SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL POST OFFICE! – My neighbors on NextDoor are complaining constantly about mail being snatched from their porches and of course the Holidays are prime time for mail deliveries. May I point out the obvious advantages of having a PO Box?  For a hundred bucks a year you can have your mail held in a safe,  secure place until you have time to go pick it up.  When I first moved to Fern Hollow  (as I call our little enclave) I got a PO Box because we used to have some  rotten kids  on the street who used to go up and down the pulling  the mail boxes open and your mail  could end up in the street.  Now  I wouldn’t be without it.   Try it.  You’ll like it.

THAT TRAIN:   The folks who are pushing the latest East-West train scheme have bought a full-page ad in the TriCity to push their plan.and solicit investors.   I attended more meetings of the Harbor Working  Group that I can remember and saw several of these schemes come and go.  l wish them well,  but they’re not getting a dime from me.  As I’ve written here before, the only train that makes sense is  a North-South train which would  cost about $1B and I would  invest in that.  Ain’t gonna happen.

BOTOX!  FROM IRELAND?!  I get a few magazines at rates so cheap I can’t help renewing them and one of them  is Allure, which just carried a fascinating- really-  piece about botox.   I did not know that  virtually the entire supply of Botox on the planet is made in Westport, Mayo,  which I visited in 1993 with some relatives.  Westport was a sleepy little town then  and we stayed in a old hotel so old that it had hosted Thackeray (author of Vanity Fair)  back in the day.  Westport had a population of 5,000 when we were there , and hasn’t grown at all, but now  but now about 1200 people are employed at Allergan, which is the only source of Botox on the planet.  I wish I could provide you a link but it the Dec 2018 issue is still on the stands or in the library,  you should give it a glance.  The process for making botox is highly secret but apparently  involves seaweed.  We’ve got seaweed!  Where are our inventors??

YES, LOCO FISH IS JUST AS GOOD AS YOU HEARD; BAHN MI AT THE LAO MARKET- The Loco Fish Company has opened in Eureka  (formerly only in Arcata at 550 S G street)   but it’s hard to find.  The address is officially 1574 Myrtle Avenue  but when you look for it you get distracted by the blazing RED fish truck and you head for that but you can’t get to  it anyway but going THRU the Redwood Curtain  tap room.  Once you find it, you won’t  forget it because it’s among the beet fish and chips I’ve ever had. Can’t wait  to try their fish tacos  their Yelp review gives the wrong address and when you  try their website you  get the Samoa Cookhouse, but if they ever get their marketing straight,  they’ll conquer the world.  A few weeks ago, JF Cahill of the NCJ recommended the Banh Mi sandwiches at the Lao Market in Henderson Canter.  She’s right again-  they are fabulous sandwiches and only available on Saturday, and not every Saturday, but they’re worth looking for.  I got one and was amazed at the freshness of the ingredients.  I was also surprised at t how spicy it was-  the bahn mi we used to get in Hawaii weren’t spicy at all-  but these have sliced jalapeños which you can easily pick out if you need to. All in all, a very nice sandwich and a store worth poking around in.