Why does the presence of mistletoe — a parasitic plant that roots in oaks and other host trees — confer the right to kiss whoever you're with? The answer occurred to John Lee, MD, a…
Posts published in December 2013
Max and Maureen sailed White Bird, a sleek 42-foot trimaran, across the Pacific from Lahaina to the San Francisco Bay, where Max would oversee some refurbishing, purchase new sails and rigging, and get the vessel…
Last Wednesday night, Community Services Board member Neil Darling proposed that the District and the Valley consider incorporating into a town of its own with its own City Council, perhaps along the lines of Point…
I spent several days in mid-December in the Sierra. Most of the time was occupied with backpacking from the Donner Summit area north by northwest to the Peter Grubb Hut. It was constructed in the…
“It is a wise father that knows his own child.” — William Shakespeare My father was extremely neurotic. A psychiatrist by profession, one of his more pronounced neuroses was the inability to complete anything, which…
ONE MAN’S PLUMBER: AN HOMAGE TO BRIAN BLUMBERG by Thom Elkjer Economists use the phrase “essential utility” to describe something so important to a community that it must be owned or regulated by the community.…
Getting to the balloon festival was quite a trial. The traffic jam rivaled anything I've endured in LA. It even tried the patience of the stalwart May Maung Tun. But the general mood was festive…