We usually have a hard time finding good things to say about a person we find humorless. Beyond acknowledging that he or she is, perhaps, “hardworking” or “dependable as the day is long,” we end up at a descriptive loss for these folks pretty quickly. Since we know, as Thumper the rabbit used to say, if you d...

Just saying “April Fools’ Day” makes me smile. In my life, every day is already pretty darn foolish. But it’s nice to have a special day to laugh — an especially rare commodity over the past year or so, given that the world feels like it’s going to hell in a handbasket. I never did understand that saying, but...

The announcement arrived quietly, the way fog rolls into Humboldt Bay — soft at first, then everywhere. At exactly 9:00 a.m., every screen lit up with a cheerful message from TechGov, the benevolent administrative intelligence that now managed the nation’s well-being.

It’s 1961. Lewy, Larry, Gene and I are leaving Illinois for Florida. Maybe we’ll get to Fort Lauderdale where we imagine the beaches are lined with bikini-clad coeds. We will travel in Lewy’s well-primered ’52 Plymouth, which runs fine but needs regular refills of oil. We have virtually no money. We’ll be sle...

One of my prize sweatshirts, from an 1985 anti-war dance festival, says, “Give Peace a Dance.” A slogan for today’s decidedly dire days might read, “Give Laughter a Chance!” For years, Kathleen Krauss, Joy Hardin and I led regular Laughter Yoga groups. The groups have ceased, but we still talk regularly and a...

If you’ve enjoyed KEET’s local programming like “What’s on Your Bucket List?” and “Studio Space,” as well as the national PBS programming as much as I have over the years, you’ve likely been aware of how very challenging 2025 was for our small but mighty PBS station. At times it seemed like everything that co...

Dear Mother Earth, Thank you for planting me on Elm Street in Massachusetts, back in 1948. Too bad your elm children died from Dutch elm disease. However, the maple brothers moved in and did well. I tried to capture the beauty of their autumn leaves but didn’t have enough Sears catalogs or phone books.

About 51 years ago, my wife and I decided to take a West Coast vacation from our home in Minnesota. We had been married for about one year. Two days before we were scheduled to leave, my wife said she had a bit of a stomachache and was feeling nauseous. We made a quick trip to the doctor’s office. Imagine our...

“It ain’t in books,” Jack Hitt used to say. The longtime owner of Northtown Books considered bookselling a public service, a tradition still in practice the day the store burned down in January. Jack had once been Arcata’s police dispatcher. During a time on the East Coast, he was an ambulance driver. Upon hi...

• Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but ducks when you throw a revolver at him? • If people evolved from apes, why are there still apes? • Why is it that, no matter what color bubble bath you use, the bubbles are always white?

Want to find romance and true love in your “later years”? Hit the pool. That’s where Marlene Parsons, 78, and Edward La Rue Sr., 83, not only lit a spark but tied the knot.

People often assume hospice care must be quiet and serious all the time. And yes, there are many meaningful and emotional moments. But there is also a surprising amount of laughter. When people reach their 80s or 90s, something remarkable happens — their filters disappear. Here in Humboldt County, that can ge...

Humboldt County seeks citizens to serve as members of the county Civil Grand Jury for the 2026-27 term, beginning July 1. The jury consists of 19 members plus alternates to act as an independent body reviewing and investigating citizen complaints about the workings of city and county government as well as oth...

Every Wednesday morning, as little hands glue and piece together their projects at the Sea Goat Farm Stand in McKinleyville, you’ll often spot a few smiling grandparents joining in, cutting paper leaves, threading beads and sharing stories as their grandkids laugh beside them. Wild Hearts Learning isn’t just ...

A trio of Humboldt writers and theatre folk team up at the EXIT Theatre in Arcata this month for an original play that explores one man’s life transitions and discoveries that “shed unexpected insights on today’s polarized America.” “Ali, Cosell, My Dad & Me” by Michael Bickford, presented by Creekside Arts, ...

I met Maybelline at the farmers’ market one Saturday in October, after the first torrential rains. She and her sister dog were with their human, who I’ll call Phillip. The dogs were wet and cold, shivering and moving slowly, then reclined in a doorway on cold concrete with Phillip. I went and got a beach towe...

Friends of the Dunes hold their annual Get Outside Gear Sale of gently used, tried and true camping, backpacking, surfing and other equipment on Saturday, April 4, at the Humboldt Coastal Nature Center at 220 Stamps Lane in Manila.

A pastor entered his donkey in a race and it won. The pastor was so pleased that he entered it another race and it won again. The local paper’s headline: PASTOR’S ASS OUT FRONT. The bishop was so upset by this that he ordered the pastor not to race his donkey. The next day, the headline was: BISHOP SCRATCHES ...

A fancy winery’s sommelier passed away, and the winemaker began looking for a new taster. An unkempt old wino showed up to ask for the job.