Opinion

Letters – May 5, 2017

THE GOOD MONEY TRAIL Dear Editor, I just love doing this column! And…..when I got the checks I was so happy. I am sending the money from the column to my friend…

The Old Grey Grid

What’s all this talk about the vulnerability of “The Grid?” Is it really so serious? We, in Topanga, are not usually fazed when the electricity goes out, usually due to rain, wind…

A Community Publisher Passes

The city of Claremont, my hometown through middle school and most of my college years, recently held a memorial service for Janis Weinberger, who with her husband Martin, owned and published for…

Letters – April 21, 2017

Excellent!   Dear Editor:  It feels awkward to say because I cherished the old Messenger but I do have to say that the new Messenger Mountain News is better, more informative and…

Roll Away the Stone

In a jaded sense of certainty derived from living, lo these many years upon this plane, I think I know everything.   I know the seasons will change…somewhat. I know the bill…

Friends and Flowers

I don’t go to hospitals–at all. Nineteen years ago, in the middle of trying to push my nine-and-a-half pound son out of my only slightly larger body, I asked my midwife if…

Future Scouts–21st Century Survival Skills for Teens

Topangan Ishan Shapiro has created a revolutionary summer program to prepare young people from 13-18 for their futures offering 21st Century Survival Skills For 21st Century Humans. Most of us have no…

Tony Beilenson, The Santa Monica Mountains’ Best Friend

Our mountains lost a great friend last week with the passing of Tony Beilenson, the former congressman, state senator and assemblyman. I learned the sad news—as I so often have—from a news…

The Buddha on the Side Road of the Road

She comes slowly down the street like a shadow moving through the night, there at the dim edge of the affluent Palisades. The darling daughter requested a Subway Sandwich (dubious, I know)…

Meet Al

The world is run on algorithms exponentially more each day… financial services, medical systems, communications conglomerates, educational platforms, internet marketing, social media, journalism, on and on.   My Name is Al Gorithm…