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....

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...

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...

I started my holiday season by getting hacked. The hacking was a product of my foolishness rather than a case of my supposed diminishing faculties due to my age (71 1/2) getting the better of me. Something was fishy (no pun intended) in the...

Green is the most common floral color. It only seems to be rare amongst flowers because almost all green bloom relies on wind for pollination. Thus, neither color nor fragrance is useful to get the attention of pollinators. Actually, green flowers do not get...

In Morgan Hill, there are no roads looking like a pockmarked moonscape and no tumbleweed rolling across the open spaces. The city’s drama level is lower than the cost of living (although perhaps not by much). The downtown area is vibrant, filled with restaurants,...

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...

This is the second of two articles highlighting constructive ways to consider the difficult issue of development in Los Gatos. The first article focused on the importance of remaining civil with one another as we navigate the Housing Element and Builder’s Remedy law-related issues....

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...

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...