Opinion

The day I started work at the newspaper was Halloween 1991. I remember that day so well, because the whole building was decorated in pumpkins and ghouls and all the staff were dressed up in elaborate outfits. Candy was on every desk — it...

To the Editor: Today is Ash Wednesday, the day Christians are reminded they will return to the dust from which their sacred teachings say they come. Those teachings also tell them to do justice and let the oppressed go free. “You shall be called the repairer...

I first tried yoga about a month ago. I am not necessarily proud of that fact. Over the years, so many friends and family have counseled me to try it, give it a go, open up my mind to the possibilities. Even my mother...

I couldn’t think what to do with myself. My baby girl was lying in a hospital bed with a broken back when she should have been enjoying the vacation of a lifetime in Montana. She was heavily drugged and monitored. She slept a lot...

Just because February is the shortest month of the year, the calendar reveals it is not without some very interesting and varied days of note. Let us look at them. From Day One we observe National Freedom Day, a day I also knew little about,...

In this column, let us venture into the sociological world of politics in the present age through the eyes of a former member of a cult. This particular cult, like most cults, was grounded in religion, in this case Christianity. This person would have claimed,...

I was thinking about John Dillinger the other day while watching a 1934 William Powell-Myrna Loy film by the name of “Manhattan Melodrama.” It also starred Clark Gable, but for some of us cinephiles the Powell-Loy combination is one of the best pairings in...

Have you ever been shot? Kind of a crazy question at the beginning, but I have a reason that I’ll tell you about. First, I want to tell you how I got into a situation that ended with a shot. I have told you...

We worked together at the Salinas newspaper. When I say, “worked together,” she was on the computer side of things and I worked in advertising and management; plus, it was a huge building. In other words, she fixed what I broke. We didn’t know each other really,...

I know that I have mentioned my good buddy Jeff before. He and his wife Brenda took a few days off to accompany my bride and I as we had a few days to do some exploring of the Mighty Mississippi River and the...