Oh My, DRI
Sales of organic produce are growing, but proponents still face an uphill battle in the fight over issues of nutrition and pesticide residue.
DRI: dietary risk index, or how much pesticide residue remains on conventional vs. organic produce. Sales of organic foods are growing by 10 to 20 percent each year in the United States. More than 10 ...
Party with Pluck
A community turkey slaughter brings us nose-to-snood with Thanksgiving dinner.
On the last morning of their last day on Earth, the turkeys Jamie Collins raised from poults to fat adults gather under the low-hanging branches of a towering Mexicali avocado tree. They coo and warble, ...
Issues / 2012 / Nov 21
Seven Sirens
Local singer-songwriters deliver a night of all-female music to Carbone’s.
Lillie Lemon’s music has been shaped largely by her adoration for Sheboygan, Wis., where the singer-songwriter attended college. Tales of long, cold winters and weather-induced angst fill most of the material found on her debut ...
On Bikes and Under Seas
Rare local manufacturer Light & Motion illuminates extreme places for adventurers everywhere.
The ground floor of 300 Cannery Row, an unassuming building adjacent to Monterey Plaza Hotel and Spa, buzzes with activity as workers assemble thousands of tiny aluminum and plastic pieces into compact lights.Machines rumble and ...
Fresh Idea
Salinas considers a new policy for farmers markets in the East Side’s “food desert.”
For some people working in the “Salad Bowl of the World,” it can be tricky to find healthy foods in their own neighborhoods. One way to make it easier, some city officials argue, is to ...
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Don’t think about making art, just get it done,” said Andy Warhol. “Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are ...
By The Numbers 11.21.12
Real Estate
$2,300,000 Recent Sale 26008 Puerta del Cajon, Carmel Valley Built: 2004 Size: 5,000 square feet, 5 acres Features: 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 3-car garage Amenities: 3 fireplaces, hot tub, library, utility room, chef’s kitchen, large ...
Call From a Hero
Taking a timeout to weigh mortality and meaning.
The strange last days of the election season earlier this month can feel distant, but something that happened the morning of Nov. 3 has been staying close to my thoughts, especially as the holidays have ...
Peter B’s Brewpub
True Brew: Kevin Clark has all sorts of fun and flavorful craft beer stuff happening at Peter B’s Brewpub in Monterey.
Beer is a social beverage, says Kevin Clark, the affable brewmaster at Peter B’s Brewpub, as he pours a taste of Otto Pale Ale. He’s using his local ties, brew acumen and the social power ...
More Than a Toy Story
For the Least of Us keeps kids of incarcerated parents close year-round, closer during the holidays.
It’s been five years since Phoebe and Dylan spent Christmas with their father. He’s in prison, and their mother is hardly around, their grandmother says. So it meant a lot to them last year when ...
Red Dawn
New Dawn: Updated version of the 1984 classic bursts with ramped-up action
Going into the new Red Dawn, I wondered why there was a need to remake the ’80s classic about a group of teens who hide out in the woods, when the United States is overrun ...
Smashed
Sober Fight: A couple faces the battle to stop drinking, and stay married, in Smashed.
No matter how much we enjoy the weekend, Monday morning comes to us all. If Kate Hannah (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) wakes up with a killer hangover from a weekend of drinking, it’s nothing she’s not ...
Tiger, Tiger
Director Ang Lee proves he’s a master of image and imagination in remarkable Life of Pi.
There is no such thing as a perfect memory. We remember things the way we choose to remember them – honestly, with exaggeration, with modesty, etc. This is why storytelling is a fine art – ...
Long Overdue
Resurgent 69-year-old singer-songwriter Larry Hosford is winning over a whole new generation of fans.
It’s like finding a Lady Tennant Stradivarius violin in the attic of a house you’ve lived in for decades. Salinas native Larry Hosford has been performing and writing raw, dry-humored honky-tonk tunes since the early ...
Autumn Irie
The Closeouts highlight a trio of bands roots rocking at the Fairgrounds.
Winning the California Roots Battle of the Bands in 2011 – over a number of acts including the Bay Area’s Highest Intention – wasn’t the biggest moment of The Closeouts’ short career. The resulting prize ...
Fighting for Equity
Homeowners hamstrung by onerous restrictions go public in the hunt for help.
A group of low-income homeowners took to the streets Nov. 14, protesting the deed restrictions that keep them from accessing their home equity. The residents of Rancho San Vicente, a Soledad housing subdivision, face deed ...
Girl Power
Local nonprofits team up to make young women their own advocates.
Not all nonprofit organizations can ask their beneficiaries what they want. Sea otters and Monterey pines, for example, don’t advise conservation groups. Historically, teenage girls have been similarly absent from the tables of the nonprofits ...
New Salinas Valley Memorial board members join the dais at a turbulent time.
It’s not just Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System that’s been bleeding money lately. The one contested election for a new seat on the hospital board logged more than $35,000 in campaign contributions – almost all ...
Chemical Cooties
Study finds high formaldehyde levels in Monterey County child-care facilities.
Kids in daycare use their imaginations to come up with all sorts of dangerous things. They might draw pictures of monsters or pretend the floor is hot lava. But one real danger in child-care facilities ...
Sneaky Funny
A.J. Jamal unloads wicked physical comedy and impressions on Planet Gemini.
Comedian A.J. Jamal, originally from Cleveland but now stomping around Hollywood and beyond, came up in the same Cleveland comedy scene that gave us Arsenio Hall, Drew Carey and Steve Harvey (Bob Hope and Tim ...
Thing Theory
Local shopping might mean spending more, but the dollars go further – mathematically and philosophically.
Three months ago, President Barack Obama’s poorly phrased remark about business – “You didn’t build that” – looked like it could’ve cost him the election. It didn’t, but his message – one about collective creation ...
Letters To The Editor 11.21.12
Whippersnappers, Represent I registered to vote when I turned 21 in April 1947 and my first and only vote for a Democrat for [president] was for Harry Truman. (“Local Spin,” Nov. 8-14). “Why at the ...
Squid Speaks
MONTEREY UNCORKED… Squid has impeccable party manners and knows that when one is invited to a holiday festivus (and this week, that’s turkey-n-trimmings at Squid’s favorite aunt’s house), one brings a gift. And as Monterey ...
Everyone wants more dough, but does it produce more delight?
“Everybody wants more cash!,” declares Capital One bankcard TV pitchman Jimmy Fallon. Except for the cute baby, that is, who throws Cheerios at Fallon when he offers 50 percent more cash back. Perhaps the Capital ...
One turkey gets cooked; Marina Coast turkeys go out kicking.
Two columns for the price of one, both on the subject of turkeys – the bird, and the human variety. One: It’s the week, of course, when we speak of gratitude. I had planned on ...
Public Citizen 11.21.12
ONGOING BOOKS OF THE FUTURE | COUNTYWIDE – Monterey County Free Libraries is soliciting feedback from teens and youth on its long-term strategic plans. Fill out the informational survey online by Nov. 30. Free. 883-7573, ...
Street Talk 11.08.12 (asked @ Star Market in Salinas.)
What do you take for granted?
Follow-up: What part of American history is most misrepresented? LESLIE EARNEST | Retired | Salinas A: That we are the country that gives. We give so much. We’re the first responders of the world. Red ...
