Opinion

As I get back into the swing of things here in South Valley, I want to offer up some random thoughts, or comments, garnered from notes taken over the past few weeks both here at home and on the road. The first observation is...

“Darling, darling, we have to stop! This is my cousin’s house!” Car comes to a screeching halt, dust flying. We unload, remove our shoes at the door. Everyone sits in the family room. Boiling hot chai tea is produced in tiny glass cups with...

Have you ever met a hero? I haven’t met many, but I have had my heroes. The first one that I can think of was a little older than me, but he was for sure my hero. I can even remember the first time...

As the once-owner of Salinas Valley Ford Truck Center in Salinas, I find myself grappling with a profound sense of loss and frustration. For more than three decades, our family business provided excellent service to the local community and government agencies. Then, in the blink of...

Just 15 months following the end of World War II, a small yet passionate group of musicians and fans of classical music gathered for tea at the Carmel home of Grace Howden. Less than a year later (April 28, 1947), the Monterey Symphony gave its...

Hello again, dear reader! It’s been the better part of a decade since I was a member of the South County Newspapers crew (now known as New SV Media). I’m happy to return to writing about and photographing the many events and stories of SoMoCo. Those of you...

Last Sunday one of the readers of this column listened, patiently I suspect, to my not uncommon lament of having a deadline in the near future and not a single word written, whereupon he responded that I say that every week and every week...

I was thinking about John Dillinger the other day while watching a 1934 William Powell-Myrna Loy film by the name of “Manhattan Melodrama.” It also starred Clark Gable, but for some of us cinephiles the Powell-Loy combination is one of the best pairings in...

It is one week into the new year and I have been clearing out old notes on scratch paper and photos and videos from my cell phone, some of which will appear in this column while the rest either ends up in the waste...