Funny Papers Again Column | Taking the Easy Way Out Aināt Always Easy
It is easy to sit down at the keyboard and churn out a thousand words when the subject has some local interest, which I can do for no other reason than I have some very vivid memories of life here in the Valley that...
Worthy to Print Column: Wear a Mask
Put on your thinking cap and try to remember what you were doing four months ago. Were you getting ready to go out to dinner? How about seeing that movie you wanted the whole family to see? Meeting with a Bible study group? Well,...
Funny Papers Again Column | Music, Music, Who Has the Music?
Many times, over the past five decades I drove between Southern California and the Salinas Valley on El Camino Real, aka the 101, and so am very acquainted with the stretch of asphalt from Santa Barbara to SoMoCo. Now, like motorists everywhere finding a...
Window on the World Column | Honoring a Local Author
You know how it is when you are older and yet youāre still wanting to do everything? That would be me. I have the urge to consistently go and do all the time, but sometimes my body ā or, increasingly, my knee and hip...
Worthy to Print Column | The Pain of Fire
There are those who believe that these fires started off with a little help from some miscreant or two. What are your thoughts? I wonāt say whether I believe that is what happened, I hope not. But I also do hope that those responsible...
Funny Papers Again Column | To the Classes of 2022: Dear Graduatesā¦
Greetings and congratulations to those of you who have completed the prescribed course of academia and have now, or soon will be, granted a diploma from your respective Salinas Valley schools. As has been pointed out to you all, your graduation is an important...
Window on the World Column | Go Dolphins!
If you happen to be at the Soledad Pool (or, more correctly the Soledad-Mission Recreation District) at about 6 a.m., you will see Coach Tessa and her student athletes. Mostly I catch sight of them when I am racing in for water aerobics at...
Funny Papers Again Column | What Stories Lie Beneath the Stones?
I like cemeteries. That is not a ghoulish statement, or at least not meant to be. A cemetery is a walk through history, both recent and long ago, where the changing culture of a town, city or region is written on the headstones of...
Funny Papers Again Column | Something That Should Have Happened Then and Something That Should Not Happen Now
I am leaning toward the position that Kebā Moā has got it right, but five decades after Shirley he may be too late. Let me explain. By 1968, Americans had experienced six years of turmoil starting with the assassination of a president, the murders...
Letter to the Editor | Working Together to Help Animals
To the Editor:
SPCA Monterey County agrees that we need solutions to save stray animals (āWe Need Solutions to Save Our Stray Animals,ā Aug. 10).
Those answers are low-cost spay/neuter, adoptions, foster care, microchipping and compassionate shelters, rescue groups and animal control agencies working...


















