I like bicycling, especially going downhill at 45 mph. One of my more memorable downhill experiences involved a 15-pound purebred dog, a backboard, air bubbles, an unsuccessful Miss Placer County pageant contestant, and being exposed to half of my mother's friends and then some. I was 31 at the time. It was a period in my life where I did a lot of things people would describe as bizarre. I was racing with this 17-year-old ...
Caltrans is toying with an idea to allow advertising on the hundreds of electronic message signs along California freeways such as those along the Highway 120 Bypass.
The folks who are hell-bent on pursuing what would be a national takeover of your healthcare are now turning their guns on insurance companies.
It is time to revisit East Yosemite Avenue traffic flow. Caltrans – an authority on the safe and efficient movement of traffic – over a decade ago lobbied Manteca's elected leaders at the time to allow for a concrete divider from Pestana Avenue to Highway 99. It received a gigantic thumbs down at the time, basically because the manager of the Burger King led a charge that contended it would kill off business. Burger King, ...
Several years ago, a young mother stood directly behind me at the check-out line at the grocery store.
Grandmother thought it was a sign of the end of civilization when women started wearing hair curlers in public.
It was a defining moment. The caller was angry about being assessed to pay for the upkeep of his neighborhood park dubbed Tesoro through landscape maintenance district fees. He didn't like the idea he had to pay for it. In talking with him, though, it wasn't because Tesoro was one of the first few neighborhoods to have neighborhood park maintenance collapsed into annual LMD fees assessed per home. Instead he simply felt it should be ...
Manteca's landscaping bulbs – depending upon your disposition - are either blasted annoyances impeding travel or blessed additions beautifying the streets.
hellion (heyen) n. informal: a rowdy, mischievous, or troublemaking person, esp. a child in a restaurant
"Life's a dance you learn as you go" – Part of the chorus to John Michael Montgomery's song "Life's a Dance."
If there is a merciful deity, there is a special spot reserved in hell for those who abuse the privilege of chewing bubble gum in public.
The Titanic should have taught us all a lesson. When the ship of state hits an iceberg, it's the rich and powerful to the lifeboats first while the rest of us are left scrambling around like a bunch of trapped rats on a sinking ship.
I get it now. AIG executives get mega bonuses using taxpayer bailout funds after helping nearly sending the American economy into the elephant graveyard but the second it looks like Ma and Pa Kettle are taking advantage of the "Cash for Clunkers" the bureaucrats almost have a major stroke applying the brakes. At the same time the national media is all aflutter about the "injustice" of a black professional in Cambridge arrested in his own ...
Saturday, an angel incarcerated for 556 years finally saw the light of day. High up in one of Haghia Sophia's towering domes, the seraphim had been carefully painted sometime after the church's construction in 537. It held vigil over the faithful who made pilgrimage to one of Christianity's most beautiful shrines, until, in 1453, Ottoman Turks overran the ancient Byzantine capital, Constantinople. The pearl of Orthodox Christianity soon was reduced to a mosque. Defenders of ...
Transit villages are supposedly cutting edge concepts in urban planning. It's where shopping and housing is densely clustered near rail or transit hubs. Such transit villages are being pursued on various legs of the BART system. One, however, doesn't have to live in an East Bay or a San Francisco Peninsula city to take advantage of such a concept that is actually rather old. Before the mass production of the auto, most people and businesses ...
"This is called slave labor," said Pope Francis.
People need to stop having heart palpations over Cinco de Mayo celebrations.
Meeting a couple of Ripon folks, and one from Linden and another from Tracy was an unexpected pleasure in my brief two days of jury duty this week – especially when four of us just happened to go out to lunch together on Thursday.
FRENCH CAMP – It's a funny thing, this horse racing business.
She's a single mom in her early 30s. She lives in an old farmhouse in an almond orchard five miles east of Manteca. The closest neighbor is a quarter mile of a way but the trees make it impossible to see their home.
Yosemite National Park is not Disneyland.
The aging RV was parked under a stately tree providing relief from the 90-degree midday heat.
Bell bottom pants. Flare-leg pants. Men's rayon tie scarves. Polyester suits.
Call it farmer smarts
How many calories are in 16 ounces of orange juice? Try 220 calories.
Anthony Alcaraz sat forward in his seat, staring quizzically at the track, convinced someone had made a mistake.
Is San Joaquin County business friendly?
I can't stand cigarette smoke.