Tag: News

How and why it goes from event to fishwrap.

“The Merchant of Sonoma”

THEY SAY THAT THERE IS never any “first Jewish settler” anywhere — because no matter who it is, some other Jew was there beforehand. Better instead to say “first known Jewish settler.” And in the case of Sonoma, that honor and claim falls to Solomon Schocken: immigrant, ship’s cook, entrepreneur.

This month marks the 140th anniversary of the opening of the well-stocked “S. Schocken – General Merchandise” store on Sonoma Plaza, in the building previously occupied by General Mariano Vallejo’s military barracks (now a museum). To introduce him to the Sonoma Index-Tribune‘s readership, I wrote a piece on Mr. Schocken for the paper’s June 1999 quarterly magazine. Please enjoy.

Endurance Test

IT HAS BEEN SAID BEFORE. And sadly, it will no doubt be said again. But I feel the need to say it anyway:

A friend of mine told me the other day that, after Poway, she’ll be afraid when I go to synagogue.

“I’m not,” I replied. And meant it.

What I’m also not afraid of, is wearing my yarmulke in public.

Am I a target? Yes. But then we all are — whether we wear yarmulkes or visible stars-of-David or no. As we have been for centuries, even millennia, by haters and cowards and fools. Continue reading “Endurance Test”

Mentors — An Appreciation

BECAUSE OF DARRYL CURTIS, I still say “deh-TAILS” instead of “DEE-tails.”

Darryl was my boss at Santa Rosa news-talk radio station KSRO more than 20 years ago. To say I learned from him everything I know about radio reporting would be an understatement, just as it would be to name Bill Hoban as being responsible for everything I learned about newspapering during my 1998-2003 tenure at the Sonoma Index-Tribune. I owe both of these guys a lot; not only for teaching me about the craft, but also about the ethics involved — and the sheer joy of doing the job. Continue reading “Mentors — An Appreciation”

Of Tone-Outs, Turnouts and a Press Badge

IT’S HARD TO WATCH LIVES literally going up in smoke in order to tell other people about it. But on a professional level, it’s thrilling to see firefighters bringing order to chaos.

When I worked for the Sonoma Index-Tribune between 1998 and 2003 (and for the Sonoma Sun in 2008), I wore a pager that one of the departmental chiefs had loaned me for the duration. It was the same make and model worn by the firefighters themselves (professional and volunteer), and would beep three times before broadcasting the appropriate jurisdiction’s “tone-out” (a two-note musical chime, unique to the responding department[s]) and an abbreviated situation report along the lines of: “Sonoma; possible structure fire; Andrieux Street cross of Broadway; time out, 1400.” Continue reading “Of Tone-Outs, Turnouts and a Press Badge”

PS:

So: We’re at CVS just now, about an hour after I wrote “And On, And On,”, waiting our turn at the pharmacy, when this woman sits down next to me and says, “I’m very sorry about what happened in Pittsburgh.” (This, after she circled around where we were sitting in what I had assumed was a somewhat suspicious manner.)

We talked a few minutes about what happened and why; she asked me about the Sonoma Jewish community, told me her feelings about the current White House occupant, and couldn’t have been nicer or more compassionate.

Sometimes, it pays to wear a yarmulke. Continue reading “PS:”

And On, And On

“Am Yisrael Chai” – The People Israel Live!
I NEVER MET THEM. BUT I know them.

The eleven Jews murdered yesterday as they worshiped at the Tree of Life Congregation near Pittsburgh could be found in any synagogue, including my own: the former congregational president, the lay leader, the man with the famously dry wit, the shofar (ram’s horn) blower; the ones everybody loved and could depend on.

It could have been any of us. And in a sense, it was. Continue reading “And On, And On”

Out of the Ashes, Endlessly Turning

A YEAR AGO THIS WEEK, Ann, Geronimo and I fled the then-largest wildfire complex in California history.

We were voluntary evacuees who came home to find everything relatively intact, so our story had a happy ending. My niece and nephew-in-law weren’t so lucky; residents of Corralitos to the far south, they owned a house in Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park that, like almost all the others in that neighborhood, burned to the foundation. Many people fared similarly, some worse.

“The Fires” were the second time in my life I faced a “will I die in the next five minutes?” moment. Continue reading “Out of the Ashes, Endlessly Turning”

And Now, A Moment of Science

SWIMMING AGAINST THE ANTI-INTELLECTUAL TIDE that these days governs too much of mediated public discourse is a modest little one-minute radio programlet called StarDate. It’s “the longest-running national radio science feature in the country,” according to the description on the StarDate website, and airs daily on more than 300 stations around the United States. A production of the University of Texas’ McDonald Observatory, each episode features something about astronomy (both historical and observable), planetary or space science, exploration, or even stellar mythology. (Everything stops in our house at 9:50 every morning so we can hear the broadcast on San Francisco’s KCBS.) You can catch it on the unstreamed local airwaves, or also listen online at http://stardate.org. Tune in, turn on and look up!

THERE’S (more) ‘ing WATER on MARS!

BACK IN 2008, THE METAPHORAGER gleefully spread the word that water, at least in trace amounts, had been found on Mars. Now there’s a(n apparent) pile of it. Using an advanced form of radar, scientists appear to have discovered more of the life-generating fluid, which seems to be concentrated in a vast underground lake at Mars’ south pole.

What this portends for the search for life remains to be seen. We at The Metaphorager have a pool going (no pun intended) that we will discover some form of extraterrestrial life by 2050, even if it’s only microbes or algae; the recent discovery that ice-volcanoes on Saturn’s moon (and alleged water-world) Enceladus are spewing complex organic compounds is also casting hope in that direction. C’mon humans! let’s build some space probes!

Overheard in Sonoma

(For Leah Garchik’s back-page-of-the-San Francisco Chronicle feature.)

Ms. Garchik,

I was walking on the west side of Sonoma Plaza this morning when I passed a middle-aged touristy couple, just as the man was saying to his female companion, “Someday, she’ll know what beer is.” His words are a mystery to me, and I hope amusing to your readers.

Be well,

Neal

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