Humboldtian

When I read the headline to this story at SFgate.com, I initially thought it would make a good entry contrasting the quality of life here in Humboldt compared to lower California. I was mildly shocked to read that Clam Beach County Park in McKinleyville is 9th on the list of the ten most polluted beaches in the entire state, according to Heal the Bay's annual report card. If you look at the report card of beach health by county, Mendocino, Sonoma, and Marin counties have significantly better grades for the beaches Heal the Bay monitors.

If you read the report on Humboldt County on page 45, it does link "bacterial exceedances" found at Clam and Moonstone to the large resident bird populations found at these beaches.

Posted by Andy Bird at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

Thanks to Carol and Greg for the idea of posting photos of our mothers on our blogs for Mothers Day.

My mother was born Doris Marie Doran in the summer of 1926. In high school she acquired a nickname: "Dopey Doran." She lived in San Francisco and Oakland during the war years (WWII) and worked for the U.S. Marine Corps as a typist in her late teens. She was infatuated with the idea of glamour, she confessed to her children years later, and I have several 8x10 prints like this one made during a studio session circa 1946. She met my father in San Francisco and they married in 1949, when she was 22 or 23. She bore four children. Mom left us in 1991 after an untimely illness.

Posted by Andy Bird at 03:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

If there was ever any doubt about FOX News' slanted, partisan approach to journalism, please watch this video of a FOX news reporter interrogating a priest who defends the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

By the way, Jeremiah Wright left college to volunteer for the U.S. Marine Corps, then after his committment was up after two years he went into the U.S. Navy. The future Rev. Wright went on to serve on the presidential medical staff in the 1960s.

What has Bill O'Reilly ever done for his country?

Posted by Andy Bird at 09:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)