This column is about a wonderful I've known for many years. But before I can even begin qualifying the general term, wonderful, which simply gives the broad brush and none of the details, I have to start by telling a short story. Because that backdrop will emphasize even more what a great and kindhearted person she was. It was the early to mid 1980s. I was a new immigrant in America. More importantly, I was ...
Manteca up until earlier this decade assessed a utility users tax on municipal water, sewer, and garbage bills that came to $2.35 a month.
Steve Walsh has been in the print and broadcasting business for 13 years, spending the past nine with CNN in Atlanta, GA.
Reader Jim says the National Football League has replaced Major League Baseball as our national pastime.
COLA - the cost of living adjustment - is just like the real thing. It artificially gets the economy racing but then the effect wears off. The long-term impact of the indiscriminate use of COLA on the economy is the same thing as the long-term indiscriminate use of caffeine. It gives you a false sense of energy.
There's a Dennis the Menace doll in my spare bedroom closet. My father gave it to me 47 years ago. The Dennis the Menace Doll, which collectors claim can fetch as much as $120 today, has quite a story behind it. My mother wanted to name me Robert so all three of her sons would have the same initials - Richard, Ronald and Robert. My dad, though, put his foot down. He didn't want people ...
Many memories are worth savoring. For me, I've always been more inclined to go with the ability to recall, relying instead on the thought process to recapture those moments rather than the use of videotapes or DVDs. But that speaks for the world in which we live in today. Most people own video cameras and more of us have cell phones with cameras. Now, I still enjoy taking photos to capture those special occasions. But ...
There is something delightfully sinful about jogging in the rain. It is especially true on the first day of winter. Too often we treat the dead of winter - generally December and January - as a barren wasteland on the calendar. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It is when the Northern San Joaquin Valley starts preparing for its inevitable rebirth when the tule fog dissipates and the warming rays of spring return to ...
I'll probably be the last one sending Christmas cards via snail mail. And that's okay with me. That's one tradition I'm determined to keep. Even when all my family and friends eventually jump into the electronic bandwagon and start e-mailing me Christmas greetings, I will still continue entrusting my greeting cards to the United States Postal Service which has always been reliable to me. They personally deliver your cards to their intended recipients in one ...
When times are tough, like they are right now with the economy in a condition worse than a beggar's tattered clothes, all you hear are gloom-and-doom stories about businesses in financial ruin, families losing their homes to foreclosures and people losing their jobs.
Standing at a graveside memorial service on a cold and damp morning last week brought a half century of memories into perspective with the passing of Patsy Murphy Phillips.
Taking the bus downtown was always a special occasion. As a youngster, it was a sign of growing up and getting a sense of independence by not relying on the folks to drive you around. We were still a few years from a driver's license. Still, I have some rather fond memories of those days growing up in Stockton. Just the mention of downtown back then meant hearing one of the old timers ask, "Did ...
The name Dan Bunz may not ring a bell with many folks in Manteca unless you're a die-in-the-wool San Francisco 49er fan.
At the age of 13 my parents allowed me to go visit relatives in Florida on Christmas break. Not exactly the first time traveling to Florida, we went every year but as a family. My first trip by myself from Ohio to Florida, riding the Greyhound bus, a ride that normally should have been only 18 hours, turned into a 25-hour trip - I will never forget. The day of the departure, I spent with ...
Talk isn't cheap. The Manteca City Council tonight is considering spending $49,920 in a bid to get people to communicate. It includes $40,420 in redevelopment agency funds to hire a consultant to get downtown Manteca landlords and business owners to talk to each other to see if they can work together. The other is to spend $9,500 in general fund money to get the City Council to talk to each other about setting goals on ...
Get ready for the invasion of the Barneys.
The annual network list of canceled primetime shows cannot be pleasing to the progressives who measure shows based on their cultural and political usefulness. "TV Will Be a Lot Less Gay Next Year," the commissars complained at Slate.com. They counted 11 canceled shows that featured regular gay characters.
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