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Posts published in December 2015

John Gschwend, Founding Mill Owner

(February, 1965) — To John Gschwend belongs the honor of constructing the pioneer sawmill in the Anderson Valley township. He built the first sawmill in Anderson Valley in 1856. At that time there were no…

Hiking Yosemite

The barren summit of Yosemite's Half Dome is 8,836 feet above sea level, more than 4,700 feet higher than Yosemite Valley directly below. In 1868 Josiah Whitney, the noted geologist for whom the highest peak…

Health Care Cantata

While reading Peter Roderick’s account of the dismantling of Britain’s National Health Service in the latest issue of the London Review of Books, I put on the relevant Bach cantata. Bach has many lessons to…

Seymour

Last night Marcia and I watched Seymour: An Introduction, a documentary about the pianist and piano teacher Seymour Bernstein, who was eighty-five at the time the film was made and is eighty-eight today. The film, directed by Ethan Hawke, the actor, is certainly about classical music and pianos and playing the piano, but the movie is also a fascinating and ever-surprising portrait of an extremely thoughtful person with an extraordinary talent for teaching.

The Stony Lonesome: Unreal

We've all suffered to some degree, have we not? We all have our share of pain and misery and loss in our stories, some to greater and others to a lesser degree. A common error…

Ortner Denounced

At 9:06 a.m. Mendocino County Board of Supervisors Chair Carre Brown gaveled the Tuesday, December 15th meeting to order then opened the speaker's podium to comments from the public on non-agenda items. Dr. Marvin Trotter,…

The Stick Lady Is Dead

She was known around Boonville as the Stick Lady, a gaunt, listing figure in hip-length khaki, high-water trousers, a leather Australian bush hat securely fastened to her head, a predictable sight every afternoon, rain or shine. On hundred degree days she'd walk in the morning. On rainy days Dolores would walk up and down the grandstand stairs at the Fairgrounds. Her daily effort may have extended her life, or abbreviated it.

Valley People (Dec 16, 2015)

LAST FRIDAY AFTERNOON, a combination of high swells at the mouth of the Navarro River and heavy rains caused the river to back up and rise up more than two feet on Highway 128, closing…

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