Review of Montecito by Michael Cox

Montecito – home to such luminaries as Oprah and Stedman, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia, Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, and, of course, Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex. The glitterati of the world. Every inhabitant a multi-zillionaire. Well… maybe… but not if your name is Hollis Crawford and you’ve just been fired from your third job in five years, and suffered the indignity of being escorted from your office by a rent-a-cop, whose sole purpose seems to be ensuring that you don’t steal a stapler.

Meet Hollis Crawford, three-time loser in the game of office politics — and, in his own mind, of life; resident of a 1200-square-foot home, married to a lady named Cricket, with the requisite 2.0 children enrolled in a fancy Montecito private school, whose world seems at a dead-end. Hollis Crawford… about to enter the Twilight Zone… a life of intrigue, betrayal, lust, and suspense beyond his worst imaginings.

It all starts when, entering his kids’ school late for a command performance, he inadvertently meets – or is met by – the mysterious Cyrus Wimby and his alluring wife Genevieve, cross-cultural denizens of a world Hollis could never dream of inhabiting.

Montecito, first-time novelist Michael Cox’s maiden effort, is a first-class read by a smooth, professional, highly competent, and exciting writer of immense promise. The reader is immersed in the unimaginable highs and the hellish lows of a life most people can’t even imagine, let alone live.

Gripping in its realistic details, down to the most mundane, but nevertheless hypnotic, minutiae of life well beyond the “fast lane,” it is a novel you can’t put down. And the recognition of its verisimilitude is that its first appearance anywhere is in Montecito’s own hometown vehicle, the Montecito Journal. Five stars – and then some.

Sincerely, 

Hugo N. Gerstl

The Hot Springs Trailhead

When I was younger I used to hike regularly with the Sierra Club. Those hikes were vital for my well-being after I was widowed. Now I hear that the trailhead for the Hot Springs and for a number of other hikes has been rendered virtually impossible to access because of the actions of nearby property owners who have placed obstructions in the formerly available roadside parking space. This is illegal on a public right-of-way and is totally unjustified since the right to park there has never been taken away before. It is sad to hear that the wealthy homeowners feel entitled to take these actions. If necessary, they can call law enforcement to ticket or arrest actually law-breakers who park illegally, but our large hiking community should be able to access our trails as they always have done. The county has a responsibility to facilitate a solution to this problem.

Susan Shields

Message in a Bottle

I am a news junkie.

I even spend a lot of time watching CSPAN.

I can always catch a hearing or a committee meeting or just plain old politicking.

The one thing that is usually present are plastic water bottles.

Even when the President, governors, senators, and congress people give a speech, there’s usually plastic water bottles on the screen.

At the minimum our leaders should be using reusable bottles.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Why not this picture be on of a reusable bottle that is made to be repurposed.

I proposed this to a few people and it seemed everyone was in agreement.

I did get one interesting response.

She said only one party would use them.

As an independent I replied with let’s put an America flag on the bottle with the words “made in the USA.”

I could only image how powerful one small change could send such a positive message.

Steve Marko

Boulders at the Trailhead

I have been hiking with the Sierra Club for over five years. Recently, we have encountered problems being able to park at the Hot Springs trailhead.

Several loop hikes start at this trailhead and we can no longer do these hikes. The problem seems to be that people have been putting big rocks where the parking used to be. The County has tried nicely to ask the property owners to remove these rocks, but many property owners have refused.

As a hiker I want to support the County’s efforts to restore the parking so we can hike these trails again.
Thank you!

Guofang Wei