In a comment on Coastsider’s endorsement of Scott Boyd and Kathryn Slater-Carter for the Montara Water and Sanitary District Board, Carl May referred to "The Ancient Larimer".  That’s from a bit of humor written by Art Zich before he left Half Moon Bay for a foggier place.  Art originally posted his "The Rime of the Ancient Larimer" to the Midcoast-L discussion list on August 17, 2003.  For the amusement of a wider audience, here it is (posted here with Art’s permission):

the rime of the ancient larimer

lank of limb, and ever grim
an icey rage engulf’ed him
as stood he tall upon the bridge
as cold as an amana fridge,
and tried to steer through stormy sea
the good ship c-c, w, d

"i’ll have my way! my time is ripe
for one big sixteen incher pipe,"
he snarled into the teeth of gale.
"it shall be done! i shall not fail!"
this albatross consumed his soul
(a pipe dream, others called his goal)

who knows what drives men off to war?
to suffering, death, and even more—-
if not to spirit’s genuflection
to a shadow’s dim reflection
of the man they wont would be—-
a man of parts!
                just so would he!

for e’en as ahab sought the whale,
obsessed by fate’s own bitter nail,
so some men seek a moby dick,
a giant bird to turn the trick
of living up among the trees
secure from fire, if not disease,
and making others pay for these.

so stood he then in teeth of gale,
and spouting spittle, snarling, "fail?
i’ll not! for i’m a macho male!
they call my pipe my albatross
i’ll show these people who is boss
and make this board my holy grail!"

his crew could not contain his rage!
he roared and ranted center stage!
until it seemed his inner gasses
blew apart his rimless glasses,
then, with final dying breath
he gasped, "my albatross is now my death!"

such tragedies occur at sea,
beyond the ken of thee and me.
alas! his ship sank in the sea
and never more was he to be
the monster of the water board
(his memory has been ignored)

thus, tragically, in bed at night
these men who might have served us right
remember his sad sorry plight,
and sleepless do they turn and toss
—- with visions of the albatross.

"a bird in the hand . . ."—- samuel (az) coleridge

If you missed the Witch’s House this past Wednesday (somewhere on the Coast—remember, don’t tell!) then you missed Halloween. Well, O.K., it’s not that bad but still…

If you did miss it, or if you want to visit again before next year, I offer to you "Knock On the Door", the last installment of my The Witch’s House series.

This episode is special in many ways, not the least because I didn’t shoot it! The intrepid Jennifer Merrilees took my camera in hand for the night and did a fantastic job of capturing not only what happened at the Witches’ House but in capturing all the magical moments that only the Witches themselves get to see.

The video was shot in infra-red, which the camera records in hues of green. Infra-red is kind of cool in that the "colors" are all sort of odd—the black witches dresses, for example, look more like a cream tone. Eerie!

Thanks to Melanie, the Witch, and her crew and many helpers for a wonderful series. And thanks again to Jennifer—this was all her idea!

Video by Jennifer Merrilees, used with permission of Montara Fog.

The Witch doesn’t seem to sleep. Doesn’t seem to eat.

A week before Halloween she and her helpers were busy at the intricate and complex process of carving pumpkins. And not just any pumpkins.

Join the Witch (the other Witch is here, too—now you know why it is really called the "Witches’ House") as she creates the most amazing pumpkin carvings on the coast.

Video by Darin Boville, used with permission of Montara Fog.

By Erin Tormey, organizer of the Coastside Farmer’s Market. In Half Moon Bay, the market is at Shoreline Station (at Kelly and Highway 1), Saturdays, 9am to 1pm

The times, they are a’ changin’ Marketeers, but we’ll be here for the month of November to ease you through the Autumn.   Happily for me, I just found a crucial part, quite by accident, to an old clock of my Grandad’s.  The clocks pendulum has not swung like anything vaguely English for quite some time, but it looks like I’ll have it back in operation just in time the set it back an hour and pretend to sleep in on Sunday.

I am a master of the serendipitous, it would seem.  And of late, I have been really fortunate to have encountered a number of surprising developments where I did not expect to find them, with decidedly delightful results.  Last week I was searching for somewhere to get a load of firewood, got a little distracted by all the other interesting postings on the bulletin board and instead I met a mountain man with a penchant for Paphiopedilum.  As a result, I now know a lot more about orchids than I did last week. Yesterday I went looking for a lost set of keys, and while the keys are still among the missing, I am now reunited with my favorite photo of my godson, plus, I finally discovered where the mice have been getting into the shed. And then this morning I was trying to reach my younger brother.  I misdialed, and found myself talking with a farmer of organic pomegrantes, persimmons, pears and maker of honey.  Looks like they’ll be joining the Market for the remainder of the season.

The Montara Water and Sanitary District (MWSD) Board met Thursday, Nov 1. The district board is now recording and encoding its own meetings, making them available to the Coastside community. Click below for the meeting agenda.

Video produced and encoded by Scott Boyd and the Montara Water and Sanitary District.

Let’s get one thing straight from the get-go. Scott Boyd and Kathryn Slater-Carter are friends of mine. I’ve known them as long as I have anyone in this community and I don’t know of anyone who is more dedicated to the future of the Midcoast or works harder to make our community a better place. We’re lucky to have their services on the board of the Montara Water and Sanitary District.

You can stop right here if you like. That’s reason enough to feel good about for voting for Scott Boyd and Kathryn Slater-Carter. What follows is an angry rant.

The MWSD’s water supply is at the nexus of the development pressure on the Coastside. Developers, large landowners, and citizens who confuse growth with progress would like to see the district more focused on serving the needs of future residents than current residents. The Half Moon Bay Review is their newspaper.

And the Review has tried to blunt criticism of its candidate Richard Bulan by targeting Kathryn Slater-Carter.

An anonymous letter tipped the Review to the fact that Bulan, who is running on a campaign of fiscal responsibility "owed San Mateo County $19,562 in unpaid property taxes on his Moss Beach home until being confronted with evidence last week. He had also not paid $687.78 in MWSD property assessments over the last two years." The charges were true and they are a significant issue in this election.

What followed was even more revealing.  The Review investigated a charge from an anonymous poster in its TalkAbout forums that "Slater-Carter’s primary residence was in Incline Village, Nev. The poster questioned whether that would preclude Slater-Carter from running for office in California." Review reporter David Smydra checked out the allegation and discovered it was meritless, but the paper published the story under the disingenuous headline "Controversy surfaces over Slater-Carter residency". A more accurate headline would have been "Slater-Carter qualified to run for MWSD seat". But who would read that?

The next week, the Review revealed that Slater-Carter was 11 days behind in paying her Nevada property taxes of $2,433. This was presented under the headline "Slater-Carter owed taxes in Nevada", and featured an incendiary lead: "Montara Water and Sanitary District board member and current candidate Kathryn Slater-Carter recently owed delinquent taxes on her family’s vacation home in Incline Village, Nev., the Review confirmed Monday." The accurate headline?  "Slater-Carter pays Nevada taxes 11 days late".

The Review really likes Richard Bulan. They endorsed him before they found out about his tax problems, but they’re standing by their man. They’re also in a snit because Scott Boyd and Kathryn Slater-Carter (understandably) chose not to attend the Review’s endorsement interview:

Montara Water and Sanitary District: This race turned nasty in the last few weeks after revelations that challenger Richard Bulan had fallen years behind on his local taxes, including the MWSD assessment. Incumbent Kathryn Slater-Carter later admitted that she had fallen behind on property taxes for a Nevada vacation home. Meanwhile, incumbents Slater-Carter and Scott Boyd ignored the Review’s repeated calls for an endorsement interview. We continue to back Bulan because we think some new blood would still be valuable on the board, but we were disappointed to learn a self-described fiscal watchdog had lost track of his tax bill.

Yes, the Review is still struggling to manufacture an equivalence between the tax issues of Bulan and Slater-Carter. It’s as if the editorial board only read the Review’s headlines and not David Smydra’s reporting.

Scott Boyd and Kathryn Slater-Carter are experienced, dedicated to the community, independent, and the best candidates for the Montara Water and Sanitary District board.

NOTE: There’s a great discussion of the Review’s bias in the comments attached to this story, including important information about Kathryn Slater-Carter’s tax situation the paper declined to publish. Click the story headline or CLICK HERE to read and comment.

Sea Crest School is holding a kindergarten admission night Thursday, November 8, 6:30pm. Learn more about their academic and co-curricular programs, their community, and the application process for kindergarten for the Fall of 2008. For more information or to RSVP, please call our Admissions Office at 650-712-9892 or visit their website at www.seacrestschool.org.

The annual holiday boutique benefiting Senior Coastsiders will be held 9am to 5pm, Saturday and Sunday, November 3 and 4 at La Piazza at Main St. and Miramontes in Half Moon Bay.

The annual sales features costume, estate and handmade jewelry; crafts; gifts; and collectibles.

Also, don’t miss Darin Boville’s album of the parade in Montara Fog’s gallery on SmugMug.

Some of the finest Bay Area musicians and veterans of most famous big bands, such as Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Buddy Rich, Duke Ellington, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, and Cab Calloway, continue the big band tradition under the leadership of Mike Vax.

Director Mike Vax played lead and solo trumpet with the Stan Kenton Orchestra, the Clark Terry Big Bad Band, and the U.S. Navy Show Band.  He performed and/or recorded with such greats as Art Pepper, Al Grey, Freddy Hubbard, John Handy, Don Ellis, Don Jacoby, Louie Bellson, Joe Williams, the Four Freshmen, The Glenn Miller and Jimmy Dorsey Orchestras, and the Dukes of Dixieland in New Orleans.

Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society
307 Mirada Road, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
$30.  Tickets at the door. Reservations for members.
Doors Open at 3 PM, Music from 4:30 to 7:30 PM, with intermission.