Columns

“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...

With all the controversy surrounding California’s mandated housing bill, let’s take a look back to a time when our very own Town Council considered making an even more draconian move. During the 1960s, downtown businesses were losing customers to the popular new concept of shopping...

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...

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...

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....

What were your favorite school memories as a child? Mine included counting roly-polies in the grass at recess, having mud-sliding contests after school, and picking wildflowers with my friends. Some of my least favorite memories were having to play soccer on plastic turf on...

With plans underway for a massive redevelopment of the sprawling Los Gatos Meadows complex, I thought it might be interesting to share a brief history of this property. In 1886, workers put the finishing touches on the first structure to occupy the site, a magnificent...

Saturation of the soil should be a rare problem within the local chaparral climates. Water is a limited resource. That is why plants that are not native or endemic to other chaparral or desert climates rely on supplemental irrigation. Many exotic species would not...

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...

As a young journalist, I was once invited to a meeting with Sheriff Bob Winter at a Los Gatos insurance office. At one point, one of the attendees asked the folksy sheriff if there was anything he could do to help. I remember Winter...