Years ago, back when the East Coast was my home and summer was seldom more than a two-and-a-half month season, G. Love used to call my ex-girlfriend and leave these hideously good messages for her on the answering machine-and I hated it. This week, as Zaca ash rained from above, Garrett Dutton’s trademark hip-hop casual voice was once again in my life (though this time with significantly more enjoyable results).
By the Numbers
Your dog just dug up half the garden in pursuit of that elusive gopher (good boy!), leaving a gigantic hole in the ground where your rare Himalayan poppy used to grow (bad boy!). Your cat just used that nicely tilled and raked bed full of barely sprouted Mesclun greens as a litter box (well, no use saying anything, it’s a cat after all). You are left with your beloved pet friends and a ravaged garden.
The rarified air of Montecito is a far cry from the war-torn villages of northern Uganda. The green grass and shady oaks bear little resemblance to the parched earthen roads and thatched roofs of the African nation where Tom and Linda Cole reside with their children.
A fire on the Riviera was a cause for concern on 8/5, but was doused by the fire department before
Santa Barbara City Councilmember Helene Schneider announced that a private citizen has agreed to donate the $12,000 needed to cover
There are moments in life when the circular nature of our existence becomes beautifully clear. Such was the case late last Monday night as I found my ears still ringing with the deliciously dark and captivating beats of Lee “Scratch” Perry and his band, Dub Is a Weapon.
In his new book, You Have No Rights: Stories of America in an Age of Repression, journalist and Progressive magazine editor Matthew Rothschild recounts the case of Maher Arar. A Syrian-born Canadian computer engineer, Arar was detained in 2002 by FBI agents during a stopover at JKF airport in New York. Believing him a member of Al Qaeda, the FBI sent Arar to Syria, where he was kept in the basement of a prison-in a room not much larger than a coffin-and beaten and tortured routinely for 10 months and 10 days.
Just as the movie 101 Dalmatians encouraged an overpopulation of Dalmatians, the popularization of Chihuahuas through their portrayal in Legally Blonde and as an accessory to Paris Hilton seems to be creating a similar fate for the tiny breed. The Santa Barbara County Animal Shelter (5473 Overpass Rd., 965-7365) currently has close to a dozen of these petite companion dogs.
Written in the 1980s, during the last flush of CIA paranoia, Robert Ludlum’s thrillers attempt to investigate the onion-like layers of super agent Jason Bourne, played onscreen by the mull-faced Matt Damon, which makes the examination a bit like ascribing subtle flavor levels to an animal cracker.
