Tag archives: Queen Elizabeth

In other Maui news, former TV talk-show titan Oprah Winfrey, 69, has teamed up with actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, 51, in committing $10 million to make direct payments to the Hawaiian island of Maui devastated by wildfires. The People’s Fund of Maui will give $1,200 to adults not being able to return to their […]

President Ronald Reagan’s school principal granddaughter Ashley, 40, married her police officer beau, Joe Dunster, 44, in an intimate ceremony at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel before a reception at the nearby Reagan Ranch Center in Santa Barbara. During the reception, the newlyweds were surrounded by photos of America’s 40th president and memorabilia, which included […]

Beatification can have its drawbacks as this illustrious organ’s bridle correspondent Lynn Kirst, who has been Fiesta’s Saint Barbara for the last year, found out. She has now ditched her white go-go boots and ornate gown, celebrating with a boffo bash for 75 guests at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum, a prize she won at […]

The Scottish bagpipes sounded loud and clear at the University Club when Susan Keller’s Santa Barbara Revels celebrated its seventh annual Equinox concert celebrating the changing seasons. The al fresco evening on the Sola Patio combined selections from three centuries of Spanish and Mexican music of the New World, in an echo of the Revels […]

In Mark Hunt’s article “Ins and Outs: Montecito and Her Many Special Neighborhoods” (Real Estate Issue, August 4, 2022), he correctly states not all homes in 93108 are within Montecito, or either of its two school or special districts.  Many Eucalyptus Hill homes are in the City of Santa Barbara. Eucalyptus Hill Improvement Association (EHIA) […]

Santa Barbara winemaker Doug Margerum has been nominated Winemaker of the Year for the 23rd anniversary of Wine Enthusiast’s coveted Annual Wine Star Awards, which honors individuals and companies that make outstanding contributions to the wine and alcohol beverage world. Winners will be announced in the magazine’s Best of Year issue in December. Since the […]

This is an article I had hoped I wouldn’t be writing for a few years more, the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at the age of 96, after an extraordinary reign of more than 70 years. I had wished that, given the Scottish Bowes-Lyon genes from the earls of Strathmore, like her mother […]

Santa Barbara rock legend Alan Parsons, who received an OBE – Order of the British Empire – in last year’s annual Queen Elizabeth Birthday Honors List, has been presented with his gong at long last after 12 months of pandemic delays. Alan, 73, tells me he received the honor from Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, […]

Racketeers were out in force at La Arcada on State Street when the Santa Barbara School of Squash threw a colorful Viva Las Vegas! bash at the Eleven14 Sports Bar with 100 guests raising more than $50,000. But, laments executive director Robert Graham, it is a squash club without any courts given its regular facility, […]

An old friend, Joe Woodard, who used to be a regular entertainment contributor to the Santa Barbara News-Press and now writes for The Independent, is facing the music rather than writing about it. He has just released a faux folk album Goleta Electric of his “own humble mixes.” Last year, master engineer-musician-vibe king Jesse Rhodes […]

Social gridlock reigned in the courtyard of the Santa Barbara Historical Museum when Jeremy Tessmer, gallery director of Sullivan Goss, spoke on the life and works of Lockwood de Forest, 50 of whose paintings are currently being displayed through May 12. De Forest, who died in our Eden by the Beach in 1932, was not […]

The flagship Ranger, which is familiar to many for leading the annual Parade of Lights at Yuletide, has rejoined the Classic Yacht Association’s Southern California fleet. Originally the vessel was readmitted to the association in 2020, in time for the 20th anniversary of the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, but the pandemic delayed her rededication ceremony. […]

Montecito sports fan were out in force when retired technology executive Howard Cannon, who splits his time between our Eden by the Beach and his home in Memphis, Tennessee, threw his fifth annual Super Bowl bash at his George Washington Smith estate. “It is nice to be back to near normal,” enthused Howard. “It was […]

An old friend, artist Robyn Geddes, who I knew in Manhattan when he worked for Andy Warhol at The Factory, contacted me after reading my item on the decline of the use of my signature signoff Pip! Pip! Robyn, who is editor of the community newsletter at the Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club where […]

For the 15th year my millinery skills, garnered from attending the Royal Enclosure at Ascot, England, where outrageous hats are de rigueur for ladies attending the centuries’ old races attended by Queen Elizabeth, for more than four decades, were called on by the Santa Barbara Polo Club to judge the annual hat contest during the […]

Alan Parsons, 72, who lives and works from a multi-million dollar recording studio on an organic avocado ranch in the Goleta foothills with his wife, Lisa, has been awarded an OBE — Order of the British Empire — for his work over the decades in Queen Elizabeth’s birthday honors list. “I actually heard from the […]

I went to the historic Rockwood Woman’s Club to speak to a record turnout of 80 guests for a Royal Tea. After British-born Janet Bullock, who served finger sandwiches and clotted cream scones on her Royal Crown Derby china, alongside dainty cups of Earl Grey tea, I regaled the club members — many wearing colorful […]

Prince Harry, Montecito’s latest celebrity resident, is apparently suffering an identity crisis. The Duke of Sussex, 36, may be known in major metropolitan areas like New York and Los Angeles, but when it comes to small-town America, he’s an unknown. Britain’s Daily Mail, for whom I used to scribe in the mid 1970s for Nigel […]

TV Santa Barbara, the area’s community access center that operates channels 17 and 71, is the recipient of four 2021 Telly Awards, including the prestigious Gold Award for the production of “Make Goleta Count!” Silver and bronze honors were also earned for video productions created in partnership with the Central Coast Division of the American […]

As expected, I was much in demand over the weekend for the somber and muted funeral for Prince Philip at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, built in the 14th century by King Edward III. Most of it was spent on Fox News where I sat for three hours at the CBTV studio downtown with New York […]