Guest Column | Bill Strengthens āBuy Americanā Policies for School Meal Purchases
California farmers and food processors grow and produce a bounty of fresh fruits, vegetables and nuts utilizing the highest food safety, environmental and labor standards in the world. Consequently, the food produced is of the highest quality for consumers and a source of great...
Letter to the Editor | Addressing Local Railroad History
To the Editor:
As I picked up a copy of Monterey Countyās publication, āThe County of Monterey: 175 Years, A Brief Look at Our History,ā I was looking forward to perhaps learning a little more about our county.
Once I got to the page about railroads,...
Funny Papers Again Column | A Look at Calendars Old and New
As the first column of a new year on the olā Gregorian Calendar, one could hold the expectation that the tradition of making resolutions, presumably of personal betterment, containing a goal or goals. The history of this tradition is fascinating, and if you are...
Funny Papers Again Column | After a Bad Year, We Look to a New Year With New Hope for Renewed Unity
Greetings on the last day of 2025. And what a year it has been. As I look back on this year, I think about what those of us in our senior years, that being anyone 70 years old and up, have seen happen in...
Letter to the Editor | Weekly Gatherings to Amplify āWe the Peopleā
To the Editor:
Thanks to the Rustler for publishing last weekās letter explaining why a group of concerned people gathered Friday night at the King City sign. We were standing against increasing authoritarianism in our government, and the dismantling of many services regular people rely...
Window on the World Column | The Party Plan
āI didnāt know her,ā the preacher said. āBut if I had known her, Iām sure I would have liked her.ā I raised one querying eyebrow at my husband. We are at his auntās funeral in Watsonville. (Is it a funeral service if the person...
Window on the World Column | The Soup Diaries
They were the best of friends from a very young age. Though quite different ā my sister was very bossy and her friend very sweet and accommodating ā they were the ying to each otherās yang. Iām sure sister frequently got a good telling...
Window on the World Column | Loving Our Vandura
When you are crawling toward 24 years of marriage and over 26 together, the fireworks are not always going off, unless the neighbor decides that the Fourth of July cannot come soon enough. You are mostly like two comfortable-ish chairs, grumbling about the thing...
Funny Papers Again Column | Fear and Loathing in America: The Grift Goes On
Because yesterday, Tuesday, March 19, was the Equinox, that happily makes this morning the first day of Spring and a long-established ritual assigned to this time of year is Spring Cleaning. In keeping with this What-Stays-What-Goes protocol, I have scrapped all my scraps. There...
Guest Column | How Farmworkers Outlawed āEl Cortitoā 50 Years Ago
For decades in the Salinas Valley, the short-handle hoe, known as āEl Cortito,ā was used for weeding and thinning rows of crops that kept farmworkers stooped over for long hours each day. Workers were only able to stand and stretch when they reached the...



















