Columns

Looking for a lost pet or a new four-legged friend? See the list of incoming strays and the slideshow of cats and dogs available for adoption from the Sonoma Humane Society, Healdsburg Center.

If you’ve been paying attention to the front page these past few weeks, you know this is the last print edition of The Windsor Times for the foreseeable future. This is a decision that has not been made lightly, not should it come as a surprise — our publisher has been warning of the increasingly unstable print business model for several years.

During the years of the Spanish Flu pandemic (1918-20) only some public gatherings were banned. As with our current COVID-19 pandemic, sports leagues and teams persisted in finding ways to keep the games happening. Major League baseball played a normal schedule in 1918 and it was later proved that the World Series between the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs was a virus “super spreader” event. Professional football’s popularity was yet to happen and college football was still king of the sport. Most colleges played on with only 18 prominent schools canceling their games. (Don’t forget, these were also the years of World War I.)

“Alan Turing: The Enigma,” by Andrew Hodges. Now subtitled “The Book that inspired the film The Imitation Game.” 736 pages, illustrated. Turing was credited with his invaluable help in solving codes to end World War II and creating the first computer. His biographer succeeds in giving us a detailed portrait of the enigmatic scientist, along with an account of his groundbreaking work. A good long read.

Think that Veuve Clicquot is co-branding port-a-potties? Who in the world thinks up a promotion scheme like that? Seriously, what is the messaging? A prankster relabeled a porta-potty on Healdsburg streets.

I’m fairly confident in my ability to say that the newsroom here at Sonoma West Publishers is primarily made up of introverts — we love our jobs, we love our communities and as long as we’re not forced to be the life of the party, we’re good to go. Contradicting our collective social trepidation, however, is one of the staples of community journalism: interviewing.

What do you do with 200 pounds of winter squash? Some options: build a wall to keep out rising streams or overflowing rain gutters; bake lots of pies and sell them at the farmers’ market; store them in a dry, cool cellar for “earthquake supplies.”

As residents who are being profoundly impacted by one of the corporations profiled in the lead article in last week’s “Cannabis in Sonoma County” special report, we would like to take this opportunity to share additional information and insights with your readers.