Bird’s Eye View (Dec. 27, 2017)

Well that’s Christmas/Whatever-you-call-it “done and dusted” and now on to Act 2: New Year’s Eve! Try to enjoy yourselves and if someone is behaving badly just smile and walk away. You know it makes sense.

With all the excesses of the holiday season I have inevitably come to the conclusion that, like Alexander Woollcott, social commentator for “New Yorker” magazine, almost “all of the things I enjoy doing are immoral, illegal, or fattening.” So, with the dawn of a new year upon us, and with new resolutions bursting forth, for the Quote of the Week let me offer you these wise words by Gore Vidal to think about as we move into 2018: “Never miss a chance to have sex or appear on television.”

Evening Dining in the Valley (Winter hours): The Buckhorn Pub’s : Monday & Wednesday: 4pm open, 11pm bar; Thursday: 11am open, 11pm bar; Friday: 11am open, midnight bar; Saturday: 10am open, midnight bar; Sunday: 10am open, 11pm bar; Kitchen open until 9pm every night; Brunch weekends 10am-3pm; closed Tuesdays. The Boonville Hotel  will re-open on Friday and Saturday evenings with their family-style, prix fixe menu and Sunday lunchtimes 1pm-ish. Reservations: (707)-895-2210. Stone and Embers in The Madrones south of Philo will be open Noon to 8pm, Friday thru Sunday in December. Closed January. Down in the Deep End, The Bewildered Pig is open 5-8.30pm Thursday-Sunday. Crab Feed special on January 19, but closed from January 1-24, reopening January 25. Lauren’s Restaurant and Lizbby’s are open for the holidays except for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day. The Redwood Drive-In is closed on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day only.

Public Service Announcements.

#543. The big New Year’s Eve Bash in the Valley is at Lauren’s Restaurant on Sunday night. Live music by Tommy Brown and the Brown Brothers begins at 9pm.

#544. Two big Crab Feeds coming up! First at the Senior Center on Saturday, January 20 at The Apple Hall in Boonville. $40 Tickets available at the Senior Center, AV Market, and Lemons in Philo. The Gloria Ross Original Crab Feed is at the same venue two weeks later, on Saturday, February 3. $45 for 12 and older, $25 for kids 1-11. All you can eat crab, all the wine you can drink, and margaritas for sale too. For tickets call John Shultz 895-9552; Terry Rhoades 621-1153; or Jorge 895-2778. Both of these events will sell out.

#545. The Vets from the Mendocino Animal Hospital will return on Thursdays, January 11 and 25.

#546. The AV Museum is now closed for the winter.

#547. The Senior Center at the Veterans Building in Boonville is closed for the holidays, so lunches and dinners will not be served. The Center will re-open Tuesday, January 2.

This week at The Three-Dot Lounge:

…The award for the house with the best Christmas lights goes to the excellently festive and the “just right” colorful display that adorns the home across the street from the Farrer Building in Boonville. This is the old Tolman House, now owned, I believe, by Nicole Johnson and Derek Wyant. Very cool.

…“Confused of Comptche, California” stopped by to say, “Let me share with you a little Christmas anecdote. My great Uncle Ernest was born in 1908, and he had all his own teeth until the day he died. This isn't as impressive as it might at first seem, however, as he died aged 16 when he choked on a turkey bone on Christmas Day 1924.” Eat carefully.

…Several regulars had heard the scary rumor that former AV Brewery owner, Ken Allen (remember him?) was now earning a little extra pocket money as a volunteer Santa Claus at Macy’s in San Francisco. Surely not?

…The final General Knowledge and Trivia Quiz of the year is at Lauren’s tomorrow, Thursday, December 28 starting at 7pm.

Best wishes for a healthy and happy 2018. Humbly yours, Turkey Vulture. Contact me through the Letters Page or at turkeyvulture9@gmail.com.

PS. Skylark, read any good books lately? Hi, Silver Swan. behaving yourself? Hopefully not! Everything cool with you, OJ? Of course it is.