Opinion

Everyone can put away their fur coats, wax your skis and polish up their convertibles. It appears that we may have beat away the cold mornings and the pitiful amount of rain this year. I get up and get dressed by simply putting on...

It’s that time of year again. At the end of a long, wet winter, we Californians are exhausted by the grey, the mud, the mess. We are tired of short days and rain and storms. Our bodies are depleted of vitamin D and our...

I was reading about the origins of Christmas and the various ways the day is celebrated around the world. It is a day with a history that originally involved more than a few countries and belief systems. What we know today as Christmas has...

One of the first things one learns when writing a column is that the title is important; words must be chosen that catch readers’ attention and insure further reading. I’m betting it worked well this week; but I hope only for this week because...

“There are so many varieties of apples, that if you ate a new one everyday it would take you 20 years to try them all.” “The day you were born and the day you die are the only two days in your life lasting...

Local column by Joanne Banuelos

To the Editor: Last week I wrote a guest column on the Western Flyer, the legendary boat that took John Steinbeck and Doc Ricketts to the sea of Cortez in 1940. A reader pointed out it wasn’t all about community, that Carol Steinbeck helped a great...

‘Tis the season of gratitude. I like that season. Close on its heels is the season of giving and sometimes that is also a good season; but Thanksgiving ranks right up there in my chosen holidays. Gratitude is such a simple but powerful sentiment...

Whatever you may think about having a day dedicated to our thankfulness, you have to admit that California, with all the problems we all face this year, will have plenty of places to say “thank you” for the huge number of volunteers that want...