Sunday Edition: Fireworks and other matters

By Sasha Paulsen

NAPA, Calif. — Did anyone else spend last Wednesday thinking it was Monday because of the holiday on Tuesday? This Fourth of July I was holed up at my sister’s ranch in the hills above Bodega Bay because for one month I have the all-important task of looking after my daughter’s dog, Puck, while she gallivants around Wales. (Actually, she is taking exams to demonstrate that she is one of the 500,000 people in the world who are fluent in that mysterious language, but I am sure she is managing to gallivant, too.)

A collage of fireworks that have graced the Napa Valley skyline over the past few years – Tim Carl Photo

Puck hates fireworks, and my Napa neighborhood goes mad with them. The last time Puck was with me on the Fourth we drove around all night until my neighbors had stopped celebrating. This year we headed for the hills.

Puck is a rescue dog, an endearing character who is one part Shakespeare’s magical, mischievous Puck; one part Wolfgang Puck, deeply interested in food; and one part hockey puck, running at mind-boggling speeds after squirrels and anything else that moves. Just now he is on a diet, so I spent the holiday chopping broccoli and carrots for him, trying to persuade him that these are delicious while he occupied himself digging in my suitcase for a truffle. I have to poach his broccoli in low-sodium broth, and I think he would like it if I grated a little truffle on top. It hasn’t come to that yet.

Di Rosso Shakespeare Festival - Tim Carl. Photo

At any rate, when I turned on my computer on Wednesday (thinking it was Monday), I discovered something I didn’t know: Tim Carl, valiant leader of Napa Valley Features, writes poetry. If you missed his “Ode to the Fourth,” it’s worth reading. Fortunately, his words and photos provide fireworks themselves — without the dog-nerve-rattling booms.

Last week also brought a story from Diane De Filipi, who wrote about Savor After Hours, a new summertime venture at the Napa Valley Opera House’s JaM Cellars Ballroom. She is not the only one I’ve talked to who has been enthralled by this cabaret served up with wine. Paul Franson told me a lady friend was making him go and subsequently admitted he had a good time. “The dancing is — er — athletic,” he said.

As for me, I had fun finding an entirely new angle for a story I’ve written many times about the upcoming Home Winemakers Classic on July 16, when I tracked down one of the founders of the 40-year-old event. Bonnie McCoombs, now 80 and living in Mexico, was among the first women to join the Dry Creek-Lokoya Volunteer Fire Department in the 1970s. She and other women who joined came up with the event as a way to raise money to build a fire station and buy supplies. It was sheer joy to hear the stories of this spunky woman.

Submitted newspaper clipping

As Napa Valley Features heads into its third month, there is a new reason to celebrate (without fireworks). Tim Yagle has generously offered to lend a hand during his spare time. Tim was one of the invisible essential people at the Napa Valley Register for many years until the paper’s owners, Lee Enterprises, laid him off in 2020, telling him that no one knew what a copyeditor did anyway.

What did he do? As the last remaining copyeditor, Tim read the stories going into each edition, which at the time was the equivalent of proofing an 80,000-word novel each day. (The poor paper is more of a short story these days.) He fact-checked, helped new writers, untangled sentences, and corrected various spellings of Jameson Canyon Road, all with tact and courtesy. (“Sasha, you spelled Scott Browne’s name three different ways. Did you mean to do that?”) He worked every holiday and was the last person to leave the newsroom each night after he had proofed the next day’s pages as well as the St. Helena Star and Calistoga Weekly content. Corporate owners in a faraway state might not have known what he did, but the rest of us realized a void that couldn’t be filled when he was gone.  

What else can I tell you about Tim? He and my linguist daughter can spend hours talking about words. He will discuss infinitely about the use of a comma with me and then argue that he is not “arguing” but “discussing” it. He will be a wonderful asset to Napa Valley Features.

Tim Carl and I were at Genova Deli discussing upcoming stories, when the idea came up of seeing if Tim would come on board to help the remarkable Glenda Winders, who has been copyediting the growing number of stories.

“You realize you are giving refuge to all the journalists Lee has laid off in its quest for corporate profit,” I told him.

Tim, periodically checking his dinging phone to watch the new subscriptions coming in, said, “I am hoping it will be a sanctuary.”

This week Dave Stoneberg is off on a two-week vacation — without the internet, he said. 

Tim Carl is working on a piece about a new electric tractor, and I will be writing about the revival of the Jarvis Zarzuela Festival coming in August. Other writers I enjoyed working with in the past, including Rosie Kempton, Kathleen Reynolds and Jed Christensen, are filing stories that will appear soon.

And I am going to indulge myself in writing a story about France, where I recently spent a week, courtesy of the French government, eating and drinking my way from Dijon to Marseille. After all, July 14, Bastille Day, is the French celebration of freedom. Fortunately no one in my neighborhood will set off fireworks. And Tim Yagle and Glenda Winders will make sure I don’t spell Marseille three different ways.

It will be a good week.

Tim Carl Photo

Sasha Paulsen is a novelist and journalist living in Napa.