If you didn’t get enough of the puppy cam, here’s one that’s sure to make the time fly by: An Iowa corn cam, courtesy of my friend, Marcia. http://www.iowafarmertoday.com/corn_cam/ Looks like “The Truman Show” is closer than we knew. I mean the Naked Cowboy struts his stuff in Times Square R

Seems Dam-Burger, that iconic hamburger joint on Placer Street in Redding, is celebrating its birthday with drawings for a free lunch. Believe the drawing goes for a week. And, you guessed it, I was in the right place at the right time. Just got my congrats call to come and enjoy a burger on them. [...]

“You’ve got to see the puppies!” my friends, Tom and Karen, said. It’s a puppy cam — cute little guys, on the grow, hanging out, sleeping, cuddling, mauling their pet carrot — live, 24/7. Tom wondered where the control P function might be, so he could poke or pet them online, too. Adorabl

(The yippee news in on hold — for the moment.) First took in Charles Harper Webb at the bequest of my modern poetry professor at CSUSB, B.H. Fairchild. He’d invited Harper Webb to read on campus and attendance was requested required — like Fairchild’s order that we each visit the Huntington Library

Persistance and determination — they are omnipotent. (Credit Calvin Coolidge.) Finally, some good news on the horizon. And a victory lap. More to come — soon. -Christy Posted in Butterflies, conversation   Tagged: Calvin Coolidge, determination, Good stuff, persistence   

My best friend refuses to ever slumber in her Texas hometown again — except for the occasional visits to see her 80-something-year-old mom. She prefers the freedom and anonymity that crowded SoCal gives her. Too many people to pay much mind to you, save car honks when a light turns green or the occasional finger [...]

There was a very sick woman who became obsessed with men and women who worked for various media organizations in a northern California community. She tried to befriend them. She obsessed over them. She stalked them. She tried to use them. And she tried to control them. Then, one day, the very sick woman, who had [...]

Check out this walkability report, from WalkScore.com. Redding earns an 89 – on a 100-point scale (higher is better and more walkable). It’s not bad, really, but I wonder if that scale factors in triple-digit summers. Still, it’s nice to get off the gas and stretch the legs. Some towns, like my hometown of

How does the pug know that he’s going to get an egg, a some times treat, before I dish it up? Mysteries… -Christy Posted in The pug   Tagged: egg, mysteries, pug   

The news story on KRCR made me choke: Amid the economic troubles facing the north state — and, hell, all states — there was a bright spot, they reported on the 11 p.m. news. Starbucks, that Utopian mix of caffeine and calories, posted fourth quarter earnings. That was it. Earnings posted. A bright spot in the [.

Leave it to retailers to cash in on nearly every morsel of American life. But a fur coat sale in honor of Veterans Day? It’s there, Sunday’s A section of the New York Times, a Macy’s ad to help you commemorate the day with a $7K spending spree on a beaver or mink coat. (Don’t look [...]

Shasta County Citizens Against Racism (SCCAR) will be hosting a free cyberbullying seminar for teens from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Nov. 15 at Sequoia Middle School in Redding. Representatives from the Shasta County District Attorney and from the Redding Police Department will speak with teens about cyberbullying, social

Cheers erupted. A champagne cork popped. Fireworks, too. It was 8 p.m. Tuesday night and the network TV station that we were tuned into announced that California’s voting polls had just closed. And that Barack Obama was the unofficial president-elect. Unless you’ve been comatose for the last several months, yo

to celebrate a birthday on the cheap: Test drive a pink scooter Stick a green dinosaur sticker on a pink motorcycle helmet Toss the power pug’s birthday “gift” (Hint: the rat slayer strikes again) Listen to a birthday greeting Snag a travel book for a buck Chat with the Dad Breathe a sigh that it’s

More from the I-don’t-get-it file: It sounds like a Jeff Foxworthy line. And, well, maybe it did involve a chew pouch, brew cube and the common sense of a horsefly. Not that anyone, save the signed, will ever know. Someone snatched the boyfriend’s presidential hopeful sign over the weekend. Nope, I not gonna say

From the in-box: If you enjoy the peaceful strums of the harp and the rhythms of Celtic music, you’ll want to make a free spot in your schedule for 7 p.m. on Saturday for Masters of the Celtic Harp at Pilgrim Church in Redding. The church is located at 2850 Foothill Blvd. in Redding. The $15 [...]

The last e-mail I got from a dear friend, Nick, ended with one of his trademark quotes, tucked under his signature line. “If your life flashes before your eyes when you die, does that moment also flash before your eyes?” I don’t recall the content of his missive, just that quote line. And the piercing sens

From a — much-needed — cup ’o Joe this morning: The Way I see It quote on a Starbucks paper cup: “Our prejudices arise from the fear of things we do not understand. If my generation has a single goal, it must be to promote education — education that advances us not only technologically, but al

From the self-promo front: Check out my Green Guide story in today’s Chico News & Review about the Gaia Hotel in Anderson here.  (Can’t wait to try the Swan Lake Bistro, their on-site restaurant. It’ll serve up locally grown and raised cuisine, they say, and is slated to open in Nov.) And, if you̵

From the weird-enough-to-be-true file, courtesy of the Record Searchlight. The second-best jury duty excuse ever: http://www.redding.com/news/2008/oct/22/marshals-eject/ -Christy Posted in conversation   Tagged: expose, jury duty, jury duty excuse   

Love these vids from Challenging Media. And this one, “The Overspent American,” at least partially addresses how we got into our present financial pickle. Layers of an onion — and we won’t be ready to peel them back all at once, I think. One point that Juliet Schor doesn’t touch on, at least in

It doesn’t seem like that long ago that a fine watch ranked alongside a well-scrubbed and polished pair of shoes as professional must-haves. How times change. The Swiss’ watchmaking machine, which has kept the powerful both stylish and on time for centuries, is winding down its sales, which are off by 10 percent

Hatred is one of the nastiest emotions known to mankind, I think. It’s like a demolition derby for the mind, soul and body.  Hold onto it and it’s like holding onto acid – it’ll eat you from the inside out, corrode your parts and overtake your existence.  As a buck-toothed kid, Dad often warned me about the [...]

depends upon A red wheelbarrow… The William Carlos Williams poem, “The Red Wheelbarrow,” fluttered through my mind this weekend as I contemplated decisions — or choose not to make them yet. Hope you enjoy the poem, in animated form, below. And, while you’re at it, check out “Candlelight,

So we’ve been on a spin cycle with Joe The Plumber, who — you betcha — already has a Wikipedia entry. But this morning Colin Powell, former Secretary of State to President Bush 2.0, summed up in seven minutes what’s been eating at me for months as the election season — more than any other [...]

From a real-world conversation with the boyfriend last night (paraphrased and – slightly – tidied up to protect the guilty):  Me: I got another MySpace message bugging me to approve a friend request. I’m never on MySpace. (And most often forget my passwords, since logging in ranks below patrolling for Zeus droplets,

It’s a bug. It’s a motorcycle. It’s a hermit crab? Methinks this creation got the shallow end of both pools. But I’ll leave the judging to you… -Christy Posted in conversation   Tagged: cars, hybrids, motorcycles   

Found this pic of Zeus as an adolescent. He’s filled out since then, figured out the potty thing and, thankfully, prefers stuffed toys to heels and under things. But his expression hasn’t changed much. And, some days, I can relate. Posted in The pug   Tagged: The pug, Zeus   

If ever there was a poster child for corporate America and — legally – devaluing the rights of individuals, especially women, it roared from the debate table when Bob Schieffer posed the $3.8 million question to the presidential candidates: “Could either of you ever nominate someone to the Supreme Court

No idea how long this mapquest feature’s been around, but, hey, it just landed on my radar. Combine a planned trip with a low(ish)-cost fill up.  (And I won’t rub in, too much, that the scoot fills up for less than $5.) Lowest gas price, $3.25, in the 96001 zip code area, according to mapquest: Win-River Mini

Object Lesson: Check (I don’t have a photo for this object lesson.)   The ritual went something like this: I’d pester Dad into playing a game of chess. He’d agree, set a stack of vinyl on the record player, pour himself a glass of diet Pepsi, round up a fresh pack of Marlboro and settle into his cowboy-style [...

Who needs facts when you’ve got gut feelings, raw passions and a mob? This, “Hate on Parade” vid, courtesy of Salon.com’s Open Salon, makes me shudder. And think to “Idiocracy.” Check out the open salon here – and the comments. Vid below. -Christy Posted in Uncategorized  

Ted Koppel has put together “The Last Lynching,” a one-hour documentary about civil rights and racism in the U.S. It airs tonight on the Discovery Channel at 10 p.m.  If the temptation strikes to think of civil rights, prejudice and violence as antiquaited imagery from dusty strolls down Memory Lane, conside

An autumn breeze rattled grape leaves and set end-of-row ribbons aflutter. A pair of toddlers darted in and out of the grape trellis rows, trailed by a pair of moms who watched for potential bumps and bruises.  Nearby, the Feather River Gypsies plucked out gypsy swing tunes. The boyfriend and I settled in, first with [...]

Great article in The New York Times Magazine by Michael Pollan about sustainable agriculture and how it fits into the ecosystem of finance, health and national security. It’s addressed to the Prez-Elect, written in letter form. Link here. And some food-for-thought stats from his article here: 19 percent — the a

This, from an introduction to John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men,” written by Susan Shillinglaw. Shillinglaw pulled it from Steinbeck’s 1938 journal entry: “In every bit of honest writing in the world there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to

Couldn’t help but think to this story in Rolling Stone about retreating glaciers while reporting and writing this one for the Chico News & Review. Hey, there’s a free-for-all silver lining to all things — including global warming. I mean, once Greenland’s glaciers completely retreat, think of the

The Sierra Oro Farm Trail is hosting its Passport Weekend from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The event, $20 in advance or $25 on the weekend, features food, drink and tours of 25 farms and eight wineries in Chico, Oroville and Paradise. If local, sustainable and personal is your thing, this may [...]

Budgets. They’re such a pain to live within. With the geyser-high cost of fuel, the uptick in grocery costs and other financial gotchas, the B-word seems more like a financial bomb than a plan. God knows that reporter on a Scripps Howard wage struggles with a budget — $28K a year after half a decade and [...]

That’s how Richard Norton Smith on PBS characterized Gov. Sarah Palin’s folksy delivery in Thursday’s VP debate, although he conceded that voters will decide. I just want to know one thing — well, at this moment, anyway: Did Palin have an eyelash issue or was she pulling the “Honey,” R

Just discovered — sorta accidentally on purpose — that a favorite journalist has a BLOG. Check out Barbara Ehrenreich’s blog here. But be warned: She tells it as she sees it (including on the economic and working class front), takes no prisioners, leaves the coddling to marketing wonks and doesn’t al

Online bullies and cyberthuds take note: Post someone’s picture, personal info and other info online with the intention of harassing, stalking or otherwise inciting fear will soon become a crime in California. And could land the perp with jail time and / or a fine. Assembly Bill 919, shepharded by California Assemblym

So much uncertainty, so much jabber, so many questions. But some answers are easy to come by. At least if you ask a Magic 8 Ball. Seems like as good a source as any during these times. Turning to the 8-Ball, I watch intently for answers to bubble up through the tiny window. And I stow [...]

Object Lessons: Peace by Piece  It was Christmastime, about six years ago. I was married then. The Twin Towers were already collapsed. Sabers rattled. But the Endless War in Iraq hadn’t yet started. Who knew that my personal life was in the midst of a similar transformation? Maybe the glass head at Pier 1 Imports was an

OK, so I had to check out the price plans for cremated ash launches into space. Memorialspaceflights.com offers the following heavenly plans: Rise into orbit and return to Earth for $695. Orbit Earth like a satellite for $2,495. Circle the moon for $9,995. Or explore deep space for $12,500. I’m imagining intelligent

You know the score: The stock market crashed so hard today that it’s ricocheting into the Milky Way. The House of Representatives rejected the bailout plan for Wall Street (insert sigh of relief here.) And Paul Newman left us for that big silver screen in the sky over the weekend. It’s enough to make a Star Tre

Pop quiz: What costs more than a quarter mil, required a carbon shoe store to ship via flat-bed truck to Redding and conjures up images of thrown-up box stores in Any Town Generica, Calif.? If you answered Redding’s Hilltop Drive “beautification” project, you win a congested trek down the motel, chain restaurant and s

Gotta love this professor’s approach to students who anonymously snipe him. Direct, simple. Grow up. Check out the story in Time about fighting online smears here. Vids of Dr. Karl Idsvoog, a Kent State prof, on Professors Strike Back here.  (Sorry, can’t seem to get Idsvoog’s vids embedded. Trust me, yo

Call me a pessimist – who tries damned hard to stay optimistic – but I can’t help but think to E.M. Forster’s short story, “The Machine Stops” in these teetering, brink-of-economic collapse, times.   Forster’s futuristic tale, written in 1909, is a Sci-Fi look at a society evolved to the point that it�

Say what? You mean that a free-for-all market economy could – gasp – be a bad idea. That while competition is a good thing and can bring out the best in people, that unfettered greed leads to collapse? That a parasite will eventually kill its host by, say, shipping jobs abroad while continuing to hawk [...]