Blogs

When you're five, Pig Latin works.

          In your Disney years, you move on - to decoder rings, hobo marks, maybe even html if you're technologically gifted.  Few kids, I'd guess, make it to adulthood without learning how to tap S.O.S. in morse code or (if more fantasy-oriented) to read ancient runes.

          Humans adore secret symbols - whether simple

How Dave Eggers chooses his projects is a mystery to all, perhaps even to himself. The quirky writer/editor/educator/media darling can be trusted to show up in the most unexpected places - a recent example being in the pages of the foreword to "Read Me: A Century of Classic American Book Advertisements" by Dwight Garner.

          Thankfully, Egger's arch

          Before I tell you why I chose this photo of Kurdish Jews, I'd like to make a general apology to all (including my mom) for, once again, failing to make it through an entire year with perfect attendance.

          Just once, I thought, I'd be able to check-off a full year of goals met (i.e., write 52 blogs in a single year).

          But the flu

Because I'm assuming you're reading this on a computer monitor, you're probably familiar with the need to reboot your modem, router and computer on occasion.

          Well, the scientists working with Boulder Creek's Institute of Heartmath can now also tell you why we need to reboot ourselves if we ever want to become a global body.

          Because I'm

 The Japanese culture - geisha, samurai, sushi, banzai - is almost as fascinating to Americans as American pop culture is to the Japanese.

 Well - except for the fact that, on any given weekday in America, you're likely only to see Hello, Kitty emblems dotting the cultural landscape as American geishas and samurais prefer the twilight of late October.

 But

 Nick Douglas, the gossip guy from valleywag.com, has come reeeaaallly close to convincing my inner tech critic to embrace the short, shrill trill of Twitter.

          Despite having long ago cornered a cute twitter handle and occasionally Twitter-searched for bizarre facts, I have never been a true believer.

          Then "Twitter Wit," Douglas's

Neil Sheehan first proved his value to the American people during the Vietnam War, when he courageously obtained a copy of the Pentagon Papers and wrote articles about them for the New York Times, winning the newspaper a Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal for public service.

           Sheehan later wrote a book from those articles - 1988's "A Bright and Shining

The economy's impact on local, state and national park systems threatens to worsen as stress to budgets at all levels continues to force legislators to make hard, distasteful decisions.

          But as Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns remind us in "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" (an illustrated history that accompanies Burns' upcoming multi-part TV

(CARMEL RIVER MOUTH, an oil by Erin Lee Gafill)

           At the very beginning of the 20th century, Jane Gallatin Powers and husband Frank (a San Francisco attorney) bought more than three-quarters of what is now Carmel-by-the-Sea and turned it into an artists' haven. Jane was Carmel's first painter-in-residence.

          This Monday, her

One of the most refreshing histories I've encountered of late is Martha Sherrill's lyrical tale of Japanese dog breeder Morie Sawataishi.

         "Dog Man: An Uncommon Life on a Faraway Mountain" (Riverhead) relates the story of one man's efforts to bring back Akitas from the brink of extinction during WWII in the Snow Country of Japan.

          Part of

        It's only partially to do with chilly mornings and falling leaves, but each year when Fall arrives, I exhale with longing. How I wish I could sharpen some pencils, shine my shoes and arrange a pile of new Peechee folders for my classes!

           Although it's been decades since I attended school, I still make space each year for an educational

Are you as fatigued with this "Year of Darwin" as I am? I mean, okay -- the split between the creationists and Darwinists is deep, but why, pray tell, in all this time hasn't a  reasonable synthesis emerged?

          Hmm?

          Well, actually, there has been some forward movement on both sides and you'll find some of those positions referenced in the

Garth Stein says he's not fond of his dog Comet licking him, but you might not have guessed that from reading his mega-bestseller, "Racing in the Rain," a fictional tribute to man's best friend.

          On the other hand, while his main character Enzo (a dog) hopes some day to be reincarnated as a race car driver, Stein says his goofy dog Comet is so

Authors Chuck Palahniuk, Christopher Moore and Mary Roach regularly add sparkle and pizzazz to the gruesome details of life.

          We in Santa Cruz who adore 'The Lost Boys' and celebrate Halloween as a High Holiday regularly welcome their kind to our bookstores as high saints of the macabre.

            On Tuesday, former Santa Cruzan Scott Browne will

 How would "On the Road" have affected readers if Jack Kerouac had taken to the waves instead of the road?

          Would Holden Caulfield have grown up differently if J.D. Salinger had set his famous coming-of-age story at the beach?

          Both questions -- of perennial interest to Santa Cruzans --  find an answer in Jaimal Yogis' spiritual memoir (and

For those under 40, Monday will pass pretty much as Mondays always do.

         But for those of us who remember July 20, 1969 -- the day man first walked on the moon -- the day will include moments of reverie as we muse on what has changed over four decades and what hasn't -- for science in general and our dreams in particular.

          To jumpstart the

              (Santa Cruz's egg-laying queen, Columbia Belle)         

The waves and redwoods are part of make Santa Cruz special. But what makes us unique is the people -- a wacky group of folks from long before the University put its stamp on the town.

           There's no better place to get a good feel for just how strange and wonderful the folks

Ernest Hemingway threw off lots of bon mots in his lifetime of hard living.

     One quote in particular fits today's blog quite well: "As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary."

          In a circuitous way, the quote introduces Hemingway's daughter, Mariel Hemingway, who will be at Bookshop Santa Cruz next Wednesday at

            It's somehow fitting that the state whose economy suffered so greatly during Prohibition should be leading the charge to make marijuana legal.

          In Vivienne Sosnowski's book "When the Rivers Ran Red: An Amazing Story of Courage and Triumphs in America's Wine Country," we learn just how great the destruction was to the wine and grape