Icon: A person or thing widely admired for having great influence or significance in a particular sphere, a symbol representing an idea or object, a sacred image in Eastern Christian churches, or a stylized picture on a computer screen that represents a function. ~ Merriam... Continue

Become a Brain Surgeon or Drink Less Wine? It’s not too early to point out that this year will be over any minute now, and it’s time to start putting together that list of New Year’s Resolutions for 2026.  What?? Now?  Yes, because the final... Continue

Tailtu and Mary Too As we go to press, the nation and our Valley are about to enter the best season of the year, Holiday Season, more dear to Americans than the bland spring/summer/fall/winter seasons invented by scientists.  Credit for starting the Holiday Season goes... Continue

These days the media is awash in rants about hate speech. It seems everyone is saying how nasty things have become, how hate speech is tearing our country apart, provoking widespread violence and spitting, and that ‘it must be stopped!’    Easier said than done. Certainly... Continue

At one time or another, and often several times at the same time, readers have felt completely overwhelmed by Everything Going On These Days. No wonder we forget where we put the keys. Just walking from car to the front door, we can simultaneously ponder:... Continue

According to scientists (yes, those people), summer ends on September 22 or thereabouts, when the sun crosses the celestial equator resulting in a day and night that are nearly equal in length. For most humans, however, summer ended when the kids went back to school.  ... Continue

Holocausts, Shrinking Wine Sales, Dipping Gun Deaths, Meager Rain, Seismic Faults and Epstein Agonistes Your correspondent senses that these are very trying times for many in our Valley. Trying, because many are just trying to ignore how trying Life has become, what with the unending... Continue

 ~"Cecil was a beloved African lion who rose to fame in 2015 after he was lured outside the protected area of Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, and killed by an American trophy hunter named Walter Palmer."~ Robyn White, Newsweek Journalistic ethics has required your correspondent to... Continue

As this issue hits the streets, Sonoma and the entire nation is preparing to celebrate yet another bombs-bursting-in-air Fourth of July, replete with exuberant flag-waving, bands, parades, fireworks, speechifying and wine, until dawn’s early light. Given the political drama of current times, no one should... Continue