Julie McMurry starts her new Online COVID Family Update with a joke. “An epidemiologist, an ICU doctor, and a scientist all walk into a bar (or cafe or family gathering or get on a plane). I’m just kidding, they know better.” That joke may not get her on the Jimmy Kimmel show as a hot […]
This is a story about moving from Chaos to Order. We need that right? It’s also about the Adventures of Mark and TED. Who is TED? The question is rather what? TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design and at this point it’s an American media institution, a publicly sourced think tank, that holds conferences all […]
Montecito may oddly benefit from California’s post-COVID grand reopening. Coast Village Road may be one of the few dining, shopping, and hotel areas that is elegant, energetic, and well designed for the next new normal. You know the Pandemic New Normal – that’s the normal after the Debris Flow New Normal and that other new […]
For decades State Street has been the hope or bane of Santa Barbara’s existence. Today, the moment of truth has arrived as a groundswell of public opinion favors the Mediterranean town square model: closing State Street to traffic and opening up the street to pedestrians, retail and outdoor dining, in hopes of making the city […]
For decades State Street has been the hope or bane of Santa Barbara’s existence. Today, the moment of truth has arrived as a groundswell of public opinion favors the Mediterranean town square model: closing State Street to traffic and opening up the street to pedestrians, retail and outdoor dining, in hopes of making the city vibrant again […]
When Brandon Ristaino and his partner and wife Misty Orman started The Good Lion bar on State Street, no one believed there was a market in Santa Barbara for a stand-alone drinkery featuring the fine art of mixology. Five years later with three local establishments, including Test Pilot in the Funk Zone and Shaker Mill on […]
CREST is a Crispr Hope in the Testing Crisis With the United States and the world on the verge of reopening from the global shutdown, there has never been a greater need for effective and reliable COVID-19 testing. While the current methods all have their advantages and drawbacks, they are hampered by shortages, expense, and […]
Years from now we may look back on the Santa Barbara City Council meeting of April 21 as a time capsule of how prepared or not we were during the economic collapse of the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic. In that meeting, City Administrator Paul Casey introduced his new hire Economic Development Manager Jason Harris to the […]
When you ask Dr. Lynn Fitzgibbons what’s new, you don’t hear stories about reordering her spice rack in quarantine, streaming the latest show on Netflix, or growing her own victory garden. She’s kind of busy. Quarantine is a luxury for others. She did mention that she’s taken up marathon running, which is pretty remarkable, considering […]
Driving the seven hours from Nevada City to Santa Barbara, Sherry Villanueva was talking about shifting gears. Back in February, Acme Hospitality, the boutique restaurant and development group she manages, moved into the hotel business. At that time the company was in the midst of renovating two of the most iconic hotels in Nevada County, […]
The Quarantine Economy Julie McMurry lives in Santa Barbara and is a specialist in public health with a degree from the University of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is currently an assistant professor, senior researcher, at Oregon State University in the College of Public Health. She wrote the manifesto which became flattenthecurve.com […]
“Put it this way, the glass is more than half empty. Let’s just throw the glass out the window. Let’s forget it. There’s distrust. There’s disdain. That kind of baggage,” Jason Harris admitted. He’s Santa Barbara’s newly hired, first ever, Economic Development Manager (EDM). He’s moving his family from Santa Monica to Thousand Oaks, not […]
Being alone in self-quarantine, as many of us are to one degree or another, isn’t easy. Being alone facing a raging coronavirus infection, even with loved ones nearby, is something everyone can’t help contemplating or perhaps doing their best to avoid thinking about. It’s a bridge we’ll cross too, if we find ourselves there. Dr. […]
They call it the novel coronavirus. It will have existed for 142 days as of this publication. It’s called a “novel” virus because, while variations have existed before, this one is brand new. It’s unique in that it replicates quickly in asymptomatic people who are stealth carriers, then explodes in the population overwhelmingly, debilitating the […]
Information for Action She wrote a manifesto, which became flattenthecurve.com. It was originally a Google Doc. Her document was uploaded so fast that it broke the Google drive features. She had no idea who was sharing it. It was just staggering. Then someone reached out to her and said they had reserved the domain flattenthecurve.com […]
When we look out at the Pacific from Butterfly Beach it’s clear. The ocean still works. When we turn to look at the Santa Ynez Mountains it’s easy to see the mountains are just fine. Clouds, too. It also turns out that the valleys and fields and surrounding farms continue to produce food, with even […]
AHA! equips teenagers, educators, and parents with social and emotional intelligence to dismantle apathy, prevent despair, and interrupt hate-based behavior. The organization prides itself on a program based on mindfulness, awareness, connection, empathy, and resilience. Resilience certainly is something we all need and can use in this time of crisis. The teenage years for many […]
On date March 18, 2020, Dr. Jason J. Prystowsky, the ER Doctor at Cottage Hospital, gave a webinar talk to over a thousand participants including first responders, hospital workers, and support staff to update everyone on the coronavirus from the ER perspective. Emergency Rooms all over the country are getting slammed by every variation of […]
Within the social distancing guidelines, as inconsistent as they are across the country, it’s already become odd to see people in Netflix movies holding hands, walking together, gathering at concerts, hugging and being close. Press conferences where the experts stand shoulder to shoulder seem unnerving. If you’re not one of the oblivious, Covidiot Spring Breakers, […]
Let’s get real – what do you need to know now? Talking COVID-19, the pandemic, local life, and help. We had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Lynn Fitzgibbons, the Infectious Diseases and Internal Medicine specialist at Cottage Hospital, whose Cottage Grand Rounds Doctor to Doctor video has gone viral locally. Dr. Fitzgibbons and the […]
Five years from now, Santa Barbara will mark the 100th anniversary of the earthquake of 1925 that killed thirteen people and caused 111 million in damages in today’s dollars. The quake sparked a stunning re-envisioning and rebuilding of the small town of 20,000 people laying the essential foundation of the unique city that is known […]
“Quod, ut dicitur, si est homo bulla, eo magis senex” the Roman scholar Marcus Terentius Varro (116 BC – 27 BC) wrote in the first historical references to bubbles which means “If man is a microbubble, all the more so is an old man…” Ok I’ve translated “bulla” into its micro form. Perhaps that wasn’t […]
“There’s no angry way to say microbubbles,” Bill Murray said, not the real Bill Murray, just someone pretending to be Bill Murray on Twitter. Does it matter? It’s true even if he didn’t say it. I think that’s one of the reasons in these troubling times microbubbling is so gratifying. The best form of microbubbling […]
“I look for microbubbles, that lie among the wheat, and bake them into mutton-pies, and sell them in the street,” to misquote Lewis Carroll. I’ve always wondered why the Walrus didn’t mention microbubbles as well. He certainly didn’t mind talking of those other things, like shoes, and ships, and sealing wax. Whenever I see an […]
“Microbubble, Toil and Trouble,” Shakespeare wrote. Actually, it’s “Double, Double, Toil and Trouble” in neat trochaic tetrameter, like a scary nursery rhyme. Either way, it’s about trouble and I’m asking for it. I’m wading into the dangerous waters of discussing boys. If you didn’t notice already, I’m a boy, a man, a male. Girls have […]
I want to say one word to you. Just one word. Are you listening, Benjamin Braddock? “Microbubbles.” Think about it. I want to remake The Graduate. I know that sounds sacrosanct unless, of course, you’ve seriously never heard of the movie due to generational discrepancies or have a lack of cultural references. But I think […]
Fantasma de México is made with Blanca or Reposada tequila on the rocks, fresh lime juice (or three limes, if you don’t trust it’s fresh) with a splash or “float” of mescal shaken or not. The mescal imparts just a ghost of smokiness to remind the drinker of old Mexico. Mescal, the ancestral form of […]