Is the universe intelligent? It often appears that way. Over the course of earth’s 4.5 billion year history, nature has produced countless lifeforms. Each of these, in a sense, is an experiment. And that includes us. We like to think we’re special; the penultimate form... Continue
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On their way to the Sierra for a camping weekend, Matt's yellow lab was in a terrible accident. The decision whether or not to put Sam down weighed on my son, and he decided to try and save her. A month passes before I see... Continue
Welcome back to my column, friends and readers, and I consider you to be both. It’s great to be back where Jerry and I started our Sonoma journalism careers, he writing history and I writing food and wine gossip, and many of us love both.... Continue
On October 8, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors approved the Mitigated Negative Declaration for the Arnold Drive Bike Lane Project. That was cause for celebration. The project will include bike lanes that are five-feet wide on each side of Arnold Drive, with a painted... Continue
I’m writing this early on election eve, before all the relevant western polls have closed and before Steve Kornacki has bored deep into the Big Board. So, while writing this, I don’t know whether the naked emperor will be sidelined for court appointments that will... Continue
Trapped as we are in the Realm of Desire, we always want something. I’m reminded of a scene from the movie “Groundhog Day.” Phil Connor, played by Bill Murray, is stuck repeating Groundhog Day, seemingly for eternity. Initially he wants the day to end, but... Continue
Every year around the holidays my father received a delivery of liquor. The foyer of the house would suddenly be filled with a dozen cardboard boxes and an afternoon was spent unpacking them and putting bottles of booze in The Liquor Closet. The Liquor Closet... Continue
All and everything in the universe is moving. Matter, sub-atomic particles, energy and even ideas are on a 4.5 billion year trajectory, and it’s all happening at once. And yet, borrowing from Physicist Richard Feynman’s ideas, each “object” has its own “world line,” a trajectory... Continue
The forest felt pensive as I entered Hood Mountain Regional Park from the Los Alamos Road entrance on the last Monday morning in September. Temperatures above 100 degrees were forecast, so my plan was to take a short walk down to Wildcat Creek where the... Continue