Photo courtesy of Carla Jackson

Have a good weekend

Landlords, employers, banks, car dealers and insurance companies all want to know what kind of borrower you are before they do business with you.

But that doesn’t mean you need to go overboard, like some monitoring firms would have you believe. Watch their commercials, and you get the feeling that if you don’t stay home from work to watch your credit file 24/7, you’ll face financial ruin and lose your identity, too. It shouldn’t come as a shock that many of those services also charge fees for information that costs nothing elsewhere.

There are easy, genuinely free ways to stay on top of your credit files and use them to save money.

Here’s what you need to know now to do that.

• Understand the difference between your credit report and your credit score. Your credit report is the record of all of your credit transactions: your loans and credit cards, your credit limits and your payment history. Your score is a single number that is derived by feeding all of the data from your credit report through a complex algorithm.
• You should check your credit report at least once a year to make sure there are no mistakes in it. Credit reports are created and kept by three separate credit reporting agencies: TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. All three should have the same facts on their reports. You can get one free report from each of them every year by going to the website annualcreditreport.com. You may want to monitor your credit report more often than that, if you are getting ready to buy a house or take out a large loan for some other purpose.
• Between now and Sept. 24, you can also sign up for six months of free credit monitoring from TransUnion at the website https://www.listclassaction.com/. This is part of the settlement of a large class-action suit against the company.
• Most lenders use your credit score in deciding how worthy you are. And they charge people with low scores more. The most widely used score was developed by Fair Isaac Corp. and is called a FICO score. But each of the three agencies are producing their own scores and have also banded together to create a fourth common score, called a VantageScore. 

Really smart people should have stadiums built around their brains so we could pay to watch their thought processes. For Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, I would be happy with bleacher seats, but for Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, I would sell the farm for seats behind home plate. I’ve read Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time” three times and still feel like an idiot. The theory of relativity remains a relative mystery. But there is something fascinating about staring into a starlit sky and thinking that both men have added a dimension of curiosity and understanding to the mathematically challenged souls of the world… I’m first in line for the challenged part.

Books please. New books feel good. They smell good. Books force us to flesh out characters and add our own experiences to story lines. My job requires endless reading, which I consider a perk. Away from the office I’m addicted to mysteries. Agatha Christie has to be the best…

The number on my “nice” list is still 20 … remember? … those with humor and caring, genuinely concerned about others. People who just make you feel good to think about them. I’ve received so much feedback. Am I on your list? How do I start my own? Are you kidding or do you really have a list? I’m not and I do. The list is just for you so it doesn’t need to be shared. Some people have made my list after meeting them the first time… others have taken years.

Why is it that 90 percent of the things I worry about haven’t happened yet? I seem to do OK with my current problems, even the serious ones… it’s the “what ifs” that keep me awake at night.

How could there possibly be a more exciting presidential race? The two candidates are expressing opposing viewpoints on nearly every significant issue. As the late, great Tim Russert once said,”Buckle your seat belts because we’re in for a wild ride.” OK, OK, that may not be the exact quote, but close enough.

I quit smoking 25 years ago and still think about buying a pack of Marlboros at the checkout counter. Those little white filter-tipped sticks hurt my throat, lungs and made me smell terrible but… I always thought if the world were ending tomorrow I would shave the end off a carton and smoke all 10 packs at once. Now it turns out I wouldn’t do that at all. I don’t know what that means.

I have fat suits, skinny suits and in-between suits but nothing I can wear today. I’m so glad brown is the new black because I gotta lotta brown.

Don’t know how accurate this is but someone told me a sausage sandwich is healthier than a bagel. I’m giving that theory a try on the way to work.

When asked a question, I have this annoying habit of presenting both sides before stating an opinion. Why not just answer the question and then argue the sides? Don’t know. I just can’t.

I miss “Bloom County.”

I had a fat cat named “Fats” for 19 years and a happy alley cat named “Whoopee” for 16. They never met, but I think they would have liked each other.

Doug Mudford is a lawyer and partner at Barr & Mudford, with an emphasis on serious personal injury. He may be reached at Barr & Mudford, 1824 Court St., Redding, (530) 243-8008. Send questions for “That Lawyer Guy” columns to doug@ca-lawyer.com

She began:

“My dear Noel,  I don’t know what to write to you, so I shall tell you a story about four little rabbits whose names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter.”

And that’s how it all started.

For a birthday treat to myself, I spent a remarkable morning at the archive reading room of the Victoria and Albert Museum going through two boxes of original Beatrix Potter art.

It ranged from a wonderful watercolor study of a rabbit when Potter was 14 years old to some unpublished variations of her illustrations of her classic picture books.

I have seen originals before in museums and exhibitions, but holding these gems in my hands was something different, not unlike holding a rock from the moon or the hand of a newborn; solid and real but slightly other-worldly.

Even through the matted frames and plastic covers I felt a closer connection to Miss Potter.

The drawing is spot on. She studied animals from life using favorite animals as models. The rabbit study is believed to be Benjamin Bunny, a pet Potter had when she was young. The collie Kep, from Jemina Puddle-duck, was a favorite collie she owned.

The watercolor paintings themselves are small, mostly the same size as the tiny original versions in her books. I measured one painting, a mouse sitting in a chair reading a newspaper, to be 2 7/8 inches high.

There were some loose, very lively pen-and-ink studies of frogs and rabbits included in the boxes. In many ways, these were more impressive than the finishes. The life and humor of her characters came through even stronger, the drawing a little more assured . . . something that I can relate to in my own work.

I confess to a special affinity to artists whose talents lean towards anthropomorphized animals. There are good ones and bad ones, and some whose talents would be better displayed by filleting cod on a 40-foot trawler … a full 20 fathoms beneath the surface.

But Potter is one of the best. Her animal anatomy is excellent – sometimes too good.  Without the required muscle structure for expressions, animals can’t really smile, frown, raise their eye brows in confusion, twist their mouth in a moment of pensive thought, or gaze longingly at a piece of huckleberry pie.

The result can make a rabbit dressed in a gingham apron or smoking a pipe seem too impassive and creepy, even down-right sinister, especially given the circumstances in which they find themselves. 

But a child (and playful grown-ups) will project their own human emotions onto these animals as we do our own pets (“Well, of course Fido hated his present; if looks could kill!” “Flossie just loved her new fishbowl; you should have seen her smile.”)

At the Victoria and Albert Museum itself, I caught the last day of a related exhibition, some letters of Potter and Edward Lear, author of numerous limericks and the classic Owl ands the Pussycat. These letters were illustrated with line drawings. The freshness and spontaneity of the line was charming.

In one letter Potter made fun of herself and her ability to draw humans (she drew herself as a pig). But there was one connection that stuck me more than the art or even the content of the letters.

These authors, both Beatrix Potter and Edward Lear, wrote some of their most famous and endearing prose first in letters.

And they wrote them to a specific child.

Potter wrote to Noel Moore. Edward Lear wrote to Janet Symonds, the young daughter of his friend John Addington Symonds.

Beatrix Potter once remarked, after being asked why Peter Rabbit was so successful, that it was addressed to “…a real live child… not made to order.”

And we all know that there was a real Christopher Robin, that calming influence in the Pooh books.

These classic books were written for real children.

Our job as adults, if I may be so bold, is to pass these books down to our own real children. Indeed, we should pass down our own stories to our kids and let them share their stories with us.

If not we may as well just commit ourselves to the same fate as Peter’s father, and end up in a pie.

Doug Cushman is a former Redding artist and author who now lives and works in Paris. He was born in Springfield, Ohio and moved to Connecticut with his family when he was 15 years old. While in high school he created comic books lampooning his teachers, selling them to his classmates for a nickel a piece.

Since 1978, he has illustrated and/or written more than 100 books for children and collected a number of honors, including a Reuben Award for Book Illustration from the National Cartoonists Society, New York Times Children’s Books Best Sellers, and the New York Public Library’s Best 100 Books of 2000. He enjoys hiking, kayaking and cooking (and eating!). Learn more about Doug, his art and his books at his Web site, http://www.doug-cushman.com/index.htm
 

No offense, guys, but I need a moment alone with the women, please.

It’s about my waltz dress for Dancing with the Stars.

Help me help me help me!

The only thing I’ve got are my shoes. Wait, I take that back. I didn’t even get the correct dance shoes. Wrong color. Apparently, I was supposed to get tan ones. I bought black dance shoes.

I wore them to two nights’ practice before I learned that black dance shoes were not advised because they stop the visual line of your leg and produce a stumpy look. Kind of like an exclamation point.

LOOK AT THOSE STUMPS!!!!

Funny. I’d say about 99 percent of my shoes are black. That could explain a lot . . .

So I’m practicing in my wrong black shoes, and my regulation tan ones are on order (at Soleus Dance and Fitness Wear, a very cute Redding shop that caters to dancers – a whole other world).

But my waltz dress is what I really needed help with.

I won’t bore you with the story about the Dancing with the Stars clothing arrangements for the women dancers. It’s kind of crazy. First we were supposed to look for our own clothes, then we learned a person would actually help us with our outfits, then that person went away, so now we’re back to our own hunt for dance clothes.

Times like this the guys have it made. They’re fitted for tuxes. Period. (Well, in all fairness, the guys do need disco outfits, so they’ll need to deal with that.)

But we six Dancing with the Stars women need two outfits: one for disco and one for the waltz.

Finding a disco outfit doesn’t worry me. I could do bell bottoms or a slinky dress in crazy fabric. Disco is not so serious.

Waltz is serious as double pulled quad muscles.

Finding a waltz dress is freaking me out. I’ve been to thrift stores. Struck out.

My sister and I went to Sears because I heard it had a bunch of prom dresses with prices slashed by 60 percent and more, because prom season is so over.

True enough. And the prices were impressive. Unfortunately, those sale dresses were teeny tiny teeny bopper gowns, in sizes like 2 - and I don’t mean 2 plus - they mean the size 2 or 3 or 4 I zoomed by so quickly in my early development that my closet never saw those numbers.

The professional female Dancing with the Stars dancers are very, very young and small.

The remaining non-dancer “stars” are Chita Johnson, Tracy Edwards and yours truly.

Chita is, well, Chita. She’s young and tall and va-va-voom gorgeous. (True story: At practice one night I’m watching Chita walk across the gym floor and I think, “Gee, Chita must be practicing a sexy walk for her dance.” Then it hits me: That’s the way she really walks.) Chita could wear a Mervyn’s Sag Harbor muu-muu and look like a million bucks.

Tracy Edwards is beautiful, slim and coordinated. She also has a mother who sews.

Which leaves me, and this question for you women:

Where does a mature, curvy woman find a ballroom waltz dress in the north state? Oh, I should add that I don’t want to spend a fortune, because I probably won’t wear that dress again (I don’t attend events that require that caliber of fanciness).

I’m not talking about just a larger version of a teeny-bopper dress.

I’m talking a grown-up woman’s dress that’s pretty enough that it doesn’t look like a mother-of-the-bride number.

We’ve been instructed to find something ballroomy that flows when we move. It must be modest (no cleavage, which has never been an issue for me). It should be tea length, so the audience can see my non-stumpy feet in my should-arrive-here-any-day tan dance shoes, as I glide around the floor in these fancy moves Jake is teaching me.

The dress’ skirt part should be wider at the bottom, so I can do those leg extensions without ripping something. Remember, I’m trying to avoid a wardrobe malfunction.

I’m open to suggestions, but here are some guidelines: It can’t be black, which is too bad, since it’s one of my favorite clothing colors, not to mention I did happen to find a black skirt and a matching black-and-cobalt blue top that I liked at a costume shop.

The reason I can’t wear black is it’s considered too somber for the waltz, which is supposed to be pretty and flowy and elegant and happy.

Another reason black dresses are discouraged is I might just disappear into my partner’s black suit, and the audience won’t see me.

That would be fine with me. However, it would not be fine with our head choreographer, Kathy Babcock.

So it’s back to the dressing room.

Oh, and we need our outfits by Wednesday.

No pressure.

Either leave your suggestions here, or e-mail me at attndoni@gmail.com.

Thank you. Now, I must go practice.

One two three . . .

You can watch the fireworks at the 2008 Annual 4th of July celebration in Mount Shasta. They also have the Fun Run and Walk as well as many other events on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, July 4-6.

Here’s a link to the schedule of events

The deal was reached between Colorado Community Colleges Online (CCCOnline) and Pearson (NYSE: PSO).

“Many of our students find it financially challenging to fund a college education and this arrangement will help ease their burden,” CCCS President Nancy McCallin said in a statement.

Terms of the deal were not announced.

CCCOnline, launched 10 years ago, is a consortium of 13 schools in the Colorado Community College System. It offers some 1,400 online courses to 17,000 students each year.

Under the deal, students will pay for electronic textbooks when they are charged for tuition. They can print out some or all of the texts, or order special printed copies through campus bookstores.

Reader Ren had a good idea for those of us depressed over the lack of fireworks on Friday: Flaming food.

If you’ve not heard, all the local fireworks, except those in Mount Shasta, have been outright canceled and/or postponed.

We may not see fireworks outside but we create some - safely, of course – in our kitchen.

If we ’flambé’ our food, you can expect to see some appreciative oohs and ahs, similar to fireworks.

Flambé  is a French word that means “to pour spirits over and ignite. Any time you cook with flames, people are impressed, unless it’s an unintentional flame that catches your house on fire. That’s not impressive. That’s dumb.

While it’s possible to flambe’ almost any food, I had two classics in mind: First,  Bananas Fireworks. It’s sort of a play on a famous New Orleans specialty, Bananas Foster, a dish that originated at the Commandors Palace. (I was there more than 20 years ago. It remains one of my favorite restaurant experiences of all time.

Second is Cherries Jubilee, cheeries flambed and served over ice cream. You’ll see. You’ll love it.

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Bananas Fireworks

Heat and melt butter in a large shallow pan. Add the sugar and stir until well blended. Now add the orange zest. Over medium-high heat, add the bananas and cook until golden brown.

Pour the rum into a small saucepan and heat just until you see vapors above the liquid. Tilt the pan that contains the bananas with one hand, and with the other pour the warmed rum into the pan, touching a match to the rum. Keep your distance and you let the flame die down. (Warning, the flame can  be substantial.)

Spoon the bananas and some cause over vanilla ice cream.

Serves 6

Cherries Jubilee

Drain cherries. Reserve 1 cup of liquid.

In medium-size skillet, combine the cherries, lemon, sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice.

Heat to boiling, stirring constantly, until thickened. Add the cherries. Combine everything over low heat.

Bring serve dish or platter to the table. In a long-handled ladle, gently warm brandy until vapors rise. Ignite and pour over cherries.

When flames subside, spoon cherries into dessert bowls or over ice cream, custard or cake.

Tips for flambeing

While liqueurs can be flambéd alone, for best effect mix with a stronger spirit such as rum or brandy

Keep flames going by gently spooning more sauce over the food or carefully shaking the pan or platter of food, allowing all the liquor to reach the surface and burn.

Always use a flame-proof container (metal) for flambéing foods.

Never pour liquor directly from a bottle into a hot pan or an already flaming dish as the flames may travel up into the bottle.

To make the flames of a dessert last longer, soak a sugar cube with cognac and place it on the food before igniting.

Soups can also be flambéed.

Heat ½ cup whisky in a big ladle, spoon into the pot of soup and set alight. Once the flames have died down, dish out and pop a slice of cheesy toast sprinkled with parsley in each serving.

The liquor should always be added at the very last moment and lit as quickly as possible to avoid the liquor soaking into the food. Let the alcohol burn off enough and leave the flame to go out naturally so the flavour of the liquor doesn’t overpower the dish.

Never, ever pour your liqueur directly from the bottle into a hot pot or pan, or into an already flambéing dish. The flames can travel up the stream and into the bottle, causing it to explode.Use caution here, you will be dealing with a liquid that is on fire; do not carry the dish while flaming unless you’re completely sure what you are doing; flambéing for novices is best done on a serving cart slightly away from the table. Keep a large metal lid on hand to cover the dish in case your flambé gets out of hand.

Heat liquor until warm. Do not overheat or alcohol will evaporate.

To heat, place the needed amount of liquor in a large ladle or small saucepan with a long handle over a flame or other heat source.

To ignite, use a long match.

When liquor is flaming, pour it carefully over the hot food (keep clothing, hair and linens away from the flames).

Keep flames going by gently spooning more sauce over the food or carefully shaking the skillet or platter of food, allowing all the liquor to reach the surface and burn.

When flambeing foods, it is best to use a side table, so you reduce the risk of catching a guest on fire.

To make the flames of a dessert last longer, soak a sugar cube with cognac and place it on the food before igniting.

If you want to omit the alcohol, soak a sugar cube in lemon extract and light it.

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Hello Food For Thought Friends!

I am currently in Oklahoma visiting family and attending my cousin’s wedding.

I love visiting Oklahoma. Not only do I get to spend time with  family, but the countryside and lakes are absolutely beautiful.

My sisters and I always refer to our visits here as going to Temptation Island.  The reason behind that nickname is that any - and I mean ANY food - craving you can possibly have can be met with a visit to our Aunt Linda’s houseboat.

She made us apple dumplings, incredible ham, and had an array of purchased snacks within arm’s reach.  I  knew for certain that I would find a culinary treat to share with you while I was here.  Sure enough, my cousin Steven and his wife Cindy introduced me to a barbecued delight called Armadillo Eggs.

Intrigued, I had to participate in the preparation of these gems.  Arm-a -dill-la - as it is pronounced in Oklahoma -  has a curious culinary history.  There are grooms’ cakes shaped like the armored animal, an unusual steakhouse item, and now of course, these  eggs.

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Armadillo Eggs

To prepare chicken, slice each breast in 4 strips, lengthwise.  Give them a good pound between two sheets of plastic wrap to achieve an even thickness. Halve the jalapenos and remove the seeds. Put a small amount of cream cheese inside the jalapeno. Place the jalapeno on the chicken strip and roll chicken around the pepper.

Now, this part is entirely up to you. Use half or whole piece of bacon. I am partial to half.  If there is a defibrillator near by, go for the whole piece. Wrap bacon around chicken and pepper tightly.
Skewer through both sides of the pepper

On a medium-flame (400-ish) barbecue, place your armadillo eggs on the grill.  Cook for about 20 minutes, or until your bacon is good and crispy and the chicken is cooked through.

My cousin Steven suggests that when you close the grill top, make sure you open the lid frequently to let out smoke.  The bacon will produce a lot of smoke, especially if you have several skewers cooking at one time.

Of course I had to experiment and put my California swing on this Okie dish.  I chopped up some apples and grapes omitted the pepper.  I rolled the chicken with cream cheese, fruit and wrapped in bacon.  This was out of this world.  I think if there was some brie or goat cheese on hand there would have had some converts to my side. 

My favorite part of this recipe is that it is so simple, and versatile.  Plus, I got to write “ARM-A-DILL-LA”!

See y’all next week!

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Andrea Charroin was a trained baker and pastry chef in San Francisco before she, her husband Westley, and their two sons moved to Redding nine years ago. After falling in love with Redding’s downtown, Andrea and Westley opened a little pastry shop, Rene-Joule Patisserie, across from the Cascade Theatre. For the three years Rene-Joule was in business, it was renowned for making everything from scratch, using the best ingredients and keeping with a seasonal menu. To this day, Andrea is still asked about her Marathon Bars, Orange Twists and sourdough bread.

Copyright 2008 Andrea R. Charroin

Mosquito Serenade at Anderson River Park, KV Grove

Featuring: The Cheeseballs

Wednesday, July 9

Admission Free

Here’s a link to their website and music.

The name says it all: groovy, funky, danceable FUN! Just ask the tens of thousands of fans who have already experienced them. They will tell you stories of standing on the bar singing “I Will Survive” at the top of their lungs or dancing so hard to “We Are Family” that getting out of bed the next day was quite an event.

That’s what The Cheeseballs do; they make you “Shake Your Booty” like it hasn’t been shaken in years. The band members pride themselves on serving up a helping of non-stop ’70s disco dance hits and ’80s and ’90s pop classics with an uncanny knack of performing songs that you will be surprised to discover you knew all the words to, such as “YMCA,” “Stayin’ Alive,” “Dancing Queen,” “Le Freak,” “Disco Inferno,” and many more. The result is always an audience dancing along and singing along.

Over the last decade The Cheeseballs have performed everywhere from Las Vegas to Hawaii, at large public events, private parties and capacity-filled dance clubs. They have rung in the New Year at venues ranging from the Atrium of San Francisco’s landmark Hyatt Embarcadero Hotel to historic Union Station in Kansas City, MO. The Cheeseballs memorably sang their own groovy a cappela rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” to 50,000 San Francisco Giants fans at SBC Park. Whether playing to a crowd of 100 or 10,000, they’ll make sure everyone ends up on the dance floor. The Cheeseballs headline and sell out at all the Bay Area’s premier venues, including Bimbo’s 365 Club, The Great American Music Hall, and Slim’s.

The band comprises eight performers dressed in dazzling retro disco outfits and presents a parade of personalities who alternate lead vocals with plenty of exuberantly choreographed dance moves. You won’t be disappointed. Just pick up the phone and say… “Cheese, please!”

One problem with working at home is that you don’t get enough feedback.

But wait, you say, isn’t that the whole reason to work at home? LESS feedback? For most people who work in regular jobs, a little less feedback from their bosses would seem like a gift from heaven.

Sure, many of us who work at home made the move to escape bosses breathing down our necks. But now that our necks are largely boss-free, we find that we struggle without some response, some validation that we’re doing a good job.

Working alone means never having to say you’re sorry. It means no one cares whether you goof off all day, as long as you get the work done eventually. It means you don’t have co-workers giving you nonverbal cues, rolling their eyes when you do something stupid or impatiently clearing their throats when you spend too much time on the phone, gabbing with your friends.

Without feedback, it’s sometimes hard to get motivated. Why bust your hump meeting a deadline when no one will notice? Why waste time with filing when a nice big heap of paperwork does the job just as well and nobody will see it anyway? Why bother to clean the house when the kids will just mess it up again anyway?

Such goldbricking can lead you to worry all the time, though. When you’re your own boss, you keep wondering whether you should be breathing down your own neck. And is that even physically possible?

We at-home workers have to supply our own feedback, just like we have to do everything else around the home office. We give ourselves motivational speeches. We develop tools that will make us stay busy, that will validate the choices we’ve made.

There are ways to tell whether you’re doing a good job, ways to pump yourself up for the next task. Here are a few you can try:

–Make to-do lists. Nothing is quite as satisfying as scratching a line through a chore, relegating it to the category of “finished.” Naturally, there’s a temptation to pad such lists. If you find yourself checking off “getting out of bed” and “lunch,” you might want to re-examine your goals.

–Try the Stuart Smalley approach. Look in a mirror and tell yourself that you’re good enough, smart enough, etc… Warning: Prolonged staring into a mirror can quickly degenerate into a search for wrinkles, zits and nose hairs. And I don’t think you want those activities on your to-do list.

–Every time you complete a task, do high-fives with imaginary co-workers. Or, you can train your dog to give you a low-five whenever you need a boost.

–Try the methodology used by behavioral psychologists: punishments and rewards. When you do a good job, reward yourself in some way. I recommend ice cream. When you waste the whole day, berate yourself and withhold ice cream. Bet you do better tomorrow!

–Clothing choices can also be good motivators. Go look in your closet. If you’re a man, check out the neckties you no longer have to wear now that you work at home. For women, the same goes for panty hose. Want to continue to wear sweatpants every day? Then you’d better get to work.

–When you’re really in desperate need of feedback, call on your family. Your children will be only too happy to give you reasons to perform better. Most of these reasons center around the need for expensive new sneakers. If you ask your spouse for assistance, make sure your to-do list is hidden out of sight. Otherwise, count on it getting a lot longer.

–Saving the best for last, I’ve got one sure cure for the motivational blues. If you think your career is going nowhere, that you’re suffering from a lack of feedback from appreciative co-workers, then go look at the place where you keep incoming mail. There will no doubt be a stack of bills there. If that doesn’t get you up and moving, then maybe working at home isn’t for you. Maybe you really do need a boss breathing down your neck. But bill collectors seem to provide all the feedback most of us will ever need.

Steve Brewer is the author of CUTTHROAT and 15 other books. Read more of his columns at http://www.stevebrewer.blogspot.com/

If you want to see fireworks Friday, you may have to travel to Mount Shasta.

Because the north state’s fire conditions are crazy dry and dangerous, fireworks celebrations have been canceled and/or postponed left and right. 

Extinguished fireworks include: Saturday’s Burney Basin Days fireworks (yes for Basin Days, no for fireworks.)

Anderson Explodes has been postponed until Aug. 30 (golly, when it’s even drier and hotter?). Likewise, Red Bluff’s fireworks are postponed, but not yet rescheduled. Weaverville’s Fourth of July festivities will continue, but its fireworks are postponed until fall.  

Finally, Redding’s Freedom Festival is also a goner. Yes, we’re disappointed. But dumping the fireworks this year was a wise choice, considering the north state’s ring of fire. Perhaps you noticed.

I will miss Boom Boom Productions. I will miss Larry Grandy’s band, especially when Grandy conducts on the tips of the toes of his high-top tennis shoes as his musicians play Stars and Stripes.

I will miss watching the fireworks on the Convention Center lawn with 10,000 of my dearest, closest friends.

I will not miss the added risk of yet more fires at a time when firefighters are already plenty busy.

Hey, speaking of fire risk, when will Tehama County follow Shasta County’s lead (more than 20 years ago) and create an ordinance to outlaw its “safe and sane” fireworks and even sparklers?

Safe and sane?

Make that unsafe and insane. When it comes to fireworks, it’s not as if what happens in Tehama County stays in Tehama County. 

A fire in Tehama can spread to neighboring counties. And any Shasta County yahoo can cross into Tehama County and load up on cherry bombs, snakes, spinners, and sparklers. byo fire extinguisher.

Even professionals’ fireworks can spark a fire. Remember July of 1996 when Redding fireworks ignited a two-acre fire near the Turtle Bay Park and Museum?

Not good.

That was the same year a couple of Redding teens set fire to their Wooded Acres subdivision after they bought illegal fireworks. Two Julys later illegal fireworks set fire to one acre on Bechelli Lane. 

If we do away with the fireworks this year, the north state might have a chance to celebrate our independence from fire. 

Today is a big day for E.W. Scripps, the company that owns the Record Searchlight. 

It split into two companies: E.W. Scripps and Scripps Interactive.

The new E.W. Scripps is responsible for the broadcasting, newspaper and licensing and syndication businesses,

Scripps Interactive controls companies like HGTV, DIY, the Food Network, basically the popular, gifted, high-achieving Scripps kids.

Kind of begs the question: What will come of Scripps’ newspaper business, especially in an era when all newspapers are in trouble?

Consider this: E.W. Scripps stock price peaked on May 27 at $48.54. On June 30 it fell to $41.54, a drop of 14.67 percent.

Leading into the breakup of Scripps, this is not exactly a vote of confidence by investors.

Consider this June 6 AP story, “E.W. Scripps Co., the broadcast and publishing company which plans to split into two companies July 1, expects newspaper revenue to drop between 8 percent and 10 percent in the second half of the year.” Stories like this are more and more common.

A sharp decline in May advertising revenue for the country’s largest newspaper publishers shows the economic slowdown is adding to the sector’s woes, Goldman Sachs said in a note to investors Thursday.

With that in mind, Ken Lowe, the former president and CEO of E.W. Scripps, must be thrilled to no longer being connected to the company’s problematic newspapers, now that he’s in charge of Scripps’ trendy, profitable, cool interactive companies. 

See what you think of him on this video of Ken Lowe.

If I were a betting man (which I’ve been known to be on occasion) I would give the new Scripps Interactive stock a second look. Barely a few days old and trading in the low $3 range with a projected 30 cents per share dividend, it looks very attractive.

Combined, the Scripps interactive properties have annual revenues of a reported $1.4 billion

There are probably still some out there who think newspapers will turn around.

Give me a call, I’ve got some buggy whips to sell you.

Redding’s 2nd Saturday Art Hop kicks off with Shasta Taiko Saturday, July 12, at 5:30 p.m. on Market Street in front of the Cascade Theatre. Admission is free.

2nd Saturday Art Hop celebrates the arts and culture in Redding and the North State. Each second Saturday is a new, exciting community event for adults and families, showcasing different regional artists - painters, sculptors, musicians, poets, jewelry designers - something for everyone. Each 2nd Saturday of the month, participating businesses are featured on the Art Hop Map. Each business hosts a reception for a different regional artist.

So get your map, “hop” from business to business and experience the North State’s rich cultural and artistic diversity. The Art Hop Map is your guide to 2nd Saturday Art Hop. Find the Art Hop map exclusively in Enjoy Magazine or go to Hawkman Studios to learn more.

Then at 7:00 p.m. is Dancing with the Stars inside the Cascade Theatre.

Tickets cost $30 (tax deductible) and are available at the Cascade Theatre, YMCA and the Women’s Refuge. (Tuck a little cash in your pocket if you want to buy extra vote tickets.)

Come watch Redding City Manager Kurt Starman, Shasta County Supervisor Les Baugh, KRCR weather reporter Chita Johnson, Redding Radio Operations Manager Don Burton, Redding Rancheria CEO Tracy Edwards and yours truly, Doni Greenberg, waltz and disco with our professional dance partners. You, the audience, will vote on the winner!

It’s all in good fun and is a significant fundraiser for the YMCA Plus One Mentors program and the Women’s Refuge.

WALLY HERGER was Johnny-on-the-spot with his words to the readers of the Post last Thursday, doing the empty pandering usually done by slimy politicians who show up at a disaster to try to claim a portion of credit for the work of firefighters and other first responders, and to praise the people who actually deserve praise.

This is meant to make us all think the polls are doing something, these overpaid scoundrels who neglect the needs of constituents for years on end, but then turn up to take advantage of a quick photo-op at the disaster sites to show the folks that they’re on the case.

It’s kind of like George W. Bush’s flyover during the Katrina disaster in New Orleans, which was something less than a band-aid on that hemorrhage those people were suffering because of governmental neglect and ineptitude. If those levees had been shored up as had been recommended, those people down in the Big Easy might have had an easier time of it. If action had been taken BEFORE the emergency occurred, people in New Orleans might not have been in the vulnerable position of having to depend upon people like Michael (”Heckuva Job, Brownie”) Brown and other incompetent and corrupt Bush appointees.

Wally also managed to slip in a few self-serving paragraphs about his tireless efforts to get additional evacuation routes out of here, having spent 22 years representing this district during which time precisely nothing has been done to provide the desperately needed evacuation routes necessary to protect the lives and safety of the thousands who live on Paradise ridge. Senator Ted Stevens, Republican creep from Alaska, got a hundred million for a bridge to nowhere in his state, but Congressman Herger, who has surely been aware of the dangers to his constituents, has done nothing to provide leadership that could have gotten a bridge built from Magalia (on Ponderosa) to Highway 32, a much more efficient evacuation route than the much-discussed back door to Butte Meadows.

Herger has done nothing because he has defined his function as being a mere water-bearer for the Republican agenda in Washington, trotting around doing the bidding of higher-ups in his party, proselytizing for privatizing Social Security, signing off on an unnecessary and disastrous war, working against environmental protections and serving the interests of the powerful people who bankroll him.

He hasn’t had to do anything for the working people of this district because this congressional district was carved up to be secure for whatever Republican hack held the seat, no matter how uninspiring, corrupt, or inadequate he or she might be.

Just as he did with the firefighters, Wally also basks in the glory of “the troops” and “our brave soldiers” in Iraq, though he has voted with Bush to deny those military men and women the benefits their service should earn for them - from proper medical care to educational benefits. When Herger says he “supports” something, it tends not to mean very much.

So, when he says he has “supported the escape route through Sterling (sic) City, and Inskip out to Butte Meadows out to Highway 32, there is no evidence of what that “support” has meant. Did he take a leadership position, or did he just kind of agree with the general notion?

Did he do anything substantive in those 22 years? In his piece in the Post, he claims to have been instrumental in getting the $12 million that has been allocated to the project of building a new road out, but Kim Yamaguchi, pictured with Governor Schwarzenegger on the front page of Thursday’s Post, also claims credit for having secured that money, but it’s also a bit unclear just what efforts he has expended to further those escape routes.

What is clear is that after the disaster has struck, guys like Wally and Kim are right there where the pictures are being taken, applauding one another, patting each other on the back, and issuing those “heckuva job” accolades back and forth for benefit of the media.

Ol’ Wally, who lives in an expensive gated community in Chico, has done nothing in 22 years to address a threat everyone knew was present. He has, during that time, enjoyed pay and medical benefits most people will never know, and he has enjoyed the company and the privileges that attend his association with the country club elite, all while ignoring the vital needs of the people who pay his salary.

The Skyway was resurfaced in a matter of hours after the Humboldt fire melted the asphalt, but Wally Herger can’t get a road put in here that is a vital matter of public safety - not in 22 years. And, in the aftermath of the fire that swept through foothill scrub, his answer is to argue, euphemistically, for more logging.

Wally calls it an “aggressive program of strategic forest management,” but I think we all know the interests he’s working for when he says that, and what “aggressive forest management” really means. In Wally World, logging the big trees is the best he can do to provide a safer environment for his constituents.

Because our politicians have proven so indifferent to the safety of ridge dwellers, some citizens have begun circulating a petition calling for immediate action to secure emergency escape routes out of here. If you see that petition, you’d be well advised to sign it.

Sitting around in this haze of smoke over the past week should have given most everyone time to think about how poorly we’ve been served by these scoundrels, who draw salaries for representing our interests while busily representing their own.

Wally Herger hasn’t earned a return to Congress. His time in office has been characterized by nonfeasance when it comes to doing the work of the majority of people whose misguided votes put him in office.

 ~ By the Paradise Post Editorial Board

A number of folks have been asking, “When is Trader Joe’s coming to Redding?”

Good question. I drove by Hilltop and Browning and saw walls going up, but still had some questions. The most accurate answer I got was from another location store employee of Trader’s, who said, (and this was “unofficial”, he said), “We’ll open when we get the liquor license.”

Makes sense, for the store will need an off-sale full liquor license to do business.

So, when can Trader Joe’s get the needed license?

Checking into this I found that a license is not available today in Shasta County. So, what’s next? Well, a wait, for sure. But, it does seem as if they are really coming to Redding. It looks like the basic building construction will not be complete until late August, at which time Trader Joe’s will start on the interior, so my guess is opening in October, and that is if they get their off-sale license.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to shop the Orchard Nutrition store on Athens Avenue. Great variety of specialized products and produce, with a new “deli” in the back that offers up delicious salads and various breads, even with a “sample” area. Granted, it’s not the famous and almost fabled “Trader” stores, but it is an excellent locally owned alternative choice, and it is here and easy to patronize. And, with the “chaos” that some call Cypress Avenue Bridge project, we need to help these merchants in this area as much as we can. Give it a try, if you haven’t, and you will be pleasantly surprised.

Here’s to Joe, the owner, and keep up the good work. Shop locally!

Speaking of bridge work, and other construction, be prepared! The Dana Drive to Downtown project will be closing some of the lanes on Highway 44 from the Shasta Regional Medical Center to Auditorium Drive over the weekend of June 28th. With all the tourists during the summer, not a good time to close streets, but then who thinks about these mundane questions? Get the complete story at  www.caltrans2.info

Opposite the Shasta Regional Medical Center at Butte and Continental Streets, many have noticed the “huge” medical-professional building that is almost complete. Well, it is big at 60,000 square feet and about 18,000 square feet have been “spoken for.”

With the news of the Shasta Regional Medical Center being for sale, we may see a big part of this new building stay empty for awhile. Priced at $1.85/ square foot, these office condos are a great idea, but maybe this is not such a great time for their “hitting the market.”

Timing is everything, as we know.

Speaking of timing, now is the time to visit the Shasta Growers Association Certified Farmers Market held each Saturday morning from 7 a.m. until 11 a.m. They have everything from A (apples) to Z (zucchini) and a lot more, and on Saturday, July 5th and July 26th, our own Doni will be giving a cooking demonstration.

The location immediately west of the City Hall on Cypress has plenty of parking and it is not only fun to walk the aisle to “gawk” at the various food and miscellaneous booths, but you will see your friends enjoying this great Saturday morning activity. This is an “only in Redding”, kind of thing, so don’t miss the Farmers Market.

Political decisions in our little corner of the world are always interesting. Almost religiously, two of the council members vote one way and the others vote the other. It seems like it is two against three on many issues.

Since I am not of a political nature (sure), I won’t take sides, but it is intriguing to me that Mary Stegall and Dick Dickerson are usually voting together, with Rick Bosetti and Patrick Jones on the other side, and Murray in the middle.

We will have to watch the voting on the new Redding Police Station and the recommendation that the sales tax be raised to pay for the project. Here again, go for the higher taxes, rather than limit other spending if the bucks aren’t there, will probably be the theme of a couple of the council members, with the others opposed.

What do you think? Do you want to pay a higher sales tax?  How about reducing other areas of the budget? Does any elected official ever give this “original idea” a thought? More to come on this topic, so stay tuned. Have a wonderful day.  

Ron Largent is a Realtor, business owner and longtime Redding resident. His e-mail address is ronlargent@yahoo.com. His Web site address is http://ronlargent.yourkwagent.com/

If you have an opinion on a local topic and would like to share it with Food for Thought, drop a note to attndoni@gmail.com to get guidelines for writing.

Last Updated: June 27, 2008

(Fortune Magazine) — Before the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission starts scrutinizing the role that speculators may have played in driving up fuel and food prices, investigators may want to take a look at price swings in a commodity not in today’s news: onions.

The bulbous root is the only commodity for which futures trading is banned. Back in 1958, onion growers convinced themselves that futures traders (and not the new farms sprouting up in Wisconsin) were responsible for falling onion prices, so they lobbied an up-and-coming Michigan Congressman named Gerald Ford to push through a law banning all futures trading in onions.

The law still stands.

And yet even with no traders to blame, the volatility in onion prices makes the swings in oil and corn look tame, reinforcing academics’ belief that futures trading diminishes extreme price swings. Since 2006, oil prices have risen 100%, and corn is up 300%. But onion prices soared 400% between October 2006 and April 2007, when weather reduced crops, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, only to crash 96% by March 2008 on overproduction and then rebound 300% by this past April.

The volatility has been so extreme that the son of one of the original onion growers who lobbied Congress for the trading ban now thinks the onion market would operate more smoothly if a futures contract were in place.

Kijiji’s sudden rise has lit a fire not just under Craigslist — which claims that eBay used its minority interest in Craigslist to steal its business secrets (while eBay maintains that Craigslist unlawfully diluted its shares) — but throughout the $15 billion market for online classifieds. Even as lesser rivals fall by the wayside — Microsoft’s Windows Live Expo is shuttering on July 31 — newcomers such as Kijiji and Oodle are gaining real traction. Better designed and marketed, these upstarts are reshaping a long-stagnant sector of the web. Meanwhile, the entire online classified market category has surged some 35% over the past year, as more sellers post ads online and more cash-strapped buyers hunt for bargains there.

Yet even as Craigslist continues to thrive — it’s expected to rake in some $80 million this year — the site’s design and user experience have changed little since it began. “There is a stunning lack of innovation in classifieds,” says Craig Donato, founder and CEO of Oodle, which doubled the number of monthly visitors to its site over the past year to nearly two million. The San Mateo, Calif., company with 50 employees and some $19 million in venture capital funding recently made headlines for its deal to host classifieds on walmart.com. Once just a search site that scraped listings from across the Web, Oodle has now partnered with some 200 businesses, including newspapers like the San Diego Tribune and the armed services site Military.com, to power their Web classifieds.

Whereas Oodle excels in technology, Kijiji is the only general-purpose classified site that is catching up with Craigslist in terms of actual listings. Three years ago, Kijiji didn’t even exist. Today it is the top online classified service in France, Germany and Taiwan. It’s also neck and neck with Craigslist in Canada. Combined with eBay’s other international classified hubs — which include Marktplaats in the Netherlands and Gumtree in the United Kingdom — eBay’s portfolio of classifieds actually get more unique visitors around the globe than Craigslist. (As eBay’s core auction business has slowed, its classifieds division has posted triple-digit growth over the past year.)

The North State fires are on everyone’s minds. Ash lingers in the air. Smoke chokes and cloaks. Events are canceled. People seriously consider things like which valuables to take if evacuated, and whether their fire insurance would be sufficient coverage to replace their home if, God forbid, it was destroyed by fire.

Mel, our bashful Shasta County neighbor, took these photos, which Joe (son in the Czech Republic) made into a slide show.

And Mitsy Krzywicki, an artist who writes Food for Thought gardening columns, shared her fire shots and words on her blog.

Finally, Renee Mort of Redding shared her photos of fires seen from Redding, while driving with her beau, Rob LeBaron. Renee also submitted her related video, with music.

It lasts a bit less than 6 minutes. Here’s the link to Renee’s video

Here’s what Renee added about her observations:

“It was very interesting to hear what folks were saying,” she said. “Basically, just everyone gasping in disbelief, worried about folks that live in the area, and talking about how helpless they feel right now.  The human aspect of this fire fiasco is much more interesting than the fire itself.  The overall thing I heard from people was them wishing they could do more to help.”

Don Burton is Redding Radio’s operations manager.

Q. How have you prepared for our first practice?

I asked my partner, Julie Correia, the first day I met her, “What can I do to prepare for Dancing with the Stars?” Her answer was, “WORK OUT!”

I was already working out but have started riding my bike to work and have taken some “Group Power” classes at Sun Oaks Tennis and Fitness to build up more strength and endurance.

Q. What is your previous dancing experience?

I’ve done the drunk white guy dance a few times before

Q. Do you have a recurring Dancing with the Stars nightmare?

I only dream of rainbows and butterflies.

Q. Which couple do you think will be the toughest to beat, and why?

I think the previous winner, Kathy Babcock, with Les Baugh, might be tough to beat, as well as Chita Johnson and Logan Grimes.

Q. Would you like to share a before-practice message for your professional dance partner?

Get ready for some serious hard to work to make me a dancer!

With that said, I’m the best student you’ll ever have. Tell me what to do, and I’ll practice it until I get it right!

Q. What’s your winning strategy?

Partial nudity!

Q. Have you had any moments when you’ve had cold feet?

I’ve had a few nerves because it’s totally new to me, but I’m so ready to be on the stage to dance.

I can’t wait.

Q. Anything else you’d like to say about this event?

Hats off to Staci Bertagna for coming up with the idea and following through.

I’m proud to be a part of an event that will raise money for Plus One Mentors and Shasta Women’s Refuge!

I’m still looking for my dancing shoes and my groove.

Once I find them, I’ll be ready to go!

Julie Correia is Don Burton’s professional dance partner.

I just graduated from Foothill High School and am going to be attending UC Santa Barbara this fall. I am planning on double majoring in the fields of dance and communications for television broadcasting. My parents are Ann and Larry Correia, and I have a younger sister, Michelle, who will be a sophomore at Foothill next year. I have a dog, a horse, and two cats, one of which is extremely large and spoiled.

I enjoy singing, acting, painting, running and volunteering. I was really involved with Key Club and the Link Crew at Foothill.

Q: What’s your dance experience?

I have been dancing since I was 4 years old. I started out with ballet lessons at La Petite, under Margie Ivicevich. I transferred studios at 11 to where I currently take lessons, the Redding Dance Centre. I am under the direction of Deborah Larsen. There I began to add styles — tap, modern and jazz. I was a dancer in Foothill’s production of Club Cougar all four years of high school and choreographed “Encore” of the finale of “Sing Sing Sing” for the past two years.

Q: Do you have a recurring Dancing with the Stars nightmare?

My recurring nightmare is that I am onstage and blank with my choreography during the waltz. This results in causing my partner to trip over me because I stop dancing and he is continuing on. Then I fall off the stage.

Q: What couple do you think will be the hardest to beat, and why?

I think Chita and Logan will be the hardest to beat because I have a feeling that Chita will have a lot of people there supporting her from work and friends from all over the state. Plus, people see her on a daily basis on the news and are familiar with her, so she will have much popularity. The winner is based on popularity. However, Kathy and Les have an advantage because Kathy is the choreographer and is used to creating dances, and she won last year!

Q: What’s your plan to help your partner dance well?

My plan is to start off with a friendship with Don. I want him to feel as comfortable as possible and enjoy this experience. Knowing this, we will be able to accomplish a lot more and work in an environment that is fun. It’s all about having fun and living in the moment. I will work on frame and posture early on as well. Choreography comes next, and I will spend a lot of time on performing because you can have the steps, but it is what you put into the movements that make the dances memorable and entertaining.

Q: What advice do you have for your partner, especially since he might have limited dance experience?

My advice to Don is to have fun and be ready to work! I know he is going to do well, and as long as he puts his personality into the dances he is going to be just fine. You can look like you are having a blast performing and mess up the choreography; as long as you look like you are enjoying what you are doing, people will watch your facial expressions instead of your feet.

Q: Anything else you’d like to say?

I feel honored to be a part of this experience and am so excited for this opportunity. Vote for Don Burton and Julie Correia!

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