Increasingly there is talk of passing strong laws to keep guns away from the mentally ill, but don’t hold your breath. Most mentally ill people are not violent. Some may be very troubled, but as a group they seem to present far less danger to... Continue
Snark Infested Waters
“If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” -- George Orwell Scientists are making amazing strides in Artificial Intelligence, but what we really could use is more of the real thing. There seems to be plenty of the artificial stuff around, to the point... Continue
A newspaper not-to-be-named recently conducted an online survey asking: “Should the city establish, staff and fund a rec department?” Nearly 70% of respondents said “Yes!”
Of course, since the entire globe could take the survey, the 107 respondents may have lived in Beijing or Kirkuk... Continue
Right Out of the Box, Let’s Be Perfectly Clear: Not a Day Goes By when Word On The Street is, “Where Have I Heard That Before?” Maybe it’s because Nine Out of Ten Times, we have. Thanks to Mainstream Media, Amenglish has become an automated... Continue
Totally fabricated rumors (the most salacious kind) are circulating that Congress has taken note of the popularity of Hollywood’s annual award shows and, in an attempt to boost its own dismal poll ratings, is planning to launch its own show to kick off the 2016... Continue
No one should presume to offer advice to financially savvy, highly successful, wheeling-and-dealing developer/investors, particularly without being generously compensated. But after an entertaining Planning Commission study session regarding the re-titled FSE Project (formerly, The Cloisters), having witnessed such entertainment in the past, and with more... Continue
Memo to tourists and 2nd-home week-enders: If you aspire to pass as a card-carrying Local in wine country, you’ll need to become familiar with the ins & outs, hints, notes and nuances – the je ne sais quoi -- of wine & food pairings. [The... Continue
Not only have there finally been several days of rain recently, courtesy of El Nino, global warming and self-radicalized meteorologists, but judging by the pronouncements, actions and inactions of public officials, the drought has been Officially Over for some time. One sign was the official... Continue
For reasons shortly explained, it’s looking like the folks hoping to build a community swimming facility on Verano Ave across from Maxwell park have dived into a public relations swamp of their own making. They are Sonoma Splash, a non-profit which in 2014 announced plans... Continue
At a recent Sonoma City Council meeting, City officials and representatives of the Chamber of Commerce joined together in that most sacred of holiday rituals: Proclaiming the annual Shop Sonoma Campaign. [Not to be confused with the War on Christmas.] This being Sonoma, the Official Proclamation... Continue