Columns

The Healdsburg Library has been very busy so far in 2024, writes Branch Librarian John Haupt. "Our in-person visits continue to rise as we see people of all ages coming to study alone or in groups, play games, attend a musical event or get help accessing a digital audiobook. The library and the staff look forward to helping you when you visit for these activities and more."

Kitty Alarm 

As we’ve been telling our news audiences for the past few years, the business of newspapers and reporting local news are facing historical challenges. Thousands of newspapers across America have died, and many towns and cities have become marooned in what are now being called “news deserts.” The loss of journalism jobs has led to communities with no government watchdogs, no local sports coverage and no reliable source to help sort through public conflicts, controversies and celebrations.

Everyone needs to stop greeting each other with, “How are you doing?” or “How have you been?” Of course we care about our friends and neighbors, but these sunny day greetings just don’t fit the times right now. Let’s be honest. We’re not feeling that great. We all need to find some better ways to deal with all the depression, sadness, grief, loss and feelings of uncertainty that comes with living in the middle of a pandemic and an economic recession while we evacuate and fight wildfires for weeks and weeks. This is tough stuff. For Christ’s sake, how do you think we should be feeling?

Back issues of the Healdsburg Tribune include news fines levied for Prohibition violations, Daylight Saving Time and a local man on national TV.

An overflow crowd, including town council members, Debora Fudge, Esther Lemus and Sam Salmon, turned out to learn about the Green New Deal at a Windsor Democratic Club forum Thursday, April 25 at Round Table Pizza.

I live in the outskirts of Sebastopol, so the so-called “mag crews” don’t appear at my front door. But when we lived in Hermosa Beach, they were a several-times-a-week fixture. Those hucksters were always young, always vulnerable, and always poised for the “kill” of getting you to sign up for unneeded magazines. Writer/director Andrea Arnold has fleshed out a New York Times article by Ian Urbana into American Honey, the 162-minute-long, sex, drugs and hip-hop filled, cross-country odyssey taken by Star (Sasha Lane), a luckless teen desperate to escape her groping father and the 24-hours-a-day responsibility of caring for her younger siblings. Star finds her means of escape in a Walmart by flirting with Jake (Shia LeBoeuf) the scruffy-looking oldest member of a group of teens who are escorted out by store security. “If you want a job,” Jake tells Star, “be at the Motel 6 tomorrow morning.”

The following snippets of history are drawn from the pages of the Healdsburg Tribune, the Healdsburg Enterprise and the Sotoyome Scimitar, and are prepared by the volunteers at the Healdsburg Museum & Historical Society. Admission is always free at the museum, open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.