Opinion

(NOTE: After completing this column, I was informed there will not be a talent show at this year’s Salinas Valley Fair, but I’m going with this anyhoo. —SCW) If the title of this week’s Funny Papers Again confuses or confounds you, then think how I...

No matter how much you love your work, I have discovered that it is an even more wonderful thing to lead a fulfilling life if you also have passions that you adore, which are disconnected from your employment. Your work life should feed your...

A few weeks ago I wrote about my thoughts concerning the actions of our government. I mentioned that I have a hard time believing just about anything they do that doesn’t make sense. This feeling I have is that our government is full of...

One of the lasting gifts from the long months of Covid have been the rescheduled events and concerts that we now get to enjoy. If you have attended an event recently, you will likely have noticed that there are 10 other competing events on...

One late afternoon some years ago I stood among rows of uniformly sized brass markers placed with military precision in the grass at the Riverside National Cemetery. At my feet was my father’s marker, and this was my annual pilgrimage to his final resting...

“Life happens when you are busy making other plans...” That was my Facebook post of a truck that was smashed beyond belief. It belonged to my daughter’s boyfriend, Aaron, and my daughter was the passenger. Saturday night and I was nicely snuggled with my granddaughter...

I’m not great with anniversaries, birthdays and the like. When I say I’m not great, what that means is that I have an incredible memory for what can be difficult days in the annual calendar. Days like my sister’s birthday. “Forever 48,” I wrote...

I am the first to admit last week’s offering under this byline exists as anemic example of writing, so henceforth I’ll try to be more careful with the space so generously available to me. That said, or read, let us on to a couple...

Do you remember how you woke up on 9/11? Were you awakened by a friend who almost yelled at you to turn on the TV and see what was happening, or what you thought when you watched another plane crash into the World Trade...

Most of us know sunflowers. In the Salinas Valley, they are a common sight in yards and fields up and down and across the land. Many among us remember rows of the tall, large yellow blooms were spaced among the row crops as wind...