“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.

I started working at Booklegger when I was 20. Almost 40 years later, I am now the bookstore’s sole proprietor and still love my work. It’s not just about the books. Of course bookstore people love to read, but the thing that makes my job so satisfying is the readers themselves. I have come to think of biblio...

As a recovering English major, I have an actual license to spend time with books — one of the tangible benefits of an English degree. My reading gene kicked in a lot earlier, of course. My parents were college-educated eggheads — Wellesley and Yale, no less — and they strewed books all over the place. A baby ...

On a Saturday evening last November, people streamed into the Requa Inn above the Klamath River for a talk by Amy Bowers Cordalis on her new book, “The Water Remembers,” the story of her “family’s fight to save a river and a way of life.” Attending this stop on Amy’s book tour were mostly members of Amy’s Yur...

No surprise, but since the devastating fire that destroyed half a block of downtown Arcata in January, Northtown Books owner Dante DiGenova has a little extra free time on his hands. The cause of the Jan. 2 blaze, which destroyed seven businesses including Dante’s beloved bookstore and several apartments, is ...

One of my earliest memories is of my father sitting in his old rocker reading the newspaper. The newsboy delivered the paper daily, and we had to place it unopened on the little table by his chair. He preferred to unwrap it himself. He read it slowly, digesting the contents. My first introduction to politics ...

A “silent book club”? What? The first Silent Book group was started in 2012 by two friends in San Franciso who loved to read and considered themselves introverts. Annoyed by assigned book club readings, they opted to meet in a bar. “I wished that I had a book club where basically there was no assigned reading...

Women have always been central to human success, long before California started formally celebrating Women’s History Week in Santa Rosa in 1978; nine years later, Congress designated March as national Women’s History Month. The 10th annual Zero to Fierce (02F) Festival features two weeks of events in March to...

He came to the library every day, taking a seat at the heavy wooden table midway into the reading room. He wore khaki slacks, a neatly pressed cotton shirt and loafers, an East Coast look that had become familiar to me from my first year at college in Maine. Age? Older than me; younger than my father. It was ...