Opinion

Below is what happens when a writer is somewhat confined to his immediate surroundings; that writer reads a lot of books and views a lot of documentaries and then sits down at the keyboard and just lets the fingers go where the imagination, and...

This week’s issue of the Valley newspapers hits the stands three days from Sept. 11, 2021: the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, the Twin Towers, in lower Manhattan. Known colloquially as simply 9/11, it is a date etched...

Good morning and Happy New Year! Here is hoping that you had a Merry Christmas and that you received everything you wished for. This morning as I sat down at the desk, I just stared at the screen for a moment hoping for an...

I was attending a baseball game on the Greenfield Elementary School grounds when a car pulled up next to the entrance gate on 10th Street. It was a black four-door Ford, just like the ones the FBI drove on television, with two men in...

I received an email from a fellow who lives out Jolon way, in which I was asked about a situation I had never really considered and I found that I was probably too close to the subject to have ever had the notion enter...

“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...

It was well over a year ago that I found myself completely disgusted with myself. After a period of holiday debauchery, I could not believe the paunch in front of me. It was mine; all mine. Fortunately, my bathroom mirror only showed as far...

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...

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...

The year 2020 finds us with a Beautification Week unlike we’ve had in 28 years. We’re calling it a scaled-back version. Group events like the extra garbage collection provided by Waste Management, the Citywide Yard Sale and the Chamber/Rotary Kick-off BBQ were all canceled...