A poet who captured the culture of Dust Bowl refugees, lived in the San Joaquin Valley, and most of us have never heard of her! Pick Up Your Name and Write: The Life of Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel is part of Betty Blanks’ crusade to change that lack of knowledge.
by Sarah Peterson-Camacho
What began as a joke by a San Francisco pundit in 1906—the earliest Joaquin Murrieta ghost reference I could find in the California press—would become a headless paranormal powerhouse by mid-century.
First appearing as a put-upon spirit placating the weepy wraith of Scottish pirate Captain Kidd in A.J. Waterhouse’s “Occidental Accidentals” humor column in The San Francisco Call and Post, the ghost of Joaquin Murrieta retained his head—but not his sense of humor—in Why Kidd’s Ghost Wept.
Despite all of the terrible things happening in the world right now, there are a lot of amazing things happening online. Performers of all sorts are going online to provide concerts, classes, readings, and many other wonderful things-both locally and worldwide. Local musician/actor Nate Butler is involved in something local that not only provides entertainment for the rest of us, but helps out local musicians who aren’t able to go out and play their normal gigs. I chatted with Nate recently about this.
Rudy Kurniawan was a wealthy 20- year-old from California with a fondness for wine when he first started rubbing elbows with the high rollers at wine auctions. As one collector remembers him, he was “just a geeky kid drinking Merlot.”
I became interested in the forging of wine after reading an article in the Wall Street Journal. I grew obsessed and researched every article I could find about the theft and counterfeiting of everything from low-end table wine to more expensive wine.
Jon Koobatian is best known as the owner and head chef of Jon's Bear Club in Reedley, California. His history with the Bear Club (he added Jon's to the name when he became the owner) started many years before that. Jon was born in Dinuba, California and has had a love for food for most of his life.
You know what a “gottado” is, don’t you? It’s one of those things that are so much a part of living in an area that—if you admit to someone in conversation that you haven’t been there/done that—that person will look at you with shock and amazement and say, “You haven’t? Man, you gotta do it!”
Visalia, California born mystery author R.P. Dahlke joins KRL today for a short interview, and Diana Hockley reviews her books set in the Central Valley featuring a female crop duster. At the end of this post you will find instructions on how to enter to win a copy of both of these great books!
Feeling a kick, hearing the heartbeat, seeing that first smile. The happy moments new moms experience can make it hard for many to feel comfortable admitting that they’re feeling down. Those “baby blues” become something they just can’t shake.
South Dakota winters are so brutal that even we get tired of them. My mother hated them. Of course, being of sound Norwegian descent she couldn’t admit it publicly, any more than she could admit that she hated cleaning, cooking, laundry and yard work. But she did. Her goal in life had always been to retire and head south, far away from cold and duty, where she could watch soap operas, play cards, read murder mysteries, and gossip, while someone else cooked and cleaned. That was her fantasy, and as soon as she retired, she made it a reality.
