2 Apr 2020
Pee, Poop and Paper Only, Please!
Eagle-eyed readers of this esteemed journal may have noticed the Montecito Sanitary District’s public service ads that have run in the paper the last two weeks urging residents not to flush wet wipes down the drain. “SAVE YOUR PIPES, DON’T FLUSH WIPES!” the announcement reads, informing customers that supposedly flushable disinfectant wipes can clog both […]
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A Coronavirus Update from Montecito Fire Department Chief Kevin Taylor
Based on the rush of emergency supply hoarding that has gone on for the past few weeks, it seems reasonable to suggest that most Montecito residents weren’t exactly prepared for the COVID-19 crisis when it first hit two weeks ago. Fortunately for us, the Montecito Fire Department (MFD) has been preparing for the event for […]
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Santa Barbara’s Stitch Witch Now on Mask Duty
A decade ago, after working at Nordstrom for several years, Ellen Sztuk took a lunch break one day and called up her husband, telling him she was going to quit her job. That night, when she came home from work, her husband asked her what she could possibly be thinking. “I told him that I […]
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Friendship Center, Easy Lift, and Bucket Brigade Team Up for Home Food Deliveries
Since 1979, Montecito’s non-profit Friendship Center has provided group therapy for senior citizens from Monday through Friday at its rustic headquarters on Eucalyptus Lane. Normally by mid-morning on a weekday, the center would be a buzz of activity, with caregivers dropping off members to enjoy a day full of live music, therapy dog yoga, talks […]
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Classical Corner Confronts Coronavirus
The concerts everywhere are all canceled, at least for the remainder of the 2019-20 season, and on into the summer, but the classical music organizations are doing their level best to keep in touch and keep you entertained. Camerata Pacifica might be leading the charge, as the chamber music ensemble is not only upgrading its […]
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Fortunes Launches on Zoom
UCSB’s Launch Pad program began in 2005 as a grand experiment to offer a high-tech lab for playwrights-in-residence, UCSB theater students, faculty, and guest artists to collaborate in developing a new play each year. The residency culminates in a fully realized Preview Production, when the play completes its journey from incubation to professional world premiere […]
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All Saints’ Padric Davis
Entering the campus of All Saints-by-the-Sea Parish School was actually a homecoming of sorts for a variety of reasons, the most recent being that our granddaughter, now 10 and a big fifth grader, attended the Parish School as a toddler. Not that long ago she could be seen hopping around the playground laughing, playing, and […]
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Letters to the Editor
Nice Surprise Home delivery?! Now, the calm and comfort we feel from living in a small and caring community is complete. What a surprise to find the MJ in the driveway this morning along with the Times and WSJ. From a distance, I assumed we’d received some junk publication, but instead I found our more-valuable-than-ever […]
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Unity and FoodBank
Unity Shoppe has come a long way back since a huge gap in its funding forced the nonprofit agency – the largest, single direct distributor of food, clothing, and necessities in the county – into briefly closing its distribution doors for two months in the fall of 2019. The nonprofit shut its doors for the […]
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Julie McMurry Explains It All – Pandemic Edition
Information for Action She wrote a manifesto, which became flattenthecurve.com. It was originally a Google Doc. Her document was uploaded so fast that it broke the Google drive features. She had no idea who was sharing it. It was just staggering. Then someone reached out to her and said they had reserved the domain flattenthecurve.com […]
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Delivering the Farmers’ Market from the Coronavirus
When we look out at the Pacific from Butterfly Beach it’s clear. The ocean still works. When we turn to look at the Santa Ynez Mountains it’s easy to see the mountains are just fine. Clouds, too. It also turns out that the valleys and fields and surrounding farms continue to produce food, with even […]
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Thank You for Your Service
When I committed to write a regular column for the Montecito Journal about our local community and the people who care for it, I could never have imagined COVID-19 and how it has overtaken our collective world. But here we are in this moment of fear and “social distancing” and the crushing of livelihoods, and […]
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Emotions in Personal Finance
A Westmont College-hosted talk in February by Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman spoke to the increasing awareness of behavioral economics. Kahneman won the prize in 2002 for his creation of the prospect theory: the concept that investors feel the pain of losses much more than the joy of gains. This echoed a similar sentiment from […]
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Get Off the Couch!
Hello, my social distancing, hand washing friends out there! How are you coping amidst all this mayhem? Does anyone even know what day it is? As the apocalyptic pandemic of COVID-19 intensifies and our collective anxiety increases exponentially each day we remain under quarantine, I think it’s remarkable that any of us can peel ourselves […]
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Judgements-Be-Damned
A shout out of gratitude to Realtor Dusty Baker for sponsoring this week’s Montecito Journal home delivery. Hemingway famously said, “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter… and bleed.” Which certainly has been true for me on occasion. But on the positive side of the ledger, writing has […]
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Winners of the Montecito Journal Thom Steinbeck Creative Writing Contest
1stUntitledby Marc Cronin mea culpa… when we booked this trip i should have mentioned the tickets were one way (non-refundable of course) and the destination was astray. retracing the steps of so many who’ve journeyed before us, then retracing our own steps as well, we created a circle. it became vicious. all adventures begin with […]
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Rest in Peace, Kenny
On a personal note, I mark the passing of singer Kenny Rogers at his home in Georgia at the age of 81. Rogers, who was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame, used to entertain at a number of charity events in New York where I last saw him at the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation […]
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I Scream
The worst ice cream I ever had was in England, when my family had recently returned there from the U.S., just after World War II. As a special treat, my sister and I were taken by relatives to some kind of ice cream parlor. Whatever we had there came with a tasteless wafer. It was […]
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Calm Your Nerves
The looming threat of the coronavirus in our community has left everyone I know feeling agitated and anxious. To protect ourselves and our families, we need to fill the pantry, wash our hands, avoid doorknobs, and stop touching. Who knew we touched our faces so much? Add to this the downline repercussions of uncertain travel […]
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Budgeting for Disaster Allowed AHA! To Continue Mission
AHA! equips teenagers, educators, and parents with social and emotional intelligence to dismantle apathy, prevent despair, and interrupt hate-based behavior. The organization prides itself on a program based on mindfulness, awareness, connection, empathy, and resilience. Resilience certainly is something we all need and can use in this time of crisis. The teenage years for many […]
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