Opinion

Well, hello! It seems as though I missed another week. I have a very good reason to have missed roll call. I told you I wouldn’t write of wars anymore, and I tried. Really tried! Alas, I received correspondence via electronic media asking me...

Oh, eM, Gee. That’s the short way of saying how surprised one may be when writing emails or blogs. It stands for words that aren’t necessarily wrong but just relay the way someone feels at the time. That is the way I feel right...

One of the first lessons one learns in any writing class is writing about experience is more natural and gets the story (or moral or lesson) across to the reader better than research writing. With that lesson in mind, I should be able to...

In 1948, the World Health Organization defined health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” WHO published further clarifications in 1986, citing health as “a resource for everyday life, not the objective...

Monterey County Third District Supervisor Chris Lopez and I crossed byways here awhile back when neither of us had anything to do; well, I didn’t really have anything to do, anyway. Chris was only stopping to catch his breath during a busy schedule because...

For decades in the Salinas Valley, the short-handle hoe, known as “El Cortito,” 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...

Local column by Lucy Jensen

The comment, often offered as criticism, that for writers of columns it is “all about them” and so of little value beyond opinion, which we all have. Very true. If you regularly read Lucy’s stuff up in Soledad or every Wednesday in Gonzales you...

“Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got, taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot. Wouldn’t you like to get away? Sometimes you want to go, where everybody knows your name, and they are always glad...

It was on one of the local online groups, ordinarily used for lost dogs or downtown incidents. The lady said that she had never asked for anything before and yet she really needed some help this year for her children. She had been laid...