A Shocking Situation

Hello 2021 7-14 January 2021 Vol 27 Issue 02

SERVING MONTECITO AND SUMMERLAND

After hottest real estate year on record, market still brimming with mid-range homes, page 34

A Shocking Situation A Night of Remembrance

Community gathering marks third anniversary of 1/9 Debris Flow, p. 9

Monumental Achievement

Montecito filmmaker reaches for the stars in honor of astronauts who went to the moon, p. 11

HIGH COPPER LEVELS IN MONTECITO RESIDENT’S PIPES PROVIDE AN ELECTRIFYING MYSTERY (SAGA BEGINS ON PAGE 6)

Need a Ride?

Easy Lift’s specialized transportation services provide hundreds of rides per day for elderly, disabled, and low-income residents, p. 31

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7 – 14 January 2021

your dream home awaits We look forward to finding you a place to call home in the New Year!

LORI CLARIDGE BOWLES 805.565.8198 lori@loribowles.com | loribowles.com | CalRE #01961570 DANA ZERTUCHE 805.403.5520 dana@danazertuche.com | danazertuche.com | CalRE #01465425 Not intended as a solicitation if your property is already listed by another broker. Real estate agents affiliated with Coldwell Banker Realty are independent contractor sales associates, not employees. ©2021 Coldwell Banker. All Rights Reserved. Coldwell Banker and the Coldwell Banker logos are trademarks of Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. The Coldwell Banker® System is comprised of company owned offices which are owned by a subsidiary of Realogy Brokerage Group LLC and franchised offices which are independently owned and operated. The Coldwell Banker System fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act.

7 – 14 January 2021

• The Voice of the Village •

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Inside This Issue

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Editor’s Letter

6

On the Record

8

Letters to the Editor

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Montecito on the Move

The senior members of our community are isolated and bored, but there are ways to connect with them even during stay-at-home orders, one of which is to read about them in our new column High copper levels in the pipes in Trevor Broudy’s Middle Road home provide an electrifying mystery; Montecito Trails Foundation celebrates New Year LeeAnn Morgan laughs out loud; Dale Lowdermilk’s COVID vaccine ideas; and more A night of remembrance, solidarity, and hope to mark the third anniversary of the 1/9 Debris Flow

11 On Entertainment

Montecito filmmaker honors moon missions with monuments; focus on film; SBIFF sessions; the male version of The Vagina Monologues; much more

12 Village Beat

Montecito Association Land Use Committee meeting updates

14 Montecito Miscellany

A music equivalent of The Da Vinci Code; Megxit one year later; holiday events roundup; Neverland Ranch trades hands again; much, much more

16 Body Wise

Marking life’s various transitions in ritualistic ways is a distinct feature of human culture, says Ann Brode

18 In Passing

In memory of Dr. Mohamed Samir “Sam” Amer, renowned for his work as a pharmacologist and medical researcher

Brilliant Thoughts

Ashleigh on the setting of limits, their significance, and the consequences of crossing the line

22 Perspectives by Rinaldo S Brutoco

Escaping Minority Rule: The United States Senate

The Optimist Daily

How LEGOs subconsciously teach kids to read Braille and how fungus leather looks and feels like the real thing

26 In Business

Jules Coast Caviar opens on Coast Village Road

28 Nosh Town

Taste Santa Barbara’s social distanced walking tours; Santa Barbara Public Market, a culinary favorite for devoted foodies

30 The Medicine of Love

Gretchen Lieff shares a holiday story of love that warms the heart and lightens the soul

31 The Giving List

Profiling Easy Lift, the Santa Barbara nonprofit whose mission is to restore some dignity to the disabled through providing mobility

32 Summerland Buzz

It didn’t take long for our plans for 2020 to go up in the air, writes Leslie A. Westbrook, but it was also a year to be grounded

34 Real Estate View

Even after the hottest real estate year on record, there are still a number of homes for the taking

38 Classified Advertising

Our own “Craigslist” of classified ads, in which sellers offer everything from summer rentals to estate sales

39 Local Business Directory

Smart business owners place business cards here so readers know where to look when they need what those businesses offer

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“Youth is when you’re allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve. Middle age is when you’re forced to.” — Bill Vaughan

7 – 14 January 2021

Editor’s Letter

by Gwyn Lurie CEO and Executive Editor of the Montecito Journal Media Group

Senior Moments

H

appy New Year! 2021 is finally here and while I’ve never been more ecstatic to watch the ball drop in Times Square, a number does not a miracle make. As much as we crave instant relief from the dumpster fire that was 2020 and the pandemic that defined it, unfortunately none of the remedies are simple, or fast enough.

These times have been hard on everyone. And I know I’ve officially become the “curtailer of fun” in the lives of my teenagers. According to my kids, “other parents are not nearly as strict” about distancing through this pandemic. I’m “paranoid” and overly worried and I’m “ruining their lives.” Which is ironic because I’m trying to protect their lives. And mine. I also gave them life if my memory serves me correctly.

I understand my kids are suffering. They’ve missed a huge chunk of the developmental aspect of their teen years – after losing a sizable chunk during the Thomas Fire evacuations and ensuing debris flow. There’s no way to sugarcoat it. It sucks.

More Than a Quarter of Montecito is Age 65+ But it’s not our kids I’m most worried about. It’s our folks. Our grandparents. Our seniors. Members of our community who’ve been tucked away and rendered silent for almost a year, during a time of life when connectedness and stimulation are arguably more important than ever. My sense is that nursing home patients quarantined by COVID are instead dying of loneliness and boredom. Is it possible to die of boredom? At the very least boredom accelerates decline.

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My husband, guilt-ridden for having brought his folks to this place that has become an unexpected form of incarceration, in a bit of gallows humor commented that given the quality of the meals they’re getting, the notion of them losing their taste and smell doesn’t sound that bad.

My Family’s Story of Isolation – but Not an Isolated Story In April it will be two years since we moved my husband’s parents from their apartment of 55 years in New York City to one of Santa Barbara’s larger long-term care facilities – touted for its good food, high standard of care, and broad social opportunities. Until he was 90 when a fall confined him to a wheelchair, my father-in-law was a practicing and highly regarded psychiatrist married for 60 years to my mother-in-law – an accomplished and prolific artist. Together they were beginning to need more physical assistance, as one often does at that age, and their care was difficult to manage from afar. As a family we decided we could be of greater help living in closer proximity. The delicious icing on the cake for my in-laws would be more time with their sons and grandchildren – whom they now have not seen in person in almost a year.

They are painfully bored, under-stimulated and horribly homesick for their former lives in New York – where they raised their family and were surrounded by the artifacts of a life well lived. Who can blame them?

Instead, they find themselves confined to their institutional apartment with human contact limited to the constantly rotating attendants who enter their room to provide the best care an overworked and underpaid staff can offer.

A few nights ago, they were delivered a cold pizza for dinner. Other nights it’s better than that, but only slightly. My husband, guilt-ridden for having brought his folks to this place that has become an inadvertent form of incarceration, in a bit of gallows humor commented that given the quality of the meals they’re receiving, the notion of them losing their taste and smell doesn’t sound that bad.

That’s just my family’s story. But everyone has their own version – elderly friends and loved ones isolated and lonely – deserving of so much more “gold-

7 – 14 January 2021

Editor’s Letter Page 354 • The Voice of the Village •

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On the Record

by Nicholas Schou

Nicholas Schou is an award-winning investigative journalist and author of several books, including Orange Sunshine and Kill the Messenger. If you have tips or stories about Montecito, please email him at newseditor@montecitojournal.net

Watt’s Going On With Trevor Broudy’s Water Supply?

T 2021-New Year,New Strategy?

Time to revisit your plan and investments Thankfully, it is time to leave 2020 in the past. A true disruptor, last year upended our lives in fundamental ways: health, jobs, education and money.

Pre-COVID decisions about your financial plan and portfolio need to be revisited and possibly revised. 2021 will also bring more change in the form of booming emerging trends, likely tax law changes and questions over interest rates.

Contact me to consult and review or create a financial plan along with an investment strategy for the coming years. *28 years local finance experience *UCSB alumni

Christopher T. Gallo, CFP®, CIMA® CPWA Vice President - Wealth Management Portfolio Manager 805-730-3425 christopher.t.gallo@ubs.com

Christopher Gallo UBS Financial Services Inc. 222 East Carrillo Street Suite 106 Santa Barbara, CA 93101-7146 805-730-3425 800-262-4774

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revor Broudy could be forgiven for thinking he might just be the unluckiest person in Montecito. The Middle Road homeowner ’s troubles began early last year, when Bacall, his beloved golden retriever, began to rapidly and inexplicably lose weight. Aside from taking his pet to various veterinarians, Broudy stopped giving Bacall tap water to drink and switched to bottled water; the dog slowly but surely began to recover.

The mystery deepened when Broudy received a telephone call from the Montecito Water District (MWD) in September letting him know that the agency had detected unusually high levels of copper in his home’s drinking water. As he soon learned, Trev Broudy’s electrician tries to pinpoint the MWD does periodic tests of end-us- problem er water quality to ensure that both copper and lead levels in the drinking water stay below state-mandated action guidelines. Earlier readings had found copper levels of just 90 parts per billion (ppb) in his drinking water, but mysteriously, a recent test showed that number had somehow jumped exponentially to 1500 ppb.

“I was up in Lake Tahoe and got a call [from MWD] saying that my water was so high in copper that it was way above the [safe] threshold,” Broudy recalled. “They had never seen copper levels like this in Montecito and thought it might be a mistake.” Broudy says he couldn’t believe his ears. He had just installed new copper pipes in his home two years ago at a cost of $40,000. “But they came back three weeks later and SoCal Edison on the scene, looking for answers told me that it wasn’t a mistake.”

Broudy says he asked MWD what he should do but didn’t receive any initial guidance so he went on Google and searched for articles about copper contamination in drinking water and found stories about just such a situation that occurred a few years ago in New York state, where water pipes had been inadvertently exposed to an electrical current by the local power company, thus resulting in electrolysis, which caused unhealthy levels of the mineral to leach into drinking water.

Armed with his internet-fueled suspicions, Broudy used a Gauss meter to test the electromagnetic field on one of his copper pipes; the test suggested a stray electrical current was somehow connected to his plumbing. So he called an electrician to his home and asked him to investigate. On November 10, Carlton Electric conducted a series of tests and tried to figure out how to remove the current, but to no avail; the company suggested he contact Southern California Edison (SCE) for advice on what to do.

According to Broudy, SCE came out the following day, and after finding 45 volts of electricity on his gas meter, 18 volts on the gas line, and 8 volts on several kitchen appliances, advised him not to touch the gas meter or any appliances

On The Record Page 244 244

“New Year’s Day is every man’s birthday.” — Charles Lamb

7 – 14 January 2021

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• The Voice of the Village •

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Letters to the Editor

If you have something you think Montecito should know about, or wish to respond to something you read in the Journal, we want to hear from you. Please send all such correspondence to: Montecito Journal, Letters to the Editor, 1206 Coast Village Circle, Suite H, Montecito, CA. 93108. You can also FAX such mail to: (805) 969-6654, or E-mail to letters@montecitojournal.net

Comic Relief

F

or the funniest line ever to appear in the Journal, the Oscar goes to: “As of press time, Jesus Christ was unavailable for comment due to commitments elsewhere.”

LOL, LOL, LOL! Thanks Nick, I needed that.

LeeAnn Morgan Montecito

Identifying Dangerous Mask Deniers

How will public health officials, ambulance drivers, and the TSA distinguish between those who have received the COVID-19 (37-24-36) vaccine and those who are “faking it”?

Wouldn’t a nice, multi-colored 666 or prison-grade 3-D “face mask” tattoo (or embedded microchip) solve this problem? Mike Tyson could chair a Warp-Speed Identification Committee to establish fashionable “ink” standards. The implementation of a common-sense nationwide (mandatory) “HEALTH TAT” would enable officials to quickly identify airline, bus, and Uber passengers who believe in the Fauchi-Theorum.

Face mask deniers would be provided free medical advice from IRS auditors, including strenuous “...offers they can’t refuse...”

Just saying “No” would not be a wise choice.

Are parents who refuse to get their little munchkins vaccinated guilty of child endangerment?

Which is more important; religious beliefs, parental rights “to choose,” potential long-term side effects, or protecting everyone, from everything... at any cost?

Cautiously searching for waterproof, non-GMO, UV-resistant, 15-day, N95’s and famous ink slingers.

Dale Lowdermilk

Join the Common Cause

Kudos to Rinaldo Brutoco for your piece on the Electoral College in the December 14-21 issue. It went a long way in describing the problem we have in trying to elect a president.

An additional problem not fully explored is the complexity of the process which undermines the concept of an informed electorate if we do fully understand how it works.

Fortunately there is an effort underway described in your last paragraph about the fact that a number of states holding 196 electoral votes have declared their intention to cast their electoral votes with the presidential candidate with the most total votes nationwide.

I want to add that there exists a vehicle for ordinary citizens to do something in support of this movement.

Common Cause based in Washington, D.C. is leading the charge in this effort which is titled ‘National Popular Vote Compact.’

It is a lobbying organization and is working to convince the remaining states that hold additional electoral votes so that a total of at least 270 can be reached.

I am a contributor to this effort. Common Cause can be checked out on Charity Navigator by anyone.

Evan Aptaker

Good Looking Out

Leslie A. Westbrook’s refreshing, inspirational article (Vol. 26/Issue 52) ends, “Change can happen!” Bravo, bravo to the dedicated, caring individuals, Suzy ‘Squeaky Wheels’ Cawthon, “founding mother” Fran Davis, and landscape architect Susan Van Atta for investing years working with public officials who listened, in order to enhance and redesign Lookout Park!

Thank you!

Peg Quinn

Do the Right Thing

I have been a father at Cold Spring School since 2013. Both my kids have had

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excellent experiences and were taught by exceptional and passionate teachers.

My concerns are with the School Board and alleged misuse of funds.

In 2017, I was one many parents demanding an independent audit because of a sudden disappearance of hundreds of thousands of dollars from district reserves. We also stopped the construction of a new administration building and now we know the Board voted to illegally use Measure C funds for it.

An independent audit would have exposed the misuse of Measure C and cleared up other questions. Instead more money has been wasted and the reputation of our school has been damaged.

No one at the school can show where over $2 million of Measure C went.

That’s unacceptable. We will be paying off that bond until 2039.

Cold Spring School Board Members need to make this their top priority. The easiest and most effective move is to request a free audit of all the books from the state Fiscal Crisis Assessment and Management Team (FCMAT).

Put it on the agenda for discussion and call a public vote!

The School Board should eliminate the combined position of CBO/General Counsel! No other District has a combined CBO/General Counsel position because it is a conflict of interest.

Our school community has been torn apart long enough because of the incompetence and inaction of the School Board. I hope the incoming school board president will immediately address these concerns. The amazing teachers, parents, and kids all deserve better. And so do the taxpayers. This isn’t right!

Sincerely, Eduardo Pena

Thank you Doctor

Kudos to Dr. Mizuho Morrison for achieving such success! What a wonderful story. We lived next door to MUS for many years during that time. [Her father] Scottie kept our kids, dogs, and horses on line as well as us. He did a great job for the school. We now have third generation students at MUS. Dr. Morrison’s story is one for all young people to emulate.

Dana Kent

A Waste of Public Trust

On December 9, a judge in L.A. County presiding over a lawsuit brought by a restaurant association expressed surprise “that no study has been done at any government level since the outbreak began about the alleged effects of outdoor dining on the spread of the coronavirus.”

The only somewhat pertinent data provided by L.A. County defending against the lawsuit was a single study from NYC that claimed three percent or less of COVID transmissions were traced back to indoor dining restaurants in NYC, and thus could not differentiate between indoor and outdoor dining with precautions in place.

Our governor and the mayors of our largest cities have repeatedly told us their decisions on outdoor dining have been driven by science and data, so when I heard about this lawsuit, I expected our leaders to bring on the specifics and am disappointed to find that the public employees who never missed a paycheck, shut down restaurants, and left people unemployed do not have data or science specific to some of the industries they’ve cancelled.

The hypocrisy of our leaders wastes public trust. Again, people who either don’t need a paycheck, or those that get paid regardless, are making rules for people who have no work, and get a pittance in public assistance. Adding insult to injury, our leaders act like elitists. Mayors send out “no travel” directives – from their condos in Cabo – or from their parents’ home out of state. Even Dr. Anthony Fauci was seen without his mask on during the worst of the July spike, no social distancing, with friends on either side at a baseball game no one else gets to go to and we were given the insulting spokesperson spin that no mask was needed because Dr. Fauci was enjoying a beverage... he’s a brilliant guy, and since it’s a life or death matter, assume he can figure out how to use a straw under a mask? What ever happened to leadership by example and consistency? Compromising livelihoods and families gives people the impression that the intelligentsia sees them as expendable peons. The old crude saying: “Don’t urinate on me and then tell me it is raining” comes to mind.

I think our leadership has lost the trust of a large portion of the public. That portion of the public seems to have decided that the actions and data should match the words or they won’t comply with the words. If the elites talk about “science, and data, in real time, at the granular level...” then can’t produce evidence clothed in either data or science, then they are modern day emperors with no clothes, and their words will be treated with scorn.

I propose the restaurant workers get the vaccine immediately after first responders and COVID-related medical personnel, and before politicians. The restaurant people have suffered at the whims of those types of fools for too long already.

Steve Gowler •MJ

“Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.” — Oscar Wilde

7 – 14 January 2021

Montecito on the Move

by Sharon Byrne, Executive Director, Montecito Association

A

1/9 Ceremony for Montecito: A Night of Remembrance, Solidarity, and Hope

s our community approaches the third anniversary of the 1/9 Thomas Fire Debris Flow, we find ourselves in the third consecutive disaster we’ve faced as a community, and this time it’s a global pandemic.

This Saturday, we’d love to gather everyone, come together as a community, and remember those we lost in the early morning hours of January 9, 2018.

However, in consideration of the present stay-at-home order, a team of community partners will host a commemorative live-stream ceremony to honor and remember the massive event that befell our beloved community on that fateful day. While it altered our geologic landscape permanently, and put us into a long recovery cycle, the Debris Flow also brought us together as a community, where we discovered new strengths within ourselves, and new connections with each other.

Event specifics: This event will be completely virtual to protect everyone’s health and safety. It’s simple and short this year, but powerful. Chief Kevin Taylor will open the event with a short speech from the fire station. Firefighters will light 23 candles commemorating the victims of the Debris Flow. There will be a moment of silence. Then, the bells from our schools, churches, and fire station will ring 23 times in unison across our community. Finally, a searchlight will be lit at Montecito Union School in honor of this community’s losses on 1/9/18.

How to participate: Please feel welcomed to participate at whatever level is most comfortable for you. You will probably be able to see the searchlight and hear the bells from your home in Montecito. KEYT will live stream the event from the fire station, and broadcast it on their station.

Find information on how to attend the ceremony Zoom event at montecitoas sociation.org/1-9-event Event organizers encourage attendees to RSVP at the Facebook event here: facebook.com/montecitoassociation.

For more information, go to montecitoassociation.org, or call me at the Montecito Association at (805) 636-0475.

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Helpful tips on navigating the anniversary of 1/9 from our Santa Barbara County Behavioral Wellness Department’s Community Wellness Team: It is a normal experience for the anniversary of a disaster to bring forward feelings of fear, anxiety, and sadness. This year will be especially challenging given the COVID stay-at-home orders. We are not able to gather together in person as we normally would, but this should not stop us from supporting each other. We can gather virtually, and know that we are all sharing the feelings and memories of this day, together.

Tips for coping: Be gentle with yourself. Show yourself the same kindness and patience you’d give to others during this time. Allow yourself to feel angry or sad and recognize that these emotions are natural.

Talk about your memories. Share stories, memories, feelings with others.

Accept kindness and help from others. Support from family and friends is critical to healing. We encourage you to allow people in your life to show their care and concern.

Help others. For many people, volunteering is a healthy way to heal.

Participate in a purposeful/meaningful activity. Activities can be as simple as delivering food or a meal, donating clothing, or reaching out to another with a warm phone call. We can help connect you to groups doing wonderful work in our community, like Adam’s Angels, the Salvation Army, Bucket Brigade, and more.

Reach out to others and stay connected. And if you feel that you need additional help beyond that of a friend or family, reach out to a mental health professional.

The Community Wellness Team, formed to provide support to the community following the Thomas Fire and 1/9 Debris Flow, remains very active and is here for our community. The Community Wellness Team can be reached by calling (805) 3647 – 14 January 2021

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• The Voice of the Village •

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71 –– 14 January 2020 2021 8 October

On Entertainment

by Steven Libowitz

Monumental Achievement: Montecito Filmmaker Reaching for the Stars

T

he Montecito foothills are more than a thousand miles from both the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and NASA’s headquarters in Houston – not to mention 234,000 miles from the moon – but the rolling greenery amounts to much more than a footnote for part-time Montecito resident Steven C. Barber spearheading a project to fashion monuments of the American astronauts who walked on the moon.

In early fall 2018, Barber, a filmmaker whose credits include BLAH BLAH BLAH, was working on a documentary about Buzz Aldrin – who set foot on the moon just minutes after Neil Armstrong – to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Moon Landing back in 1969. “He’s a salty old dog, but we’d been friends for almost twenty years, and I finally convinced him to let me make the movie,” Barber recalled. “Everything was set to go. But then he got into a big pissing match with his kids and they were suing him. So everything got shut down while the lawyers figured it out.”

Devastated, Barber brought out his bike and went for a three-hour trek over a favored trail on the southern edge of Montecito, as riding serves as both exercise and meditation for the filmmaker who by his own admission never stops working. That’s when an ambitious vision just showed up in his mind as a memory from his past flashed in his head.

“I started channeling Jim Irwin, the commander of Apollo 15 who I had met when I was 12 through my dad, who was an engineer for General Motors when they had a contract with NASA to build the moon buggy,” he said. “It was really miraculous for me. I just came up with this idea of making monuments. I didn’t even think about it, or have any idea where the money would come from, or even whether monuments existed already.”

Hurrying home, Barber raced to his computer and started a Google search and was shocked to find that nobody had ever built a monument to the moonwalkers.

“That was unbelievable,” Barber said. “It’s the greatest story in the history of the world, the greatest technological achievement in the history of mankind, and nobody had ever done it.”

Determined to erect a tribute to the astronauts, Barber started making phone calls. NASA initially passed, but he hit paydirt when he got through to the Kennedy Space Center.

“Magic happened,” he said. “The guy who picked up the phone had actually seen one of my movies. He was a Marine and he asked if I was the same Steven Barber who had made Return to Tarawa (a doc about the return to the Gilbert Islands of a veteran of a 1943 WWII battle on the atoll of Tarawa). That had never happened before! Millions of people have seen my movies, but my demo is mostly 58-year-old, 250-pound guys who drink Budweiser and watch the military channel. Turns out he was one of them. He said, OK, you’re the real deal. If you can get a monument of the Apollo 11 crew in 90 days, we’ll find room for it.”

Filmmaker Steven C. Barber honored the historic

On Entertainment Page 194 194

No Better Place than Home

moon missions by working on installing monuments of American astronauts

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7 – 14 January 2021

• The Voice of the Village •

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Village Beat

by Kelly Mahan Herrick Kelly has been editor at large for the Journal since 2007, reporting on news in Montecito and beyond. She is also a licensed realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices.

Montecito Association Tackles Multiple Land Use Issues

T

he Montecito Association Land Use Committee met earlier this week, and took a look back at the major land use projects the committee worked on in 2020. “We recognized early on after the debris flow that there would be multiple large scale projects to tackle,” said MA Executive Director Sharon Byrne, adding that the projects related to the debris flow, including the Randall Road Debris Basin and local road repair projects, coupled with the widening of Highway 101, two roundabouts, and more, kept both the Land Use and Traffic Committees busy. “If you found yourself a little exhausted, you’re not alone,” Sharon said to the committee, before diving into updates on where the projects are at currently.

Kirsten Ayars and Lauren Bianchi Klemann, representing the Highway 101 widening and the roundabouts at Olive Mill and San Ysidro Roads, reported that the segment of the 101 widening through Sheffield is in progress, with underground supports and footings currently being built. Right-hand ramps are being built on the southbound side of the freeway, and retaining walls are in progress. Lanes remain open during the day with some partial closures overnight. Funding is still in progress for future phases of the freeway widening through Montecito, with SBCAG meeting later this month to work on obtaining federal funding for the unfunded portions of the project. Widening through the Montecito corridor is expected to begin in 2023.

Both roundabouts at Olive Mill and San Ysidro are on appeal at the Coastal Commission; once resolved, which is expected as both the County and City believe the appeals are without merit, both projects will continue in the envi-

ronmental impact review process, expected later this year. “Most people are ready to have the roundabouts built,” said Ayars. “They will reduce the wait at the intersections and improve use of local streets.” Ayars also said the staging for the roundabouts in relation to the widening of Highway 101 has not been determined yet, and multiple criteria will be considered including daily traffic issues as well as potential evacuations during wildfires. “We’re not far enough in the design process to develop the staging timeline yet,” she reported.

Other projects impacting Montecito include the Randall Road Debris Basin, which goes out to bid in February, with construction expected in the spring, as well as a Community Trails Project that will add a walking trail along Olive Mill and Hot Springs from the roundabout to Casa Dorinda, also expected to be built in the spring. There is also the new building at Montecito Sanitary District which is on appeal at the Board of Supervisors, and a new Short Term Rental Ordinance expected to be debuted at the local planning commissions in the spring.

Undergrounding of utilities continues to be a priority, with the neighborhood of Hodges Lane and Periwinkle Lane self-funding undergrounding as a pilot program. There are parking issues at the beach and trailheads, with Sheriff Lieutenant Butch Arnoldi and Montecito Fire Chief Kevin Taylor both working on projects to combat congestion in these areas. Coming down the pike will be the installation of 5G facilities, as well as telecom facilities from Southern California Gas. The Hot Springs triangle will be beautified, and parking humps will be installed on Hill Road soon, along with other local street improvement projects, most of which are being paid for by monies acquired from the settlement with Southern California Edison.

Because so many of the land use projects slated for 2021 have to do with roads and traffic, the committee voted to combine the Land Use and Traffic Committees, with chair Chad Chase at the helm. “A lot of these issues are intertwined this year. We can’t look at one without looking at the other. This year it makes sense to combine,” said Chase. “It makes sense to move forward as one team,” Byrne added.

The Committee discussed the schedule for 2021, and contemplated forming subcommittees to look at some issues more closely.

The full board of the MA meets next Tuesday, January 12, for its annual meeting followed by monthly meeting. The next Land Use Committee meeting is slated for February 2.

•MJ

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• The Voice of the Village •

ROBERT RISKIN MONTECITO JOURNAL

13

Monte ito Miscellany

by Richard Mineards

Richard covered the Royal Family for Britain’s Daily Mirror and Daily Mail, and was an editor on New York Magazine. He was also a national anchor on CBS, a commentator on ABC Network News, gossip on The Joan Rivers Show and Geraldo Rivera, host on E! TV, a correspondent on the syndicated show Extra, a commentator on the KTLA Morning News and Entertainment Tonight. He moved to Montecito 13 years ago.

Here’s to Howard

S

anta Barbara stockbroker and former TV executive Howard Jay Smith is facing the music again!

Howard, a member of the board of the Santa Barbara Symphony, wrote his third book, Beethoven in Love; Opus 139: Concerto Quasi Una Fantasia, five years ago, and has now penned a suitable follow-up, Meeting Mozart: From the Secret Diaries of Lorenzo Da Ponte, which has been described as “the musical equivalent of The Da Vinci Code.”

“In the course of my extensive research of Beethoven’s life and times, I came across the diaries of Mozart’s librettist, Da Ponte, the man who wrote the text for three of his most famous and renowned operas, Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro, and Così fan tutte,” says Howard.

Former TV executive Howard Jay Smith has a new book, Meeting Mozart: From the Secret Diaries of Lorenzo Da Ponte

“In Da Ponte I found a man born in 1749, 200 years before me, whose life paralleled my own,” Howard goes on. “He grew up a Jew near Venice

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“Don Giovanni,” an illustration from Howard Jay Smith’s new Mozart tome by his son, Zak

at a time when people routinely wore masks and capes year round. He converted to Catholicism at age fourteen and ultimately his quest for an education led him to become a priest, a very bad priest, who was known more for his many affairs in Venice than he was for handling the confessions of his flock.

“A friend of Casanova and later Mozart, he made his way to Vienna and became known as the premier writer of his day. Yet, despite that, he was reviled as Mozart’s Jewish priest, as he could never escape the anti-Semitism of his times.”

Howard says Da Ponte’s operas, which dealt with the loose sexual behavior of his time, were also a roadmap of his own personal life, facts revealed in his diaries.

“Eventually banned in Venice and Vienna,” says Howard, “he ultimately made his way to New York where after opening the equivalent of a deli across the river in New Jersey, he becomes an integral part in the literary history of early modern New York where he is befriended by Clement Moore (the writer of The Night Before Christmas), James Fenimore Cooper, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.”

He was also instrumental in estab

lishing the first opera theater in New York, the precursor to today’s Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.

Da Ponte also became the first professor of Italian at Columbia University, as well as the first priest to teach there and, more significantly, the first Jew. Howard’s fascinating novel that spans generations, involving Mozart, mysteries, masquerades, opera and spies, accompanied by a dozen drawings by the internationally acclaimed artist Zak Smith, is, he says, his attempt to bring Da Ponte’s “astonishing life and work” into the public eye “for the recognition this genius so richly deserves.”

Howard is now busy working on another musical novel On Verdi’s Golden Wings.

A whole new aria to explore...

Holiday Roundup

Given the lockdown, I spent Christmas Day virtually streaming a host of entertaining Santa Barbara events that I was unable to attend, as I have done annually for the past 13 years.

Susan Keller’s Santa Barbara Revels

Miscellany Page 204 7 – 14 January 2021

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• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

15

Body Wise

by Ann Brode

C

Bringing in the Light for the New Year

oming to the end of this tough, transformative year, we need to celebrate a new beginning more than ever. Although the first of January is a calendar event, it could be seen as part of a continuum that goes from the Winter Solstice to mid-January. Since early humans first noticed the sun cycles of light to dark and dark to light, this time of year has brought people together to celebrate connection and renewal. Today, the rituals of Winter Solstice, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Diwali, New Year’s Eve, and Twelfth Night all have one thing in common: Light.

Like many, my family couldn’t wait to bring in the Light this year. We got a Christmas tree early and festooned it with colorful lights and baubles. We lit candles each night at the dinner table and sang our Advent song. We watched the evening sky as Jupiter and Saturn crept closer and closer together, cheering their conjunction on the Winter Solstice. Then we did an old hippie ceremony and wrote out the things we’d like to leave behind, tossing them one by one into the fireplace.

My eight-year-old grandson wrote the number 2020 on his offering. Afterwards, we thought about what we’d like to bring into our lives for the coming year, holding hands to empower our individual wishes with the intention of the collective.

Marking life’s various transitions in ritualistic ways is a distinct feature of human culture. Throughout history, our various tribes have come together to celebrate tradition, affirm connection and assure continuity. This practice benefits both the community and the individual. Although it’s unclear exactly why, participating in even the smallest ritual seems to reduce anxiety and increase self-confidence… even for people who don’t believe! Saul Levine, MD, author of Our Emotional Footprint: Ordinary People and Their Extra-Ordinary Lives, suggests that this is because celebrating traditions fulfill important criteria for achieving the Four B’s: Being, Belonging, Believing, and Benevolence.

When we have a good sense of being, we feel grounded in a core identity despite our foibles and frailties. Belonging gives us the personal comfort of knowing we’re an integral part of something bigger. Believing in a set of higher principles and values, whether secular or religious, encourages ethical behav-

Matthew Pifer, MD

ior. And, this sense of being, belonging, and believing inspires us to benevolent acts of generosity and kindness. In this way, carrying on traditions supports our best, most comfortable selves in an essential way.

Even if you don’t have an established tradition, doing something ceremonial to bring in the Light is a good way to set a positive course for the new year.

Anytime in January will work. All you have to do is set your intention, be introspective, and do a little ritual. You can use a variation of my family’s Solstice ceremony or design your own.

Steps for a New Year Ritual

Set your intention. Either by yourself or with others, design the time and place so you can be quiet without interruption. Dress for comfort. Light candles or incense to create sacred space.

Get present. Sitting quietly, get in touch with your surroundings. Feel the space, connect with your breath, and center in the moment. Expand your awareness to include your highest knowing.

Let it go. Take a few minutes to acknowledge the year past. Then let it go, bit by bit, with each successive exhale. Release anything that you don’t want to carry forward. Stream-of-consciousness will dredge up plenty of material, just begin with the stuff that’s surfaced as a result of COVID-19.

Be inspired. Once you’ve emptied the old stuff, there’s space for something new, something inspiring. Shift your attention to your inhale and breathe in all the things you’d like to come your way. No, not the Ferrari … things like equanimity, creativity, compassion, healing, opportunity.

Seal the deal. When you’re finished, reach your hands up toward the sky.

Then bring the energy down to your head, heart, belly, and the ground beneath.

Sit with palms up until you feel complete.

Celebrating both endings and beginnings is comforting and empowering. It’s about the intention. Even a few moments of inner reflection with your morning coffee can offer insight and clarity for the day ahead. Aligning with others simply increases the potency. As we embark on the new year ahead, why not take a moment to celebrate connection and renewal? Let’s take one breath together right now to bring in the Light and imagine it filtering out to touch all life on our precious planet.

What a great way to bring in the Light for the New Year!

•MJ

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7 – 14 January 2021

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

17

In Passing

Dr. Mohamed Samir “Sam” Amer, 1935–2020

D

r. Mohamed Samir “Sam” Amer died at his second home in Punta del Este, Uruguay, on December 21, 2020. He was 85.

Born in Tanta, Egypt, to Mohamed Mohamed Amer and Zeinab Hussein Saad Amer, Sam came to the U.S. in 1958 as a Fulbright scholar to study pharmacology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he earned a Master of Science and a Doctor of Philosophy Dr. Mohamed Samir in pharmacology. He also earned a Master of Business “Sam” Amer was Administration from Columbia University. Sam was renowned for his work renowned for his work as a pharmacologist, having as a pharmacologist and conducted extensive research in the areas of hyperten- medical researcher sion, biochemical pharmacology, general pharmacology, and cancer research.

He lectured at conferences across the U.S., France, Italy, and the U.K.; authored more than 100 articles to various professional journals, including Nature; served on the editorial board of the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology and the journal Clinical and Experimental Hypertension; and held more than 15 patents on drug and food development. After retiring as director of biological research at Bristol Meyers in New York, Sam and his wife started their own company licensing his research worldwide.

A Montecito resident since relocating from Connecticut in 1987, Sam was known for his immense warmth and positivity, his sense of humor, his ready and welcoming smile, and his booming, contagious laugh. He lived his life with gratitude, love, authenticity, humility, courage, integrity, and generosity.

Sam was a devoted husband, a proud father, and a doting grandfather. He was a role model to many, a loyal friend who never hesitated to help others in need, and a fierce champion of the underprivileged. He loved playing tennis, backgammon, and bridge; watching soccer; and taking long walks. He is survived by his wife, C. Marguerite Amer; his four children, Amre Amer, Nancy Amer, Mona Amer, and Suzanne Amer Albizzati; and his two grandchildren, Mathis and Arthur Albizzati.

•MJ

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Brilliant Thoughts

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Limits

O

ur language has a nice way of softening the meaning of nasty expressions. Take the word “deadline.” There was a time, not too long ago, when a dead-line was a line beyond which, if caught crossing it, you were liable to be killed. This was most applicable in a prison situation, when the captors had not had time to erect secure walls or fences, and simply stationed guards in watchtowers, with orders to shoot any attempted line-crossers.

I first learned about this in connection with the notorious Confederate prisoner-of-war camp at Andersonville, Georgia, in the Civil War. Conditions there were so horrendous that many Union prisoners were reported to have, in effect, committed suicide, by deliberately throwing themselves upon the dead-line.

But what I find remarkable is how quickly, after that conflict was over, the term acquired the convenient metaphorical meaning that it still enjoys.

When speaking today of rushing to meet a deadline for handing in an article, or completing some other assignment – particularly in the world of journalism, where it happens very aptly to rhyme with “headline” – the user is hardly likely to be conscious of the original meaning of that expression.

But of course, we have many other words and expressions conveying the same idea. I recently heard a dispenser of family advice on the radio telling parents that they must “set limits” to the behavior of their teenage children, but conceding that it was not always easy to do. This reminded me of my relationship with my own parents, in the years when we lived in England. Somewhat strangely as it might seem, they yielded quite readily to my adolescent wanderlust, and allowed me to go off hitchhiking, sometimes with a friend, but often alone – at first, all over Britain, then on the continent. But a time came when they drew the line – and I have never really forgiven them for it. The line they drew was between Europe and Africa. I very much wanted to visit Morocco, but to do so, I needed a visa, to secure which, for anyone under-age, required the consent of the parents. Mine had been hearing news reports of unrest in Morocco.

They felt that it was unsafe, and refused to let me go.

I can still remember my feelings of

“I would say Happy New Year but it’s not happy; it’s exactly the same as last year except colder.” — Robert Clark

anger and frustration, after hitch-hiking all the way down through France and Spain, to be sitting on top of the Rock of Gibraltar, looking across the Strait, to the clearly visible North African shore, just a short boat ride away, but held back only by my parents’ “limit.”

Another way of expressing the same idea is to talk about “drawing a line in the sand.” The most famous historically recent usage of those words came in 1991, after Iraq, under its military dictator, Saddam Hussein, had invaded and occupied the neighboring oil-rich State of Kuwait. The American President, George H.W. Bush, declared rather vaguely that “We have drawn a line in the sand,” as a sort of justification for launching the U.S. response, which became known as “Operation Desert Storm.”

Then there is the expression, “Beyond the Pale.” “Pale” is related to the word “palisade” – a fence of pointed stakes. It came to refer to a large boundary-fence enclosing a particular territory. One noted example was that which for many centuries marked the border of English settlement in Ireland, centered on Dublin.

But, as with “deadline,” the expression came to have metaphorical meaning. Even today, anything which goes “beyond the Pale” is considered to be outrageous, or in some other way unacceptable.

There are of course all kinds of political boundaries and borders. In our own time, probably the most dramatic was the so-called Iron Curtain, a physical barrier of fences, walls, minefields, and watchtowers, 4,300 miles long, which separated the Communist East from the rest of Europe.

Under the system set up in 1945, Berlin, the enemy capital, which was entirely within the Soviet-occupied East Germany, was shared among the occupying powers. Eventually, within that city, the Iron Curtain was embodied in the notorious Berlin Wall. Once, through military friends, Dorothy and I were able to pass through the opposing checkpoints to go shopping in East Berlin. But what most impressed me was that, between the two sides, there was a grassy area, a sort of “no-man’s-land,” where, with nobody to molest them, thousands of rabbits had taken up residence. I have often wondered what happened to all those Berlin Bunnies, when the Wall finally came down.

•MJ 7 – 14 January 2021

On Entertainment (Continued from page 11 11)) Official approval in hand, Barber next set out to find a sculptor, and, remembering a statue of astronaut Jack Swigert he’d seen 25 years earler, he reached for the stars again and called up the artist who had made it, George Lundeen of Colorado.

Once again, he stuck the landing. “I figured he might be dead or would just say no, but he said, ‘I’ve been waiting for this phone call for 25 years. Let’s get it done.’ It was just perfect.”

Barber next tackled the problem of finding the financing, which ran to $750,000, nailing down a commitment from Quicken’s Rocket Mortgage right at the deadline though another military movie connection.

The filmmaker then spent a lot of time in Colorado alongside the Lundeens, George, and his brother Mark, marveling at their craftsmanship in creating the statues, which show Armstrong, Aldrin, and Michael Collins in their space suits with their fingers pointing toward the heavens.

“They do everything by hand,” Barber said. “They don’t have CAD or use computers at all. They just mold it all with clay. It blows my mind. It’s like they’re from the 18th century.”

The Apollo 11 monument was installed at the Kennedy Space Center just in time for the unveiling as part of the 50th anniversary in July 2019. Visitors can see it in the spacious Moon Garden as they arrive to admire one of America’s greatest achievements.

“I just love knowing that some little kid is going to look up at that monument and see those guys looking at the stars, and go, man, I want to do that,” Barber said.

But Barber himself hasn’t spent a lot of time basking in their beauty as he turned first to completing a documentary about the project that is still awaiting distribution. Then started right in on the next set of space statues.

After Barber reached out to 92-year-old former astronaut Jim Lovell, who was commander of the 1970 Apollo 13 mission that suffered critical failure en route, and used an orbit around the moon to return safely to Earth – the courageous crew of that fateful journey has now also been memorialized in clay and bronze by the Lundeens. NASA agreed to put the monument on permanent display at the Space Center in Houston. Barber will be alongside Lovell, fellow Apollo 13 crew member Fred Haise, and Mission Control director Gene Kranz, whom Ed Harris played in the Apollo 13 movie, at the official unveiling on January 13.

Barber, who first lived in Montecito from ages two to 13 and has been back in town since 1998, isn’t sure what will get done next, although he’s working on getting financing for a statue of the first female astronaut, Sally Ride, which would be housed at the University of Arizona.

“Only two percent of the monuments in this country represent any sort of female celebration, which is absurd,” he said. “I want to change that paradigm.”

But Barber believes having the opportunity to keep honoring astronauts’ achievements is in the cards. “NASA’s pretty happy with the first two, so I think they’re going to let me build all of the Apollo monuments. Some sort of interesting power came through me to get these first two done, and it’s working with me still now. I know it sounds corny, but it feels like this is my destiny.”

Focus on Film: Subversives, Survivor, and Script-to-Screen The Carsey-Wolf Center’s Pollock Theater’s pandemic-pivot programming, which barely paused for the holidays, has jumped right back into the virtual

SANTA BARBARA

The “Subversives” series discusses Lingua Franca, written and directed by and starring Isabel Sandoval, on January 7 (Photo courtesy of Array)

fray with the start of the new year. The “Subversives” series gets going over Zoom on Thursday, January 7, with a discussion of Lingua Franca, written and directed by and starring Isabel Sandoval. The 2019 film follows Olivia, an undocumented Filipina trans woman played by Sandoval, who is working as a live-in caregiver for Olga, an elderly Russian woman who lives in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach neighborhood. Olivia’s main priority is to secure a green card to stay in America, but when she unexpectedly becomes romantically involved with Olga’s adult grandson, issues around identity, civil rights, and immigration threaten her very existence. Sandoval joins moderator Miguel Penabella of UCSB’s Film and Media Studies department for a discussion of the fascinating film, which can be pre-screened on Netflix, at 4 pm.

The pioneering reality TV series Survivor turned 20 this past summer, providing an opportunity to revisit what was, as its outside, the very definition of the now-quaint idea of “water-cooler television.” While the legacy franchise no longer draws the kind of astonishing trendsetting audiences it did in its first season – when viewers anxiously anticipated who would be voted off the island each week, with the finale drawing more than 50 million sets of eyes – Survivor is, perhaps surprisingly, still on the air. It continues to draw a consistent audience even in its 40th season, making it fair fodder for a couple of cultural critics – Myles McNutt of Old Dominion University and Laurie Ouellette of the University of Minnesota – to connect with moderator Jeremy Moore of UCSB at 7 pm on Tuesday, January 12, to discuss Survivor as both reality TV innovator and cultural phenomenon that both defines and reflects its times.

Charles Randolph has found plenty of success as a screenwriter and producer for film and television, with his resumé boasting the scripts for Love and Other Drugs (2010) and The Life of David Gale (2003) as well as last year’s Bombshell.

Four years ago, however, Randolph reached the pinnacle of his profession when he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for co-writing The Big Short with director Adam McKay, who was also nominated for best director and producer. The film, which was adapted from Michael Lewis’s book, traces how the 2008 financial crisis was triggered by the collapse of the United States housing bubble, with stars Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, and Brad Pitt portraying characters based on real figures who were working on Wall Street at the time. The clever concept employed a number of unconventional techniques to explain complicated financial instruments, with cameo appearances by stars who break the fourth wall and sometimes include animation to simplify concepts such as subprime mortgages and collateralized debt obligations. Randolph joins Pollock Theater director Matt Ryan for a virtual Q&A at 4 pm on Thursday, January 14. The Big Short may be streamed in advance on Amazon Prime, Youtube, or Vudu.

Details and free pre-registration for the Zoom conversations are available online at www.carseywolf.ucsb.edu/events/all-events.

On Entertainment Page 234 234

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Miscellany (Continued from page 14) Venetian Celebration, taped at the Marjorie Luke Theater, “was as close to a live performance as was possible in this most unusual year,” she says of the colorful 55-minute show with executive director Nick Jurkowski and music director Erin McKibben, featuring the Solstice Singers, the Renaissance Trombone Quartet, and the Revels Consort.

The program featured a host of Yuletide cheer with “The First Nöel,” “The Holly and Ivy,” “Lord of the Dance,” “Greensleeves,” and “In The Bleak Midwinter.”

As Susan always proclaims: “Join Us and Be Joyous.” Thanks to modern technology we did – and we are.

Over at the historic Lobero, where the Revels normally perform, Opera Santa Barbara’s artistic director Kostis Protopapas and the theater’s executive director David Asbell hosted a Staying Home for Christmas concert, described as a salute to the resiliency of the performing arts.

The one-hour-and-ten-minute show featured a host of holiday favorites with baritone Alexander Elliott, sopranos Jane McIntyre and Audrey Yoder, Nina, Jeff, and Rhys Nelsen, Tom Ball, Cantor Mark Childs, Dave Hauser, Teka Penteriche, and

aisles.

Nathan Kreitzer’s “Quire of Voyces,” normally warbling away at St. Anthony’s Chapel, performed a 20-minute show with all 23 talented singers on a split screen with seasonal favorites.

“It’s our first one, God willing, and hopefully, given all the vaccines coming on line, our last,” says Nathan.

And last, but not least, Rodney Gustafson’s State Street Ballet, which normally packs the Granada with its delightful performance of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, reprised last year’s one-hour, 45-minute show with the Opera San Luis Obispo Grand Orchestra to mark 25 years of holiday tradition.

Bravo to all!

Let’s Hear it for the Girls Susan Keller performed in Santa Barbara Revels Venetian Celebration, taped at the Marjorie Luke Theater

Jonathan Nathan’s jazz quartet.

Performances weren’t just limited to the stage, with one quartet playing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” suitably socially distanced in the

Having completed five years leading Girls Inc. of Greater Santa Barbara, Barbara Ben-Horin is leaving the progirl nonprofit.

Since joining the organization in January 2016 it has expanded its Teen Center programming, overhauled its emergency planning, and advanced its advocacy efforts on behalf of girls’ rights and opportunities.

“I deeply believe in Girls Inc.’s

“It’s Like Banking With Friends”

Barbara Ben-Horin is leaving Girls Inc. of Greater Santa Barbara after five years of leading the organization

vision of empowered girls in an equitable society and have been energized by the ‘why’ of our work,” says Barbara. “I am impressed every day by the girls and teens we serve and am grateful to the deeply dedicated staff. I believe my efforts have moved Girls Inc. forward, and that it is the right time to turn the reins over to new leadership.”

Prior to joining Girls Inc., she served as CEO of the SB City College Foundation and as Director of Development at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. The board of directors will engage in a search for new executive leadership early in the New Year.

Miscellany Page 304

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7 – 14 January 2021

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

21

Perspectives

by Rinaldo S. Brutoco

Rinaldo S. Brutoco is the Founding President and CEO of the Santa Barbara-based World Business Academy and a co-founder of JUST Capital.

He’s a serial entrepreneur, executive, author, radio host, and futurist who’s published on the role of business in relation to pressing moral, environmental, and social concerns for over 35 years

Escaping Minority Rule: The United States Senate

D

o we, as the people of the United States of America, want to be a democracy? This is the fundamental question behind the several articles being grouped under the title “Escaping Minority Rule.”

Historically we know the founders wanted to create minority rule and they went to great lengths to ensure that some people (primarily Southerners and white male landowners) would hold disproportionate power over all others.

In their world, a Black person counted as less than a full white person, women were legally chattel, and the right to vote ought to belong only to the landowner class. They wanted a plutocracy, with quasi-democratic underpinnings. The history books have generously named this a “Democratic Republic,” and yet most people don’t realize the founders intentionally created as a minority rule government.

I sincerely believe the founders, with all the other principles they expounded, would make different choices today; and, if they still lived today, would be proud of the progress we have made in revising our Constitution increasingly towards democracy. More importantly, if we conducted a plebiscite of all 328,200,000 humans living in the USA, more than 90 percent would say they want to live in a democracy. They would reject plutocracy, government of the many by the wealthy few, and demand the right to make their own collective decisions.

If you’d prefer an aristocratic government, which the founders overtly rejected in 1776, or a plutocracy, you probably don’t want to remain in the U.S. It isn’t your place. The Good ‘Ole USA is for those of us who want to share the collective responsibility for how we conduct our civic affairs. The founders, given all the other sentiments they expressed for the Revolution and for the government to follow, would be proud of us for that patriotic conclusion.

What keeps us from enjoying a meaningful democracy? How do we get out of “the box” of minority rule? The first article of this series examined the historic basis for the Electoral College and how it has become the biggest impediment to democratically electing the president, our senior most official. We noted the inherent unfairness of a system which awards one electoral vote for every 193,000 Wyoming residents, while awarding that same one electoral vote for every 718,000 California residents. The Wyoming resident receives 3.7 times the voting power of a Californian. That’s clearly minority rule.

The U.S. Senate also concentrates vastly unequal governmental power in the voters who reside in the smallest states. As any civics student knows, there are two Senators for each state. It takes approximately 20 million people to elect a senator in California, while only 290,000 can elect a senator from Wyoming.

That’s a disadvantage of about 690 percent.

That number speaks even louder when you realize how a small percentage, far below a majority, elects one of the two legislative branches of government.

A minority that can, as recently demonstrated over the last 12 years, literally control the U.S. government.

Want to know how bad this is going to get? Dean David Birdsell of Baruch College recently published the stunning prediction that by 2040, 70 percent of Americans will live in the 15 most populous states, and therefore control only 30 of 100 Senate seats! Shocking if you think you want to live in a democracy.

The Senate was patterned after the British House of Lords and was referred to as the “Upper House” at the Constitutional Convention. It confers longer terms (six years in the Senate compared to two years in the House). It was designed to be a “deliberative” body, rather than the populace reactive “People’s House,” which was primarily designed to generate legislation sought by constituents, control the purse strings, and have the power to declare war.

The founders knew they were creating an inherently unequal, non-proportional body. Both Madison and Hamilton tried to stop it. The problem: voting rules at the Constitutional Convention was set at “one state, one vote.” The smaller states like Delaware backed the unequal voting argument even though the winning five states out of the nine voting, held just one third of the total population.

The four more populous states (Virginia, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Georgia) were outvoted. We’ve suffered from this political approach ever since.

The political manipulation used to construct the Senate became ever more contentious and remarkably more racist in the first century of our nation’s life.

22 MONTECITO JOURNAL

LEGOs and Leather

LEGO has designed braille bricks for blind students

I

n LEGO’s new toy set, the bumps that hold the blocks together have a second purpose: they also help children learn Braille. The series of dots on each brick represents a different letter of the Braille alphabet, the numbers zero through nine, and a handful of math symbols. Braille can be incredibly difficult to learn, but by intertwining it with the LEGO bricks, kids can play without even realizing that they are learning to read Braille – adding fun to an otherwise challenging task.

According to American Printing House, a nonprofit that promotes independent living for people who are blind and visually impaired, the LEGO Foundation is sending the blocks, free of charge, to school districts across the United States.

For districts that won’t be reopening this year, the LEGO Foundation is sending the braille bricks to schools where blind or visually impaired students are registered in the hopes that teachers or administrators can send them to students’ homes.

“We couldn’t be more excited to be working with LEGO to distribute an incredible tool to help introduce students to Braille,” Craig Meador, the president of APH, said in a press statement. “Reading Braille means literacy that connects students to lifelong learning and opportunity.”

Eco-friendly fungus leather looks and feels like the real thing Fungi is incredibly versatile and, according to a recent study from the University of Vienna, Imperial College London, and RMIT University in Australia, this impressive living organism also holds the potential to help scientists develop a more sustainable alternative to animal leather that looks and feels like the real thing. It is also a highly cost-effective substitute.

One of the production possibilities involves using low-cost agricultural and forestry by-products, like sawdust, as a base to grow mycelium on.

Mycelium is the vegetative part of a fungus made of long strands that connect the root systems of different plants and help them communicate.

The mycelium is then grown into sheet form over the course of a couple of weeks, after which it goes through a pressing process, producing a material with a similar texture to animal leather. This material mainly consists of biodegradable elements such as chitin and glucan biopolymers.

Using fungi to manufacture leather could be of particular interest to eco-conscious consumers and the vegan community, as well as the increasing number of fashion brands seeking to reduce their environmental footprint.

•MJ Manipulation of Senate representation began in 1790 but really became obvious in 1820 with the famous case that allowed Maine to enter the Union. Once slavery became illegal north of the Mason-Dixon Line, the legendary Senator Henry Clay negotiated the “Missouri Compromise” which only permitted Maine to enter the Union because Missouri was entering as a slave state. This sordid distinction granted slave holding states Senatorial voting power disproportionate to their population in order to maintain a “balance” of equal Senate power between “slave” and “free” states remained in place until the Civil War. Some would say it is still at work today.

The best case for demonstrating the racist underpinnings of how we apportion Senate votes is to look at the District of Columbia. With a population of 721,000, 30 percent more residents than the State of Wyoming, it is not allowed to have even one Senator.

The District of Columbia is only 36 percent Caucasian. In the last several decades at least, various people of color (primarily Black and Brown) have shown a tendency to vote for Democrats over Republicans. Thus, due to fear that adding two new Senators, likely people of color, to the existing 100 U.S. Senators could change the balance of power in the Senate, this is a nonstarter for the current Senate landscape, characterized by that very old group of white men who run the place!

Is that democracy? No. That is rule by the white minority over the majority.

It explains why so many older white males are fighting to restrict voter participation in an attempt to indefinitely continue to rule, as a minority, regardless of how small a percentage of the population they represent.

If you believe in democracy, that’s precisely the “minority rule” we have to escape.

•MJ

“Let’s just wish each other a bile-less New Year and leave it at that.” — Judith Christ

7 – 14 January 2021

On Entertainment (Continued from page 19 19))

SBIFF Sessions on Zoom and YouTube Paul Walter Hauser, a writer-director on three short films, participates in a Film Talk chat on January 7

SBIFF’s first Film Talk of the year features Paul Walter Hauser, who got his start as a stand-up comedian before turning to acting where he has enjoyed a number of noteworthy roles. In addition to a litany of TV series guest shots and a few recurring roles, he proved a scene stealer at the movies as Nancy Kerrigan’s attacker in I, Tonya and played one of the racist conspirators in Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman before breaking out as the title character in Richard Jewell, Clint Eastwood’s feature film about the security guard who was hailed as a hero and then became the prime suspect of the bombing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

But Hauser also works behind the camera, and has served as writer-director on three short films from 2017-19. The Film Talk chat addresses the latest, Heirloom, a 14-minute culture clash encounter between a young woman who enlists her best girlfriends to retrieve a family heirloom from a creepy house and the gang of misfits who live there. Watch the film online at https://vimeo. com/328931200 before checking out the Q&A between Hauser and a SBIFF programming staffer at 6 pm on Thursday, January 7, over Zoom. Visit sbiff.org/ filmtalk for links to register and to see past events.

Meanwhile, SBIFF took advantage of the continued live events downtime in December to offer a number of Cinema Society events featuring films expected to receive attention come awards time. Director Phyllida Lloyd and writer-actress Clare Dunne came on board with executive director Roger Durling to discuss Herself (available to stream on Amazon Prime), the story of a young mother who escapes her abusive husband and fights back against a broken housing system by building her own home and in the process rebuilds her life and re-discovers herself.

Director Bryan Fogel also dropped by virtually for a one-on-one with Durling to talk about The Dissident, an adrenaline-filled documentary thriller that plays out at the highest levels of power, exposing the labyrinth of deceit behind the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The latest from the Academy Award-winning Fogel (Icarus), features never-before-seen surveillance footage and employs unprecedented access to a wealth of other damning information previously unavailable to the public to weave together the story.

Successful documentarian Ryan White found favor with Durling’s in a discussion of Assassins, a feature film about the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of the North Korean leader, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews.

Also available on SBIFF’s YouTube channel are Q&As with director Emerald Fennell and star Carey Mulligan of Promising Young Woman, legendary writer-director Spike Lee about his epic adventure film Da 5 Bloods, and Chloé Zhao, the writer, director, editor, and co-producer of Nomadland, which Rolling Stone called “a wondrous work of art” and several more. Visit SBIFF’s YouTube channel to watch any of the videos.

The Peter Principle

Ojai Theater Veteran Takes Stark Approach to Male Sex Organ Twenty-five years ago, a then-little-known playwright named Eve Ensler turned the theater world upside down with The Vagina Monologues, comprised of a stark series of stories told in first-person readings that explore experiences with sex, body image, reproduction, menstration, sex work, and many other topics through the perspective of women of varying age, races, sexual orientation, and more. Ensler’s aim was both celebration and empowerment, but the play’s reach far exceeded her wildest expectations, as TVM has gone on to explosive success with regular productions across the country and globe, with particular focus on fundraising and colleges.

7 – 14 January 2021

Now, Ojai-based playwright and actor Peter Fox has manufactured a male counterpart to the piece – called The Testicles Monologues: If These Balls Could Talk – that is having its world premiere as a virtual staged reading through the end of the month. Fox’s acting credits include regular roles on The Waltons and Knots Landing, guest shots on dozens of other TV series, a part in the film Airport ’77 with Jack Lemmon and Jimmy Stewart, while he also served as the artistic director and chairman of the board of the critically acclaimed Alliance Repertory Theater in Los Angeles In The Testicles Monologues: If These Balls Could for 16 years, and his play Acts of God Talk, Peter Fox has created the male counterpart was nominated for an ADA Award to The Vagina Monologues for both writing and direction. But it was his most recent gig as a participant in last fall’s Personal Stories readings at Center Stage Theater that led to his new show’s debut when the Montecito-based director Maggie Mixsell agreed to helm a reading filmed at the theater. Fox and Speaking of Stories veterans Justin Stark and Tom Hinshaw are joined by Los Angeles-based actors Gus Buktenica and Cary Thompson in reading the dozen-plus monologues that comprise TTM. Stark talked about the play over the phone from his home earlier this week.

Q. What prompted you to create this piece now?

A. I wrote it over the course of the last year, and it came from having read Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, and knowing what a profound hit that was. She dives deep into the effects for females of having the female organs, obviously very successfully because it’s (performed) virtually every night somewhere in the world. I thought it was great, but it’s only one half of the story. As a playwright, I wanted to explore and work on the other half of the human experience, look at it from the male point of view, and from my point of view of these characters.

Where did these stories come from? Are they purely from your imagination or your experiences, or did you interview men the same way Eve Ensler talked to a lot of women to create The Vagina Monologues?

A lot of these characters come from me or people I know (including) the opening one about my girlfriend making me go see The Vagina Monologues and my buddies making fun of me, and the closing one about apes because I did study primate anthropology when I was at Harvard. Also the one about a father whose 14-year-old daughter is walking out the door dressed provocatively, which happened to my brother. But I’m an actor and a writer. What we have to do is find characters and dig deep to (uncover) the emotional truth behind them. So the rest came from me doing that, coming up with 13 or 14 of these characters and figuring out what this guy is really thinking, what’s really going on (inside). Whether it’s a priest or a porn actor or just plain ugly or anyone – what’s happening to that guy because he’s got a penis and balls?

I wanted to do the spectrum of every conceivable guy, whether he’s gay or straight, about to become transgender, or you name it. That’s what I did over

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On The Record (Continued from page 6) Broudy and Bacall escape the (electrical) heat in Lake Tahoe

inside his house. “I was advised to leave the house immediately as the current posed an electrocution hazard,” he says.

Testing, Testing

At 6 pm that evening, Southern California Edison arrived with two work crews and did several tests on his home and several others on his street but left several hours later without determining a cause for the problem. The next day, Broudy says an SCE worker told him that the stray current was coming from a Cox Communication pedestal device on Middle Road. SCE then performed a so-called “hazard cut” on the cable company’s equipment, which forced Cox to set up a temporary generator to keep cable service in the neighborhood working.

Cox removed the generator a week later, at which time Broudy says he spoke with a company representative who stated that a coaxial cable that was connected to a grounding rod had created a back field of current going to his house, but that Cox had replaced and repositioned the cable, which should fix the problem. However, Broudy’s Gauss meter still registered an electrical current on his pipes, so he called SCE again and on November 25, the company returned to his property to do more tests.

This time, SCE cut off the utility’s electrical connection to Broudy’s roof and then tested his copper pipes to see if there was still a problem. Although the amperage readings were much lower than before, a small current was still running through his plumbing, demonstrating, according to the SCE worker, that, while Cox may not have entirely fixed the problem, there was no longer any electrocution hazard in his home.

Five days later, on November 30, Broudy received a call from Cox saying they had fixed the problem on their end and any stray current in his plumbing was something that SCE would have to address. Broudy also paid for a plumber to replace part of his plumbing with plastic piping in order to ensure that no current would be able to continue reaching inside his house. “For the first time, the current went to zero,” he said.

But the copper levels in his water didn’t go away. Two subsequent MWD tests of the water flowing from Broudy’s kitchen sink in December 2020 came back showing that the copper levels in his water were still abnormally high. “It was at almost 3000 parts per billion,” Broudy recalled. “This time, instead of testing the water in the morning, they tested it midday when the water had already been flowing through the pipes for a while, and the results were three times over the maximum allowable levels.”

Calling All Agencies

Feeling insecure in his own house, Broudy split town and on Christmas Day, retreated with Bacall to Lake Tahoe; neither man nor dog have been back since. But meanwhile, his story spread like wildfire via the neighborhood watch app Nextdoor.com, resulting in a written appeal for First District Supervisor Das Williams to help facilitate an official response. As a result of the hub-bub all three agencies involved in the mystery – MWD, SCE, and Cox – are now looking into what happened. So the Montecito Journal reached out to all three entities asking for answers.

MWD confirmed that it initiated extensive intensive tests of other homes near Broudy’s, in the hopes of finding whether what happened to his pipes is an isolated case or a more widespread problem. The agency’s executive director, Nick Turner, said that work was still ongoing. “We have expanded our investigation outside of his house in order to ensure the public that this isn’t more widespread than originally thought,” Turner said. “We’re in the midst of that process, but we don’t have any additional information to share, nor have we come to any conclusions yet. We hope to have some more conclusive data soon.”

According to Turner, MWD has been required by law to conduct tests for both copper and lead every three years since the 1990s. “The program is pri-

24 MONTECITO JOURNAL

marily focused on lead, but copper is monitored alongside it,” he explained.

“If there is anybody above the state limit, we contact them and let them know and try to help them determine what the source of the higher level is within their piping, but it’s pretty rare to have people above the action limit. That program is ultimately what led to an elevated reading of copper levels at his residence and because of our concern that this particular problem could exist elsewhere, we have unofficially expanded our program, going above and beyond state requirements, to test both locally and district-wide.

Turner refused to say exactly how many other homes have been tested since high copper levels were discovered in Broudy’s water, nor would he offer any specific explanation for why the problem might have occurred. “From our perspective, that data is private,” he said. “There are a lot of ways copper can leach into water,” he added, however. “The water can be corrosive in nature, and corrode the pipes, but our water is on the non-corrosive side of the scale,” he offered. “It can also happen to people with their own private water treatment systems, but for those people who don’t have their own systems and are just using district water, there is the possibility of copper electrolysis resulting in copper leaching out of the pipe into the water.”

SCE spokesperson David Song said his agency is also still investigating.

“Obviously nothing is more important to us than the safety of our customers and community,” he said. “We will continue to work diligently with Mr. Broudy and the other utilities, but we can’t speculate until we’ve gone through our research and analysis.”

Charla Batey, a spokesperson for Cox Communications, also confirmed her agency is monitoring the situation, “We’ve been working with MWD and Edison and Supervisor Williams,” she said. “We inspected our equipment a few times and there is no current between our lines and his. We haven’t heard any complaints from other customers on Middle Road, or elsewhere in Montecito.”

For his part, Broudy says his main concern at this point is getting a straight answer about what caused the problem with his water, and whether or not the same problem is affecting any of his neighbors. “I really don’t want the attention that this story has brought,” he said. “I just want to make sure this issue doesn’t affect other people or animals.”

Stay tuned for additional updates on this story as it develops.

Montecito Trails Foundation Celebrates New Year With Trash Pickup on Local Trails

On December 31, the Montecito Trails Foundation (MTF) held its inaugural New Year’s Eve trash pickup event on local trails, with dozens of members fanning out along some 90 miles of trails in the front country above town as well as community trails within Montecito, Summerland, and Carpinteria. Because of COVID-19 concerns, the group encouraged members to work alone or in socially-distanced family units as they collectively picked up trash and other- Celebrating another year of maintaining Montecito’s trail system wise beautified our local trail network.

According to MTF president Ashlee Mayfield, the event was the brainchild of the group’s newest board member, Kristine Sperling. “She is passionate about the environment and this was really her idea,” Mayfield said. “We are all looking for a way to connect with each other, and this was an amazing case where we were able to do things on our own but also in synch with each other in a community effort. People loved it so much we are going to do it every year and are even talking about doing one on Memorial Day weekend this year.”

Because of the pandemic, Mayfield added, trail usage throughout the United States has exploded in recent months, and Montecito is no exception.

Unfortunately, all the extra hikers means extra trash, the most common item being discarded beer cans. “We have had an uptick nationally in hiking in open spaces, and despite the crowds, it’s really a good thing,” she said. “As we see an increase of use and increase of desire in these spaces, it’s fantastic to have all these other people on board helping us. Stewardship is contagious: Once you see you can make a difference, it becomes part of your daily life.”

•MJ

“First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

7 – 14 January 2021

V I L L A G E P R O P E RT I E S C O N G R AT U L AT E S R I S K I N PA RT N E R S for 2020 closings in excess of $600,000,000

RISKIN PARTNERS ESTATE GROUP t rans ac t i o n s l is ted a r e a s a m p l in g o f 2 0 2 0 s a l e s ROBERT RISKIN

2020 closings, continued

N

P A R T N

I

E P

R S

S

T

AT E

U

E

$39,900,000 $22,000,000 $18,500,000 $14,950,000 $14,500,000 $13,950,000 $12,950,000 $10,900,000 $10,600,000 $8,999,000 $8,995,000 $7,995,000 $6,995,000 $6,950,000 $6,900,000 $6,850,000 $6,295,000 $5,999,999 $5,950,000 $5,895,000 $5,800,000 $5,750,000 $5,625,000 $5,250,000 $5,250,000

SARAH HANACEK

K

2020 closings

2955 E Valley Road* 942 Hot Springs Road 1210 Channel Drive 1260 E Mountain Drive 630 Hot Springs Road 1478 E Mountian Drive 1569 E Valley Road 705 Riven Rock Road 2450 Calzada Avenue 1505 Monte Vista Road 610 Cima Vista Lane* 1684 San Leandro Lane 854 Park Lane 848 Rockbridge Road* 210 Miramar Avenue 1845 E Mountian Drive 667 Juan Crespi Lane 808 Riven Rock Road 808 San Ysidro Lane 6 Seaview Drive 1465 E Mountain Drive 796 Park Lane West 1415 School House Road 722 Via Manana 645 El Bosque Road

DINA LANDI

R I S

JASMINE TENNIS

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O

1

no.

Santa Barbara 2020 sales volume

2255 Featherhill Road 582 Freehaven Drive 110 Summit Lane 4050 Mariposa Drive 2250 Ortega Ranch Road 210 Miramar Avenue 396 Woodley Road 256 Santa Rosa Lane* 1344 School House Road 553 Hot Springs Road 1134 Hill Road 1469 La Vereda Lane 1333 E Valley Road* 701 Park Lane 51 Seaview Drive 2443 Whitney Avenue

2021 pending

1676 E Valley Road 956 Mariposa Lane 209 Greenwell Avenue 4625 Via Carretas

$5,175,000 $5,103,500 $4,975,000 $4,850,000 $4,750,000 $4,750,000 $4,700,000 $4,400,000 $3,695,000 $3,500,000 $2,995,000 $2,995,000 $2,995,000 $2,995,000 $2,850,000 $1,399,000

$9,250,000 $9,150,000 $6,195,000 $5,495,000

2021 closings

1398 Oak Creek Canyon Road $8,950,000

Prices noted above reflect list price. *Represented both buyer and seller. License #01954177 7 – 14 January 2021

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

25

In Business

Jules Coast Caviar

Jules Coast Caviar will offer the renowned caviar of California Caviar Company, owned by Deborah Keane, aka the “caviar queen”

by Kelly Mahan

A

new gourmet food boutique is slated to open for business this weekend, in the new commercial space next to Folded Hills Wine Tasting Room in developer John Price’s mixed-use building at Olive Mill. Jules Coast Caviar is an emporium for the finest foodstuffs from the West Coast and beyond, carefully curated by owners and longtime Montecito residents, Aleigh and Felix.

Named after their beloved rescue dog, Jules, the shop will be open at limited retail capacity during the extended stay-at-home order during the pandemic. “It’s a tough time to be opening a new business, but we are hoping to bring some much-needed joy to this community,” said Aleigh.

The shop features caviar from California Caviar Company, a global leader in the production of sustainably Co-owner Aleigh stands in front of a plethora of farmed, premium caviar. Owned by Compartés Chocolate bars “caviar queen” Deborah Keane, who is considered a pioneer of the sustainable caviar movement, California Caviar Company was launched in 2007 after Keane recognized the lack of a reliable supply in the marketplace. The company owns the U.S. master patent for the Köhler Process, allowing the company to use the first ever techniques for caviar extraction without harming the sturgeon (i.e. “no-kill” caviar), which will be launched this year. “It is the best of the best,” Aleigh said of the product, of which there will be multiple varieties and

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Jules Coast Caviar is set to open this weekend, offering caviar, chocolate, sweets, espresso, and more

accoutrements available.

In addition to caviar, the couple will offer a vast selection of chocolates from Compartés Chocolates, Vosges Chocolates, and John Kelly Chocolates, as well as a selection of gourmet cheeses and charcuterie items. There will also be gourmet gelato and sorbet – served in COVID-friendly single serve containers – from Nancy’s Fancy Gelato, and eventually fresh baked sweets from Renaud’s Bakery, to be served in the afternoon when Renaud’s down the street is closed for the day. “Our goal is to create a synergy with other local businesses, to collaborate and celebrate our mutual success. This community has given us so much, and we really want to give back,” said Felix.

Once fully open, the shop will offer a comfortable place for people to gather, have an espresso or mimosa (liquor license pending), and something sweet or savory to eat, and dogs will be welcome. “It’s about helping people get out and enjoy their lives… we want to be the place for that,” Felix added. Until then, the shop will be focused on retail, as well as a 24-hour delivery service where members of the community, as well as hotel guests, can call upon the business for late-night indulging. “There is a void in this area for late night food availability, so we are happy to be able to offer it,” Aleigh said, adding that they’ve partnered with local hotels to be able to offer their products around the clock.

The semi-retired couple says it’s been a longtime dream of theirs to open a shop like Jules in Montecito, in part as a way to interact with the community, as well as offer “the best of the best” artisanal foods; Aleigh is the former food buyer for Harrods of London, in addition to writing numerous screenplays. The couple plans on giving a percentage of profits to local nonprofits, and will also offer customers a way to give back to the charity of their choice at the point-ofsale. “We’ll be cashless, and very cognizant of COVID protocols,” Aleigh added.

The shop is open 11 am to 7 pm every day except Tuesdays and Wednesdays. For more information and to order 24-hour delivery, visit www.caviarsb.com or www. julesmontecito.com. Jules Coast Caviar is located at 1292 Coast Village Road. •MJ

“To be an ideal guest, stay at home.” — E. W. Howe

7 – 14 January 2021

BEST VALUE ON THE MESA! BEST VALUE ON THE MESA! 907 PARK LANE | REPRESENTED BUYER | SOLD FOR $4,825,000 OPEN SATURDAY 1:00pm-3:00pm OPEN“EXCEPTIONAL SATURDAY 1:00pm-3:00pm “EXCEPTIONAL PROFESSIONALISM” “EXCEPTIONAL PROFESSIONALISM” PROFESSIONALISM” “EXCEPTIONAL PROFESSIONALISM”

907 907 Park

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Barbara market helping me evaluate many alternative locations, exceptional professionalism in guiding the complex purchase negotiations, unflagging

follow through on a myriad of closing process details, and totally over and

above support in addressing a whole host of inspection spawned, post close issues is what marks these two as the best real estate professionals I’ve ever met. They were always available, always prepared to make in person visits

“EXCEPTIONAL PROFESSIONALISM” happen on my schedule and able to point out important aspects, both positive

805.963.1704 BRE Lic. # 01902531 | BRE Lic. # 00635254 805.963.1704 Lic. # 01902531 Lic. # 00635254 BRE# Lic. #BRE 01902531 | BRE Lic. #| BRE 00635254 BRE Lic. # 01902531 | BRE Lic. 00635254

and negative about properties that interested me. There was no question

Mike & Kyle Richardson & Kyle Richardson Mike & Mike Kyle Richardson team@mrrealtors.com Mike & Kyle Richardson team@mrrealtors.com team@mrrealtors.com 805.963.1704 team@mrrealtors.com 805.963.1704

about divided loyalties - they were there to support me. There was never any

pressure or subtle tactics to encourage a purchase decision. They were simply there to help me any way I needed them to do. I give them my highest rating and an unqualified endorsement to anyone looking for an outstanding real

907 Park Lane

Family Owned and Operated Family Owned Operated Family Owned and and Operated Family Owned and Operated estate agent in the Santa Barbara area.

- Bob Castle

I just completed a rather long and complicated purchase of a beautiful property in Santa Barbara and Mike and Kyle Richardson are the reasons it was so successful. The combination of tremendous expertise about the Santa Barbara market helping me evaluate many alternative locations, exceptional professionalism in guiding the complex purchase negotiations, unflagging follow through on a myriad of closing process details, and toover and above support in addressing a whole host of inTHE RICHARDSON TEAM INtally 2020 THE RICHARDSON TEAM INTEAM 2020 IN THE RICHARDSON TEAM IN 2020 THE RICHARDSON 2020 spections, which uncovered needed repairs that Mike and Kyle oversaw post closing for me which is what marks these two homes sold this year! homes this year! homes sold sold this year! as the best real estate professionals I’ve ever met. They were homes sold this year!

20 of them on the Mesa.

THE RICHARDSON TEAM IN 2020 20 of them on the Mesa.

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Very clean 2bed/2bath (easy modification a 3 bedroom) homeprepared with mountain and city views.

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Mesa lifestyle with vaulted ceilings, an updated kitchen, living room fireplace, and dual-pane windows/sliders.

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This is located a very quiet, me any way I needed them to do.

I give them my highest rating ~1 1,060 acre Montecito estate.

Resting at the in a life time opportunity to purchase spectacular 4bed/4.5bath ultra-luxury all-time clients.Resting 727 on theat Mesa. tucked away cul-de-sac the end of Kenwood Road.

Attached 2-car with interior access. all-time clients.

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Mesa. all-time clients.

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Your MesaRealtors Realtors THE RICHARDSON Your Mesa TEAM IN 2020

Mike & Kyle Richardson 1806 Cliff Drive 1806 Cliff Drive Cliff Drive 1806 Cliff DriveCA 1806 Santa Barbara, 93109 Santa Barbara, CA 93109 Santa Barbara, CA 93109 Santa CA 93109 Office:Barbara, 805.963.1704

Integrity • Knowledge • Experience

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Mike & Kyle Richardson The Richardson Team team@mrrealtors.com The Richardson Tea 805.963.1704 The Richardson Team The Team MikeRichardson & Kyle Richardson BRE Lic. # 01902531 | BRE Lic. # 00635254

Family Owned and Operated 1806 Cliff Drive Santa Barbara, CA 93109 Office: 805.963.1704

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Richardson MikeMike and and KyleKyle Richardson Team@mrrealtors.com Team@mrrealtors.com 805.963.1704 805.963.1704 www.mrrealtors.com www.mrrealtors.com BRE#00635254 Lic. #00635254 + #01902531 BRE Lic. + #01902531

7 – 14 January 2021

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

27

NOSH TOWN

Let’s discuss your real estate needs.

by Claudia Schou

REIMAGINING THE WALKING FOOD TOUR IN DOWNTOWN SANTA BARBARA A Grazing Box, one of many tasting selections available at Taste Santa Barbara Tours

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H

ow do you gather food lovers together for a tour of downtown Santa Barbara’s most notable eateries in the midst of a global pandemic in which both indoor and outdoor dining are off limits? Taste Santa Barbara Tours seems to have found the answer: by offering safely social distanced walking tours featuring take-out food that’s perfect for local picnicking.

“The to-go tours are equally awesome to our ‘normal’ tours,” explained owner Evan Elizabeth Berger, who started the tour in 2014. “We’re leaning toward private groups versus various groups joining one tour. Anyone can sign up for a tour, but the goal is to keep friends and family in their own bubble.”

The tour starts at El Paseo and weaves on and off State Street with stops at some of Santa Barbara’s popular foodie spots: street tacos at Los Arroyos Downtown, Rueben sandwiches at South Coast Deli, spicy tuna roll at Sun Sushi, savory Asian noodles at Public Market’s Empty Bowl, wine from Cebada, veggie plates at Satellite and pasta at Arnold’s Cafe.

Tasting selections and restaurant locations are constantly revolving to keep the tours fun and interesting, Berger said. Tour goers enjoy some of their meals on disposable picnic blankets at the courthouse before concluding the tour at McConnell’s Ice Cream, where they can choose two flavors of their choice.

It’s not just a food tour, there’s a historical tour element to it in which Berger discusses the architectural history as a backdrop for a thriving local food scene. “Guests can take in the sites, learn about Santa Barbara and enjoy some local food on a daytime, walking food tour,” she said. “Our guides use safe distancing to show guests around town and of course, feeding them. We want to help our local restaurant partners as much as we can.”

Tours start at $300 for two guests and run about three hours. For more information or book a tour, visit tastesantabarbarafoodtours.com

TASTE ONE, TASTE THEM ALL

S

anta Barbara Public Market is a culinary favorite for devoted foodies who come to sample the unique flavors of local chefs. The 19,400-square-foot gourmet food hall houses seven vendors with culturally diverse culinary offerings in a single location, and can now be combined in a single food order. Outdoor/indoor dining is not available but there are several ways to enjoy the culinary artistry from these small businesses, including takeout and delivery.

You can even sample dishes by different vendors through Restaurant Connection. Here’s a roundup of popular items on their menus.

EL JARDIN (THE GARDEN)

urban contemporary beer garden features a rotating array of beers on tap, including “The Plumber with a conscience” Thispilsners, lagers, IPAs, reds, browns, stouts, and sours. Note: orders are only available *May not be combined with other discounts online through thegardensb.com.

Payment must be made at time of service to receive discount (Limit one coupon per customer)

28 MONTECITO JOURNAL

Popular To-Go Item: The El Jardin Burger, with two premium ground beef patties, American cheese, a tangy and delicious “secret” sauce, pickles, and grilled onions piled on a brioche bun is a masterpiece ($12). Add: smoked bacon ($2), fried egg ($2), avocado ($3),

“He who breaks a resolution is a weakling; He who makes one is a fool.” — F.M. Knowles

7 – 14 January 2021

and lettuce and tomato ($1) for the works. A tasty selection of ale growlers is available for pickup Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 5 pm ($13.99-$31.99).

Reason to order carryout: Because you want to light up the grill for burgers on a Friday night but don’t want to brave the cold winter temperatures outside.

CORAZÓN COCINA

I

nventive Mexican cuisine by chef Ramon Velazquez offering tacos, ceviche, and salads.

Popular To-Go Item: The Norteño Taco, featuring grilled skirt steak served on a handmade flour tortilla with melted cheese, topped with perfectly stewed Peruvian beans, salsa mugrosa (roasted tomatoes, chilies, garlic), guacamole and cilantro ($8.50) gives Taco Night a whole new flavor.

Reason to order carryout: Customer feedback is that the Norteño Taco is the Customer feedback is that Corazón Cocina’s Norteño Taco is the best steak taco in Santa Barbara best steak taco in Santa Barbara.

CA’DARIO PIZZERIA VELOCE

N

orthern Italian-style pizzas and seasonal salads created by chef Dario Furlati.

Popular To-Go Item: The “El Gringo” ($12.95) is made with a 24-hour raised, house-made dough rolled to a perfect 10” pie. Fresh tomato sauce, mozzarella, Italian sausage, sweet red onion, and serrano chili make this pizza a one-of-a-kind experience.

Reason to order carryout: You’re craving a savory, meaty pizza pie with a spicy kick.

FALA BAR The Fala Plate at Fala Bar is an all organic and vegan plate featuring a medley of ingredients

WABI SABI

A

dazzling array of sushi, sashimi, sushi rolls, and other Japanese favorites.

Popular To-Go Item: TunaTanMan Roll made with spicy tuna, grilled asparagus, avocado, cilantro, Japanese sprout and topped with yellow fin tuna, black flying fish egg, micro greens, and garlic ponzu sauce ($18.97).

Reason to order carryout: Wabi Sabi’s artful presentation in a box is awe-in- The TunaTanMan Roll, among a dazzling array of sushi, sashimi, sushi rolls and other Japanese favorites, at spiring.

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7 – 14 January 2021

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erving up vegan falafel, sandwiches, and salads, it’s traditional Middle Eastern cuisine with a healthy twist.

Popular To-Go Item: Fala Plate is an all organic and vegan plate featuring a medley of quinoa tabouli, Israeli cucumber salad, purple and white cabbage served with warm house-

Nosh Page 364

VIRTUAL OPEN HOUSE JANUARY 20, 6:30 PM

We invite you to RSVP to mandy@sbms.org and come learn about our dynamic school community.

Applications due February 5, 2021.

1321 Alameda Padre Serra, SB 93103 805-682-2989 | www.sbms.org | Financial Aid Available

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

29

Miscellany (Continued from page 20)

Burkle Buys Neverland After half a decade on the market, the late singer Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch in Los Olivos, now renamed the Sycamore Valley Ranch, has sold for nearly $80 million less than the original asking price.

The new owner is billionaire Ron Burkle, a onetime associate of Jackson and co-founder of Yucaipa Companies, who has paid $22 million for the 2,700-acre spread, which includes 22 structures, including a 22,000-square-feet Normandy-style mansion, seven guest houses, and a 50-seat movie theater.

Jackson, who died in 2009, originally bought the ranch for $19.5 million in 1987, filling it with amusement park rides and even a zoo.

His estate co-owned the property with a fund managed by Colony Capital, headed by Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club patron Tom Barrack. Over time there have been several price cuts on the selling price with it last offered for $31 million in 2019, less than a third of its original asking price of $100 million.

Burkle, 68, also has a John Lautnerdesigned home in Palm Springs, which was built for the late comedian Bob Hope and his wife, Dolores, in the ‘70s.

The Royal Review

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who have just spent their first Christmas with their 15-monthold son Archie at their Montecito estate, Riven Rock, want to see a 12-month extension for their Megxit deal which would see them keep their royal patronages and head back to the U.K. to seal the deal in person.

The tony twosome, who stepped back as senior royals a year ago, are reportedly hoping to agree to a more permanent deal to ensure they can continue to be non-working royals while continuing their patronages.

The move comes after the couple secured extremely lucrative commercial deals with Netflix and Spotify in recent months, a factor which will no doubt be looked at meticulously by royal aides at Buckingham Palace as their 12-month review date looms large.

It has been claimed they would like to return to London in time for Queen Elizabeth’s 95th in April and, two months later, Prince Philip’s 100th birthday.

The Scenic Tour

Santa Barbara got some priceless

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publicity in the London Sunday Times after its travel writer Jonathan Thompson visited our Eden by the Beach just before Christmas, as I revealed exclusively in this illustrious organ.

The peripatetic scribe, who splits his time between the U.K. and Dallas, Texas, describes our rarefied enclave “as the stuff of fairytales... a hidden kingdom framed by mountains, basking in perpetual sunshine on the shores of a shimmering sea... The perfect distillation of California.”

Jonathan, whom I joined for breakfast at Rick Caruso’s Rosewood Miramar, where he was staying, also shone the spotlight on Ty Warner’s San Ysidro Ranch, the Coast Village Road nosheteria Lucky’s, beer heir Andy Busch’s Folded Hills winery, and Skip Abed’s Double Dolphin sailing excursions.

A Man of Taste

On a personal note, I remember pioneering fashion designer Pierre Cardin, who died in Paris, aged 98.

Cardin, who was born in Italy but emigrated to France as a small child, designed space-inspired looks that upended catwalk styles in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and pioneered the use of licensing in fashion, plastering his label’s name on products of all kinds, even Walmart boxer shorts and razor blades, and making millions in the process.

I met him a couple of times in the ‘80s when he opened a Manhattan branch of the fabled Paris Art Nouveau restaurant, Maxim’s, which he had bought in 1981, on Madison Avenue, just a tiara’s toss from the Pierre Hotel, and at a socially gridlocked launch party in 1985 for a same-name perfume at Macy’s which I attended with actress Brooke Shields, my artist neighbor Andy Warhol, and the Duke of Windsor ’s goddaughter Cornelia Guest, dubbed the Deb of the Decade.

True to his taste for fantastic design, Cardin, who learned his trade working with the likes of Christian Dior and Elsa Schiaparelli, also owned the Palais des Bulles (Bubble Palace), a futuristic residence woven into the cliffs on the French Riviera, and also a chateau in the beautiful Provencal town of Lacoste, once owned by the notorious Marquis de Sade.

Sightings: TV talk show host Ellen DeGeneres shopping for home goods at Garde in Summerland...

Oscar winner Robert Downey Jr., noshing at Oliver’s... Singer Neil Young at the Hotel Californian.

Pip! Pip! – Be safe and a Happy New Year •MJ

The Medicine of Love Darkness Deepens, and Then Light

I

t was the first Sunday evening of a gloomy 2021. We tried our best at making it seem like a “Happy” New Year, full of new hope and promise. But it was not.

We had just returned from a dog walk through our Montecito neighborhood and it was usually lovely as we considered dinner options before 60 Minutes.

But the two furtive neighbors who skittered to the far end of the road pulling their dogs along and seemed pale and fearful as they stepped away, had left us in a powerful funk.

Perhaps it was a mistake to watch the Sunday news and then consume The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Even the optimists must agree California, the nation, and the world are in catastrophic shape. Southern California, with its ruthless COVID numbers, is the lead story.

To prevent myself from going completely crazy, I turned to my computer, to Nextdoor and found the following message: “’Can I help?’ I just wondered whether anyone needs anything.

I didn’t have much. ‘I am here if you need me.’ I’ve seen so many beautiful posts asking for people to visit or check on someone. Our neighbors reach out to help each other.

I want to share something that made my heart sing and my eyes water. In fact I actually drove around the block three times and stopped to watch. I saw love. I’ll share this vision as best as I can.

What I noticed first was an older golden retriever (I’m a dog lover).

I instantly recognized it as a seeing eye dog. Next I notice the man. He was old, maybe late 80s, eyes practically closed and his mask past his nose. In his shadow I noticed there was someone else. She was slightly trailing behind him, holding his hand, just as old. In this woman’s

by Gretchen Lieff

other hand is her blind cane (white cane). These three had figured out how to navigate the world together.

There was an eloquence in the way they worked as one.

I work in adaptive recreation. I absolutely believe when there is a will there is a way. I needed that trio in that moment to remind me of that. Times are tough for many of us. Don’t give up hope. I’m here. So are all of you. I love you guys.

‘Walk in beauty.’”

Jenn Long I wept. This was exactly the medicine I needed. And then Montecito’s social media opened a floodgate of loving response.

“Jenn your post has given me such hope, grace, and beauty at a moment when I needed it.”

Michael Z. “So uplifting. Thanks Jenn.”

Greg and Lisa “Your post was heartwarming… there is hope at the end of this dark tunnel.”

Gloria V. “Even though I have not met you, I love you.”

Sharon C. “You made my heart happy.”

Sharon “Such a lovely observation, thank you for sharing.”

Ann R. “Thank you for posting this message of hope and love. I’m sure it will help many people.”

“God Bless you for this.”

Gwen M. The greatest power is the power of hope and love. It is right here with us.

•MJ

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“New Year’s Eve, where auld acquaintance be forgot. Unless, of course, those tests come back positive.” — Jay Leno

7 – 14 January 2021

The Giving List Easy Lift

S

by Steven Libowitz

Ernesto Paredes, Easy Lift’s executive director, with Ron Werft, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cottage Health

everal years ago, my elderly neighbor gave up driving due to recurring hip injuries and a debilitating autoimmune disease. Sometimes I’d look across our cottage complex and notice a taxi waiting to take her to doctor appointments or grocery shopping – she was old-fashioned enough to not even own a smartphone, so Lyft and Uber were out of the question. Finally, after trading in her walker for a wheelchair, she found out about Easy Lift, the Santa Barbara nonprofit whose mission is to restore some dignity to the disabled through providing mobility.

Now I’d peer out the window to see the nonprofit’s easily recognizble Diala-Ride vans pulling up to her door, and watch the friendly, always punctual driver lower the mechanical lift and then wheel Rose into the van before making sure she was secure in her seat. Then the van would take her wherever she wanted to go, whether to get medical treatment or pick up prescriptions or even to just go visit a park. The rides cost a mere $7 roundtrip, just a fraction of what two cab rides used to set her back, a godsend on her fixed income as a retiree.

It was one of the things that made life worth living, I remember her telling me. “Stories like that warm my heart,” says Ernesto Paredes, Easy Lift’s longtime executive director. “It’s what has kept me motivated and inspired over all these years because for a lot of people, we are truly their only line of transportation and connection to our community.”

Paredes admits he didn’t always feel that way, at least not when he first started at the organization back in 1991, 12 years after Easy Lift began operations and just one year after the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) went into effect.

“Back then I thought I’d be with this nonprofit for a year to get some experience and then I’ll move on to somewhere else,” he says. “I thought transportation wasn’t sexy, it’s not sheltering someone or feeding someone, it’s just access.

But you don’t realize the importance of transportation until you don’t have it.”

Just think about when you drop off your car at the mechanic for the day and you’re dependent on someone else to pick you up and then take you back again, Paredes suggests. “You can really feel helpless, and it’s just one day,” he says.

“That’s the way some people feel every single day, like prisoners in their homes unless they have a service like Easy Lift to get them out.”

With that principle in mind, Easy Lift has grown to provide, via its fleet of 30 vans, an average of 300 rides a day on demand for the elderly, disabled, and anyone physically or cognitively unable to ride MTD, even temporarily, plus nearly 1,000 rides per month for low-income Medi-Cal residents to travel to and from non-emergency medical appointments through a partnership with CenCal Health.

The ongoing pandemic has put a dent in that demand, of course, anywhere from 40-60 percent depending on restrictions, Paredes said, as the ill and elderly are most vulnerable to suffer serious effects from contracting COVID-19, so voluntary trips have declined drastically. But, Paredes points out, those who require treatment like dialysis can’t just postpone it. So the drivers, whom the ED calls the heart of the organization, have stayed true to the task, working diligently to comply with the CDC guidelines for distancing and disinfecting, 7 – 14 January 2021

although, Paredes says, it’s almost impossible for them to be six feet apart at all times because they have to secure the wheelchairs to the floorboards.

“We try to prepare them and educate them and give them the proper tool, but they’re the ones who put themselves in harm’s way,” he says. “That just tells you how great our drivers are.”

“I thought transportation wasn’t sexy, it’s not sheltering someone or feeding someone, it’s just access. But you don’t realize the importance of transportation until you don’t have it.”

– Ernesto Paredes, Easy Lift’s executive director When the pandemic first forced the stay-at-home orders and demand decreased, Paredes also arranged for idle vans to be used to support the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County to transport food from their storage area on Hollister to its locations in North County. Easy Lift also stepped up to take over for HELP of Carpinteria, the all-volunteer nonprofit that provides similar doorto-door transportation service to non-driving residents of that city, because the organization would have had to shut down as most of its drivers were seniors who themselves wanted to shelter at home.

“We spoke to their board and their executive director and offered to continue transporting their seniors free of charge, which we’re still doing today,” Paredes said. “It’s really about looking out for our brother and sister nonprofits because we’re all in this together. The pandemic has made a lot of us closer because of what our community members are going through. And it’s also given me and my fellow EDs a chance to shift from merely managing our organizations to really leading, look at our business models and see if they’re still effective.”

That spirit is what drives Paredes to let potential donors know that while his organization can always use more funds – partly because people often mistakenly think that Easy Lift is part of the MTD system, he said – he wants donations to go where they’re most required.

“We always need ongoing support, but we’re not trying to create a war chest of money,” he says. “I’m a community member first. If there are other organizations that need the money more than us, we should help the ones that are really suffering. Just follow your heart.”

•MJ Easy Lift www.easylift.org (805) 681-1181

• The Voice of the Village •

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Summerland Buzz

by Leslie A. Westbrook

A third-generation Californian, Leslie, currently resides in Carpinteria but called Summerland home for 30 years.

She can be reached at LeslieAWestbrook@gmail.com

The Year That Stopped… and Began Again: A Song of Hope

L

ooking over my 2020 Filofax calendar (yes, I still use one of those) and reviewing the past year, it’s not nearly as full as previous years.

2020 stated out well enough: it went from meeting friends at Tharios’ Kitchen and Field + Fort, Sunday brunches at El Encanto, Miramar, Four Seasons Biltmore for an Edible Santa Barbara magazine story to city council meetings and musical events at the Music Academy of the West. Two trips to Mexico – for language lessons in Oaxaca and a Mexican women chef’s cooking event weekend in Vallarta Nayarit were preferable to necessary dental exams and teeth cleanings (now on hold) all kicked off the start to what was looking like a stellar new year. A long weekend for Modernism Week in Palm Springs with my mom. One terrific last trip was realized in the second week of March to San Luis Obispo and then the word, suddenly and ironically on Friday the 13, appears in large, capital letters outlined in bright pink on my pull-out calendar for the year: ISOLATE. In fact, things pretty much came to a full stop on March 13, 2020. The cancellations began: the trip to Baja, trips to Las Vegas to check out a new restaurant and Rome for a story assignment. Two weddings and a huge planned 90th birthday bash for my mom, Marcella (which morphed into a creative driveby event). Suddenly this boomer became a Zoomer, with online meetings and check-ins with friends and family and some theatrical and musical events that I soon tired of (with the exception of phenomenal productions by London’s National Theater). Sound like your life? Oh, and then the cooking began. I made things I never made before in my life. From Dutch baby pancakes (once was enough) to The New York Times recipes, including one where I ended up shattering my favorite wooden spoon in the blender.

Delivery folks were my new best friends – from The Cheese Shop, Delgado’s (oh those margaritas on Old Spanish Days Fiesta weekend!), and The Farm Cart for my weekly produce supply. I was even thrilled to see the Cox Cable repairman. Three times.

New York was the first “hot zone”; Los Angeles is the current one. My lonely life took on a slow burn of its own. Nothing prepared us for the holidays and what those would feel like.

A Halloween without trick or treaters. A Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve alone. A quiet New Year’s Eve – I can think of worse things.

Yet… yet… yet…. It’s also been a time to contemplate and be grounded.

For me, this has been a time to deepen friendships with dear friends and former beaus who also live alone. Thank god for Jane Austen – oh, that Mr. Darcy! – and PBS, which saved my life when I had nowhere to go or, to put it more matter of factly, was allowed to go nowhere. And Netflix.

My former physical traveling turned into a mix of my dream world and the world of film journeys. As an only child the first nine years of my life, I had developed skills on how to entertain myself and use my imagination.

I let it loose, writing some magical realism tales I hope to see published in the new year.

I adopted an attitude of gratitude: thankful for a roof over my head, healthy food from local farmers and fishermen and women, supportive friends to commiserate with, a nail-biting election to be engaged in – and a U.S. senate race to be determined by the time you read this, which will control the fate of the country for the next four years. Still, I miss adventures.

What Do You Miss Most?

MSNBC news anchor Katy Tur recently said, “This year was garbage, but there were some bright spots.” For one, charitable giving surged in 2020. From Mackenzie Scott’s $4 billion distributed in only four months to hundreds of charities and educational institutions to a few dollars handed in passing to a houseless person, every bit counts. When we offer a helping hand to a neighbor, we make our life more meaningful.

I saw people display acts of kindness – many a result of connecting via Nextdoor and other social platforms. A lovely Sansum Clinic nurse and her daughter I connected with this way decided not to exchange presents with one other, but gift a needy family instead. Adam’s Angels was born to deliver groceries to those housebound and grew to feed and clothe the homeless. A Montecito woman cooked a turkey with plenty of trimmings that was donated to an appreciative family living in low-income housing. Those are just a few examples. Acts of generosity, both grand and small.

Other bright spots: a COVID vaccine and an incoming new president and first woman vice president, who say they plan to work with both sides of the aisle.

Our hope of returning to a more normal version of life, one that resembles what we had before the COVID pandemic, if not exactly the same one. Our routines have been turned upside down this past year, but as sturdy Californians we have survived fires, debris flows, and now a pandemic.

There will still be difficult days ahead. That’s life, with or without a pandemic. But we can do this. We’ve got this. I believe we are better and stronger humans, not despite these challenges, but because of them.

With this column, printed on next week’s birdcage liner (the Summerland Bird Sanctuary needs your recycled newspapers, by the way), I bid a hearty adieu to 2020, and send happy, bright, and healthy New Year greetings to one and all. May peace be with you and may that which we have survived make us more thoughtful, considerate and kinder human beings. I believe that we are.

•MJ

2020 Puzzle 13: “By the Numbers” Solution The 2020 MMMM mega-meta is a song from the ’80s. This puzzle, the mega-meta reveal, includes 14 clue pairs with matching numbers whose grid entries intersect, e.g. CALIF [Home to most of I-5] and ULNA [Fifth-longest bone in the body]. The table at https://pmxwords.com/megameta20solution shows all 14 pairs. Taking the letters found at the intersection points in numerical order spells out F-I-N-A-L-C-O-U-N-T-D-O-W-N, or The Final Countdown, the ’80s hit by Europe, and this year’s mega-meta answer.

The mega-meta was slowly revealed throughout the year, as each of the 12 regular-season MMMM grids contained one clue pair, with the “FIN” rebus mechanism in the March MMMM making it possible to get 14 letters in 12 puzzles.

The full list of clues is shown is available at https://pmxwords.com/megameta20solution, along with thumbnails of each grid. A total of 70 solvers cracked the mega-meta before this puzzle came out. Congratulations to all of you!

Pete always does a cover version of the mega answer (usually with his band, the Kindred Souls), and this month definitely presented a challenge. You can watch the video (stay for the outtakes) and see this month’s full write-up here: https://pmxwords.com/megameta20solution.

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“I’m a little bit older, a little bit wiser, a little bit rounder, but still none the wiser.” — Robert Paul

7 – 14 January 2021

On Entertainment (Continued from page 23 23)) the 14 months of cogitating.

At the time Ensler wrote her work, it was still in an age when women largely still felt embarrassed or disempowered to talk about their vaginas or even, perhaps, consider those parts of their own bodies… The culture has changed a lot since then. But do you believe that this is also true for men, that they have similar issues and might even perhaps feel like victims?

Yeah, I think there’s a male counterpoint. As I said in the play, being a man is no picnic either. Women have to deal with the fact that they’re smaller and less muscular and can be bullied by bigger guys, but men get bullied by guys too.

It’s just in a different way. It’s a jungle out there and it can be just as wounding to be a male who has to go out there into the (world) and try and find a place as it is. And yes, it literally is harder for women because they also have the supposed disability of being smaller and less muscular and less loud and are often taken less seriously.

Nearly every vignette has a lot of humor, which is very different from The Vagina Monologues, which is funny only in a few moments. What drove your desire to approach this material from a more lighthearted point of view, with jokes and innuendos?

I think the humor is organic, and it’s gold. I did have to be careful to make sure that lines are in there because they need to be spoken, not only because they’re funny. But if I can make an audience laugh while making a point, I love that.

You mention in the intro about being aware that The Testicles Monologues is coming out during the #MeToo era, when the attention and focus is in the opposite direction of how men have abused, taken advantage, or otherwise inflicted problems on women.

Are you trepidatious about this?

My thought in general was I have a great idea for a play. It might have set me up for howls of disapproval in this very sensitive age, and rightfully so. But it’s a great idea, I wanted to tell our stories and I was going to do it and let the chips fall where they may. However, I was very careful. I’ve got a wife, I’ve got three sisters and a mother and lots of female friends. I get it. I’m behind it. But it’s just half the story folks. I tried to avoid mansplaining, but I wanted to go at it and not back off. And I think for the most part, I achieved that. I’m sure I’ll get feedback from some organizations saying, “You’re sexist.” But I’m willing to take the consequences. I don’t feel I stepped over any lines.

It seems you’re saying that presenting what you believe is the male point of view doesn’t deny or change women’s experiences.

Exactly. Several characters say exactly that, that we’ve been a-holes and I’m sorry. But what can I say? We’re men, and sometimes we do and say things that are stupid, but we’ve been dealing with these testicles that are making us do (that).

So then what is it you hope audiences will take away from watching these readings?

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Biz In English, 735 State Street, Suite 220, Santa Barbara, CA, 93101.

Bubel Consulting, LLC, 735 State Street, Suite 220, Santa Barbara, CA, 93101. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on December 18, 2020. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 2020-0003016. Published January 6, 13, 20, 27, 2020.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Maison K, 1253 Coast Village Road #205, Santa Barbara, CA, 93108. Maison K, INC., 1253 Coast Village Road #205, Santa Barbara, CA, 93108. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on December 17, 2020. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in

7 – 14 January 2021

the Office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 2020-0003009. Published January 6, 13, 20, 27, 2020.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Solaire Inn & Suites, 1995 S Broadway, Santa Maria, CA, 93454. Jai Shiv, INC, 1995 S Broadway, Santa Maria, CA, 93454. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on December 18, 2020. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 20200003021. Published December 23, 30, January 6, 13, 2020.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Lavish Nails, 991 Linden Ave, Carpinteria, CA, 93013. Nhan Hoai Nguyen,

740 Janetwood Dr. Apt 1, Oxnard, CA, 93030. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on December 15, 2020. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 20200002988. Published December 23, 30, January 6, 13, 2020.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Economy Inn, 607 N Broadway, Santa Maria, CA, 93454. RONIAVI INC, 607 N Broadway, Santa Maria, CA, 93454. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on December 14, 2020. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 20200002981. Published December 16, 23, 30, January 6, 2020.

I would like them to go, “Yeah, women have had it really tough and now’s their time and good for them, but it’s no picnic being a man either. Here’s the reasons why, and they’re legitimate, and it’s the other side of the coin.” I’m glad to have both those perspectives, which is sorely missing in our world today.

House Calls Hosts Authors of Achievement

Thanks to the extended lockdown laws on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, UCSB Arts & Lectures has scrapped its planned live events season slated for February-May in favor of continuing the House Calls and Race to Justice series online. (The updated virtual calendar hadn’t yet been released by our print deadline.) Meanwhile, two of the bigger names on the original calendar that runs through January are headed to our screens and smart devices this week.

Much-heralded author and MacArthur Fellow Ta-Nehisi Coates has drawn comparisons to James Baldwin and was called “required reading” by the late writer Toni Morrison as he has emerged as one of the country’s most vital public intellectuals. Author of the National Book House Calls hosts bestselling writer Anne Lamott Award-winning Between the World and on January 14 Me – which was written as a letter to his teenage son about his feelings, symbolism, and realities associated with being Black in the United States – Coates has also penned the acclaimed bestsellers Beautiful Struggle and We Were Eight Years in Power, the latter a collection of his highly-influential essays that ran in The Atlantic magazine between 2008-16 over the course of the Obama administration. Coates is also the current author of the Marvel comics The Black Panther and Captain America, while just last November, HBO released an adaptation of Between the World and Me with a cast including Montecito’s own Oprah Winfrey. Coates’ Race to Justice series presentation at 5 pm on Tuesday, January 10, will be followed by a Q&A moderated by UCSB Black Studies professor Terrance Wooten.

Writer Anne Lamott’s bestselling books address all kinds of serious subjects ranging from alcoholism to motherhood, but her straightforward observations and bits of wisdom are also infused with self-effacing humor and laugh-outloud lines. As her bio says, she doesn’t try to sugarcoat the sadness, frustration, and disappointment of life, but tells her stories with honesty, compassion, and a pureness of voice that also evince hope and faith. In addition to seven novels, Lamott has also written several bestselling books of nonfiction, including the classic book on writing called Bird by Bird that still inspires longtime writers and newbies alike. In her newest book, Almost Everything: Notes on Hope, Lamott reminds us that even when we are, as she puts it, “doomed, stunned, exhausted, and over-caffeinated,” the seeds of rejuvenation are at hand. We expect her candid House Calls program and subsequent Q&A that starts at 5 pm on Thursday, January 14, might also include some notes about her upcoming work, Dusk, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage, due March 2.

Chaucer’s Choices

As if 2020 didn’t provide enough suspense and psychological situations, Chaucer’s Books is diving deep into the mystery world for its first two events of the new year. “Delirium Corridor” is a locally generated anthology of 15 stories of psychological suspense, altered states, noir crime, and the surreal.

Curator Max Talley, who teaches a writing workshop annually at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, teamed with the Santa Barbara Literary Journal’s Borda Books to put together the project that features local authors as well as workshop leaders and students of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Talley, whose short stories and essays have appeared in the Santa Fe Literary Review, Fiction Southeast, Vol.1 Brooklyn, Gravel, Atticus Review, Litro, and Entropy, will be joined by three of the authors for a Zoom chat from 6 pm to 7 pm on Wednesday, January 13. View the webinar at zoom.us/j/95063845799.

Four more mystery writers check out Chaucer’s virtual world the following evening at 5 as Jen Collins Moore, Carol Pouliot, Tina deBellegarde, and Santa Barbara’s own Lida Sideris come together to talk suspense, suspects, and style.

Sideris, the author of the Southern California Mystery series, starring Corrie Locke, was one of two national winners of the Helen McCloy Mystery Writers of America Scholarship Award for her first book. Get details online at www. chaucersbooks.com, and drop in on the discussion on Thursday, January 14, at https://zoom.us/j/95336161123.

•MJ

• The Voice of the Village •

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Real Estate

by Mark Ashton Hunt

Mark and his wife, Sheela Hunt, are real estate agents. His family goes back nearly 100 years in the Santa Barbara area. Mark’s grandparents – Bill and Elsie Hunt – were Santa Barbara real estate brokers for 25 years.

Hello 2021, and a Quick Look Back at Home Sales in Montecito in 2020

W

ell, let me just say, “whew, what a year that was,” to 2020. Let’s see what 2021 has in store for us, and what we will make of it collectively as a community here in lovely Montecito. As usual, we are having lovely weather and the rain this past week was welcome for sure.

More of that soon please.

Despite the many pains of twenty twenty, statistically, when it comes to real estate sales in the area, as far as I can determine it was the strongest year ever for average sales prices, top home sales prices and overall sales volume. Multiple sales in excess of $25 million and even a few more than $40 million caught the eye of national and international news publications as well as the attention of many buyers with household names.

Also significant is that most of these sales happened between June and December, just seven months of frenzied home purchases, featuring a strong showing in the $5 million to $8 million market with 50+/- sales in that price range alone this past year.

When examining these facts, one finds that in recent years, there have been about 225+/- homes and condos selling each year in the Multiple Listing Service, the MLS, in Montecito.

This year however, we saw 335+/homes and condos sell in the same area, and this does not include the many “off market sales,” some of which were more than $20 million and a few greater than $40 million.

With fewer homes coming on the market and an increase in demand for homes from buyers outside the area, we see again what happened in the early 2000s, when many homes on the market had bidding wars or sold quickly. This is happening now and over the past few months, leaving us with fewer than 80 homes on the market in Montecito’s 93108 zip code across all price ranges as we start the new year. I have never seen this few homes on the active market in Montecito.

While homes in central Montecito, near the Upper or Lower villages, are priced at a premium, and there are very few right now at less than $4 million available, it is important to remember that when one lives within the 93108 of Montecito, nothing is very far in terms of overall drive time from place to place unless you are at the top of a mountain.

34 MONTECITO JOURNAL

Living in the lower foothills of east Montecito or up a private lane in west Montecito may mean the Upper or Lower villages of Montecito are a few minutes further away, however the proximity to hip and trending Summerland in the east and the ease of commute into Santa Barbara proper from the west are advantages to these areas.

If you are open to living a few minutes’ drive from a store, many options exist along and off East Valley Road, Hidden Valley Lane, and Toro Canyon to the east, and to the west the great views that can be had from streets like Eucalyptus Hill, Chase Drive and Via Alicia.

Here are four listings in east and west Montecito worth considering and all priced between $2 million and $4 million. Note that the two homes on Toro Canyon Road are adjacent to each other and combined, would offer multiple homes on multiple acres with multiple options for usage as a compound – just a fun idea I thought I’d throw out there.

871 Deerpath Road - $2,595,000

E

njoy ocean views from this 4,000+/square foot west Montecito home at the end of a private cul-de-sac!

The home rests on a 1-acre parcel and offers tranquil surroundings and panoramic views. The main home boasts

WATER WELLS • Most local, 30 years • Most responsive • Permits & Well Drilling • Pumps-­‐‑Tanks-­‐‑Controls • Buried Tanks • Best value

4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, while the guesthouse (ADU permit pending) offers 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, kitchen and laundry.

These spaces combine into a sprawling residence, or enjoy as two dwellings with private entrances. The spacious and open L shaped kitchen / dining room / great room in the main home has fireplaces at each end.

An attached two-car garage with storage, additional outdoor parking, brick patios, open yard, whole house A/C, and French doors throughout make this an attractive opportunity.

428 Toro Canyon Road - $3,250,000

P

erched above Padaro Lane beaches not too far up in the foothills in east Montecito, just above the polo fields, lies this private, island style retreat with head on ocean, island, coastline, and harbor views. Enjoy sun filled rooms with floor to ceiling doors and windows that open to spacious balconies overlooking the pool, the tropical landscaping, and the ocean beyond. A great escape just minutes to shopping and conveniences.

Situated on an acre and close to the beach, restaurants, shopping, trails, and more, this is a great opportunity to own a rural feeling property in a close in location with privacy and easy access to the 101, Summerland, Montecito, and Carpinteria. A two-car garage, Jacuzzi, studio/bonus room and, of course, the incredible ocean views add to the value of this listing.

124 Via Alicia - $3,395,000

T

his luxury lock and go Eucalyptus Hill home is located within a gated complex and offers sensational ocean, coastline and mountain views from most rooms. The generously sized 3-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom open concept home boasts incredible scale with 9-foot-tall ceilings, 3 fireplaces, large windows, skylights and French doors thoughtfully situated to capitalize on each of the five patios, the serene setting, and gorgeous views.

Drawing on Mediterranean-style design, find marble flooring, vaulted ceilings, and multiple fireplaces. The living room features a trio of French doors

Pam Anderson Skin Care FACIALS • WAXING MICRO-DERMABRASION OTHER SKIN CARE SERVICES AVAILABLE

STEWART, JESUS & CREW

(805) 331-­‐‑0845 CA License 584595

2173 Ortega Hill Rd, Summerland, Ca 93067 • (805) 895–9190 pamandersonsb@gmail.com

“Celebrate endings — for they precede new beginnings.” – Jonathan Huie

7 – 14 January 2021

Editor’s Letter (Continued from page 5) en” than this sad time can offer. It occurs to me that in the same way we’re prioritizing who gets the vaccine first, we also need to look at where and how we focus our emotional support, so critical to our isolated seniors. But how to deliver it in this time of crisis and lockdown?

Five Life Hacks and Work Arounds for Our Isolated Seniors

Care Packages and Fresh Food Drop-offs. While personal visits are dangerous during the pandemic surge, we’ve found that dropping off fresh fruit and vegetables or home-cooked meals provides a boost and lets loved ones know that they have not been forgotten. Or pick up and deliver a delicious meal from one of our local restaurants who can use all of our support.

to a patio overlooking the Montecito valley and sprawling ocean views and opens to the formal dining area. The chef’s kitchen includes a large center island, stainless built-in appliances, and abundant cabinetry. There is a laundry room, and an attached two-car garage with interior access.

The community development includes a pool, spa, and guest parking.

Located in west Montecito, one is just a few turns down the hill into either Montecito or Santa Barbara depending on the needs of the day.

Video Communication. Sure, it’s not like being there, but it’s the best work around we’ve got. Regular family Zooms or Facetime calls provide a huge mood boost for us all. Some tech help may be needed.

Distance Performances. Can you get within viewing distance of grandma or grandpa or neighbors? In many cases you can. In which case make some signs and banners and show up on special occasions. Sing a song. Wave.

Blow kisses. Remember that boom box scene with John Cusack in the movie Say Anything?

Book Club and Movie Club! Many seniors in isolation aren’t “doing” a lot.

And weak technology skills may make it tricky to navigate online stimulation and connection. But that doesn’t mean they can’t take great stimulating journeys of the imagination. One thing my husband has been doing is reading the same book separately but simultaneously with his dad, which they discuss in the evenings. Okay it’s not playing catch at the end of Field of Dreams, but they do lob back and forth some pretty lofty ideas – Grandpa (who got his MD at 20) is no slouch!

418 Toro Canyon Road - $3,490,000

Class ReZoomions. We were surprised when a classmate of my father-in-law reached out to him with an alumni contact list showing that at least 25 of grandpa’s 75 classmates, each more than 90 years old, are still alive. So we are organizing a class ReZoomion, which takes a little doing, but it is bringing a bunch of near centenarians a lot of joy and hope.

I

f you need space and are looking in the under four million market, this home offers nearly 5,000 square feet as advertised and includes 4 bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms and is something of a compound at the top of a long private driveway. This is an opportunity to bring your ideas and update the home to suit your tastes and benefit from the improvements directly.

Situated on 1.77 lush acres with ocean and mountain views in East Montecito, near Padaro and Santa Claus Lane beaches, this home offers a grand entryway that opens to a versatile multi-level floor plan with tall ceilings and expansive windows that invites the natural light and lets you enjoy the views.

A spacious living room, dining room with wet bar, office and numerous special areas can effortlessly adjust to your living and work at home needs.

The primary suite, complete with sitting area and two separate bathrooms, opens to a quaint mountain view terrace. Private guest quarters with separate entry offers plenty of extra space for live and work.

•MJ

Montecito | Santa Barbara | Goleta Hope Ranch | Beach Front Janet Caminite

Associate Manager 805.896.7767 JanetCaminite@bhhscal.com www.SantaBarbaraLuxuryRealty.com www.BeachesofVentura.com DRE 01273668

©2020 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties (BHHSCP) is a member of the franchise system of BHH Affiliates LLC. BHH Affiliates LLC and BHHSCP do not guarantee accuracy of all data including measurements, conditions, and features of property. Information is obtained from various sources and will not be verified by broker or MLS. Buyer is advised to independently verify the accuracy of that information.

7 – 14 January 2021

Finally, Our New Column Featuring Montecito’s Octogenarian+ All Stars. Our culture has a bifurcated almost schizophrenic attitude towards its seniors. On the one hand, many of our leaders and world experts are octogenarians or near octogenarians: Fauci (80), Pelosi (80), Breyer (82), and McConnell, who is about to turn 79. Trump will be 75 and Biden is 78.

Warren Buffett is 90 and still the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. On the other hand, so many seniors who have not achieved such notoriety seem to fade into invisibility aided by a culture that celebrates the new and generally disposes of the old. For those keeping track, Prince Philip is 99 and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, is 94. The QE2 ocean liner, the Queen’s namesake, was constructed of welded steel and used as a troop transporter in the Falklands War and lasted less than half as long.

Montecito is blessed to have so many incredible seniors in our midst. Their stories are inspired and inspiring and deserve to be told. Starting next week, Montecito Journal writer Zach Rosen will begin a new column bringing to light the rich stories behind some of the incredible seniors in our community. Late last year, The Montecito Journal Glossy magazine cover story featured local resident Jeanne Thayer, today 103, who, among other aspects of her colorful life, was an instrumental strategist during the U.S. war in the Pacific. For a year or two, I had the pleasure of reading with Jeanne on Wednesday mornings. She loved it and got a lot out of it. But I’ll bet you anything I got much more.

Do you know a senior whose story the Montecito Journal should tell? If so, please contact Zach Rosen at zenki40@gmail.com.

•MJ

• Available to care for our neighbors, and accepting new patients.

• Infection control protocol followed, with all areas sanitized including wait area and exam room.

1483 E. Valley Road, Suite M | 805.969.6090

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

35

Nosh (Continued from page 29)

made pita bread, hummus and tahini. Falafel flavors include original, spicy, kale and sweet potato ($15.50).

Reason to order carryout: Your body is a temple, feed it wisely.

gle well in this creamy dessert ($11.75 per pint).

Reason to order carryout: Because life’s too short to skimp on the good stuff.

The Public Market is located at 38 West Victoria Street (at Chapala). For more information, or to place an order for pickup or delivery, please visit www.sbpublicmarket.com.

EMPTY BOWL GOURMET NOODLE BAR

TWO MORE FAVORITE CARRYOUT OPTIONS The popular to-go choice at Empty Bowl Gourmet Noodle Bar is the Bangkok Street Noodle bowl

JOE’S CAFE

C

omfort food, stiff cocktails, and a friendly ambiance has always made Joe’s Cafe a downtown destination since 1928.

Popular To-Go Item: The Diablo Dip Sandwich is a new twist on the classic French Dip ($18.95), with thinly sliced tri-tip doused in hot sauce and served on a brioche bun alongside fries and a mixed green or Caesar salad.

Reason to order carryout: The cafe sources its fiery hot sauce from Florida.

Joe’s Cafe is located at 536 State Street. For more information or to place a carryout order, visit www.joescafesb.com.

TRE LUNE

A

uthentic regional noodle bowls, specialty small plates, and handmade dumplings inspired by the cuisines of Thailand and Taiwan.

Popular To-Go Item: Bangkok Street Noodle bowl with rice noodles, seasoned pork broth, barbecued pork, minced pork, pork meatballs, fish sauce, bean sprouts, Chinese broccoli, green onions, cilantro, fried garlic, crushed peanuts, and dried chilies. Prepared mild or spicy ($14.95).

Reason to order carryout: It’s the next best thing to eating a bowl of noodles in the streets of Bangkok.

RORI’S ARTISANAL CREAMERY

O

rganic ice cream made with unique flavors and ingredients.

Popular To-Go Items: Rori’s offers gastronomic pandemic relief in a pint with rich and creamy flavors such as an almond brittle and honey ice cream made from San Marcos Farms honey; a tart passion fruit (vegan) ice cream and black pepper pistachio ice cream made with all-natural ingredients, no artificial flavors. The pistachio and pepper flavors min-

A

cheerful, sophisticated energy animates Tre Lune on Coast Village Road, offering California interpretations of fine northern Italian cuisine.

Popular To-Go Item: A wild mushroom pizza with mozzarella, herbs, and truffle oil ($22) and a baked lasagna with beef, pork ragú, ricotta, and parmesan ($29).

Reason to order carryout: You’re craving the comfort you get from a generous serving of bubbling and saucy home-cooked lasagna.

THE SMASHBURGER

T

hird Window Brewing is celebrating five years in business with a Wagyu beef “smashburger.” Naturally, the smashburger is paired with Third Window Brewing’s top beer selections. The beer is inspired by the farmhouse and monastic traditions of Belgian brewing – which drew local ingredients from agricultural surroundings, bottle-condition-

Chef Dario Furlati serving pizza & authentic Northern Italian Cuisinein Montecito, Santa Barbara and Goleta

Third Window Brewing is celebrating five years in business with a Wagyu beef “smashburger”

We are grateful for the support of our wonderful community.

Wishing you the happiest and healthiest Holiday Season

Our new temporary hours are 11:30 am to 2 pm Monday through Saturday.

Dinner is served from 4 pm to 8 pm daily

Ask about our special pricing on family meals, gift cards and wines.

Now offering online ordering at cadariorestaurants.com, or call 805-884-9419 ext 2.

We recommend pre-ordering for 12/24/20

36 MONTECITO JOURNAL

“You’ll never get bored when you try something new. There’s really no limit to what you can do.” – Dr. Seuss

7 – 14 January 2021

DINE OUTSIDE |TAKE OUT Montecito Journal wants to let readers know who’s offering a taste of fall with take out and delivery service and outdoor dining.

We encourage you to support your local dining venues and wine boutiques!

CAFE SINCE 1928

GREAT FOOD STIFF DRINKS GOOD TIMES SUNDAY THRU THURSDAY 7:00 AM - 10:00 PM

OLD TOWN SANTA BARBARA

FRIDAY AND SATURDAY 7:00 AM -12:00AM

Best breakfast in Santa Barbara

COME JOIN US BREAKFAST OR LUNCH OPEN EVERY DAY FRESHLY BAKED BREADS & PASTRIES

D’ANGELO BREAD

7am to 2pm

LUCKY‘S STEAKS - CHOPS - SEAFOOD - COCKTAILS 1279 COAST VILLAGE ROAD (805) 565-7540

Sweet Wheel Farm & Flowers

Local PUMPKIN Pick-up!

Miniature, Heirlooms and Pumperific sizes!

1150 Coast Village Road or 2285 Lillie Avenue @SweetWheelFarms

25 W. GUTIERREZ STREET (805) 962-5466

FROM OUR TABLE TO YOURS Sunday-Thursday 11:00-8:30 Friday and Saturday 11:00-9:00 1209 Coast Village Road Santa Barbara, CA (805) 565-0642 ing – with beers such as Saison, Dubbel, Tripel, and a Blond that won a bronze medal for Best Belgian-Style Ale 2020 at the Great American Beer Festival.

Third Window Smashburger, currently offered for pick-up at The Mill at 406 E. Haley Street, came about because brewery founder Kristopher Parker’s sister Katie raises Wagyu beef on the family ranch in Los Olivos. The cows are fed a mixture of spent grain from the brewery and dried grape pomace from the winery, adding flavor and nuance to the Wagyu beef’s revered marbling. “It only requires salt and pepper,” said Parker.

Using good old fashioned American cheese, the beef is smashed flat on the brewery’s stainless steel griddle alongside onion. “The burger is made with paper-thin white onion piled on top, in the manner of Oklahoma sliders. It’s then smashed along with the beef onto a smoking hot griddle,” Parker said adding that the burgers are served with a special sauce containing “house made pickles, mustard, jalapeños, Mayo, and several other things.”

Burgers are at their best with a side of fries – in this case, Belgian-style fries. Chipotle Aioli, Lemon Pepper aioli, homemade beer mustard, curry Ketchup and chimichurri are just a few specialty sauces that come on the side for dipping.

Of course the smashburgers pair perfectly with a Third Window beer. Customers stopping in for a burger can purchase accompanying beer packaged in bottles, cans, crowlers (32-ounce beers poured into a specialty can straight from the tap) and growlers (64 ounce jugs poured from draught). The cost is $6 to $9.

Despite giving Parker a severe case of tennis elbow (someone has to smash the burgers!), food lovers say it satisfies hangovers and cravings of all things beef. A single smashburger is $6 and the standard double (my favorite!) is $9. Belgian fries are $4.50 small order and $6 for a large order.

•MJ 7 – 14 January 2021

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

37

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING (805) 565-1860 ESTATE/SENIOR SERVICES THE CLEARING HOUSE, LLC

guidance for any lifestyle. Individual/group sessions. Specialized in corrective exercise – injury prevention and post surgery.

House calls available. Victoria Frost- CPT &

bilia, and rare classic cars and motorcycles. Dana is a Graduate Gemologist with over 30 years of experience buying and selling fine property. CALL TODAY FOR A FREE CONSULTATION (310) 736-5896 or email DanaCaresLA@ gmail.com WRITING SERVICES

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WHO DO YOU TRUST WHEN SELLING YOUR VALUABLES? CARES, Compassionate & Reliable Estate Solutions is an INDEPENDENT CONCIERGE LUXURY SELLING SERVICE providing strategic selling options for your valuables in today’s most lucrative markets, helping you retain the profits from your jewelry, fine watches, fine art, silver, sculpture, wine, coins, memora-

Accomplish Something Exceptional While Sheltering at Home Preserve your life story! The story of a person’s life, told properly, is a marvel.

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Excellent references. www.BiographyDavidWilk.com

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Excellent references.

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ITEMS FOR SALE TRESOR

REAL ESTATE WANTED AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY

We Buy, Sell and Broker Important Estate Jewelry. Located in the upper village of Montecito. Graduate Gemologists with 30 years of experience. We do free evaluations and private consultation.

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PPO License #120310 Phone: 805-895-2183 WELLNESS COUNSELING Bio-Spiritual Wellness Coach Body, Mind, Soul Support Yoga, Stretching, Meditation Contemplation, 20+ yrs exp.

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TO PLACE A CLASSIFIED AD

It’s Simple. Charge is $2 per line, each line with 31 characters.

Minimum is $8 per week/issue. Photo/logo/visual is an additional $20 per issue.

Email text to frontdesk@montecitojournal.net or call (805) 565-1860 and we will respond with a cost.

Deadline for inclusion is Monday before 2 pm.

We accept Visa/MasterCard/Amex

38 MONTECITO JOURNAL

SPECIAL SERVICES

“Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect.” – Alan Cohen

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DONATIONS NEEDED Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary Menagerie 2340 Lillie Avenue Summerland CA 93067 (805) 969-1944 Over 25 Years in Montecito

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www.montecitoelectric.com www.montecitoelectric.com 7 – 14 January 2021

ADVERTISE IN THE LOCAL BUSINESS DIRECTORY (805) 565-1860

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LOST HORIZON BOOKSTORE now in Montecito, 539 San Ysidro Road

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STEVEN BROOKS JEWELERS Appraisals for Estates and Insurance Graduate Gemologist ~ Established 1974 Sales of Custom Designed and Estate Jewelry Purchasing Estates sbjewelers@gmail.com or 805-455-1070

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• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

39

Harmony Yellow & White Diamond Bracelet with 125 Diamonds 8.27 Carats Total

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