Columnists

Americans are taught to think of mentally ill people as freaks or misfits. Usage of the word, “psychotic,” as a noun to designate a mentally ill person, is widespread. You may not realize that such a usage is hurtful and insulting to people who have to deal with these illnesses on a day-to-day basis. The word “psychotic” in correct English is an adjective that describes some of the symptoms mentally ill people must endure. -more-

I want to talk about the World Wide Web but, first, some talk about money. -more-

Over the past twenty months the USA has experienced two cataclysmic disasters, the 2008 near meltdown of the financial system and the recent Gulf Coast ecological disaster resulting from a deep-sea oil leak. While both events resulted from failed oversight, they have a deeper genesis: magical thinking. -more-

How’s your current awareness ? If you’re aged in California, you should know about the CSL.Alas, too many people have never heard of it. -more-

Dedicated to my pursuit of discovering low cost restaurants, I've now extending that search to international restaurants. Accordingly, I hereby highly recommend Anzu, specializing in Japanese cuisine. This small but very attractive restaurant is located at 2433 Shattuck Avenue (across from the Toyota dealer if you have trouble spotting it). -more-

One last Kaua’i column and I’ll have gotten it out of my system.

Early on in our visit we spent a day in the Alaka’i Swamp, in the highlands of western Kaua’i. Not strictly a swamp in hydrological terms, it’s more of a bog where rainwater has collected above an impermeable layer of lava. It even has bog plants like the carnivorous sundew, the same species that grows in the Arctic tundra, probably transported to the island on the plumage of a migrating Pacific golden plover. There are patches of stunted ‘ohi’a trees, similar to the pygmy forests of the Mendocino coast. -more-