Opinion

I am sure you who read this column have no doubt noticed recently I’ve been a day late and a dollar short, to torture a metaphor. A couple weeks ago I mentioned Maddie and Tae, a singing duo advertised at the Fairgrounds, and as...

To the Editor: Suicide is one of the most challenging societal issues of our time, claiming more lives than war, murder and natural disasters combined. Per the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide rates increased approximately 36% between 2000 and 2021. Suicide was...

I have always been a reader. Back in the Paper Age people had a set of books in their homes which was known as an encyclopedia; comprised of two Greek words meaning “complete education.” They were a very comprehensive resource used by millions for...

The new year offers a blank slate — an opportunity to set things right, to change course and accomplish our goals. When we set New Year's resolutions, we are utilizing a very important concept called self-efficacy, which means that by virtue of aspiring to...

When I was a lad I read the San Francisco Examiner’s renown columnist Herb Caen, the inventor of Three Dot Journalism; a form this column ofttimes mimics. Caen wrote his column as a series of items separated by ellipses … the word is Greek...

“Ride the train, ride the train, anywhere I’m going I ride trains; sleepin’ in a boxcar in the rain, ride the train, ride the train.” That is the refrain of a song by southern rock group Alabama, just one of many American songs where...

How suitable is it that this year, Remembrance Sunday, falls on Nov. 9 — the 25th anniversary of my mother’s death. On that day, I shall coincidentally be in my hometown, the place we both loved, to honor her memory, and all the time...

Very soon, in fact just two days from today, the Monterey County Dance Foundation will present the Monterey County Dance Theatre’s 62nd anniversary production of “The Nutcracker Ballet” on the Robert Stanton Theater. That will be a treat for me as I have never...

Some years ago, in a library in Southern California, I gave a book to a young lady in hopes she would find it a compelling story. She replied she had heard of the book but had yet to read it and thanked me for...

I don’t know if I will see you or speak to you before Good Old Santa comes sliding down the chimney. I like to tell folks “Merry Christmas” during this holiday. I sometimes forget to say it if the conversation is short. But most of...