Columns

What do you get when you combine one grumpy 17-year-old teenage boy and one Mom who doled out a to-do list on the Monday morning school commute? A very electrically charged conversation, one that would have gone better if all parties could have agreed on the outcome.

The Sonoma County Fair begins its 83rd running today (Aug. 1 through 11) offering all of us a mid-summer showcase of both our agricultural roots and our more contemporary wine country trappings and pursuits. A Hall of Flowers, evening concerts, daily youth livestock judging, horse races, carnival rides, craft beers, cotton candy and fried everything — what’s not to like?

Covering big disaster stories like floods and fires always has presented extra challenges to us local journalists. We not only have to report on the disaster — but we have to live through it, too.

We’ve all played versions of the good guys vs. the bad guys game when we were growing up. We played cops and robbers and cowboys and Indians. Some of us played soldier games or just “skins” versus “shirts.”

Do you like seeing trash and litter on our sidewalks, streets, yards and waterways? We didn’t think so. Not only do our open spaces look better when they are clean and tidy, it contributes to a healthier environment.

The picture above is a full arcing rainbow, portrayed in last week’s Photo of the Week dropping behind vineyards and trees, as if painted by John Constable. Christmas commemorates the birth of Jesus, who claimed to be the light. He asked that people “love...

A quick Google search about “voting” will turn up such tags as “Russian interference,” “voter suppression,” “cyber attacks,” and “Taylor Swift.” Tags not listed included “democracy,” “freedom” or “duty.”

It’s good to see former students doing well, especially when they do well in innovative ways. That’s true for Daniel Garcia, who took my classes at Sonoma State University (SSU).