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When is a ticket not a ticket?

By Loretta Carr | For The Sun --  I had been looking forward to this trip to Palm Springs for years. Every winter my husband would hear me complain, “I’m so tired of this cold, depressing weather. I wonder what the temperature is in Palm... Continue

Dad raced a burro, placed fourth

Chapter 52: May, 1949 • Diary of my brother (age 15):   May 8  Sunday: Mother's Day, rained a little and had a rainbow. Mom went to Chico to visit Grandma. May 9  Got stamps from Jamestown bought $5.10. Jim got a '49 Jeepster, yellow.... Continue

There was no ‘golden age’

I just returned from a visit with an old friend. We were coworkers at Visa Credit Card, many years ago.  We have maintained our friendship even though we are at opposite ends of the political spectrum.  People often ask me, how do you do this?... Continue

Lions and life

Mountain lions changed my life. In the late 1990s, a measure was put on the ballot to reverse the ban on trophy hunting of mountain lions in California. I’m not against legal hunting of ducks, deer and other prey animals, but using dogs and trackers... Continue

Technically maladjusted 

Life might seem more human if we put away our Devices and get out that tablet of paper and a pencil we stuck in a drawer when Technology arrived to reinvent the way we did everything –  from reading and writing, to calling each other... Continue

What is the Local Master Plan on Aging?

This year, Board of Supervisors Chair Chris Coursey assigned me as the Board representative to Aging Together, a leadership committee in the county’s Adult and Aging Division. Issues impacting older adults are very important to residents of my District, so this assignment was a natural... Continue

Blues and the abstract truth

It’s pretty easy to feel down about the state of human affairs. There’s so much greed, so much suffering, so much to feel bad about. What’s to be done when feeling blue? There are those who view the current moment as deterministic, that everything that’s... Continue

The spectacle of violence

This is the headline for a movie review of John Wick: Chapter 4: A three-hour killing spree perversely entertains. It claims the “fetishized violence” is “visually impressive.” I do not watch movies like this; I believe that violence has consequences. In real life, killing rips... Continue

When robins abound 

Everyone is seeing robins everywhere this year! Impressive flocks of the familiar rusty-breasted all-American bird are feeding on berries and searching the ground for worms all over Sonoma Valley. I’ve spotted robins along the bike path, at Maxwell Park, at the Sonoma Valley Regional Park,... Continue

Desirability and housing in Sonoma

What makes the City of Sonoma a desirable place to live? The answer is a matter of preference. When preferences match character, the result is desirability, which results in a steady increase in real estate value. What’s desirable is popular, and popularity increases value. Not... Continue