Yes – as advertised, this week’s essay is about senior scams and the jackasses who perpetrate them. It’s an info-rich message from an avenging angel in the DA’s office. Her name is Vicki Johnson. For a dozen years, Ms. Johnson – semi-retired Deputy District Attorney – has held her own full retirement in abeyance so […]
As acid tests go, this could be a paradigm-changer. Jacob Tell wasn’t always a psychonaut plumbing the Mariana Trench of perception. “Remember Reagan’s Just Say No campaign? I was a D.A.R.E. kid. I had the shirt and the pencil and the lunchbox and all the things that they gave us in grade school.” That was […]
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Brunch. It’s the perfect meal for when you know the day is going to happen at some point but there is no rush to get there – drifting somewhere past the time of breakfast and maybe on the precipice of lunch and beyond. This magical meal sets the pace and expectations for the rest of […]
This week I am showcasing the insanely delicious dried dates at Flying Disc Farms. These things taste like candy and yet they have so many health benefits! This fruit from the date palm tree is awesome both fresh and dried. These sweet fruits are high in fiber, providing 7 grams in a 3.5 ounce serving. […]
Packed Event Spreads Hope for Long COVID Victims: Will County Take National Role? When it first made its appearance in America’s hospitals late in the year 2020, Long COVID was considered a mysterious and perhaps ‘artificially created’ illness. It had a multitude of names and even more seemingly almost unrelated symptoms. It was often devastating […]
I admit it. I am an obit reader. I look at the photo first to see if I know them and then almost reflexively at their age. 89? Not bad. 76? Too early. 56. Damn. Too close to home. Of course, I then have to know how they died and if the cause of death isn’t […]
RH sends me a tin children’s ride-on rocking horse that has been living in his garage for years; he THINKS it belonged to his mom but he is not sure. I believe this horse was his mother’s mom’s or her dad’s, as I think this toy dates from the late 19th early 20th c. These […]
The Los Padres ForestWatch (LPFW) nonprofit organization announced their 2024 Women Leaders of the Central Coast Public Lands. The LPFW selection focuses specifically on each woman’s groundbreaking work protecting public lands and waters. The women are Gloria Brown, Marlene Braun, Lois Capps, Jan Hamber, Kathleen Goddard Jones, Linda Krop, Mary Looby, Janine McFarland, Anne McMahon, […]
RH has a Chinese style coffee table with a startling scene of ancient Chinese Court life, composed of applied carved semi-precious stone figures. Two of the six figures are battling: there’s a man wielding a bamboo stick and another kneeling, the other figures look on from an elegant pagoda. RH has always wondered about this […]
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To me there are a few vegetables that I will wait all year for, and some of them happen to be arriving in the market right now! Walking through the market this week I spotted artichokes at Mendoza Family Farms. Artichokes are by far my favorite and have been since I was a little girl. […]
Cannabidiol. CBD. Don’t get too excited. This is the non-psychotropic part of either the marijuana or the hemp plant. According to the CDC, “Hemp is defined as any part of the cannabis sativa plant with no more than 0.3% of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).” Which is otherwise known as the “stoney part.” However, use caution when buying […]
This week I interviewed Erika Endrijonas, Superintendent and President of Santa Barbara City College. A feminist and a women’s historian, she holds a B.A. in History from Cal State Northridge, and a M.A. and PhD in History from USC. Prior to her position at SBCC, her career included Dean and Professor, Union Institute & University, […]
When I read Editor-In-Chief Edward Kobina Enninful OBE’s final issue of British Vogue, which he dedicated to 40 women, I realized that it is fitting fashion designer Catherine Gee be featured in my Women’s History Month issue. From 2016 – with her hand-painted designs for the prints on her signature silk line of women’s clothes […]
My column’s Women’s History Month is proud to present Montecito trailblazer Christine Garvey. As a women’s leader in banking and real estate law, Garvey was one of seven women attending Suffolk University Law School in Boston in the late 1960s. That translates to approximately 1.5% of the law students at the time. She was one […]






