Columns

A week before the 2022 New Year, I received a text from a friend expressing his dismay at the great number of dead newts he saw on Alma Bridge Road while he was biking. This was right after one of the December winter storms....

So there we stood… on the corner of N. Santa Cruz Ave. and Main Street two weeks ago, ready to start a weekly newspaper in Los Gatos. Again. Randy Frey was there, as was Roger Sanford, who always manages to show up at the...

Perhaps I’ve read too many articles and listened to too many podcasts decrying the level of vitriol and partisanship existing in Washington D.C. and in many communities throughout the country. Add to this sorry situation the scenes of conflict I’ve seen on television and...

Fruiting warm season vegetables that are now in season, such as squash, tomatoes and beans, are more abundant with regular harvest. Plants that produce such fruit respond to their natural obligation to generate seed. Deprivation of the fruit that contains their seed stimulates production...

As a resident of Los Gatos, I’ve come to appreciate the town’s unique blend of charm, tranquility and a certain...let’s say, pleasantness. It’s a place where everyone seems to be on their best behavior, a land of smiling faces and polite conversations. But as I’ve...

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” —motto associated with the United States Postal Service But developers might? Our little charming town of Los Gatos has had a post office since 1864. But...

Regardless of how appealing many of them are in home gardens and landscapes, vines are flagrantly exploitative. They rely on shrubbery, trees or anything they can climb on for support. As they reach the tops of their supports, they extend their foliar canopies above....

Autumn is also fall here. Actually, 'fall' is the more popular name. It had been the popular name in England during the Sixteenth Century. The (generally) French name of “autumn” became more common there during the Seventeenth Century. Yet, both names remained in use...

At the 114 Royce St. newspaper office, we sometimes worked until midnight in the startup days. One warm night, I walked outside to the distinctive smell of freshly roasting coffee beans. A column of smoke rose over Main Street, three blocks away.  I followed it...

Along a Highway 101 frontage road near San Juan Bautista there’s a discrete wrought iron sign proclaiming, “FREEDOM REIGNS.'' You may have driven by many times and never noticed it, or the keypad located just below to the left. We slowed down to enter...