Submit Datebook items to [email protected], or drop off press releases or photos at 5215 Scotts Valley Drive, Ste. F, Scotts Valley 95066. Deadline is 5 p.m. Tuesday. Entries are subject to editing, and publication is not guaranteed.

One of the more memorable experiences of my law school days occurred on the first day of Criminal Law. We students sat, thoroughly intimidated, in the huge lecture hall as our nationally renowned professor introduced himself. In the middle of that introduction, however, a woman ran onto the stage crying melodramatically for help. A few seconds later, another woman appeared chasing the first woman around and around the stage. Finally, the pursuer yelled, “Eat lead you dirty dog,” pulled out a cap pistol and fired about 20 shots at the first woman. After firing all of her caps, she ran off stage, all the while laughing maniacally. Meanwhile the first woman stumbled around for a few minutes pretending to die with 20 slugs in her. When she finally expired, a couple of students dragged her off by the feet and our professor resumed his lecture.

Roudon-Smith, a local Scotts Valley winery on Bean Creek Road, has recently changed hands. Annette Hunt sold her half of the Roudon-Smith label to her partner, Al Drewke, and has started anew with the winery under a fresh label, “Skov.”

The leader of the U.S. banking system, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, tells us that inflation isn’t a problem – that Americans’ cost of living is rising by less than 2 percent a year. I don’t believe it.

Mark Twain said, “Heaven goes by favor; if it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.”

Submit Datebook items to [email protected], or drop off press releases or photos at 5215 Scotts Valley Drive, Ste. F, Scotts Valley 95066. Deadline is 5 p.m. Tuesday. Entries are subject to editing, and publication is not guaranteed.

As a litigator, I go to trial once or twice a year, but the vast majority of civil cases are settled through mediation these days. In mediation, there is no judge or jury, just a mediator who makes no decisions. It is his or her job to steer both parties to a resolution that is acceptable to both, even if it isn’t precisely what either party wanted.