How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
Letters
- Details
- Written by: Nelson Strasser
I found an old friend last month. It was the book titled “The Human Zoo” by Desmond Morris. I had originally read this book 50 years ago, and yet, I was to find it timely.
Morris talks about “dominance display” in the animal kingdom. For example, the top rooster, with his chest puffed out, strutting across the yard, the “cock of the walk.”
Morris makes the point that humans display dominance as well.
Shortly thereafter I met a man while walking near the lake. We spoke amicably for a while, and I asked him if he was a “local.”
“No,” he said, “I just came here to mow lawns.”
His face revealed a moment of indecision, and, unlike the “Dude” in “The Big Lebowski,” he could not abide. He could not let stand my view of him as a mower.
So, he went on to tell me that he owned a few houses in Lakeport, and several other properties, and, that the jewel of his holdings was a rental in Hawaii.
He had declared a full house, and was pretty sure that I was not holding four of a kind.
Unfortunately, I did not even have a pair: I live in a senior mobile park with my 13 year old dog. There was nothing left for me but to bluff.
“I have three boats,” I heard myself saying.
Then, he asked, “Do you keep them at Braito’s Marina?”
The jig was up. “No,” I responded, “in my bath tub.”
Nelson Strasser lives in Kelseyville, Calif.
- Details
- Written by: Randy Ridgel
Alas, we Republicans have been done in – unmasked by Obama’s reelection machine, including his mainstream media.
It seems we Republicans hate women in general and women’s health in particular. To get even with those sinful hussies we’re going to take away their birth control pills.
Actually, Jackie and I, both Republicans, sinned for years with the pill.
I came home and found her just finishing a Time magazine story about the newly invented pill. She threw the magazine at me, jumped up and shouted, “Yes!” She was barely 22; we had two boys and wanted no more.
When I finished reading the article we had a serious discussion regarding the pill’s morality and legality. She was already donning her coat so I inquired about her destination. She stabbed her fist straight up in the air and shouted, “To the drugstore.”
I said, “These pills are unnatural. Maybe if God wanted us to use pills he would have given them to us.”
She replied, “God didn’t give you wheels but you drive to work.”
“But, Jackie, won’t we be sinning?”
“Yes,” she grinned, “every chance we get.”
“Are these things legal in this state?” I asked.
She laughed and said, “You’ll only have one witness and I promise I won’t tell the law.”
Finally I argued, “I don’t know about this; we Republicans are straight laced.”
She responded, “The Republican county chairman’s wife told me about them.”
Then with a guttural Terminator announcement, “I’ll be back,” she roared off to the drugstore.
In all the years since then, until our dastardly misogyny was exposed by Obama’s election machine, I’ve never known Republicans who suggested taking away birth control. Those I’ve known shouted, “Yee hah, game on!”
Well, except for a few closet Catholics. To avoid sin they used monthly timing called the rhythm system for birth control. We had a special name for them: parents. But Catholics are mostly Democrats anyway; perhaps that’s one reason we have so many Democrats.
Randy Ridgel lives in Kelseyville, Calif.
- Details
- Written by: Nelson Strasser
Tom McHale died of an overdose. The real story is that he was found to have suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
This disease is caused by repeated concussions, and once it starts, without any further trauma, the brain begins an inexorable decay that always ends in death.
McHale was a nine-year veteran of the National Football League. In fact, the biopsied brains of five other NFL veterans who died between the ages of 25 and 50 showed evidence of the same malady.
Additionally, there are more than 120 one time NFL players who are plaintiffs in lawsuits claiming the NFL did not do enough to make them aware of the dangers of concussions.
For many years, the NFL denied concussions in football games had any connection to future brain injuries. (As of 2010, warning posters appeared in all NFL locker rooms.)
There is more to this story: The average NFL player, whose career lasts about four years, will live about 20 years less than the average American. And, it appears that the more that you play, the sooner you die.
Clearly there is something hypocritical about Sean Peyton being punished for rewarding “cart-offs” to the sidelines by Roger Goodell and the NFL, who, by denial and neglect, contributed to cart-offs to the morgue.
As the character Mercutio said in Romeo and Juliet, “A curse on both their houses.”
Nelson Strasser lives in Lakeport, Calif.
- Details
- Written by: Dave Gebhard
I would suggest for safety sake, on Lakeshore Boulevard north of Lakeport, areas where reflectors are installed are godsends, but the areas without street lights or reflectors are big pools of darkness. Where is the roadway?
I would think that reflectors would be a safety feature, along with bicycle paths.
When I moved here 21 years ago, it was with the intention of riding bikes to town, a feat I find too dangerous because of the lack of adequate bike lanes.
I realize lights are economically out of the question, but reflectors?
Dave Gebhard lives in Lakeport, Calif.