Totally apart from politics, this has not been an easy year for me, what with my erstwhile partner Don Schinske leaving to spend more time with his family, long-time reporter Steve Barrett leaving to work for public radio in Telluride, Colorado, my not having time for a vacation, and my sad experiences trying to tame two feral cats.
The more friendly of the two, Alpha Cat, as you may recall, was killed by a fumigator. After her death, Beta Cat was forced to become a housecat – but not in my house. Light photography correspondent Barbara Thomas took Beta Cat home and has tamed her more or less.
Just how much less I learned two weeks ago when Thomas brought Beta Cat by for a visit and the damned thing scratched the hell out of my right hand when I tried to pick her up. So far, I haven’t come down with cat-scratch fever, but the scratches are slow to heal.
But the worst days followed the heartbreaking attacks of Sept. 11. My grief for the victims and their loved ones is now always in the back of my mind. So I am galled when friends try to dismiss the outrage as criminal but inevitable, given that many of the countries we buy oil from are ruled by Muslim despots.
With the exception of Turkey, there are no Muslim countries that aren’t run by despots. What are we then to do? Refuse to trade with most of the Islamic world? Should the US limit travel in the Middle East the same way it does in Cuba?
I know I’ve offended some friends with my columns about all this, but I’ve written what, I believe, needed to be written. As I said during a Today Show segment on The Light, "I’ve made all my friends mad at me at one time or another." I don’t relish doing so, but such is the life of a country editor. Nonetheless, it can be wearing.
So on Saturday afternoon, I decided to take a break from business, politics, and cats in order to spend some time merely enjoying West Marin. I took reporter Patrik Jorgensen and his wife Wende on a hike up Bolinas Ridge to a knoll where we could look down on Tomales Bay and Point Reyes Station.
We drove up Highway 1 to buy barbecued oysters and sandwiches at the Marshall Store and then ate on the back deck. From our perch over the bay, we watched the sun go down. Nextdoor at the Marshall Boat Works, a grizzled old salt – who looked as if he had been sent over by central casting – got off a fishing boat while another fisherman set out to sea.
To our surprise, we also saw a pelican chase a tern down the bay. Now that’s a "tern of events," I remarked, since terns more typically chase pelicans and try to steal their catches.
Later that evening, we stopped by Café Reyes for cappuccinos and then went outside to smoke. It was a pleasant end to a pleasant day, and it became all the merrier when Bolinas resident John Cozzie showed up with friends.
Cozzie is a tree trimmer, but back in the 1970s he was one of the stars of the Hot Tomales Players theater group. For half an hour on the deck of Café Reyes, Cozzie regaled us with impersonations of sportscasters Lon Simmons and Howard Cosell. Then he made a startling observation: Howard Cosell and John Wayne had the same speech pattern. He imitated their choppy phrasing but added, "The Duke was smoother." Without a pause, he showed us the difference.
All of us were amused and amazed, and I went home thinking it’s too bad the Hot Tomales Players are defunct or that Cozzie isn’t a radio personality. The world may be going to hell in a handbasket, but there’s still a lot to enjoy in West Marin.