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Posts published in December 2011

AVA’s Best & Worst Of 2011

Best Wine Industry Writing: Will Parrish's on-going series about the industrial booze business's many depredations, social and environmental. Worst wine writing: A tie between the…

Bird’s Eye View

Greetings one and all. If you are sitting comfortably then I shall begin. Well that’s Christmas/Whatever-you-call-it ‘done and dusted’ and now on to Act 2…

Lives & Times Of Valley Folks: Terry Ryder

I met with Terry at the conference room upstairs in the Farrer Building in downtown Boonville where she had arrived just before me with coffee…

Peanut Butter Crank & The Possumbaby

The possum baby slashed and jerked its way around Joanna’s uterus in a river of milky white mucus and blood. “Ya muthafuckin’ beast!” she wailed…

My Days As Justice Of The Peace

Before the Judicial Council was voted in by the people of the State in California, the local judge was a Justice of the Peace and…

Faux Pas

The Turks were so patient for putting up with me this fall as I cycled around the western half of Turkey. I cringe now when…

Letters To The Editor

NOT SO TABOO Editor, This week's letters section is a fine demonstration of why sex, religion and politics are traditionally taboo topics in “polite” company.…

Creative Paradox

“To study music, we must learn the rules. To create music, we must break them.” — Nadia Boulanger During the four years in the early…

Ten Small Green Groups That Make A Big Difference

It’s been a triumphant month for Big Oil. First, the Obama administration teamed with the Chinese delegation to scuttle the timid climate agenda at the…

Thud Of The Jackboot

Too bad Kim Jong-il kicked the bucket last weekend. If the divine hand that laid low the North Korean leader had held off for a…

North Coast Dems Tighten Their Grip

In what is probably a first in the history of wine's conquest of all arable land in northern California, a 528-acre expanse of former wetlands…

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