Bratton…about Joy… Greensite…will definitely be back next week. Steinbruner Hayes…being present naturally. Patton…A Mark Twain Lesson. Matlock… Matlock will be back next week. Eagan … Subconscious Comics and Deep Cover. Webmistress…pick of the week: when opera makes you cry Quotes… “SEX”
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DATELINE October 16
MORE CONCERNING JOY SCHENDLEDECKER. There’s been some confusion about my dropping Joy Schendledecker’s column from BrattonOnline. Let’s be very clear right from the start…I completely support Joy Schendledecker and her politics and I will definitely vote for her, no ifs ands or buts about it. Over the 48 (forty eight!!) years that I’ve been writing a weekly column (since Good Times Vol 1, April 1, 1975) I’ve dropped many co-writers, some of whom were my very best friends…simply because their “work just didn’t fit”. That’s what I told Joy and it’s impossible to explain further than “her writing just didn’t fit”. Not politics, nothing personal, her work just didn’t fit. Go here to read more about Joy and her campaign, and note my name among her endorsements …it’s been there quite a while. joyforsantacruz.com
MUNCHING WITH MOZART & FRIENDS. This free concert series happens every third Friday in the upstairs meeting room of the Downtown Santa Cruz Library. This will be Music for Violin and Piano with Brian Johnston, violin and Vlada Volkova-Moran, piano. That’s Friday October 20 at about 12 noon (better by 11:30 am).
I search and critique a variety of movies only from those that are newly released. Choosing from the thousands of classics and older releases would take way too long. And be sure to tune in to those very newest movie reviews live on KZSC 88.1 fm every Friday from about 8:10 – 8:30 am. on the Bushwhackers Breakfast Club program hosted by Dangerous Dan Orange.
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER. (NETFLIX SERIES) (7.8 IMDB). 
It does give credit to Edgar Allen Poe for the title but not much else is from the book. It’s really a not too subtle riff on the very real Sackler Family and the opioid pharma OxyContin disaster. Usher’s Mom dies, her grave empties mysteriously, and six kids fight forever over the fortune. It’s really a horror film with a very confusing, crazed plot.
A DAY AND A HALF. (NETFLIX MOVIE) (5.8 IMDB). 
This is a Swedish movie and is supposedly based on a true story. A crazed dad searches for his baby daughter, gets a gun and leads police on a long multi car chase all over Sweden. There is so much sadness and tragedy and combining of plots that it’s hard to follow and share the tension and mystery.
FAIR PLAY. (NETFLIX MOVIE) (6.6 IMDB). 
An absolutely engrossing and magnetic movie that grabs you at the start and you’ll watch every second. It’s about hedge fund business in New York City… no, it’s really about an affair that an up and coming woman exec has with an equally ambitious male executive. It’s the job versus love, its love versus money its strength versus weakness and you’ll watch every second trying to figure out who’ll win….don’t miss it.
BALLERINA. (NETFLIX MOVIE) (6.3 IMDB). A Korean action movie and they just get better and better. Ballerina is full of violence and minimal ballet. It’s how one woman seeks revenge after her soon to be best friend gets into a complex and dangerous situation. The scenes between the two friends are touching and real and the violence is just as real…be aware but enjoy it.
SPECIAL NOTE….Don’t forget that when you’re not too sure of a plot or need any info on a movie to go to Wikipedia. It lays out the straight/non hype story plus all the details you’ll need including which server (Netflix, Hulu, or PBS) you can find it on. You can also go to Brattononline.com and punch in the movie title and read my take on the much more than 100 movies.
BECKHAM. (NETFLIX SERIES) (8.5 IMDB). Not being a soccer or “football” fan as they call it in England, I had little idea of who David Beckham was…or is. He’s the greatest soccer star to ever make it bigtime. This excellent documentary takes us through his entire life from total 100% fame and love to absolute hell and disgust from every soccer fan in the world. He marries a Spice Girl, worries about kidnapping, and restores his fame and reputation after making a terrible mistake in one of his games. Go For it.
KHUFIYA. (NETFLIX MOVIE) (6.2 IMDB). This slow moving movie deals with the Pakistan vs. India war. It drifts from the spy driven plot and has many of the musical minutes that India movies keep inserting. There’s lung cancer, possible lesbian love the CIA, Osama Bin Laden and it still drags.
THE WONDERFUL STORY OF HENRY SUGAR. (NETFLIX MOVIES) (7.5 IMDB) (new addition) Wes Andersen took four stories by Roald Dahl and made simply fabulous and totally engrossing movies from them. First there’s “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” (39 minutes) which stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley and Dev Patel. Immediately next on Netflix is “The Rat Catcher” (6.7 IMDB) featuring Rupert Friend and Ralph Fiennes. Licorice lovers should heed advance warnings on that one! Then there’s “The Swan” (18 minutes) (6.9 IMDB). Again starring Rupert Friend and Ralph Fiennes, The Swan deals and nearly faces some gruesome facets of human depravity…added as the fourth of the Dahl & Anderson group is POISON. (17 MINUTES). (6.9 IMDB). This short movie has all the casts of the previous films. Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ralph Fiennes and Ben Kingsley. It’s an impossible and intense story with Cumberbatch in a hospital bed with a poisonous snake lying in wait on his stomach. Go for the four of these by all means.
Gillian will definitely be back next week.
| Gillian Greensite is a long time local activist, a member of Save Our Big Trees and the Santa Cruz chapter of IDA, International Dark Sky Association http://darksky.org Plus she’s an avid ocean swimmer, hiker and lover of all things wild. |
October 16
APTOS VILLAGE PROJECT ROAD HAZARD TO NISENE MARKS STATE PARK VISITORS
The County Public Works Dept. still has done nothing about the public safety hazard caused by the Aptos Village Project’s construction fence encroaching into Aptos Creek Road and creating a real blind corner that should not be allowed.
And what will Swenson do with all this drain pipe, stored on a big gash made in the hillside that is supposed to be a new County Park? Likely it will be used to take all the parking lot and roof drainage through the Aptos Village County Park and let the polluted stuff drain into the clean waters of Aptos Creek. Do you think that California Dept. of Fish & Wildlife knows about this potential pollution of the southern-most coho salmon habitat?
Contact Ms. Serena Stumpf, biologist for CDFW, tasked with watching over our creeks:
Serena Stumpf serena.stumpf@wildlife.ca.gov
Her supervisor is Wesley Stokes wesley.stokes@wildlife.ca.gov, so copy him on your letter.
Ask County Parks Director Jeff Gaffney how this drain pipe will cross the County Park property:
Jeff Gaffney jeff.gaffney@santacruzcountyca.gov
A GLIMPSE OF JUST HOW HIGH SOQUEL CREEK WATER DISTRICT RATE INCREASES WILL BE
The big debt for the massively-expensive and over-budget Project of Soquel Creek Water District to inject treated sewage water into the MidCounty aquifer’s drinking water supply is coming due, and ratepayers will soon be screaming about yet another series of big rate increases.
Last Tuesday, the Soquel Creek Water District Board of Directors heard their Raftelis Consulting staff explain just how far in debt the District is, thanks to the massively-expensive PureWater Soquel Project, and just how steep the upcoming rate increases will have to be in order to pay the bills..
Here is the link to that October 17 Soquel Creek Water District Board agenda packet
Item 7.2 Rate Study on page 110 is of interest
The last rate increases were all based on an anticipated PureWater Soquel Project cost of $60 million. The Project cost is now approaching $200 million. What’s more, the last round of rate increases, which were cumulative and added up to a 54% rate hike and also formulated by Raftelis Consultants with the goal of financing the Project, were calculated on an assumption that customers would use a lot more water than they actually did. So, although the PureWater Soquel Project costs have skyrocketed, the revenues have been significantly less than anticipated, because people have cut way back on water use. Hmmmm…
- Grants (all for PureWater Soquel Project)
* The state and federal grant programs have contributed over $100 million dollars to the District through the State Water Resource Control Board’s Prop 1 Program, Department of Water Resource’s Sustainable Groundwater Program, and the Bureau of Reclamation’s Title XVI Program.
- Debt Profile (This is debt encumbered with the PureWater Soquel Project)
* The District has three existing lines of debt. The 2020 Revenue Refunding Bonds are currently being repaid, the Seawater Intrusion Control Fund repayments begin in FY 2026, and WIFIA repayments start in FY 2030. The final payment for the CoBank Revolving Line of Credit will be in FY 2025.
SEE PAGES 110 AND 111 FOR PROPOSED RATE INCREASE SCENARIOS TO COVER THIS DEBT:
Scenario 1
10% annual gross revenue adjustments are projected for the next ten years from fiscal year (FY) 2024 through FY 2033. Total fund balance reserves are drawn down to a relatively low level (Operating cash only) in FY 2026 and FY 2027 before rebuilding to the target reserve level by 2033. While these more modest, level rate adjustments do avoid rate spikes for customers, this example results in a high degree of financial risk for the District, relative to the other examples
Scenario 2
25% gross rate revenue adjustment in FY 2024 (current year) followed by annual adjustments of 7.5% from FY 2025 through FY 2033.
This example provides the least financial risk for the District (relative to the other examples) as financial policy targets are achieved in nearly every year of the financial planning period. However, a significant initial rate revenue increase is required to achieve this degree of financial stability
or
Scenario 3
12.5% annual gross revenue adjustments are projected from FY 2024 through FY 2028, followed by 5.5% adjustments from FY 2029 through FY 2033. This scenario moderates financial risk for the District by achieving, or nearly achieving, financial policy target levels throughout the financial planning period.
Scenario 4
If customers use 300 AcreFeet/year more water than the Scenarios above use as a basis:
In this what-if scenario, 8.5% annual gross revenue adjustments are projected from FY 2024 through FY 2033.
At the time of this writing, it is unknown what action the Board directed Raftelis Consultants to take.
CUSTOMERS NEED TO SPEAK UP NOW. ONCE THE BOARD HAS DECIDED WHICH SCENARIO THEY WANT THE RATE CONSULTANT TO PRESENT LATER NEXT MONTH FOR THEM TO RUBBER STAMP, IT IS A DONE DEAL AND WILL DEPEND ON A PROP 218 PROTEST BALLOT VOTE THAT WILL BE NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO ACHIEVE.
But don’t worry…the Board approved a hefty pay increase all around for Mid-Management. Page 37 of the packet includes Consent Agenda Item 4.5 contract for mid-management:
7.1 Wages
- Effective the first pay period in January 2024, a 5% increase to the salary schedule.
- Effective the first pay period in January in the years 2022 and 2023 2025 and 2026 wages shall be increased by the amount of the “San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose All Urban Consumers” Consumer Price Index from October to October, with a minimum of 0.5% and maximum of 4.5%.
Page 55 shows that mid-management will also get double the monthly stipend for certification ($100).
There is a reason why Soquel Creek Water District is known as “TH GOLD PLATED WATER COMPANY”.
WILL SELLING AN ADU SEPARATELY AFFECT WATER SERVICE REQUIREMENTS?
At the last Soquel Creek Water District Board meeting, a ratepayer let the Board know that he was trying to convert his garage into an ADU (“Granny Unit”) but had been shocked that the District insisted that the unit have a separate water service and meter. “$33,000 for a water hookup to my garage seems a bit excessive” he said.
He pointed out that the District’s policy on this is old, dating back to 2002. Staff put the matter on the October 17 Board agenda for review as Item 7.3 (see page 112)
The current separate metering policy applies to the following development types:
• Commercial units
• Single Family homes
• Multi-family dwelling units
• New construction ADUs (up to 1200 sq. ft)
• Tiny homes and tiny homes on wheels (less than 400 sq. ft)
Several laws that have taken effect in the last five years have prohibited water agencies like the District
from requiring separate metering for particular development types. Senate Bill (SB) 229 (Wieckowski)
excludes conversion ADUs, which are ADUs that are contained within the existing square footage of a legal
structure, from separate metering mandates. SB 7 (Wolk) prohibits water agencies from requiring
individual metering for multi-family projects defined as low-income housing.
Thus, the current separate metering policy does not apply to the following development types:
- Conversion ADUs, including junior accessory dwelling units (JADUs)
• Multi-family units designated as low-income (residential building financed with housing tax credits,
revenue bonds, general obligation bond, or local/state/federal loans or grants, in which at least
some of the rents are prescribed by deed restrictions or regulatory agreement, and in which at least
90% of the dwelling units are designated for lower-income occupants
However, while it may have seemed logical that the Board might direct staff to remove the District’s requirement for separate water service and metering for an ADU, Governor Newsom’s action to sign into law the ability to sell an ADU separately from a main residence muddies the water, so to speak.
AB1033, introduced by Assembly Member Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, allows cities to decide whether property owners can sell ADUs as condos, separate from homes. The bill repeals an existing law that prohibits separate sales of ADUs and will allow homeowners to get loans to build them, as opposed to repaying loans through rental income.
Ting also introduced AB976, which bans local ordinances that require property owners to live in their ADUs — removing barriers that would have otherwise prevented ADUs from being used as rental properties.
ADUs could be sold separately from homes under new California law [SF Chronicle article]
With 20% of California’s housing construction coming from ADU’s, this all merits consideration.
JUST TOO MUCH PRESSURE
Of interest on the Soquel Creek Water District Board agenda of October 17 is this Consent Item 4.6 to DENY a claim for damages due to a faulty pressure regulator (see page 95)
“On June 29, 2022, it became known to Palm Terrace’s Board of Directors that a Soquel Creek Water pressure regulator on or near Soquel Drive had been faulty and was the cause for substantial damage to Palm Terrace’s underground water lines. The water pressure reached close to 100 psi and caused several underground water lines to burst. Palm Terrace spent over $35k on plumber’s fees to stop the water leaks caused by the burst pipes and to repair the damaged pipes”
This is a familiar scenario for many of the District’s rate payers, especially in Seascape. The Board always takes the action to deny the claim.
WHERE WILL THIS DENSE IN-FILL HOUSING BE LOCATED?
Mark your calendar now for the October 25 County Planning Commission 9am hybrid format meeting because it likely will be your last chance to weigh in with your solutions for where the County should re-zone for ultra-high-density housing developments. Whatever the Commission decides about the Housing Element update will then go to the County Board of Supervisors for what is sure to be a rubberstamp of approval.
Read the documents presented on September 27, which the Commission will continue reviewing October 25: Planning Agenda
The Housing Element is one of the most drastic changes to our neighborhoods as we know them. Take a moment and read through the Plan. You need to make your voice heard.
We should all be asking our elected officials:
WHY IS NO ONE CHALLENGING THE CRAZY STATE MANDATES WHEN THE STATE FINANCE DEPT. AUDIT PROVES ALL THE NUMBERS ARE UNSUPPORTED?
The elected officials are not asking, but many people are: Home – Catalysts for Local Control
California will have a relatively stable population over the next 40 years, and last week the state acknowledged it.
The population will not grow by 7 million by the end of the RHNA cycle (2031). As suspected, the state has been working off of erroneous population projections and other data to create the overblown RHNA, and despite a 2022 audit that clearly said so, the HCD has so far refused to adjust housing mandates.
The AUDIT page links to many official state audit documents from last year describing “faulty methodology.” Independent researcher Gaetan Lion has been sharing his analysis with the state since January 2023, which confirms the new numbers.
This should, in a reasonable world, force the recalculation the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA). The figures are out of whack, and so are the proportions of housing they demand: 40% above moderate, 20% moderate, 40% combination of low and extra low. We are not short of above moderate (market rate) units, but we are short of everything else — because they are not as profitable. Current state housing policy encourages creation of NINE market rate units to every ONE “affordable” unit.
Independent researcher Gaetan Lion sums up the changes here
Join the weekly Catalysts for Local Control online webinars every Monday, 5pm-6pm, and learn what you can do to meet with your elected decision-makers to bring this information they either are not aware of or simply don’t want to examine, and have to take action to insist the State Housing & Community Development (HCD) recalculate the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) mandate numbers.
WRITE ONE LETTER. MAKE ONE CALL. ATTEND THE PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING OF YOUR CHOICE AND MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD.
LIGHT A CANDLE FOR PEACE IN THE WORLD.
MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE THIS WEEK BY JUST DOING SOMETHING.
Cheers,
Becky
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Becky Steinbruner is a 30+ year resident of Aptos. She has fought for water, fire, emergency preparedness, and for road repair. She ran for Second District County Supervisor in 2016 on a shoestring and got nearly 20% of the votes. She ran again in 2020 on a slightly bigger shoestring and got 1/3 of the votes.
Email Becky at KI6TKB@yahoo.com |
Being Present, Naturally
Family, friends – when you aren’t present, they feel it, you know it.
Nature can help you be present: clouds, wind, scents, the unexpected, the fascinating.
Help heal adults and children the same.
Our best moments are when we feel the most present. The stories we tell, the good ones and the bad ones, reflect on the times when we were most attentive. If you read that statement and let that realization sink in, you might be inspired to take a break from reading this.
The media we return to is that which absorbs us. When we see or read something that catches our attention, we focus on it and the world around us can fall away. Likewise, when we turn our attention outward, the world opens up. The more we pay attention, the more we see. We are incredibly good observers if we stop to do just that.
My favorite way to open myself to discovery, is to find a quiet place in nature and let all that is occurring there slowly reveal itself. There is so much complexity in any wild place that the discovery goes as deep as you are willing to observe.
Jon Young at least used to live near Santa Cruz and has written and taught a lot about how to become more present in the moment and how that presence of mind can help heal. This 17 minute TedX talk summarizes some of his most poignant lessons. Telling stories, listening to stories, being aware of your natural surroundings, and allowing yourself to become more a part of your surroundings are all central themes.
Mr. Young advocates for choosing a ‘sit spot’ to visit as a door-opening exercise to discovering yourself and nature, to finding a way to be present. Visiting one spot in nature and sitting there for an hour regularly with little movement allows us the time for discovery and the time for those beings that occupy that place to accept our presence and reveal themselves.
The Nature of Being in Nature
When we go into nature, how do we change? Some people go into nature for the most active forms of recreation: extreme or less extreme mountain biking, jogging slow or fast, the many forms of exercise for people or beast called ‘horseback riding,’ and then there is destination hiking or exercise hiking. Some people go into nature for more passive activities such as wildlife viewing, natural history study, art, poetry, contemplation, meditation, teaching children, learning from nature, becoming more at one with the wild and other beings, or just plain observation. The active forms of recreation (fast mountain biking, especially) are not compatible in the same time and place with the more passive types of natural area visitation. And yet, natural area managers mostly plan for ‘mixed use’ or ‘multi-use trails,’ mixing all of those uses together when they design and manage open space. This is despite a very well-honed natural areas planning science enshrined by the National Parks Service and other agencies who manage for visitor use expectations and experiences. There are University degree programs focusing on training natural areas managers in this science. Unfortunately, despite the huge investments in natural areas, I am unaware of any such science being applied in our region.
The Num-Num Cult
I recently came across an example of the kindergarten-level conversation we are subject to by the local open space managers who design the visitor use experiences we must tolerate. Check out this survey to “let us know if trails are meeting your needs” recently offered by the Santa Cruz Mountains Stewardship Network. The survey is meant to help inform the “State of the Trails Project,” which mostly otherwise appears on the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District’s website. Here is a link if you want to take it. When it disappears, you can view the blank survey as it appeared saved on my website, here.
I was disheartened by the survey in that none of the rich passive uses of parks were reflected in the choices respondents could choose from. Using their terminology, all my friends’ uses of parks would be forced to fit into one use – ‘hiking’ – which is very far off from our real and precious experiences in nature. Luckily for us, the survey has blank spots that allow you to add comments.
Majority Rules?
Such a survey makes me wonder where we are heading with managing natural areas for the quality of visitor use experiences. If businesses have any say, they will support visitor use experiences that raise the most capital, experiences with expensive equipment that breaks or wears out. More passive uses of natural areas will never compete. The most passive uses, the most healing uses, will create the least amount of spending. The frugality of healthy people is astonishing.
Will those of us who are turning away from techno-gadgets and buying things be so marginalized that we will have nowhere to go to have the natural areas experiences we cherish?
Nature Heals
Many of us already understand the importance of nature in helping us stay healthy. The most recent term highlighting this phenomenon is called ‘forest bathing.’ Health care professionals recommend forest bathing, which is about practicing mindfulness, being present in nature so that we see the wealth of colors, sounds, and smells that are around us. This requires peace and quiet, the most peaceful places are the places that heal the best.
Wilderness Changed
The term wilderness is fast disappearing, for better or for worse. The term was problematic, anyways as it ignored the wealth of indigenous presence across the whole earth and the importance of indigenous people’s stewardship. And yet, the idea of wilderness being a place where technology, bustle, and noise is left behind, where contemplation and connection with nature are paramount needs to be attended to in our natural areas. Besides the wonky science of natural areas management for the ‘quality of visitor experience,’ it seems we lack a phrase that well contains such places.
Your Turn
I hope that you take the opportunity to fill in that survey and that you let politicians and open space managers know about the many ways that you cherish nature in open spaces. Let’s inform them of the term ‘displacement’ when you no longer feel comfortable going to a natural area because of the type or number of other ‘users.’ Every one of us has a right to our kind of use in natural areas, and it is open space managers’ jobs to accommodate those uses. They should be asking us about the quality of our experiences and adjusting their management to maximize that quality over time.
I hope that you also take some time to do some forest bathing. It will do a world of good. The more of us that do it, the more peaceful the world will become.
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Grey Hayes is a fervent speaker for all things wild, and his occupations have included land stewardship with UC Natural Reserves, large-scale monitoring and strategic planning with The Nature Conservancy, professional education with the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, and teaching undergraduates at UC Santa Cruz. Visit his website at: www.greyhayes.net
Email Grey at coastalprairie@aol.com |
October 12
#285 / A Mark Twain Lesson
That is a picture of Lahaina, Maui, above. I got this picture from an article written by Tiffany Hsu, published in the August 31, 2023, edition of The New York Times. Hsu titled her article, “After Summer’s Natural Disasters, Cue the Climate Conspiracies.” That title comes from the “hard copy” version of the newspaper. Here is how Hsu begins her article:
As natural disasters and extreme environmental conditions became more commonplace around the world this summer, scientists pointed repeatedly to a shared driver: climate change.
Conspiracy theorists pointed to anything but.
I think Hsu’s article is fine – it’s worth reading if you can penetrate The Times’ paywall. However, I am not commenting, here, on Hsu’s description of how conspiracy theorists are diverting our attention from what we are actually doing wrong, and are thereby making things worse. That’s true, but I want to focus on something else.
I am taking this occasion (stimulated by Hsu’s reporting) to denounce the use of the phrase, “climate change,” as a description of the “cause,” or the “driver,” of the various events and occurrences that are ever more frequently putting local communities in danger, or (as in the case of Lahaina) virtually wiping them out. I am, by the way, not the only one who objects to the description of the global emergency we face as “climate change.” Kirpatrick Sale, writing in Counterpunch calls that language a “dangerous contrivance.”
PLEASE do not use the term “climate change” to refer to the cause of the events that we see occurring all around the world. The correct term is “global warming.” That is what is causing the problems that we see documented all too frequently on the news, or in our morning newspapers. Human actions are causing the world to get hotter. “Climate change” is the “result,” not the “cause,” of our problems.
Mark Twain is popularly associated with the expression, “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” “Weather” and “climate” are similar words; they refer to the same thing. Like talking about the “weather,” everybody is talking about “climate change.” And…. nobody is doing anything about it, pretty much.
That should (and must) change.
Maybe there is a chance that we will actually “do something about it” if we correctly understand what has gone wrong – what’s causing the problems. The problems aren’t “caused” by the fact that our climate is “changing.” The fact that our climate is changing is “caused” by the fact that human actions are now heating up the entire globe.
If we don’t want more burned down cities, more city-destroying floods and hurricanes, more species going extinct, then we need to do something. So, let’s be clear what we need to do.
We need to take actions that will stop our human activities from warming up the world. The cause of our problems is “global warming,” which has, of course, changed our climate.
But the change we can see in climatic conditions, and all the impacts that go along with those changes that we see, are the result of what we have been doing, and continue to be doing, to warm up our planet.
Mainly, we need to stop burning hydrocarbon fuels. Burning hydrocarbon fuels heats up the planet, and “global warming” is what happens when we do that, and “global warming” is causing the climate changes that are putting human communities in danger.
PLEASE do not use the term “climate change” to refer to the cause of the events that we see occurring all around the world. Human actions are causing the world to get hotter. “Climate change” is the result, not the “cause,” and what we need to combat is “global warming.”
How we use language is important, and we should not be allowing ourselves to use language that helps us dodge our responsibility. If we start thinking that the “problem” is the fact that our weather is changing, we’re not going to do anything about it.
Mark Twain was right about that!
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Gary Patton is a former Santa Cruz County Supervisor (20 years) and an attorney for individuals and community groups on land use and environmental issues. The opinions expressed are Mr. Patton’s. You can read and subscribe to his daily blog at www.gapatton.net
Email Gary at gapatton@mac.com |
October 16
Matlock will be back next week.
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Dale Matlock, a Santa Cruz County resident since 1968, is the former owner of The Print Gallery, a screenprinting establishment. He is an adherent of The George Vermosky school of journalism, and a follower of too many news shows, newspapers, and political publications, and a some-time resident of Moloka’i, Hawaii, U.S.A., serving on the Board of Directors of Kepuhi Beach Resort. Email: cornerspot14@yahoo.com. |
EAGAN’S SUBCONSCIOUS COMICS. View classic inner view ideas and thoughts with Subconscious Comics a few flips down.
EAGAN’S DEEP COVER. See Eagan’s “Deep Cover” down a few pages. As always, at TimEagan.com you will find his most recent Deep Cover, the latest installment from the archives of Subconscious Comics, and the ever entertaining Eaganblog.
“Sex”
“Sex without love is as hollow and ridiculous as love without sex.”
~Hunter S. Thompson
“Sex is the consolation you have when you can’t have love”
~Gabriel García Márquez
“Sex is an emotion in motion.”
~Mae West
“Someone told me the delightful story of the crusader who put a chastity belt on his wife and gave the key to his best friend for safekeeping, in case of his death. He had ridden only a few miles away when his friend, riding hard, caught up with him, saying ‘You gave me the wrong key!'”
~Anais Nin
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OMG, this is amazeballs! Look at her face when she hears the person singing!! Backstory: she is on her 4th encore, and she sings a duet without having the male counterpart on stage with her. She was expecting the male part to just be played on the piano, but to her obvious delight an audience member steps in and sings with her. Turns out he’s an opera student, and after the show he went to apologize to her for his rudeness in interrupting(!)
This is so wholesome and sweet, and I cry every time I watch it 🙂 You’re welcome! |
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