Canary

Some famous person or other once said, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” I don’t agree. I think the more things change, the more they change. That’s what change is: change. Right? In my experience, people don’t like change. They like stuff to stay the way it is, the way it […]

I love carousels. Like, those old-fashioned kinds with the fancy prancing horses with flaring nostrils and the flaking gilt curlicues and the slightly off-key calliope music. Wait, did I say I love them? I meant to say that they creep me out. But I love to be creeped out, so I guess we’re all good. […]

I have no problem speaking truth to power. Or at least my opinion to power. If I’m mad about an legal loophole in an out-of-date law, I’ll say something about it. If I think a local elected official is being particularly boneheaded, I’ll speak up. The hope is that someone will hear me—or others like […]

Sometimes I really wish I was a full-time staff writer for the Sun. I love writing my column (now every week!), but every once in a while I get the urge to sink my beak into some hard news. Case in point: I wanted to cover that press conference at which former Lt. Gov. Abel […]

The announcement was cryptic, in a sort-of boring sort of way. It arrived by e-mail: “Please find attached a press release concerning Assembly Bill 65. AB 65 was approved today by the Senate Public Safety Committee with a unanimous vote.” But for those in the know, this little bit of legal-process jargon meant it was […]

Behold, the Great Canarini! I know and see all! Tremble at the terrible power of my prognostication! While I love this column, I do sometimes enjoy a little more theatricality than it typically allows. So I’ve been trying out some other things. I found a cool glass sphere at a local thrift shop, and then […]

Sometimes I wonder—OK, a lot of times I wonder: Whatever happened to the public’s right to know? I mean the part of government that is a public process, in the public eye, for all to see. Take, for instance, the closed session Buellton City Council meeting on April 25, when City Manager John Kunkel “resigned” […]

Well, tax season is drawing to a close. How did you do this year? I managed to make it through the federal and state rigmarole with my humble bank account still intact, and I should be getting a little extra spending money coming my way soon! Someone’s buying the fancy millet next time she goes […]

Ah, there’s nothing like the smell of legislation. Yes, legislation actually has a smell—many different smells, to be exact. Some bills, like AB65, local Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian’s proposal to extend rape-by-fraud protections to unmarried women, smell like justice and morality. I’m honestly not sure what that smells like, but you’d recognize it if you got […]

Two weeks back, I short-circuited the natural order and ran a column on a week that wasn’t a part of my regular rotation. I enjoyed the freedom to stretch my words so much, I asked the editors if I could take this every-other-week endeavor and turn it into a weekly gig. After a lot of […]

How often do you look up? As a bird, I look up all the time. The skies are my domain, and I always need to know how they look. I’m constantly asking questions, many of which are filled with jargon you surface-huggers probably can’t even pronounce. Is that smudge on the horizon going to force […]