I love kids. And fortunately, they seem to like me okay, too. Which is good, because between my wife, Pat and I, we have five children, four grandchildren and one granddog that I love teaching new tricks. “Roll over, no? Sit, no? Shake, no? How about lay there like a lump? Yeah!” And now, I […]
In 1972 – about half our lifetimes ago – Dorothy and I traveled to Australia, our first of many visits, but the only one by sea. The Australian Aborigines call their distant past the “Dream-Time.” On this journey, I carried my own enduring dream. Since school-days, I’d retained in my mind a map showing the […]
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More than four weeks have now passed since the mudslide disaster here in Montecito, but while that might seem like a long time, the healing will take years to come. Whether we’ve lost homes or loved ones or have had to evacuate, everyone in our community has been affected, and everyone is suffering in one […]
I don’t want to alarm you, but this is going to be about alarms, and ways of giving them. Let’s start with our culture’s most famous false alarm: The Boy Who Cried “Wolf!” The moral is clear: If you make false alarms, people may not believe it when you have a real one. But notice […]
One of the unexpected gifts of the twin tragedies of the Thomas Fire – the largest recorded wildfire in California’s history – and the subsequent Montecito mudslide, has been the outpouring of sympathy, compassion, and support from our neighbors in the City of Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, Summerland, Goleta, the rest of Santa Barbara County, and […]
In last week’s issue of The Montecito Journal, I explained that if the facts show a fire, covered by a typical homeowners’ insurance policy, was the “efficient proximate cause” of a later mudslide, then mudslide damage could be covered under a homeowners’ insurance policy. On January 29, California insurance commissioner Dave Jones adopted the same […]
Jeannine’s is my favorite breakfast spot in Montecito. Grab a coffee, have a seat outside, and do a little people-watching while you wait for pancakes. It makes for a delightful morning. That’s why it’s upsetting to me, and many others, that Jeannine’s may be facing some tough insurance challenges due to the recent debris flow. […]
I love my wife more than I love football. I just want to make that perfectly clear. I also love the family more than I love football. Another point you need to understand. Finally, I love family events, such as birthday parties, specifically my wife Pat‘s birthday party, more than I love football. That almost […]
One of the unexpected gifts of the twin tragedies of the Thomas Fire, the largest recorded wildfire in California’s history, and the subsequent Montecito mudslide that engulfed our small village, has been the outpouring of sympathy, compassion, and support from our neighbors in the City of Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, Summerland, Goleta, the rest of Santa […]
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On December 9, 2013, I celebrated my 80th birthday at a hilltop park overlooking Santa Barbara. Inviting everybody, on a pot-luck basis, I announced, somewhat facetiously, that this would enable me to assume the role of a “Wise Old Man of the Mountain.” To my surprise, the City took this seriously, to the extent of […]
A week ago, law professor Kenneth Klein wrote a Los Angeles Times op-ed saying that Montecito residents should not expect their homeowners insurance to cover flood and mudslide damage. He argued that policy exclusions likely preclude recovery. I challenged that assertion in a letter to the editor, arguing that where there are multiple, different causes […]
Chris Wilkinson and his son, Kai, filled their truck with emergency supplies and radio equipment. They are members of the Montecito Emergency Response and Recovery Action Group known as MERRAG. It was January 8. KEYT had warned of heavy rainfall. As a third-generation Montecitoan who has lived in the same Glen Oaks home since 1963, […]
Being a writer and one of the lucky ones to have survived the recent California Thomas Fire and Montecito mudslides, I feel compelled to try to express what others and I are feeling. I’ve rarely had a difficult time putting my feelings into words, but these two experiences have truly left me scrambling. I’ve been […]
One of the best gifts I ever received was a “Rapidograph” pen, from a friend who knew I was starting to illustrate my epigrams. This pen was extremely useful, because it could draw very fine lines of a single steady width. But, like the many others which I have bought since then, it also proved […]
