"

FORT BRAGG BEING SUED

The guy who fell down the decrepit stairs at Glass Beach is now suing the City of Fort Bragg via Ukiah attorney, Duncan James' office. Former County Counsel Doug 'Midnight Rambler' Losak is handling the case. The City was warned by a number of people that the stairs were not safe. We're not sure how old he is. The stairs are gone now and there’s a fence up so no one goes down to the beach now. The City said they closed it just after this guy fell. The photo of the hillside is where the stairs used to be.

HELLO, MY FRIENDS at the AVA, I thought you would be interested in this excerpt from my new book, still a work in progress, but tentatively called, "NO, I WON'T LEND YOU A DIME — My Life as a Small Town Banker" by Charles 'Chuck' Mannon, president, Savings Bank of Mendocino.

When I was a boy, I much enjoyed Donald Duck Comics, especially the stories featuring Scrooge McDuck, Don's uncle, who would fill his bathtub with cash and just kind of roll around in it, luxuriating in the mounds of coins and hundred dollar bills. Years later, when I built my new bank headquarters in Ukiah, and of course unbeknownst to the worker bees downstairs at the teller windows, known only to me and the architect, I built a hidden room off my top floor office. This very special hideaway is secreted behind a wall of books. I press a button and the wall recedes revealing a huge old fashioned, custom made, claw foot bathtub, filled with Civil War gold coins and probably five hundred pounds of silver dollars, every last one of them burnished to a fine sheen by my Mexican cash polisher. I slip out of my banker's blue and into a replica Roman toga and burrow down into the money, just lying there thinking about the innate genius of usury and the thousands of rubes whose eternal mortgages and repo car loans have made me the richest man in Mendocino County! I play with this money by the hour, piling it, and re-piling it on top of me, sometimes pausing to draw back to the far the farthest corner of the room to take in the splendor of it all, knowing that it's all mine. "Ah, the dear money, the dear money," I whisper. "I love you so!"

CATCH OF THE DAY, December 8, 2016

JOHN CAVALIER, Ukiah. Drunk in public, resisting.

KATHRYN DAVIS, San Francisco/Ukiah. Drunk in public.

ALAN GRAHAM, Albion. Drunk in public, criminal threats.

PEARLIE JIM, Covelo. Domestic battery, probation revocation.

DANIEL NOORDA, Lakeport/Ukiah. Honey oil extraction.

FRANCES POWELL, Santa Cruz/Ukiah. DUI.

JORGE SANCHEZ, Fort Bragg. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, community supervision violation.

ARMSTEAD WANT, JR. Covelo. Community supervision violation.

KELLY WEAVER, Willits. Domestic assault.

ANTHONY WILBURN, Covelo. Community supervision violation.

GETTING MARRIED FOR THE THIRD TIME is like bringing a burn victim to a fireworks show.

— Robin Williams

OLIVE OIL II

Those writing off the report as no longer relevant would be wise to do some research of their own. I will not post any direct links but there was a 60 Minutes investigation in January of this year into the massive food fraud industry in Italy, The episode was called "Agromafia" and was filmed shortly after Italian police had seized 7,000 tons of fake olive oil heading for the US. Olive oil fraud is a massive industry that has existed for decades. The oil is often bought from the original farmer by middlemen who cut it and then resell it to the big brands. The FDA does not routinely test olive oil. Also relevant are a well-cited wikipedia article titled Olive Oil Regulation and Adulteration and the book Extra Virginty by Tom Mueller. The book is from 2012 (oh no) but Mueller has maintained and updated a website since its publication. Of note, there has never been any evidence of fraud in domestically produced olive oil and California is home to many excellent olive producers.

— “youdre08” (MCN Listserve)

* * *

MARCO ON OLIVE OIL

Two Magicians (was: fake olive oils)

Here, from the paper: "Sensory analysis showed that these failed samples had objectionable descriptors such as rancid and fusty."

So if I buy Fat Tony Doughnuts Brand olive oil today and it smells and tastes good — not rancid and fusty — it's only a fun bit of trivia, then, that one bottle of olive oil sold under the same company name five years ago turned out to be rancid and fusty. That was five years ago, and who knows where the oil came from? Now it's good.

Once many years ago I was taken on a tour of a "love oil" factory, which was the side garage of an old farmhouse out at Ten Mile. There were tall pyramids of rectangular five-gallon cans of Tiger-brand peanut oil, and there was a shelf of much smaller containers of coconut oil. They mixed these oils and a few molecules of color and hippie perfume in an antique open-top washing machine with a little spigot stuck into the bottom of it, and sold the resulting sex and massage product in candle-and-poster stores at an impressive markup. I didn't see things in operation but in still-life. This was 1983, I think, and it was — I'm trying to remember — five or ten dollars for a teensy bottle of it. But, you know, you have to spend all day filling up teensy bottles, and print sticky labels and stick them on, and pack them and drive them around. An entrepreneur is entitled to a little something for his time, right? (I read a long article in the AVA a couple of months ago about Thomas Pynchon and Wanda Tinasky and all that, and I got the impression that the man who turned out to be Wanda Tinasky — a poet named Hawkins — and who later bludgeoned to death his own wife Kathleen, and kept her body inside their house, and set fire to the house and drove her car off a cliff onto rocky shoals, killing himself, might have been involved in that very love oil enterprise. I might have met him if I'd visited on another day.)

Apropos of that, I recommend the Terry Gilliam film Tideland, wherein cooking oil is employed in the embalming of Jeff Bridges. Tideland got mixed reviews, but it's one of Terry Gilliam's best films. It's the only film he ever made where he didn't have to chop it up in bits and throw half the bits away to suit the studio. It's exactly the film he meant to make, and the main character, a troubled little girl named Jeliza-Rose, will stay with you till the end of time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tideland_(film)

For cooking and for salad oil I prefer canolive oil. It's half canola oil and half olive oil. (I'm not picky about if the canola or the olive takes its half of the road out of the middle.) Whatever brand of canolive oil I try, it tastes like light olive oil, smokes at a higher temperature, and it's nearly as cheap as canola oil. You can always get like a quart for five or six dollars at the FoodMax in Rohnert Park, in a light, recyclable, grip-indented, food-container-certified plastic bottle. Sometimes it's on sale in Safeway. I've never been disappointed. (In that kind of oil.)

And I've always liked the word fusty. I heard it first in the song The Twa (sic) Magicians. From Wikipedia:

"A blacksmith threatens to deflower a lady, who vows to keep herself a maiden. A transformation chase ensues, differing in several variants. In the Child version* of the ballad she does not escape, but in other common renderings, she does."

Here's Steeleye Span's version — Two Magicians — recorded in 1974, in which at the end she both escapes and does not escape: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNgvzxRCyQU

And here are the lyrics, in case the accent throws you:

Two Magicians

She looked out of the window as white as any milk

And he looked in at the window as black as any silk

 

Chorus: (Hello, hello, hello, hello, you coal-black smith

You have done me no harm

You never shall have me maidenhead

That I have kept so long

I'd rather die a maid

and be dead she said and be buried all in my grave

Than to have such a nasty husky dusky fusty musky

coal-black smith! A maiden I will die!)

 

She became a duck, a duck all on the stream

And he became a water dog and fetched her back again

(chorus)

She became a star, a star all in the night

And he became a thundercloud

And muffled her out of sight

(chorus)

She became a rose, a rose all in the wood

And he became a bumble bee

And kissed her where she stood

(chorus)

She became a nun, a nun all dressed in white

And he became a canting priest

And prayed for her by night

(chorus)

She became a trout, a trout all in the brook

And he became a feathered fly

And caught her with his hook

(chorus)

She became a corpse, a corpse all in the ground

And he became the cold clay and smothered her all around

 

Hello, hello, hello, hello, you coal-black smith

You have done me no harm

You never shall have me maidenhead

That I have kept so long

I'd rather die a maid

and be dead she said and be buried all in my grave

Than to have such a nasty husky dusky fusty musky

coal-black smith! A maiden I will die!

*Here's the Child version:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch044.htm

And here's a recording of that, done by Raymond Crook. You wouldn't even think it's the same song as the Steeleye Span one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p02YtDjMNI

I'd like to hear Holly Tannen sing both. She probably knows them.

–Marco McClean

BILL MANDEL

William Mandel, KPFA broadcaster, political activist, dies

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/William-Mandel-KPFA-broadcaster-political-10781512.php

ABOUT TIME!

Holy Toledo! Bill King is Hall of Fame announcer, finally

http://www.sfgate.com/athletics/shea/article/Bill-King-Hall-of-Fame-10780183.php

TIM BLAKE GOES BIG TIME

(Remember his first cup at grungy outside Laytonville? Area 101?)

Longtime marijuana event producer Tim Blake has sober advice for first-timers partaking of newly legal pot at the Emerald Cup, a cannabis county fair in Santa Rosa expected to draw 30,000 people this weekend.

“Don’t eat too many edibles,” said the event’s founder.

While a little pot can fight nausea and anxiety, eating too much can make folks queasy and uneasy. The world’s largest cannabis competition and expo will be chock full of such cannabis-infused sweets, savories and beverages Saturday-Sunday, Dec. 10-11 — so much so that the event’s host, the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, has required new rules to cut down on overindulgence.

“The fairgrounds makes us give out only low-dose edibles, so nobody gets too high,” Blake said. “We can’t serve over a 10-milligram dose.”

Now in its 13th year and breaking records for entries and attendance, the state’s biggest pot celebration since the general election is enticing a bumper crop of new guests.

Legalization initiative Proposition 64 passed with nearly 57 percent of the vote Nov. 8, making cannabis legal in California for adults 21 and older. But until 2018, you still need a medical card to legally purchase the drug. So there’s been an uptick in first-time medical cannabis recommendations, and Blake said the Emerald Cup’s popular “medication area” — a vast bazaar where you can sample and buy bud in countless forms — will be bigger than ever.

“It was a big mosh pit last year,” Blake said. “It was so crowded emergency crews couldn’t get through. So we had to redesign it.”

Even with the redesign, the event promises to be a spectacle.

“This will be the largest display of cannabis and cannabis products ever put together in the world,” Blake said.

The Emerald Cup honors California cannabis farmers and their products with a judged competition, expo, lecture series and a slew of entertainment. A record-breaking 1,100 contest entries were submitted this year in categories that include cannabis flower buds, extracts, topicals and edibles — up from 850 entries last year. A win can be life-changing for contestants, who pay $250 per entry.

“You need to win these contests to establish your brands,” Blake said. “When Aficionado Seeds won in 2012, it made his seed company. All of a sudden, he was selling seeds for $50 apiece. People get a couple hundred dollars more per pound for their flowers. It’s like winning a wine contest. And we’re the most respected contest in the business.”

The Emerald Cup began modestly in 2003 in Mendocino County with a handful of outlaw farmers. By 2013, it became too big for the rural county and moved to Sonoma County, drawing 6,700 attendees that year, 14,000 in 2014 and 22,000 in 2015.

“This year we’ll push it above 25,000 for the weekend,” Blake said. “With the Friday night pre-party, we may push 30,000 for the weekend.”

In addition to awards, the Emerald Cup features all-day lineups of speaker and music headliners like Bob Marley’s son Damian Marley. One of the last educational panels to be announced features two first-time attendees: North Coast Assemblyman Jim Wood and Lori Ajax, chief of California’s Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation.

“I consider that a coup,” Blake said. “We’ve crossed that line of legitimacy, and now they all want to come in and help us prepare for the regulated legal marketplace. It’s about education. After 80 years of reefer madness, we’re slowly untangling it.”

* * *

The Emerald Cup: Doors open at 11 a.m. Saturday-Sunday, Dec. 10-11. $70-$120. Sonoma County Fairgrounds, 1350 Bennett Valley Road, Santa Rosa. www.theemeraldcup.com

How to go like a pro

Book a room now. The closest hotels to the Sonoma County Fairgrounds sell out months in advance of the event.

Get a medical cannabis recommendation to enter the Emerald Cup’s must-see medical marijuana bazaar, where people smoke, dab, vape, eat and buy the botanical.

Save time by getting your weed card this week. You can do it over the phone for $40 with services like HelloMD, MeadowMD or EazeMD. Then bring your paperwork and valid identification to get a wristband for the bazaar. Doctors will also be on-site issuing cards.

Dress warmly. Temperatures won’t top 60 degrees. Consider hand and foot warmers. Wear comfortable shoes.

Bring cash for food, bud, seeds, pipes, books and clothing; it’s all cash-only, and ATM fees are a buzzkill.

5 essential must-dos

Wander through the Hall of Flowers scooping up deals on cannabis accessories. Pose for a photo with the marijuana entry display case.

Meet famous cannabis growers in the medication area and score some deals on the hottest cannabis brands.

Learn how to clean up your pot record at the Expungement Workshop set for 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 10, in the Garden Annex Building.

Catch the funky R&B act California Honeydrops at 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 10, at the FlavRX Pavilion.

Learn regenerative farming at 12:45 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 11, at the Kraft Stage.

Listen to the weed world’s most powerful woman, Lori Ajax, head of California’s marijuana regulatory body, at 12:45 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 11, on the Finley Stage.

Field glossary

Concentrates: Whether it’s called oil, shatter, wax, budder or good old hashish, they are all concentrated and, therefore, more potent, forms of cannabis.

Solvents: Butane, propane, hexane, CO2 and other gases, chemicals and compounds used to extract cannabis oil.

Rosin: Born out of the Emerald Cup’s refusal to allow solvent extracts, cannabis entrepreneurs invented a method of heating and pressing raw cannabis to extract oil. The Cup’s rosin competition is in its second year.

Terpenes: Compounds that control the flavors, aromas and types of highs (or lows) experienced from cannabis.

Light Dep: Also known as light deprivation, it’s a farming technique that uses tarps to mimic autumn light and force plants to flower earlier and more often.

CBD: Cannabidiol, which is the second most common active ingredient in pot. It doesn’t get you high, but can treat pain, anxiety and inflammation.

— Ed Murrieta, Courtesy, the San Francisco Chronicle

DEMOCRATS & HEALTHCARE: THE ROAD TO SELF-DESTRUCTION

The Rise & Fall of Obamacare: Will the Inside Story Ever Be Told?

by John Stauber

My friend and former colleague Wendell Potter, the CIGNA insurance public relations chief who saw the evil of his ways and left his job, is starting a new non-profit journalism enterprise called Tarbell.

The investigative story I want to see from Wendell is one I am sure he will never tell: an insider exposé of the ugly rise and fall of Obamacare. This is a story Wendell knows inside and out, but I doubt he will ever really come to grips with its truth: Obamacare was a pro-industry Democrat scam that destroyed an opportunity for single payer education and reform and ultimately brought devastating political ruin to the Democrats themselves.

I welcomed Wendell Potter to the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) staff in May, 2009, just before I retired from CMD as its Founder and Executive Director. Wendell arrived with a $100,000 grant in hand from TIDES Foundation to support his work as an insurance industry insider turned NGO reform activist and whistle blower. He testified before Congress, was featured by Bill Moyers Journal, and became a popular and admired public face of the liberal health reform movement in America.

Before I brought Wendell into CMD, he assured me that he was committed to single payer, but that turned out to be false. Instead, Wendell promoted Obamacare, a sop to the drug and insurance industry which helped the Democrats keep single payer “off the table,” effectively killing real health care reform in America.

I estimate that TIDES and other liberal foundations, individual donors, unions and corporations dumped over $100 million into the Democrats well-oiled NGO lobby and PR effort to pass Obamacare. Much of this money moved through or was coordinated by a rich but short-lived lobby group called Health Care for America Now. HCAN’s scores of members included US Action, MoveOn, SEIU, AFSCME, and the usual liberal laundry list of Democrat-aligned NGO organizations. Wendell participated intimately in its PR and lobbying and knows its story well from the inside. That is what I would pay Tarbell to tell, because it is a story that America needs to hear, now that Obamacare is being destroyed by its own contradictions, corruptions, and the rise of Trump.

I told Wendell in the Fall of 2009 that Obamacare, nothing but a recycled Heritage Foundation scheme, was a guaranteed failure, that it completely undermined single payer reform, and that it would certainly blow up in the face of the Democrats. He responded that as long as the so-called “Public Option” was part of it, it was worth supporting. But the Public Option was stripped out by Obama and the Democrats, and then the rationale of the Democrats’ progressives in the HCAN lobby became “we must still support Obamacare and our President because not to do so would embarrass him and his key legislative proposal.”

Today it is clear that Obamacare has become a very bad movie, one rich with dark irony as we are now to witness its horror film ending: evisceration and decapitation by the Trump-led Republicans. (Vincent Price should rise from the dead to narrate this one!)

Consider this: it was Obamacare alone that fueled the rise of the GOP’s Tea Party movement and led directly to the Democrats’ Congressional defeat in 2010. It was then the failures and shortcomings of Obamacare, a political WMD in the hands of the political Right, that set the stage for the rise of Trump and his ascendancy to President.

That, in synopsis, is the true, tragic tale of Obamacare.

Wendell Potter witnessed and participated in this from the inside, and his insider story could blow the whistle on the Democrats and their NGO lobby, something that America needs to hear and understand. The rise and fall of Obamacare is a crucial tale to understand how to bring about single payer in the future and, just as important, how the Democrats are adept at coopting and derailing such fundamental reform to serve industry and their own corrupt political agenda.

Unfortunately I don’t expect Wendell Potter and Tarbell to ever blow the whistle on Obamacare. Hey, Wendell, surprise me!

(John Stauber is an independent writer, activist and author. His books include Toxic Sludge Is Good for You, Mad Cow USA and Weapons of Mass Deception. In 1993 he founded the Center for Media and Democracy to expose corporate, political and media propaganda campaigns. He retired from the Center in 2008. Courtesy, CounterPunch.org.)

CAUTION: CONSPIRACY THEORY AHEAD!

by Clancy Sigal

WashPost news story recently: A man was arrested Sunday after he walked into a popular pizza restaurant in northwest Washington carrying an assault rifle and fired one or more shots. The man told police he had come to the restaurant to “self-investigate” a conspiracy theory involving Hillary Clinton, pedophilia and sex trafficking that was spread online by Gen. Michael Flynn and his even crazier son Michael.

Hands up! Anyone who believes:

Lee Harvey Oswald conspired to kill Pres. Kennedy with the Mafia, Cuban exiles, Lyndon Johnson, or the CIA (choose one).

The Moon Landing is a fake. NASA hired director Stanley Kubrick to create credible footage.

The Rothschilds through IMF and World Bank control us through the world’s money supply.

The Jews did it (whatever it is, see above).

Alien spacecraft landed at Area 51 as a base for a military takeover.

9/11 was planned and executed by the US govt (or, them again, you know who).

Paul McCartney is dead and that’s his double on tour.

Jim Morrison is alive and living in a Paris old age home.

The US govt does not consider us as human beings but “bodies of water” subject to obscure maritime laws.

The US govt does not care if we live or die because it takes out an insurance policy on each one of us at birth so stands to profit by our death.

Bernie Sanders was screwed out of the nomination by a conspiracy of Hillary’s top Democrats like Debbie Wasserman Schultz. (I’ll go to the fiery stake before disbelieving this.)

Jesus slept with Mary Magdalene and His children live among us.

* * *

As sci-fi movies say, We Are Not Alone in swallowing bunk.

Conspiracy is a Universal Religion that probably has more parishioners than all three monotheisms combined. It’s the faith of the stepped-on or those who feel stepped on.

KPFK is Paranoia Central, plus the whole of Africa (the west created AIDS to oppress black people) and is deeply dug inside Donald (“birther”) Trump’s head as well as much of the Arab world which is held together by the Universal Conspiracy Church’s Bible on Zionist treachery.

Is there a common theme? Yes. The shadowy “they” who control us is elusive and undefined.

No matter. Belief is rooted in our POWERLESSNESS. We are insignificant herdlike “sheeple” controlled by “Them.”

To rise above sheeple we must educate ourselves about the truths their System is hiding.

Beliefs are facts. Facts can be invented on the spot. Trump speeches wildly sprinkle “facts” with beliefs so that you don’t know which is which because it doesn’t matter as long as you like the speaker.

When conspiracies control us we are slaves to the unprovable.

Right now I’m free, I’m free! I no longer care that Debbie Wasserman shafted our Bernie. So what?

Holding on to a conspiracy theory – any which one – is playing the game of people trying to harm me.

(Clancy Sigal is a screenwriter and novelist. His latest book is Hemingway Lives.)

DIVEST OR FACE IMPEACHMENT

An Open Letter to Donald Trump

Dear President-elect Trump:

We urge you to announce on December 15 that you’ll divest yourself of all interests in the Trump Organization in order to avoid a) daily violations of the Constitution barring foreign “emoluments” and b) the risk of later impeachment. A For-Profit-Presidency would be blatantly unethical, unprecedented and unconstitutional.

Neither the president nor public should tolerate the built-in-bribery of foreign governments quietly lining the pockets of a person they are seeking to influence on policy. That’s why we have an Emoluments Clause in Article One, Section 9 of the U. S. Constitution. It says that “no person holding any office…shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept any present, emolument [profit, gain], office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince or foreign state.”

This prohibition became a part of the Articles of Confederation for its entire eight year existence, then was included intact by the Constitutional Convention in 1787. Alexander Hamilton in Federalist 22 worried that Republics “have too easy an inlet to foreign corruption.”

An article in ProPublica.org summarizes its subsequent development:

“In 1902, an attorney general’s opinion said it is ‘directed against every kind of influence by foreign governments upon officers of the United States.’ In 1970, a comptroller general opinion declared that the clause’s ‘drafters intended the prohibition to have the broadest possible scope and applicability.’ A 1994 Justice Department opinion said ‘the language of Emoluments Clause is both sweeping and unqualified.’”

You appear to have ambivalent views of this provision and problem. On the one hand, you repeatedly attacked Democratic Nominee Hillary Clinton for what you regarded as clashing interests between her public role as Secretary of State and her husband’s Clinton Foundation. Last month you said that “I will be leaving my great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country…[because] it is visually important, as President, to in no way have a conflict of interest with my various businesses”; you later tweeted that “legal documents are being crafted which take me completely out of business operations” [emphases added].

On the other hand, there have been numerous reports how you have put yourself in just such conflicting situations. Presumably, old habits die hard and you’ve spent your entire adult life in the pursuit of profit and the “art of the deal.” But what’s customary in business can be corrupt once in public office.

For example:

-Of the first 29 foreign leaders you spoke with, you had properties in eight of their countries.

-In a post-election call with Nigel Farage, then the leader of the British UK Independent Party, you two apparently discussed your opposition to windmills near a golf course that you own in Scotland…Your company reportedly researched a string of hotels in Taoyan, Taiwan before you had a controversial phone call with Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen…In your first meeting with a foreign leader, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, your daughter attended even though she has no formal portfolio or experience in international diplomacy and was then negotiating a licensing deal with a giant Japanese retailer backed by the government-owned development bank….

-You praised Turkey President Erdogan’s crackdown this year following a failed coup attempt at the same time that you were managing the massive Trump Towers in Istanbul…Your partner in a 57 story building in Manila recently visited you, as an official Philippine envoy, before you spoke with and lauded President Duterte, who has killed several thousand people who he suspected of selling drugs (see generally, Paddock, et. al., “Potential Conflicts Around the World for Trump, the Businessman President”, New York Times, Nov. 26, 2016).

“Oligarchs” are rich dictators and the super-wealthy in countries such as Russia who exploit public office for private gain at the expense of their citizenry. This is neither an American nor a Constitutional value in our democracy, as our founding document makes clear. Yet you and some supporters appear disdainful or dismissive of the principles behind conflicts laws and the Emoluments Clause:

-You have tweeted that “only the corrupt media makes this a big deal.” (Actually, a recent CNN/ORC poll found that 59 percent thought that turning over management to your children was insufficient to protect against conflicts.)

-Kellyanne Conway said on Meet the Press that divestment would be unfair to your adult children who are entitled to work. Obviously, however, when you chose to seek the Presidency, you understood that you might put your family firm in precisely this predicament. You created this situation and now only you can cure it.

-Homer Jenkins Jr., writing in the Wall Street Journal and repeating your view, argued that this issue “was simply part of the bargain when voters elected Mr. Trump, in full view of his business interests.” Really in ”full view”? As everyone knows, you refused to disclose either your tax returns or portfolio of loans and partnerships that could have shed light on possible entanglements with your world-wide holdings.

Nor can it be persuasively contended that the minority of voters who chose you as President-Elect should now simply trust your voluntary adherence to your own rules. It’s a basic premise of the Rule of Law that “no man can judge his own case.” In any event, even voters cannot overrule the Constitution except through a process of amendment specified in that document.

-Putting your assets in your suggested “blind trust” to be run by your adult children ignores the reality that a) you talk to your children and b) you’d know about the possible impact on your family holdings whenever you made presidential decisions, especially since your name of course is emblazoned on so many of your physical assets. (When you groused that some critics prefer that you “never ever see my daughter Ivanka again,” we assume that you didn’t intend this reductio ad absurdum to be taken literally.) http://www.nytimes.com/…/trump-family-ivanka-donald-jr.html…

-Political commentators understandably discount any mention of impeachment pre-Inauguration because, among other reasons, there will be a GOP majority on the House Judiciary Committee and Chamber for at least two years. While we may anticipate that Congress will now be your “shut-eyed sentry”, in Kipling’s phrase, we are here discussing morality and constitutionality, not political probabilities. Indeed, within two years of an actual presidential landslide, Richard Nixon was impeached in 1974 after Republican senator Barry Goldwater supported his removal from office.

-Supporters such as Rudy Giuliani contend that your holdings are so large that divestment is just unrealistic. But size does not erase principle. Self-enrichment is wrong whether an office holder is of modest or great wealth — indeed, if anything, the greater the amount, the worse the problem. We should not apply the much criticized banking ethic of “too big to fail” in this circumstance.

-Other supporters like House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy dismiss the problem as merely hypothetical, adding that should problems arise, they can be dealt with later. But of course “later” such political enthusiasts may argue that it’s really too late once you’re president…which is precisely why all your modern predecessors resolved this problem early before bad practices were set in concrete.

But the reality of #DivestOrImpeach cannot be discounted or dismissed. There’s nothing strange about warning someone about to hit the gas that if they drive 80 mph into a crowded intersection, there is likely to be deadly results. Actions have consequences.

Indeed, calls for divestment are bipartisan. Former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan wrote a Wall Street Journal column titled “No More Business as Usual, Mr. Trump” (Nov. 26). It concluded that “…he can’t, however offhandedly, both do business and be president. Future and credible reports that he had engaged in such a conflict of interest would doom his presidency.” President George W. Bush’s ethics counsel, Richard W. Painter, recently argued that “no president should allow his name to be put on commercial properties in return for payment. The presidency is not a branding opportunity.”

In effect, this letter takes the form of a citizen demand to avoid a situation that would be untenable for you and the country. It cannot be in either your legal or political interest to be regularly probed by investigative journalists and prosecutors or accused of self-enrichment whenever a White House decision, intentionally or not, affects your family’s fortune. And it certainly is not in the national interest for Americans to regularly wonder if their president is engaged in public service or self-service.

Nor can mere disclosure rule suffice, not when a foreign power knows it can favor your family’s bottom line somewhat effortlessly — such as sending their delegations abroad to Trump Hotels — hoping that you’ll get the message. You would become, in Harvard law professor Lawrence Tribe’s phrase, “an emoluments magnet.” This bias toward bribery was explained in a petition from 13 public interest groups and experts sent to you on November 17th: “Every time any foreign government or company controlled by a foreign government does business with a Trump entity, you could be accused of accepting a payment in violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution.”

All of us are accountable to others, including presidents. In such situations, it is not enough to say or imply, as you have done and Richard Nixon explicitly did, that “if the President does it, that means it’s not illegal.”

True, your conflict cannot be solved by the easy sale of stock on a public open market. But compliance with the Constitution and our country’s laws do not depend on degree-of-difficulty. The only convincing cure to a situation that you knowingly entered is to have an independent trustee sell off all your holdings — your corporations, partnerships, any remaining stocks and bonds (but of course not homestead properties such as residences, yachts, planes…) — and place the proceeds in a true blind trust or treasury note that presents no ongoing conflicts since you will be unaware of the investment.

Already, White House ethics counsel insist that no company put the name “Barack Obama” on products for fear that gullible people would think that he was in fact associated with the enterprise. That should be doubly true when your name indeed has been associated with the properties involved

You ran for president with the Constitution we have, not the Constitution you may want. Given the importance of this public matter, may we respectfully request that you respond not with a diversionary or denunciatory tweet or a hair-splitting memorandum that distinguishes between operations and ownership. Each alone only continues the problem of self-dealing. The cliche that ‘you can’t be half pregnant’ comes to mind.

The only appropriate response is to completely divest on December 15 and therefore avoid potentially becoming a walking Article of Impeachment beginning on January 20. So: will it be America First or Trump First? The choice is yours, at least for now.

Sincerely yours,

Ralph Nader, Mark Green

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Oh please God, no, not another televised Trump Rally. Please, no. I can’t take this for four, or eight, more years. It’s like an hour long nasty, greasy fart. Why can’t he do Fire Side Chats like FDR or Jimmy Carter? I’m sure he can commission a tailor to custom make a special Cardigan for the occasion. Anything but these stupid fucking Rallies or whatever he, or they, call them. Maybe some Pole Dancing or Curling. I think Curling with Mad Dog and Flynn and the guy who shot up the Comet Ping Pong Pizza Place (what the fuck kind of name is this for a pizza place? what ever happened to names like Salvatore’s or Guiseppe’s) and Ben Carson and Purina Chao Chao would be cool and fun to watch. I can just see it — Mad Dog’s reaction if Chao Chao screws up — and imagine what Flynn will do to the Muslim hecklers in the audience, not to mention what Edgar M. Welch, who graduated top of his class by the way, will do to those eating pizza in the stands. In fact, I think Edgar M. Welch is as good a pick as any for Secretary of State. Why not? Do you have anyone better in mind?

Alright, that’s enough for now, I have to go. Fucker Carlson’s on and no one makes me laugh more than that fucking little frat boy bootlicking cowardly bully prick.

ARENA THEATER PRESENTS WAR HORSE AND MORE

These fabulous events are coming up at Arena Theater in December, check it out! And if you missed it last time, the amazing production of "War Horse" is coming back to Arena Theater on Saturday, December 17, at 1 p.m.! See below for more.

A peaceful and happy holiday season to all from Arena Theater

Met Opera Live in HD
Saturday, December 10
Kaija Saariaho's yearning medieval romance "L'Amour de Loin" ("Love From Afar"), one of the most highly praised operas of recent years, has its Met premiere this season.
9:55 a.m.
Arena Theater, Point Arena
$24, $22 senior, $18 youth (18 and under) For info visit www.arenatheater.org or call 707 882-3272

Arena Theater Live
Saturday, December 10
"Nina Gerber and Chris Webster in concert." The singer-songwriter duo performs Americana and folk music originals, covers, soulful ballads.
7 p.m. Arena Theater, Point Arena $20
For info visit www.arenatheater.org or call 707 882-3272

Film Club
Monday, December 12
"Giant." Oscar-winning sprawling epic covering the life of a Texas cattle rancher and his family and associates, with Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean. Preceded by film trivia quiz, followed by audience discussion.
7 p.m.
Arena Theater, Point Arena
Free to Film Club members, $10 for their guests For info contact www.arenatheaterfilmclub.com

National Theatre Live from London
War Horse
Saturday, Dec. 17
1 p.m., doors 12:30 p.m.
Tickets: $18, $5 youth (18 and under), online at www.arenatheater.org Arena Theater, 214 Main Street, Point Arena
War Horse returns to Arena Theater
Back by popular demand: A Holiday treat for the entire family, youth tickets only $5!

Since its first performance at the National Theatre in 2007, the critically acclaimed West End production of "War Horse" has become an international smash hit, capturing the imagination of millions of people around the world.

Based on Michael Morpurgo's novel and adapted for the stage by Nick Stafford, "War Horse" takes audiences on an extraordinary journey from the fields of rural Devon to the trenches of First World War France. Filled with stirring music and songs, this powerfully moving and imaginative drama is a show of phenomenal inventiveness, according to the National Theatre Live. At its heart are astonishing life-size puppets by South Africa's Handspring Puppet Company, who bring breathing, galloping, charging horses to thrilling life on stage. The play has a runtime of 180 minutes including a 20-minute intermission.

"A landmark theatre event. Thrilling!" — Time Magazine Tickets $18, youth only $5, get advance tickets at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2698057

Film Club
Monday, December 26
"Malcolm." In this wacky heist film that swept the Australian Film Institute Awards, a shy mechanical genius gets caught up in a crime spree. Preceded by film trivia quiz, followed by audience discussion.
7 p.m.
Arena Theater, Point Arena
Free to Film Club members, $10 for their guests For info contact www.arenatheaterfilmclub.org

Arena Theater is located at 214 Main Street, Point Arena, California. Arena Theater is a member-supported community theater owned and operated by the Arena Theater Association, a 501 (c) (3) not for profit corporation. For additional information visit: www.arenatheater.org

(— Dagmar Moseley)

CRAFT FAIR, SILENT AUCTION, YUMMY SOUP and good cheer!

Come on by...

Holiday Craft Fair & Silent Auction

Sat. December 10 10 am ­- 4 pm

Preston Hall, Main St, Mendocino next to Presbyterian Church.

Many Craft vendors, yummy soup, baked goodies & lots of festive cheer! Good Silent auction items!

Santa Claus visit 11 am & sing-along with Santa & Children 11:30

Benefits Rainbow non-profit Preschool's scholarship fund

ANNOYING LOCUTIONS

Editor,

“We want to thank…” or, “I’d like to thank…” Then go ahead! Do it! What’s wrong with “Thanks!”

“The reason why is because…” No it’s not! The reason is. (Or it happened because.)

“What it is is…” Why not, “It’s…”

–George Newbury, Hopland

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE CONTROVERSY

What the Dakota Access Pipeline Is Really About

The standoff isn’t about tribal rights or water, but a White House that ignores the rule of law.

by Kevin Cramer (The Wall Street Journal)

A little more than two weeks ago, during a confrontation between protesters and law enforcement, an improvised explosive device was detonated on a public bridge in southern North Dakota. That was simply the latest manifestation of the “prayerful” and “peaceful” protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Escalating tensions were temporarily defused Sunday when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, at the direction of the Obama administration, announced it would refuse to grant the final permit needed to complete the $3.8 billion project. The pipeline, which runs nearly 1,200 miles from the Bakken Shale in North Dakota to Illinois, is nearly complete except for a small section where it needs to pass under the Missouri River. Denying the permit for that construction only punts the issue to next month—to a new president who won’t thumb his nose at the rule of law.

Like many North Dakotans, I’ve had to endure preaching about the pipeline from the press, environmental activists, musicians and politicians in other states. More often than not, these sermons are informed by little more than a Facebook post. At the risk of spoiling the protesters’ narrative, I’d like to bring us back to ground truth.

• This isn’t about tribal rights or protecting cultural resources. The pipeline does not cross any land owned by the Standing Rock Sioux. The land under discussion belongs to private owners and the federal government. To suggest that the Standing Rock tribe has the legal ability to block the pipeline is to turn America’s property rights upside down.
• Two federal courts have rejected claims that the tribe wasn’t consulted. The project’s developer and the Army Corps made dozens of overtures to the Standing Rock Sioux over more than two years. Often these attempts were ignored or rejected, with the message that the tribe would only accept termination of the project.
• Other tribes and parties did participate in the process. More than 50 tribes were consulted, and their concerns resulted in 140 adjustments to the pipeline’s route. The project’s developer and the Army Corps were clearly concerned about protecting tribal artifacts and cultural sites. Any claim otherwise is unsupported by the record. The pipeline’s route was also studied—and ultimately supported—by the North Dakota Public Service Commission (on which I formerly served), the State Historic Preservation Office, and multiple independent archaeologists.
• This isn’t about water protection. Years before the pipeline was announced, the tribe was working with the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps to relocate its drinking-water intake. The new site sits roughly 70 miles downstream of where the pipeline is slated to cross the Missouri River. Notably, the new intake, according to the Bureau of Reclamation, will be 1.6 miles downstream of an elevated railroad bridge that carries tanker cars carrying crude oil.

Further, the pipeline will be installed about 100 feet below the riverbed. Automatic shut-off valves will be employed on either side of the river, and the pipeline will be constructed to exceed many federal safety requirements.

Other pipelines carrying oil, gas and refined products already cross the Missouri River at least a dozen times upstream of the tribe’s intake. The corridor where the Dakota Access Pipeline will run is directly adjacent to another pipeline, which carries natural gas under the riverbed, as well as an overhead electric transmission line. This site was chosen because it is largely a brownfield area that was disturbed long ago by previous infrastructure.

• This isn’t about the climate. The oil that will be shipped through the pipeline is already being produced. But right now it is transported in more carbon-intensive ways, such as by railroad or long-haul tanker truck. So trying to thwart the pipeline to reduce greenhouse gas could have the opposite effect.

So what is the pipeline dispute really about? Political expediency in a White House that does not see itself as being bound by the rule of law. The Obama administration has decided to build a political legacy rather than lead the country. It is facilitating an illegal occupation that has grown wildly out of control. That the economy depends on a consistent and predictable permitting regime seems never to have crossed the president’s mind.

There is no doubt that Native American communities have historically suffered at the hands of the federal government. But to litigate that history on the back of a legally permitted river crossing is absurd. The Obama administration should enforce the law, release the easement and conclude this dangerous standoff.

Mr. Cramer, a Republican, represents North Dakota in the U.S. House. As a member of the North Dakota Public Service Commission (2003-12) he helped site the original Keystone Pipeline completed in 2010.

AT THE BOTANICAL GARDENS

UPCOMING Workshops & Events

Expand your mind and your garden

Festival of Lights

NOW through DECEMBER 18 | each Friday, Saturday, and Sunday

5:00pm–7:30pm | Last entry is at 7:15pm; lights out 7:30pm

Tickets are $10 each, children age 16 and under attend for free. No pets please. Tickets are available at The Garden Store, Harvest Market in Fort Bragg, Out of This World in Mendocino, Visit Mendocino in downtown Fort Bragg, or at the door.

The Christmas Pickle Giveaway

DECEMBER 10 from 9:00am to 4:00pm at The Garden Store

The Christmas pickle is a unique U.S. holiday tradition. A decoration in the shape of a pickle is hidden, with the finder receiving a reward and good fortune for the following year. This Saturday, December 10th, be the first to find the pickle decoration hidden somewhere in The Garden Store and receive four tickets to Festival of Lights... you also get to keep the beautiful hand-blown glass pickle ornament!

WORKSHOP: Mushroom ID for Beginners

DECEMBER 10, or DECEMBER 17

with MCBG Mycologist Mario Abreu from 10:00am to 3:30pm

Lecture 10–1pm; Lunch Break 1–1;30pm; Field ID Walk 1:30pm–3;30pm

Pick your preferred date to attend and call The Garden Store to sign up 707-964-4352 ext. 16

December Pet Adoption Day

DECEMBER 17 | Mendocino Coast Humane Society will be at MCBG with a bunch of adorable adoptable animals! The mobile adoption van will be in the Gardens' main parking lot from 11:00am to 3:00pm.

WORKSHOP: Fruit Tree Pruning 101

JANUARY 28 with coastal orchard expert Di Scott from 10:00am to 12:00pm

Call 707-964-4352 ext. 16 or stop by The Garden Store to sign up.

Monthly Walks...

All walks meet on the Plaza at MCBG | Free with Gardens admission

Monday Mushroom Walks

DECEMBER 12 and 19 | meet on the Plaza at 1:30pm

The Gardens is home to more than 150 species of mushrooms during fall and winter on the Mendocino Coast. Enjoy an identification walk and learn mushroom lore with MCBG Staff Mycologist and Naturalist, Mario Abreu. DID YOU KNOW? MCBG's Mushroom Madness got a shout-out in NEW YORK MAGAZINE!

Bird Watching with Mendocino Coast Audubon Society

Join the experts from our local Mendocino Coast chapter of the Audubon Society and learn more about our avian friends.

- Beginning Birding Walk: The 1st Saturday of each month at 9:00am

- Early Bird Walks: The 3rd Wednesday of each month at 8:30am (Nov–Mar)

FESTIVAL of LIGHTS

Each Friday, Saturday, and Sunday | NOVEMBER 25 through DECEMBER 18

We are thrilled to stage the 7th annual Festival of Lights for our community and the visitors it brings to Mendocino County. If the weather outside is frightful... bring an umbrella! This event happens rain or shine. Below are the musical acts and Santa's schedule for the remaining two weekends of the Festival:

• 12/9 Mendocino High School Choir & Santa Claus
• 12/10 Shug-A-Pea
• 12/11 The Groovinators
• 12/16 Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
• 12/17 Pura Vida & Santa Claus
• 12/18 Aaron Ford

Tickets are available for purchase at The Garden Store at Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, Harvest Market in Fort Bragg, Out of This World in Mendocino, Visit Mendocino on Franklin Street in Fort Bragg, and of course... at the door!

DID YOU KNOW? We have added a second entrance for those who have pre-purchased tickets! The second entrance is located at the south end of the main parking lot... Get your tickets in advance for a more speedy entry to the Festival.

#DonationDECEMBER

Support the Gardens in our annual appeal for general funding

Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens was founded in 1961 by retired nurseryman Ernest Schoefer and his wife, Betty. Since its inception, the Gardens has become an economic engine for this region, with more than 75,000 visitors annually. Our Gardens are a living museum of plants and ecosystems. Like a museum, we must preserve and protect our specimens for purposes of education, research, conservation, historic preservation, and of course beauty. Please consider making a donation before the end of the year and help us keep this natural wonder growing strong. This annual request for your support makes a critical difference for us. When you donate to the Gardens, your gift provides us with the resources to:

• Support and expand our education programs
• Meticulously catalog and manage our cultivated and natural plant collections
• Strengthen our ability to practice and exhibit conservation principles
• Assure the continued beauty and exceptional quality of this regional treasure

One tangible and “real” benefit of donating to a not-for-profit organization is the tax deduction associated with donating. A contribution to the Gardens is deductible in the year in which it is paid. Did you know there are only 23 days left to donate and lower your tax burden for 2016?

HAND-MADE Wreaths and Centerpieces

Decorate your home and support the Gardens

Friends of the Gardens (FOG) are now selling their beautiful, hand-made holiday wreaths and centerpieces available at the Gardens from 9:00am to 4:00pm and during Festival of Lights (until they are sold out). These beautiful pieces are crafted from fresh local greenery!

GIFTING a Tree Project 2016

Buy a live holiday tree to benefit Lake County fire victims

Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens is asking visitors, members of the Gardens, and our local community to help support Lake County as they rebuild from the 2015 Valley fire and this year's Clayton fire. Your donations will aid in replanting the 779,996 acres consumed by fire over the past two years.

Donate a plant

Consider a potted conifer or foundation landscape plant to enjoy in your home now; then donate your purchase back to help revegetate wildfire-affected areas of Lake County. Nursery on the Plaza has a great selection of plants with superb winter interest for holiday decoration. You will be giving yourself a gift to enjoy now, and passing that gift for others to enjoy in perpetuity. After the holidays, drop your live, potted plant off at Nursery on the Plaza at Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens for donation to the Gifting a Tree Project. Cobb Mountain resident Kathy Blair created this program in an effort to “bring some greenery and life back for those who are rebuilding.” Just deliver your live, potted plant to Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens by January 16, 2017 to participate in the project. Your plant will be transported to residents of Lake County.

Visit the MCBG website for more details.

2017 FIELD OF INTEREST GRANT PROGRAM GUIDELINES AND APPLICATION NOW AVAILABLE

The Community Foundation of Mendocino County is pleased to announce $38,000 in available funding from its Field of Interest grant program. Field-of-Interest Funds are established to make grants in specified areas of interest (e.g., the environment or human services), or specified geographical areas, or both. This is the second year the Community Foundation has run this competitive grant program and includes two new funds (The Fund for Trails and Open Space and the Tilley Fund for Sustainable Forestry). Non-profit organizations from throughout Mendocino County are invited to submit proposals online by January 31, 2017 by 12:00 p.m. (NOON). Field-of-Interest funds are created with a specific area of interest in mind, but anyone can contribute to these funds. You can join with others who have a shared passion to help your giving go further together. In addition to the eight funds accepting applications now, there are many more Field-of-Interest funds to choose from, representing diverse areas of interest such as the arts, providing basic needs, and promoting animal welfare. Grants will be available from 8 different Field-of-Interest Funds thanks to the Jane Anderson Developmental Disability Fund, the Blood Bank of the Redwoods Legacy Fund, the Haigh-Scatena Youth Leadership, Empowerment, and Advocacy Fund, the John and Sandra Mayfield Family Economic Development Fund, the Judy Pruden Historical Preservation Fund, the Tilley Fund for Sustainable Forestry, the Fund for Trails and Open Space, and the Saturday Afternoon Club Endowment Fund.

More info: http://www.communityfound.org/

THAT'S IT FOR CRAIG

Holiday Greetings

Warmest spiritual salutations, Please know that I am NOT accepting any more invitations to consume alcoholic beverages. On Monday, I happily visited Vesuvio's for three bottles of Anchor Steam's Christmas Ale which was delicious, and a shot o' Chivas Regal. Pushed on to Zeitgeist to play the jazz & blues on the juke box, and enjoyed a $13 Margarita featuring Herradura Silver tequila, plus a monster cheese burger which included a fried egg. Eventually I left Zeitgeist, and went to Ghirardelli Chocolate on Market Street for an ice cream sundae. Returned to my room at the Emperor Norton Inn and slept very soundly. Awoke feeling fully satisfied. Therefore, I have no reason nor interest to engage in this sort of activity any further. If you wish to associate with me, suggest a spiritually & culturally worthwhile endeavor. Beyond all of that, am OMing silently on the out breath. Hoping that your holiday season is as satisfying as mine. Peaceout. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year.

Craig Louis Stehr, San Francisco

A FIRST-HAND ACCOUNT OF THE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR

My uncle, John McCallum Anderson, wrote to a family member on December 30, 1941, from Wahiawa, Hawaii:

No doubt you've heard that we had quite a bit of excitement here on December 7th, and I'm sure that Gram Lyser had given you the news fairly complete as to all of us. All the same, perhaps you'd like to hear about the crazy way we behaved that morning. At first I was going to write you in detail but wasn't sure that it would be passed by the censor, but now that it has all been published in the papers by permission of the authorities, I feel that my story has a lot less information and is therefor quite safe.

As Barbara has possibly told you, our house in Wahiawa is situated on a hill where we have a commanding view of the nearby airfield and Army Post. We are perhaps two and one-half miles distant in a straight line from the airfield and have seen so many planes flying around at all times that we don't pay a great deal of attention to them, unless it happens to be a particularly large flight or something like that.

On this particular Sunday morning, [wife]Eleanor and I were laying half awake trying to convince ourselves that it was time to get up when we heard the noise of planes. From the sound we knew that there were many of them, and I remarked to her that the Army boys "sure are getting a workout this morning." We didn't bother to look out the window until we heard a big boom that made us sit up and take notice. In the direction of the airfield there was rising a cloud of black smoke into which planes were diving and there were continued explosions and still more smoke.

We speculated on the cause of this unusual activity, and I suggested that it was practice with live bombs, but Eleanor was sure it was sabotage. It was such a big show that we decided that we should get closer and see what was going on. We dressed hurriedly and sketchily (as we most certainly know how), and the four of us piled into the car. Tippy, [daughter]Charlotte's pup, was the fourth. About a mile from the house, on the way down California Avenue, a plane with guns blazing dived down across the road immediately over our car.

There was one other car on that stretch of road, and it was only about twenty yards ahead of us. The other car stopped at once, so we sailed past it discussing the antics of the plane. I told Eleanor that it must have been firing blanks. When we thought of it later, we knew that it must have been shooting at us for some reason (or no reason). Since we didn't hear or feel any bullets, this incident didn't faze us at all, and we kept on going.

I decided that right in the Army post would be the best place to see things, so we started to go in, but were stopped at the gate by the guard. He didn't offer any explanation, and, as he was very busy, we didn't ask for any. We went back to the main highway than, and, turning towards Honolulu, drove slowly past the airfield. When we came to a spot where we had an unobstructed view, we parked and looked things over. We could see one hangar on fire and some burning planes out on the field. By this time there were no planes in the air. After parking for perhaps four or five minutes, we heard sounds of firing from the direction of Pearl Harbor, so took off in that direction to satisfy our curiosity.

We still hadn't spoken to anyone and still held to our first theories as to the cause of it all. On reaching a good view spot on the Kamehamea Highway, about four miles from Pearl Harbor, we parked at the roadside and took it all in. Clouds of black smoke were rising from some of the ships and we could see the flashes from the ships' guns. Planes were diving all around with shells bursting about them. By this time I realized that my idea of practice bombing was all wet and thought Eleanor's idea of sabotage more possible.

It was a good show, but we were beginning to feel the pangs of hunger and decided to head for home and breakfast via the grocery store. When we reached the store, we found everybody very excited, and they told us that the radio had announced that was an attack by the Japanese. I believe that the announcer's actual words were "This is no simulated attack but the real McCoy." It seems hard to believe, but this was the first time that we really knew that all was not well.

Just about then we decided unanimously that we should be at home, but before we could get our purchases assembled, the second attack began. Planes were zooming all over the place it seemed, and we could hear things whizzing by outside. Bullets and bomb fragments, I guess. This time there was a reception committee on hand and the Japs must have decided that it was a little too warm for them, because they didn't stay very long. While we were standing in the doorway of the store we saw a Jap plane crash about 200 yards from us and burst into flames. We heard later that that it was shot down and that it had set fire to two Jap houses when it crashed. Thing quieted down pretty soon, and we headed for home to turn on the radio to get wise to everything.

When we reached home and began to think how close we had been to all the action, we really got scared and also realized what crazy nuts we were. Next time we'll stay at home.

During the rest of that week I was excused from my regular work in town and helped out in Wahiawa with the Civilian Defense organization. There was no school, of course, and Eleanor busied herself with Red Cross duties. She had already completed her course and was qualified as a Nurse's Aide. Everything is much quieter now, and life is almost back to normal, except for the night life. We have blackout every night and have already got accustomed to it. Our house is completely blacked out except for one room, so we don't have to go to bed at sunfall as we did the first few nights.

We had a very nice Christmas in town with the family and finished up by staying both Wednesday and Thursday nights with them. The kids had a grand time.

My very best Aloha to all of you, and remember that although our letter writing is practically non-existent, we think of you a lot and often.

Love,

Callum