My first love was, is, and always will be firefighting even though I’m retired now. My wife kind of understands but requested the scanner stay in the garage.

The Pleasant Grove community had no fire department and in the 1960s was still dependent on a one-0man volunteer rig that was stationed at Johnny Wise’s general store in East Nicolaus some 10 to 15 minute drive away on a good day. Johnny had to close the doors of his general store, rely on the honesty of anyone still shopping, and jump on the rig just to get the process started. He would rely on any community member available to lend a hand once he arrived, if there was anything left to save.

One mid-summer day Johnny responded to a grass fire along Highway 70 and as he was putting it out, an inattentive driver slammed into the back of that rig and it was destroyed. And with this accident, there was no longer any fire service in the southern end of Sutter County. The community members of Pleasant Grove were not pleased; they petitioned the board of supervisors, donated land, time, effort, and money and with the help of a conscripted crew from the Yuba City jail built the three-stall cinder block  building that still stands today.

The equipment was all hand-me-down and all past its prime but we didn’t care. We had our own fire department. Every first and third Tuesday evening most of the folk could be found training on something at the station. Even though I was too young (sans drivers license, therefore unable to drive to any emergency and never mind I was in school) I could be found there with dad.

I was a station rat. I’d do whatever was asked of me just biding my time waiting to turn 16 with a driver’s license in my hand. When that day hit (March 6, 1965) I was in!

Because our home was approximately one quarter mile from the station, in the summer it was not at all uncommon to find me behind the wheel, window down, elbow on the sill driving Code 3 hoping against hope that some girl would see me. Once at scene I would be joined by whoever could get off their tractor and join me. I was a driver/operator before I even knew they existed. Life was good.

One of the rigs we had was an old water wagon (we call them water tenders now). It had a thousand gallon water tank mounted on an old Dodge truck chassis. (There were no hydrants so we had to bring the water we might need with us or we got very good at drafting out of irrigation canals.) With all the years of use and rust catching up that old tank developed pinhole leaks just about everywhere and it was decided that something must be done to make it last.

A plan was hatched. To prep for the work to be performed the truck was taken out of service, the tank was drained and then allowed to dry out. After our next Tuesday evening drill my dad, who was assistant chief, and Norm James, a captain and I drove it over to our shop. There several gallons of tar awaited our arrival. Because I was a scrawny kid, my job was to shimmy down the top loading shoot, into the tank and roll the tar on the inside walls of the tank. What could possibly go wrong. (Today this is referred to as a confined space and a really dumb idea.)

After a few minutes I can’t remember anything but I was told that I was very loudly singing any popular rock song of the day with somewhat questionable lyrics made up by me. Not sure how they got me out because they couldn’t get in. Fortunately I didn’t pass out. So, how does dad keep from being lectured by mom? “What were you thinking?”

A fan was found in the shop and placed in front of me. Coffee was brewed and administered to sober me up, I was left to recover on my own in the barn while they took the unfinished job back to the station and, I’m convinced, to get their story straight.

The next day was a school day and I had one hell of a headache. The job was eventually completed by someone other than me with oxygen flowing from a cutting torch tank hose because we didn’t have small backpack compressed air tanks back then.

Because of the work done that old truck served the community for years to come and I earned the right to be called a fireman because of my work ethic. That little episode made me a brother with the men and I was in for 44 more years retiring in 2009 with the City of Chico Fire Department. And mom? She never found out until years later when it was accidentally mentioned.

Loren Dunlap can be reached at dunlapl@comcast.net.

If you want to head to the theaters, check out Luc Besson’s wacky “DogMan” and our find of the week “Lousy Carter” (showing one night only in San Francisco).

Here’s our roundup.

“Renegade Nell”: “Happy Valley” creator Sally Wainwright enlivens the popular tween fantasy-tinged genre with this exemplary female powered Disney+ series set in 18th-century England. In eight addictive episodes, the on-point filmmaker succeeds where others have failed, injecting just the right doses of intrigue and humor into a quietly subversive feminist story.

Best of all, the series is thankfully not a prequel nor a reboot, and, refreshingly, not a sequel. And what joy it is to have a lively female protagonist at the center of it all, a quick-tempered young adult who’s confident and rebellious and restless. Nell is infamous, too, trying to clear her name in a shocking murder.

“Nell” is made stronger by its well-written characters. And it is purpose-driven Nell (Louisa Harland, channeling some Jessie Buckley intensity) — a legend in the making — who anchors it. She’s gained not only notoriety but superpowers via a Tinkerbell-esque sidekick Billy Blind (Nick Mohammed).

When Nell and her two sisters flee from those who want to keep them quiet, their paths continue to cross with a duplicitous highwayman/aristocrat (Frank Dillane, providing much of the humor) who is the younger paramour of an irresponsible, gossip-mongering newspaper editor (Joely Richardson, living it up here), and a privileged brother (Jake Dunne) and sister (Alice Kremelberg) who are enabled int their tapping to the dark side by the Earl of Poynton (Adrian Lester).

There are many more engaging characters and a slew of clever cameos from British stars. Each play essential parts in the action, and do their fair share of conniving and derring-do to aid or defeat the grand, evil purposes of the bad guys. “Renegade Nell” gallops ahead of other Disney+ offerings by telling a new story tremendously well, and giving us a young woman who defies the ruling class to gain not only justice but freedom. Details: 3½ stars out of 4; all episodes available starting March 29.

“A Gentleman in Moscow”: Anyone who gulped down Amor Towles’ 2016 literary page-turner and then campaigned friends to follow suit will approach Showtime’s eight-part adaptation with a touch of trepidation. Rest easy, dear readers, showrunner and executive producer Ben Vanstone and creator/writer Joe Murtagh have done this one a solid and nothing more.

Ewan McGregor initially seems like an odd casting choice to play Count Alexander Rostov — a 1920s aristocrat whose mouthy ways lead to his getting forever confined by a Bolshevik court panel to the ritzy Metropol hotel. But he grows on you and gives another one of his emotionally complex performances, even if he’s not a Russian.

What might look on the outside look like a cushy sentence is anything but as Rostov’s ordered to never step outside and is confined within the dilapidated, uncomfortable accommodations in a drafty, chilly attic. Down below, he befriends many: confident actress Anna Urbanova (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, giving a classic, classy performance) who relishes her healthy sexual appetite, and a precocious child instrumental in playing a critical, life-changing part in his life as the decades fly by and the screws get tightened on dissent.

Unlike some series, the extended length of this one benefits the decades-spanning story arc, with each episode cycling us through Russian history and showing how the changing political winds whisked away some in power leaving the powerless to find strength, love and greater meaning. Details: 3 stars; starts streaming March 29 on Paramount+ (with Showtime) and then on March 31 on Showtime.

“STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces”: The first part of Morgan Neville’s entirely worthwhile two-part Apple TV+ series blows the audience away in its creative approach in charting comedian Steve Martin’s childhood, fledgling stand-up career and then his phenomenally successful stage shows. Told entirely without the fallback plan of a talking head, it overlays interviews with Martin and others with video and images of the time. It’s an immersive experience and one of the most creative and unique approaches used for a documentary about a famous person.

The second part is less adventurous but finds Steve at home, preparing for a show with his friend and “Only Murders in the Building” co-star Martin Short, his wife, comedian Jerry Seinfeld, friend Tina Fey and costar Diane Keaton, amongst others. It focuses more on his film career, and features clips from some of his biggest successes (“The Jerk,” “Parenthood”) and his biggest failures (“Pennies From Heaven” and Nora Ephron’s “Mixed Nuts”). The energy and momentum of the first part deflates in the second, but it is in tempo with the man himself, as a much more content, less anxiety-ridden Martin candidly reflects on the films, his greatest loves (including art), his emotionally shut-off father and a renaissance-like career that includes author, painter and playwright amongst other talents. It is a telling glimpse into the life of a creative artist who learns the invaluable truth that all the trappings of success mean so little until you’ve built a place you call home. It’s an exceptional documentary, even if the second half can’t quite keep up with the first. Details: 3½ stars; drops March 29 on Apple TV+.

“DogMan”: Luc Besson’s bizarro but commendable character study swings from great to awful, sometimes in a matter of seconds. What prevents its erratic tendencies from going entirely off leash is Caleb Landry Jones’ gutsy, fully committed performance. You can’t take your eyes off this underrated actor. He’s unforgettable as Douglas Munrow, a loner drag performer (he does a very cool Marilyn) in a wheelchair who’s more at home with his own pack of scraggly dogs than he is with humans. He has a good reason — his cruel dog-fighting father kicked him out and locked him in the filthy backyard kennel till he broke out. The dogs were the only ones who showed Douglas unconditional love and also protected him. Besson wrote this outlandish story, and while his directing is better than his screenwriting there is an undeniable flair to everything about this weird affair. Yes, it continually goes on and off the rails, but then it spits you off into an unexpected, but rather ingenious, place at the end. So given all that, is it worth seeing? Yes, but only if you plunge rather than lean into its chaotic  mindset from the very start. Details: 2.5 stars, in theaters Friday.

Find of the week

“Lousy Carter”: Indie filmmaker Bob Byington’s biting comedy fails on all counts in the originality department with its worn-out premise of a pompous professional – in this case a college literature professor who’s teaching a master’s course on “The Great Gatsby” –  confronting mortality when his doc says he has six months to live. A “death sentence” is one of the most overused plots but Byington’s dry-witted black comedy works better than the bulk of ‘em because it is wickedly funny and uncompromising and that’s due to the acidic screenwriting from Byington and the wry lead performance from David Krumholtz as a former dreamer with a big, hardly commercial idea to make an animated movie out of a Nabokov novel. Byington’s cast this droll comedy well with funny turns from actors portraying Carter’s forthright ex-girlfriend (Oliva Thirlby), a funeral-loving grad student (Luxy Banner) who challenges him all the time and his sorta best friend (Martin Starr) and his horny wife (Jocelyn DeBoer). Told in just under 80 minutes, “Lousy Carter” made me laugh uncomfortably quite often and then even shocked me at the end. Details: 3 stars; screens March 31 at the Roxie in San Francisco; also available On Demand starting March 29.

Contact Randy Myers at soitsrandy@gmail.com.

Wow.

The view from the Pololū lookout, up on the north end of the Big Island of Hawaii, is a sweeping vista, and every step down its steep trail introduces you to an entire family of exceptional views.

But first, let’s talk about green. There’s green, and then there’s Hawaii green, a riot of greenesses. The great greens seen all over the island greet you on the Pololū trail too; they make you want to bring some lava home to start your own garden.

Take multiple stops along the trail down to inhale those blissful beach vistas — and those emerald foliage views and those swaying-palm views. Though the trek down is but a half-mile, on days when the trail is slick, you might catch yourself gasping and grabbing green limbs to steady the way.

The acute angle of the Pololū land was shaped by the Kohala volcano, which cut a series of valleys into the high cliffs, Pololū Valley among them. Get to the valley floor — you won’t hurry, because it’s steep —and there’s a peaceful, mini-forest walk to the rocky beach, as lovely at ground level as it is high above. Pololū has a black-sand beach, but we arrived after a series of storms, so the shore was swept and then strewn with rocks and fallen trees, good to sit on and gaze at the inviting, albeit rough, ocean.

Truly ambitious (read “crazed”) strollers might continue hiking up into the mountains — there are trails — and up and down to the other Kohala valleys beyond, but we’d hiked Pololū before and knew that though it was a half-mile down, it was, magically, 30 miles up. (Popular remarks heard on the way up from fellow hikers: “Ooof,” “Wow!” and “Man!” The hike is called the Awini trail, which looks suspiciously like “whiny.”)

Going down, you risk becoming Humpty-Dumpty. Going up, you’re The Little Engine That Could. But it bears repeating: Any exertion at Pololū is worth it. The sea-eating cliffs, the dramatic beach vistas, the hillside greens — it’s a meal for the senses.

Speaking of meals, you might have sparked your appetite zipping down and up Pololū. Now’s the time to ask what’s for lunch. Head back on Highway 270 to Hawi, the small town you passed through on the way to those views. Hawi (pronounced “ha-vee”) might be the quintessential Hawaiian small town. Years ago, my girlfriend Alice and I house-sat there for seven weeks and delighted in its warmth and appeal. Unfortunately, the pandemic hit some local businesses hard, but lucky for all, Bamboo survived and still thrives.

Bamboo the restaurant was once Bamboo the hotel, housing sugar-cane plantation workers more than 100 years ago. Then it changed clothes and was a dry-goods and grocer, and finally, a restaurant.

Bamboo wears its history well—walk in, and you’ll be bathed in color. There’s a near-theatrical feeling to the place, but it’s not forced. There is art everywhere and a profusion of bright hues. If the paintings, wall hangings and flamboyant, ceiling-hung umbrellas aren’t enough for your eyes, pop up to the gallery above and browse the work of local artists, from serving platters carved from local woods to striking ocean-themed paintings. There’s a gift shop at restaurant level too.

Dazzling as all these artworks are, your principal mission is food. Well, perhaps drink too, since Bamboo makes hardy mai tais available for the thirsty. Our table of four lunched a bunch, one with a Hawaiian barbecue pork sandwich, another with grilled fresh ahi on organic greens. Alice and I both said “aloha” to the Aloha Vietnam sandwich, which planted that day’s ahi catch on Hawaiian sweet bread, joined with sweet and sour Asian coleslaw, fine fries and a Thai sweet chili aioli both sweet and savory.

Everything is served with a side of good cheer from the servers to restaurant owner Joan Channon, who stopped by the table to wish us well. Or maybe to get a bite of my great sandwich — I was protective. We all shared some white chocolate passion fruit cheesecake and dark chocolate mousse torte. I’d like to say we shared because we are noble and bountiful, but we were also glowingly full from the main courses, and dessert lit the final candle of goodness.

Do cruise the main drag of Hawi, which has lots of other small shops and businesses. If you’re there on a Saturday, they have a fun farmers market with farm goods, prepared foods and local crafts. And if you have a sweet tooth that won’t quit after Bamboo, they sell local Tropical Dreams ice cream in the shop across from the restaurant, which is OK … if by “OK” you mean fabulous.

By the way, if you still hunger for another hike and lunch on the beautiful Big Island, consider the Kilauea Iki trail in Volcanoes National Park. It’s a 3.3-mile walk, first on an overlook trail through those astonishing, almost primeval Hawaii greens, then down to the otherworldly crater for a hike across the blasted and crumpled lavascape, and then back up through the overgrowth.

Magical. Eat lunch at the historic Volcano House and consider yourself blessed.

If you go

Pololū Overlook and Beach Trail:  About 8 miles past Hawi in North Kohala, look for the end of Highway 270. The road dead-ends at the overlook, which has a very small parking lot, sometimes overseen by rangers and volunteers, who often have to help drivers turn around. There are also roadside parking spots that you can pull into before you hit the lot.

Bamboo Restaurant: Open for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday and for dinner from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday at 55-3415 Akoni Pule Highway in Hawi; www.bamboorestauranthawaii.com.

Our dogs understand us better than they’ve been given credit for — and scientists say they have the brain wave evidence to prove it.

By placing electrodes on the heads of 18 pet dogs, researchers found striking evidence that the animals did not merely recognize the patterns of sound that come out of their owners’ mouths, they actually realized that certain words refer to specific objects.

The findings were reported Friday in the journal Current Biology.

“For decades there has been a debate about whether animals are capable of such a level of abstraction,” said study leader Marianna Boros, a neuroscientist and ethologist at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary. The experiments with dogs knock down the uniqueness of humans “a little bit.”

A few exceptional dogs have been trained to learn the names of hundreds of objects. Among the most esteemed was Chaser, a border collie from South Carolina who could remember the names of more than 1,000 toys.

Boros wondered whether more dogs understood that words had meanings but just didn’t have a way to show it. Even when dogs succeed in behavioral studies, she said, “you never know exactly what happens in the brain.”

So she took inspiration from researchers who study language processing in humans and got her hands on an electroencephalogram machine. The EEG measures brain waves and can gauge the difference between the neural responses to a word that’s expected and a word that seems to come out of left field.

With a little cleanser, some conductive cream and gauze, the researchers connected the EEG electrodes to the heads of 27 dogs. Then the dogs listened to recordings of their owners using the familiar words in simple sentences like, “Luna, here’s the ball.”

After a short pause, the owner appeared behind a window with an object in his or her hand. Sometimes it was the object mentioned in the sentence; sometimes it wasn’t. Either way, the electrodes recorded small voltages from the dogs’ brains as they contemplated what they had heard and seen.

The tests went on for as long as a dog was willing to stay on its mat and participate, Boros said.

“The EEG studies with dogs are quite easy to run,” she said. “They don’t need to do anything. They just lay down.”

The 18 dogs that were able to sit through at least 10 trials were included in the analysis. With all but four of those animals, the EEGs revealed a distinct pattern: The wave signals dipped significantly lower when there was a match between the word and the object than when there wasn’t.

It was reminiscent of the difference seen in EEGs when humans are confronted with a word that seems out of place, such as a request to wash your hands with soap and coffee. Neuroscientists interpret this as a sign that the brain was expecting another word — “water” instead of “coffee” — and had to do some extra work to understand the sentence.

Boros and her colleagues posit that the same thing happens in the brains of dogs: After hearing their owner use the word for an object, they called it up in their mind in anticipation of seeing it. Then, when an object appeared, it was either the thing they expected or something that threw them for a loop. The reason the dogs could tell something was amiss was that they understood the spoken word.

The gap between hearing the word and seeing the object is key, said Lilla Magyari, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Stavanger in Norway, who worked on the study.

If a dog heard the word “ball” while looking at a ball in its owner’s hands, it might guess that the two go together because they were present at the same time, she said. But the experiment’s design prevented that from happening. Instead, the dog must have created an accurate mental representation of the spoken word.

The dog was thinking, “I heard the word, now the object needs to come,” Magyari said.

“Ball” was the most common vocabulary word among the dogs in the study. Several had words for “leash,” “phone” and “wallet.” Most had at least one name for a favorite toy, including one pet that understood four distinct words for different toys in the experiment.

Marie Nitzschner spent a decade studying the cognitive abilities and communication skills of dogs at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. She said she had ever met only one dog that seemed to know words for specific objects. Even so, she said the study makes a strong case that the phenomenon is real.

“It appears to me to be conclusive,” said Nitzschner, who was not involved in the work.

She added that dogs who lack this ability have nothing to worry about “because we still have good communication options. However, if I noticed that my dog had a talent in this direction, I would probably try to encourage this talent.”

Dog lovers are sure to be intrigued by the linguistic capabilities of their best friends. But the researchers see the study as a way to investigate why humans excel at language when other animals don’t.

“It’s kind of a mystery,” Magyari said. “We don’t know why all of a sudden humans were able to use such a complex system.”

By breaking it down into its component parts and studying whether any of them are shared with animals, “we can construct a theory about how language evolved in humans,” she said.

Of all species on Earth, dogs are singular study subjects because they live their entire lives immersed in a world rich with human speech. And unlike with cats, the ancestors of dogs were selected for domestication based on their ability to communicate with humans.

“It’s super-relevant for them,” Boros said.

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Vimifuso charger proves its worth: I recommended the Vimifuso 140W USB charger as a gift idea last year. I’ve had a chance to use mine for several months now and have been so pleased I feel I did not do it justice before, so I am correcting that now.

So many devices we depend on every day need USB charging, including headphones, Bluetooth speakers, computers, household gadgets of all types and, of course, tablets and phones. The six-port Vimifuso makes charging them so very easy, all from a single device, and it offers other benefits I did not fully appreciate until I had more experience with it. It also checks all the quality and safety boxes with FCC, UL and CE certification, which makes recommending it even easier.

I love that it uses an AC cord to connect to the wall, and is not a heavy, bulky device with retractable prongs that is prone to fall off the wall socket. Plug the cord into the wall, connect the charger and you are ready to go. I travel quite a bit and this has proven especially handy in hotel rooms. I have enough cord to put the charger on the nightstand or on the bed with me, and then my USB charging cables extend the reach so I can keep my devices close at hand. There is also no worry about yanking the charger off the wall when picking up the phone or tablet. It is a sinking feeling when you are at a trade show and wake up to a phone at 10% rather than 100% because charging stopped. That never happens with the Vimifuso.

There are four USB-C ports and two standard USB-A ports, so it is unlikely you will ever experience a situation the Vimifuso cannot handle. This versatility has paid off in ways I did not expect. I was with a friend who was using his MacBook to catch up on emails as I charged my iPad and he said, “Darn, I am about to run out of power and I forgot my cord.” Looking at the MacBook and seeing the USB-C power port, I said, “I’ve got you covered” and connected the Vimifuso’s 65-watt USB-C port to his MacBook with a USB-C cable. My friend looked at the charger and said, “What is that thing? Something tells me I have to get one.” He travels even more than me, and he has one now too.

The Vimifuso charger sells on Amazon, and when I decided to revisit it I was expecting to recommend it at the $45 price. When I checked Amazon it was 30% off with a checkbox coupon, which I hope holds for a while for the sake of anyone who wants one. For about $30 you will be a very happy camper, especially if you travel, charge lots of devices or have multiple family members charge their phones from a single outlet or charger.

Q. We disconnected from cable TV and installed an antenna. The TV is fine, but there is no way to access a guide to see what programs are broadcast, or what channel or times. We would also like the ability to record. Can you recommend something to remedy our problem?

—R.G., Sheboygan, Wisconsin

A. There are multiple HDTV tuners available that will record on a USB flash or hard drive. I have used the Mediasonic HomeWorx models successfully for years, and they feature an on-screen program guide. The free phone and tablet app TV Listings Plus is phenomenal and I highly recommend it to TV fans. Learn more about TV Listings Plus at guidepluslabs.com.

(Contact Don Lindich at www.soundadvicenews.com and use the “submit question” link on that site.)

©2024 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

You see, after a hiatus of five years I was returning to academia to finish my final two years of a B.A. Degree program. Chico offered me everything I was looking for and more, to complete this task. Cheap housing, cheap eats, few distractions, bicycle friendly, and a brand-new undergrad program called American Studies.

Oh yes, what sweetened the deal was a 48-month scholarship from Uncle Sam called the G.I. Bill. With everything in place and with a total focus on my studies, I was ready to get the job done.

Chico to me was a magical place, a little town that time forgot. Oakland was in the throes of imploding, with its best days behind it. On the other hand, Chico was small enough to wrap one’s arms around yet big enough for a lifetime of exploration.

After spending most of the summer of 1974 in Chico as a tourist/resident, I decided to apply for school as a third-year undergraduate, and was accepted, commencing the spring semester, January 1975. Years earlier, 1967 to be exact, I was introduced to Chico whilst attending brother Jim’s college graduation in May. Then again in July 1968 during a stopover on the way to the annual Trinity River Raft Race.

There are moments in life that are defining, and both Chico and the TRRR immediately struck a chord that paid dividends later in life. Indirectly, a big shout-out is owed to brother Jim, whose personal crossroads fatefully intersected mine, and all it took was a rubber raft and some misinformed basketball gods.

Finding a place to rent had been resolved thankfully only a few days before classes began when I had hit on the idea of calling real estate agents from the telephone yellow pages beginning with the letter “Z” and working backwards. Bingo, within minutes the Viffredo family business gave me a positive reply, saying they had a place, a four-room converted garage for $120 per month, close to school. Although a bit steep for the ole G.I. Bill pocketbook, costing me nearly half of my monthly allotment, finding a place in a college town at this time of year, all to myself mind you, within walking distance to downtown and campus, was close to a miracle, and too good to pass up.

Now that I had this primary concern crossed off my “to do” list I quickly went about furnishing my humble abode. Besides the traditional brick and boards bookcases known to all college students, my interior decorations would be an eclectic lot as well: Formica kitchen table from brother Pat, couch and rocking chair in Western motif thanks to brother Jim’s eagle eyes for garage sales, oak rocking chair via a Sacramento auction house, antique bookcase via a Chico estate sale, homemade side table via a Chico garage sale, and a second-hand, floor length carpet, free of charge due to a certain dumpster acumen, a learned urban survival skill which manifested itself initially in the Bay Area, and then was mercilessly exploited in my new town of residence.

Now that the home front was settled and comfy, it was time to thoroughly explore all there was to this city of trees and undervalued amenities. As time allowed, the services of a small transportation fleet were employed in the form of a new 10-speed Raleigh bicycle (purchased from Hank and Frank’s in Oakland), a 1971 VW Super Beetle, Doug Watson’s vintage pickup truck, and my own two feet.

Experiencing Chico wouldn’t have been half the fun without my pal Doug, a local yokel who shared a passion for old things which naturally grew into a great friendship and partnership in all things involving garage/estate sales, thrift/antique stores, and the old city dumps.

John Brennan is a resident of Chico who graduated from Chico State in 1977. He can be reached at johnmailman2@yahoo.com.

The more personal Michael Arceneaux gets in his collection, “I Finally Bought Some Jordans,” the better it gets.

I’m not convinced the essayist has anything fresh to say about climate change, Donald Trump or being kind to restaurant servers, all of which he weighs in on, but his essay on “How It Feel Outside,” which is about his relationship with his folks, is a stunner.

Beginning with Arceneaux musing about how surprisingly loaded “How are you?” is when he asks it of his dad, “How It Feel” deals with being gay and Black and wondering how his parents will react to meeting a theoretical partner, but also covers territory most adult children can probably relate to at some point in their relationship with their folks.

Arceneaux describes his anger with his mom and dad. They love him for who he is but seem to have put up a few walls. He also admits his shortcomings as a son, acknowledging that, even if there are things they don’t feel comfortable talking about, he and his folks have found their way to a bond that works.

His mother (who died recently) worried, for instance, about material in Arceneaux’s earlier books, “I Can’t Date Jesus” and “I Don’t Want to Die Poor” (beginning all three titles with “I” suggests Arceneaux knows his own life is his best subject). In a phone conversation, Arceneaux writes, “I listened to her explain that she doesn’t want me to repeat her mistakes of holding on to anger for too long. She said it will make you sick. She said it can and will kill you. She said you will waste too many years of your life being angry.”

Some of the essays, including those about housing and writing, pick up on themes in “Die Poor,” which was about drowning in student loans. Arceneaux is not debt-free yet but he’s in a better place (that’s where the Jordan purchase comes in). And although he’s not in the business of giving advice, his approach to the psychology of debt relief is smart and helpful.

Arceneaux is a fluid writer, but I wish he’d had more help from an editor. The rampant use of italics in “Jordan” is distracting and there are too many sentences like this one: “At the same time, I sometimes am growing tired of constantly having to prove my value.” The evident frustration is understandable for a man who is, as Arceneaux points out, a double minority. But the sentence is janky.

Quibbles aside, Arceneaux has an opinion on just about everything and a snarky, unafraid-of-confrontation voice to back it up. He expresses ambivalence about writing — specifically, journalism — but it’s clear that, wherever he chooses to take his talents, he is a man with something to say.

____

I Finally Bought Some Jordans

By: Michael Arceneaux.

Publisher: HarperOne, 224 pages, $19.99.

©2024 StarTribune. Visit at startribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

No doubt, and taking it further: It is time to get tools in their best working condition for the new season.

Take a good hard look at your garden tool kit and then make some decisions. Are your bypass pruners making sharp cuts or are they doing harm by crushing the branch? If your trowel handle bends like a paper drinking straw when digging, then a new, hardworking one will change your garden life for the better. Maybe your tools just need a bit of spit and polish and a good sharpening session. And after your decisions are made, how about spaghetti for dinner?

Clean and disinfect

Improve tool performance with a good cleaning. Just like washing our hands to remove germs and bacteria, we need to do the same for our garden tools. No need to spread any harmful pathogens from last year to established plants in the garden and new ones that will be planted soon. And when referring to tools, the list includes plant trellises, cages, stakes, accessories and containers (they’ll need cleaning and disinfecting, too). Some trellises and containers may not be easy to clean because of location and size, so do the best you can. Generally, wooden containers naturally repel fungi and bacteria. Where possible, wash with soap and water, rinse well and let dry.

Clean each tool well before disinfecting. Begin by giving each a strong blast of water to remove caked-on dirt and debris. Pruners can easily be dissembled by removing the nut or screws that hold the blades together, then the spring coil will slip off. (Keep track of the pieces.) Soaking in warm, liquid dish soap is all you need; use a stiff brush for hard-to-reach places. If there’s dried-on residue or sap, soak longer in soapy water or try a commercial product like Scrubbing Bubbles, which also disinfects. Read and follow label cautions associated with commercial products. Rinse well with water after cleaning and dry.

Lysol — or similar, store-brand versions — works well as a disinfectant for possible fungi, bacteria and viruses on tools. Simply place the tool in a bucket or box and spray all sides, or opt for the easy-to-use wipes. When finished, let the tools air dry.

Avoid using bleach products to disinfect pruners and other sharp-edged cutting tools. Bleach is very corrosive and can make pits in some metal tools. However, diluted bleach (one part bleach, nine parts water) can be used on rakes, shovels, spades, trellises, tomato cages and containers.

Undiluted 70% or higher concentration rubbing alcohol works well on small hand tools and pruners, although when used on tools to prune out fire blight, it might not be as effective.

Rust can be removed a couple of ways: Soak exceptionally rusty tools in a jar or can of white vinegar for several hours or overnight. For shovels, soak a large rag with vinegar, wrap it around the shovel blade, cover with plastic and let it sit overnight. Use a wire brush after soaking to remove any residual rust. After soaking any tool, wash with soapy water, rinse and dry.

Also try using some elbow grease with sandpaper or steel wool for rust.

Sharpening

Want superior experiences preparing a meal and maintaining a garden? Assuming your answer is yes, both disciplines require sharp tools.

The easiest way to sharpen is to take your clean and sanitized tools to a reputable garden center, hardware store, small business or friend who specializes in sharpening gardening tools. Prices should be reasonable.

For DIY, a carbide file is great for smaller tools like pruners, loppers and small snipper shears. A mill file works well on shovel blades.

Once all your tools are cleaned, disinfected, and sharpened, give them a wipe down with some vegetable oil, which will help prevent rust through the season. Bypass pruners will benefit from a drop or two of hardware lubricant (like 3-In-One oil).

Tool tips

• During the outdoor gardening season, some smart gardeners brightly paint the handle of their trowels, making them easier to spot in the garden.
• A pocketed apron is handy for holding and carrying tools around while gardening. Plastic tubs decked out with a saddle bag to hold all sorts of tools (and perhaps an adult beverage for later in the day) are also popular.
• Take advantage of these warm late winter days into spring and do the work outside while soaking up some healthy vitamin D. Clean tools, sharpened pruners? Life is good.

Resources

How to Clean and Sharpen Tools: bit.ly/3VaXQkh

Laura, The Garden Answer: bit.ly/3VbK0OO

Betty and Alan Rollinger, Keeping Garden Tools Cleaned and Cared For: bit.ly/4a7db9F

Betty Cahill is a freelance writer who speaks and writes about gardening in the Rocky Mountain Region. Visit her site at http://gardenpunchlist.blogspot.com/ for even more gardening tips.

Whether you’re planning a special occasion dinner, such as Easter or Mother’s Day, there’s plenty of inspiration in its pages, from a slow-roasted salmon dish with lemon, asparagus and leeks to a lemon and rosemary olive oil cake.

We recently caught up with Heuck to learn more about what goes into the craft of writing great recipes — and how to make some of those delicious things.

Q: You started out doing social media work with Ina Garten. What do you find interesting about the prominence of cooking and food within social media?

A: It’s changed so much since I started. It wasn’t even that long ago, but when I graduated from college, it was 2013 and the social media landscape was Facebook. Instagram was just starting. It still felt like a very new thing and not something that was being used for professional endeavors as much as for sharing with friends. I feel like it’s exploded over the last 10-ish years. It’s democratized food media in a way where anyone can share what they love and what they’re passionate about, create a following and create a business. It’s been really helpful for people to be able to pursue a career in recipes.

Q: Did you always love cooking?

A: I didn’t. I wasn’t one of those kids who wants to grow up and be Emeril or on the Food Network. But I loved paging through cookbooks, and I baked a little bit as a kid. When I was in college, I started cooking with friends, enjoying the togetherness and the fun of planning a meal, cooking, setting the table and having friends around. I still wasn’t aware of the food world as a career path. It just seemed like something that I like to do. But as I was looking for my next step after I graduated, I realized I had this odd, third-degree connection to Ina Garten. I felt like it would be amazing to work for her.  I wrote her a letter and introduced myself, and she happened to be looking for someone to help her with social media at the time. It was very, very fortunate timing.

Q: Tell me more about what you learned from Ina in your years of working with her.

A: I had never thought about a recipe, besides just opening a cookbook, before working for her. The process of starting with an idea, fine tuning it and writing it in a way that is easy to understand, clear and most importantly, that it all works and is able to be made by cooks of all levels — there’s so much that goes into that. I’ve learned so much of what I know from her. I first started cooking at home, practicing and honing my skills and then gradually started to write my own recipes. It was fun to repeat the things that I learned at work and put my own spin on it.

Q: You’ve had a number of other cooking-related jobs, recipe creator for the New York Times, prep cook, virtual cooking teacher and private chef for a family. How have those experiences shaped your approach to recipe development?

A: Cooking is different in different settings. Each each one of those experiences was super interesting, because you get to witness the way people interact with food. These were all shorter stints, with the exception of the New York Times. When I worked at The Lost Kitchen (in Maine), you’re making food for people to eat in the restaurant. The virtual cooking classes were fascinating, because I was interacting not in person but face-to-face with people who were making my recipe in front of me — it reinforced how important it is to have something really clear that people are excited about.

For a couple of months I cooked for a family, and I saw how busy the parents were. They needed help prepping dinner, so that when they came home from work, they could throw it all together.

All of these different experiences reminded me that when we cook at home, we want something that is simple and delicious — and not stressful. There’s enough other stuff going on in our lives that food should be enjoyable, the cooking process should be enjoyable, and ultimately it shouldn’t be this Herculean task to make dinner for our families each night.

Q: What inspired your cookbook? How did you know you had enough recipes to write a cookbook?

A: It’s a quite a process. I think a good cookbook should have recipes that reflect the different needs we have for cooking, so the the theme of the book is fairly broad. I started playing around with things that sounded good to me, including a bunch of easy chicken and fish recipes and recipes for people who are vegetarian or vegetable forward. I’m a big list person and started scribbling away, brainstorming different kinds of dishes that should be in this book, taking that to the kitchen and making and fine-tuning those recipes.

Q: If you had to distill it, what would you say goes into crafting a good recipe?

A: A good recipe has not necessarily a short ingredient list, but an ingredient list that doesn’t have any extra ingredients. It’s pared down to the things that make the dish special and delicious, and has ingredients that are easy to find. I live in the Hudson Valley in New York, which is a rural area. As I was writing this book, I was reminded very often about how limited my access to good quality groceries was, so I kept that a priority, making sure that the ingredients were really easy to find.

I like to strike a balance between giving enough information that the cook has everything they need without giving them so much information that the recipe is three pages long. Every word counts. Finally, testing the recipe is super important, as is providing little tips along the way, whether it’s an explanation of the inspiration behind the recipe, the paragraph that’s at the top or some helpful tips at the bottom. Those are all helpful aspects to making someone feel equipped to make the dish.

Q: How do you know when a recipe is done?

A: One thing I learned from Ina was that a big part of it is trusting your own taste and your own assessment: It tastes right, it’s well-seasoned, and the components come together in a way that makes sense. In some ways, creating a recipe is like working with a puzzle. You want it to all fit and be a seamless, smooth experience. Sometimes you have a piece you really want to fit in, because it’s a delicious ingredient or something that would make it feel really special, but it’s too fussy. It’s about finding the balance between adding enough ingredients and special touches to make it unique, while still having it be really doable.

Q: What do you love about creating recipes?

A: I love the challenge of starting with an idea, working on it and eventually feeling victorious that I’ve gotten it right. Some of these things take a lot of time, so feeling like I’ve done it is rewarding. More than that, it’s seeing people make the recipes and enjoy them with their own families and share photos. That makes me feel like what I’m doing is actually making a difference, and people are creating delicious meals with these recipes. That makes it all worth it and it’s definitely the most satisfying part of this.

Right now, fans of sci-fi/fantasy films are going ga-ga over “Dune: Part 2” (which certainly is gorgeous).

But I’m here to sing the praises of another space opera.

I was a bit late jumping on the Star Wars bandwagon. (Spoiler: Darth Vader dies; who knew?) Sure, I couldn’t escape seeing the first two — er, Episodes 4 and 5, I mean — in theaters when they first came out back in 1977 and 1980. But really, I had little interest, didn’t know what it all meant and couldn’t appreciate how incredible it was that George Lucas created this fantastical dynasty.

Then, a couple of years ago, I met Dave, a sci-fi/fantasy geek who convinced me to give the genre a try.

After dipping my toe into the outer space pool with “The Expanse” series (2015-2021), and a lot of hitting pause and asking questions (“So where did this menacing blue goo come from again?”), I was ready to take the plunge.

We began with “Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope,” released in 1977. (Naturally, we watched them in the order they were made, like any purist would.) Little of it was familiar to me, so I was enthralled. And the best part of it all: I got explanations along the way, i.e., “Lucas based his air battles between the empire and the rebels on World War II dogfighting newsreels.”

“The trilogies are about the redemption of evil men becoming good again, against the backdrop of John Williams’ brilliant scores.”

“The Midi-chlorians (the foundational cells of the Force) were strong in the Skywalkers, and Anakin’s lightsaber tied Luke and Rey together through the Force.”

Wookies and jawas and banthas, oh my.

My pop culture memory banks are so much more complete now that I know the difference between a clone and a droid, and can identify a rancor and a dewback. Oh, what I have missed!

“The stormtroopers were named after the Sturm Abteilung of the Nazi party.”

“Just like his grandfather, Kylo Ren is manipulated by a Sith and wants to embrace the power of the Dark Side but he struggles against the pull of the Light Side from his Skywalker heritage.”

But all good things come to an end, amiright? After Star Wars episodes IV, V and VI, and then I, II and III, I was feeling bereft — until Dave showed me all of the Star Wars spinoffs: “Ahsoka,” “The Book of Boba Fett,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” It was so exciting that I burst into song: “A whole new worrrrrrrrld.” So much to look forward to.

At a recent book club meeting, I excitedly described my most recent obsession to my friends: “The Mandalorian” series, a Star Wars spinoff streaming on Disney, starring a mostly-masked Pedro Pascal and the cutest little puppet/CGI creature, Grogu.

When I told these worldly, intelligent women that I wanted to buy Baby Yoda figurines and place them all over my house, the look on their faces made me wonder if I had gone too far.

But I remain unapologetic. They’ll see how cute those little Baby Yodas are when they come over for our June meeting.

However, I think they would judge me if they knew about the Grogu adhesive bandages in my medicine cabinet.

Jedi and beskar and Leia, oh my.

May the force … you know.