It’s Your Money: Interest rates can’t match inflation
There’s a joke about the milk bottle game at Coney Island: A terrible storm swept through and flattened the entire amusement park; nothing was left standing — except those milk bottles.
Healthy Living: One-way ticket to Alcatraz
I've always heard of the Alcatraz swims but never thought I'd actually do one. About two months ago, my friend Corvin — a determined athlete who is losing both his sight and hearing due to Usher Syndrome — asked me to guide him for the Escape from the Rock (Alcatraz) duathlon. Impulsively, I agreed to guide him for the 1.5-mile swim leg. About two seconds after I sent the email, it hit me that I’d just volunteered to swim from Alcatraz, in shark-infested waters, with extremely strong currents, tied to another person. Does this qualify as temporary insanity?
The Mountain Gardener: Living fences make good neighbors
To quote Robert Frost from his 1914 poem “Mending Walls”: “Good fences make good neighbors.”
Plain Talk About Food: Spatchcocking a Chicken
Mention to anyone that you are serving Spatchcocked Chicken for dinner and the ladies will blush, the men will frown and the children will giggle.
Your Health: Causes, symptoms and care for peripheral neuropathy
As part of my cancer treatment journey, I have developed a pretty severe case of peripheral neuropathy of my feet. I was warned that the chemotherapy could cause neuropathy, but I didn't know it would be quite this uncomfortable.
The Mountain Gardener: Stories from a Pacific Northwest Garden – Part II
Last Christmas, I gave my sister a Beni Kawa Japanese maple. This tree sports even brighter red bark in the winter than the more familiar Coral Bark maple.
Nature Friendly: Water mismanagement intensifies drought conditions
This year, Loch Lomond never opened. There was no children’s laughter or the sight of kayaks cutting through alpine waves or a fisherman in a bucket hat decorated with lures. The fish are jumpin’ but there is no one to catch them.
Three candidates vie for two Scotts Valley council seats
Mike Zeller, the director of programming and project delivery for the Transportation Agency for Monterey County, is the relative newcomer on the Scotts Valley...

















