Town Crier

Editor, This morning (Dec. 15), after our Food Pantry had closed, a car pulled up to the Resource Center.  It seems the driver had "found"...

“When is the surfboard menorah going to be up at Main Beach? I can’t wait!” Sarah Vanderveen. Laguna has a great mix of festivities over the late-December holiday season. We’re just kicking off the eight days of Hanukah as I write this column, and Christmas isn’t far off. Weeks and weekends are crammed with homes to visit and gifts to give. It’s a time when you start to wonder if you have too many friends in such a small town. The surfboard menorah is a highlight of the season for my wife, Sarah. She believes that she’s Jewish somewhere in her ancestry and also just loves the unique way that the Chabad Jewish Center celebrates Chanukah publicly with lighted surfboard art at the beach.

Diabetes falls into the ranks of a dangerous terrorist arriving in strength and numbers on our shores. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates one in 10 of us currently suffer from type two diabetes and a quarter of us don’t know we have it. The CDC goes on to predict one in only three of us could have diabetes by 2050. Diabetes is where glucose builds up in the bloodstream due to its inability to enter into the cells where it belongs. How does this happen? Insulin is a hormonal key unlocking the cell wall allowing the glucose to pass through and become fuel. Insulin in diabetics no longer opens that door, leaving high levels of glucose flowing through the blood where it can damage blood vessels of organs.

My father was one of seven kids from Kansas. During the Great Depression, he got married and the next day took the freights West. There he eventually joined the Coast Guard and at the end of WW II ended up in Newport Beach. He did well in real estate and luckier yet, did not lose it back during one of the many down cycles. He and Mom lived full and good lives, and their kids, we four plus one foster brother, still are going strong. Our foster brother, Gary, came from a broken family and joined us at the age of 16. At Christmas, I no longer am sure who my whole family is. Yes, I know it includes my brothers and sisters and their offspring and their offspring too. But it is more than that. My former wife lives near me in Laguna and our children navigate between us in a manner that works for all concerned. During holidays it can be tricky, but we all accommodate one another and go to the same music recitals together.

Top 10 bestsellers at Laguna Beach Books

More than $11,000 was raised at Laguna Beach Seniors’ 19th annual holiday lunch this past  Monday, contributing toward the non profit’s $500,000 a year...

Union Bank Hires Locally   Union Bank announced that Laguna Beach resident Jeffrey Redeker as well as two other have joined the company’s business banking group.   Redeker...

  Louise Buckley, a longtime activist with Laguna Beach Seniors, celebrated her 90th birthday belatedly with the Laguna Beach Exchange Club recently.   Club President Connie Burlin...

The Pacific Marine Mammal Center has been for the past two months rehabilitating a three year-old sub adult female sea lion, nicknamed Cyclone. Cyclone, who...

  Recently three Laguna Beach locals found themselves on the same Crystal Cruise ship to the Mediterranean.   Azmin Ghahreman, owner-chef of Sapphire Laguna restaurant, worked as...

About 300 people attended the Glennwood Housing Foundation wine-tasting fundraiser earlier this month, which raised surpassed expectations by raising $15,000 for the organization. “The community...

The Clean Water Now! Coalition held its final quarterly adopt-a-beach cleanup last Saturday, Dec. 10, concluding 11 consecutive years organizing cleanups.   Andrew Towfiq recruited 25...

The American Red Cross invites others to send holiday wishes to members of the armed services by sending cards addressed to “Dear Service Member,...

Indy on Arts Calender, Dec.15-22, 2011

Today’s screaming message… Be naughty and save Santa a trip. Seriously, folks, all McWeather wants for Christmas is a five-foot swell. We’re closing in on the flattest fall on record. It’s almost as though somebody built a huge breakwater off our coast and didn’ t tell us. So far December has come up with nothing but ankle snappers, not just here in Lake Laguna but the entire California coast. Have we been too naughty, King Neptune? Our current rain-making low pressure system, just like the ones before it, is not a wave making machine. These are not surface lows; they’re upper level lows or better known as cut off systems. They’re not riding on the jet stream storm track. Have you noticed the pattern of all the lows we’ve had so far this season? The winds associated with these lows have been predominantly light and variable at less than 10 mph.