Last week I addressed the unofficial sister-city relationship between Sonoma and Benicia. This week I do the same with Napa Valley. In my twenty years living in Sonoma Valley I have heard about a good healthy rivalry with our neighbor to the east. Though geographically... Continue
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The wealthy and powerful expect to get what they pay for, and most often they do, spending billions on lobbying and campaign donations to guide the hand of government. Though lip-service is paid to the free market, tax rules, land-use law and public policy all... Continue
The most recent meeting of the Wine Country Chapter of the Association of Professional Fundraisers (AFP) featured two nonprofit social media experts, Alice Ferris and Jim Anderson from GoalBusters Consulting of Flagstaff, AZ. Throughout their presentation, Anderson reiterated, “ Social media is not only for... Continue
Though not recognized as an official sister-city, Benicia and Sonoma are quite connected. Benicia was founded in 1847 by three key figures in Sonoma’s history, Mariano Vallejo, Thomas O. Larkin and Robert Semple. Dr. Semple, a year earlier, was one of the bear flaggers responsible... Continue
The subject of two articles in today’s newspaper have been conflated in the title of this column. Article one involved the prospect that as the world’s population reaches 8 billion people, the need for a protein-rich food source will create an international diet of bugs.... Continue
Citywide celebrations broke out last week in San Francisco and across the nation with the Supreme Court decision to invalidate DOMA and Prop. 8. I share in the joy of the many gay couples who can now have their personal relationships dignified with legal sanction. ... Continue
For the North Bay wine country, including Sonoma, tourism has been a mixed blessing. Just one-hour’s drive from five million people looking for a weekend escape, the boom in tourism has both irrevocably altered the rural landscape with wineries, hotels and backed-up traffic and simultaneously... Continue
There is a yogic practice in Tibet that takes place in a charnel ground, or what we call a graveyard. Graveyards in Tibet, which is mostly rock, are not the neat and grassy parks we have here in America. Tibetan charnel grounds are bone-scattered yards... Continue
Representatives from 20 different Sonoma Valley nonprofits gathered for a presentation last week to learn about a new concept in user-friendly online fundraising called Charity of Choice. Launched just two years ago in the Sonoma area for the Echelon Gran Fondo bicycling series, Charity of... Continue
We think we live in a world of things: cars, dogs, trees, tables, salt shakers, cardboard boxes, underwear... the list is nearly inexhaustible. Every culture has its own words for each thing, and each thing has many sub-categories, right down to its molecular structure. So... Continue