First of Two Parts The challenges facing food production here in the Sonoma Valley have been well documented, including high cost of land and housing, labor recruitment, and competition for farm products from large outside farms and retailers. With land at a premium, alternative public... Continue
Columnist
Nobody Should Go Hungry Thanksgiving in the United States is certainly different this year. Many Sonoma Valley restaurants are offering special dinners for dining in or to take out, and others are just staying closed to be with families and friends and avoid paying holiday... Continue
Some elements are compatible, others incompatible. If in prolonged close contact with each other, when compatible there is stability; when incompatible, an electro-chemical, alchemical process caused by electron transfer between the two elements alters their structure and produces transformation. So too it is in marriage.... Continue
The crows are back. They arrived on time as usual, just when the black walnuts started dropping from the tree growing in front of the yellow bungalow across the street. First I hear them, croaking and clucking from atop a metal light post, wooden telephone... Continue
Hilary Campbell is a New Yorker magazine cartoonist and author who just happens to have been raised right here in Sonoma. Continue
Winter inclines us toward withdrawal. Though we need each other more than ever, the desire to hide lures us. Life’s strange and wobbly, which fits with the dark time of year descending on us. Still, community also sustains us. In his new book, “In the... Continue
By John Staley Sobriety is a pain in the ass – inconvenient in other words. When I decided to quit drinking ten years ago, I just wanted a break from the hangovers. I told myself I just needed a week to clear my head and... Continue
It’s a bit oxymoronic, “growing thinner.” We think of growth when something gets bigger, not smaller, but that’s what’s happening to me. I’m growing thinner. At 77 years old, I now weigh what I did as a Junior in High School, and then I considered... Continue
America is in a state of cognitive dissonance. Not familiar with the term? It’s a state of inconsistent attitudes related to behavioral decisions. Still not making sense? How about when you are living one way but thinking you are living another. In my classroom I'm... Continue
Savvy sav’e, adjective. Well informed and perceptive; shrewd. Knowledgeable or proficient. I read a letter to the editor in the newspaper the other day. The writer regretted voting for Donald Trump. Yet she defended voting for him by stating that she thought he was a... Continue