LAKEPORT, Calif. — Lakeport’s newest park has been bedecked with holiday cheer for its first Christmas thanks to a new community Christmas tree.
The tree, installed on Dec. 13, is a holiday highlight of the newly opened Xabatin Community Park.
It sits at the edge of the park overlooking Clear Lake.
Since its arrival, the tree has been a hit with community members. Many great photos of the picturesque tree covered with colorful lights, with Mount Konocti and Clear Lake as a backdrop, have been posted on social media in recent weeks by city staff and park visitors.
The tree project’s completion has been credited to the efforts of Stacey Mattina, who just finished up her 2023 term as mayor for the city of Lakeport, and District 4 Supervisor Michael Green.
Mattina took the idea for the tree to Green, who pitched in $25,000 — the lion’s share of the cost — from the discretionary funds he and other board members receive from county cannabis revenue.
On Dec. 19, Mattina attended the Board of Supervisors to thank the county for its help with the project and making the city's holiday dreams come true.
She said the city had a wild idea to bring more cheer to downtown with the tree.
“Thanks to your generosity and support, it’s now a reality,” Mattina said.
The city of Lakeport purchased the 16-foot “Giant Everest” model artificial tree from the Wintergreen Corp., a company based in Alpharetta, Georgia.
“This isn’t just any tree. It’s a symbol of unity and community spirit,” said Mattina.
In addition to the tree being reusable year after year, next year it will be 10 feet taller, Mattina said.
Wintergreen offers commercial grade trees ranging up to 76 feet tall.
Green showed up to the Lakeport City Council meeting later on Dec. 19 to offer praise to Mattina. He said he believed the community owed her thanks for having the vision to add a holiday-oriented feature to the park, which benefits not just the city of Lakeport but all of District 4.
Whatever he contributed is a pittance, he said. “It’s just a little gesture.”
Green said the tree, and the park, look great. He said his hat was off to the city for coming up with a vision to unify the community after what it’s been through over the last few years.
Mattina thanked him, and said the city couldn’t have done it without his help.
Mattina’s council colleagues and City Manager Kevin Ingram said Mattina had a hand in helping Public Works staff assemble the tree, including helping with screwing in the huge number of light bulbs.
In addition to extending the height of the tree, the city reported that it is planning to expand its holiday decorations along the lakefront in 2024.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The effort to find the next poet laureate for Lake County is underway.
Georgina Marie Guardado, the current poet laureate, officially announced the search.
“It has been my honor to serve two consecutive terms in this role during a period of history that was undoubtedly challenging for all of us. And yet, the power of words did not yield. Our county undoubtedly has a rich literary community and I look forward to the search for the next Poet Laureate!” Guardado said in a Facebook post.
The poet laureate, which is a volunteer post, represents and promotes poetry and literacy in the community.
The person filling the role also will help “facilitate collaborations between local creatives, cultural organizations, local businesses, and community institutions,” according to the online application.
The Board of Supervisors established the poet laureate post in 1998.
Guardado has held the post for two terms since 2020.
She is the youngest Lake County poet laureate, as well as its first Hispanic American female.
Guardado also is the first person to be appointed to the office for more than one term, and the 11th individual to hold it.
The next term will be for 2024 to 2026.
She reported that applications — which opened on Dec. 15 — will be accepted through Feb. 1, 2024.
Visit this website to see application guidelines and to apply online.
For questions or assistance with the application, email Guardado at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Why are there small and big black holes? Also, why are some black holes invisible and others have white outlines? – Sedra and Humaid, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Black holes are dense astronomical objects with gravity so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. Anything that crosses the boundary of a black hole’s gravitational influence, called the event horizon, will fall into the black hole. Inside this deep, dense pit, it is never to be seen again.
Black holes litter the universe. Some smaller black holes are sprinkled randomly throughout galaxies like our Milky Way. Other gigantic ones, called “supermassive” black holes, lie at the centers of galaxies. Those can weigh anywhere between a million to a billion times the mass of our Sun. So you might be wondering: How can astronomers possibly see something so dark and so big?
I am an astronomer who studies the very first supermassive black holes that formed in our universe. I want to understand how black holes form and what kinds of astrophysical neighborhoods they grow up in.
Stellar mass black holes are only a few times bigger than our Sun. Supermassive black holes are more of a mystery, though. They are many millions of times heavier than our Sun, and they are packed into a small area that’s about the size of our solar system. Some scientists think supermassive black holes might form by many stars colliding and collapsing at once, while others think they might have already started growing several billion years ago.
Growing black holes
What do black holes look like? Most of the time, they are not actively growing, so they are invisible. But we can tell they’re there because stars can still orbit around them, just like Earth around the Sun.
When something is orbiting an invisible object at high speeds, scientists know there must be a massive black hole in the middle. This is the case for the closest supermassive black hole to us, which lies at the center of the Milky Way – safely millions of miles away from you.
Meanwhile, when a hungry black hole is eating up gas in a galaxy, it heats that gas up until you can see a glowing ring of X-rays, optical light and infrared light around the black hole. Once it exhausts all of the fuel near the event horizon, the light dies down once again and it becomes invisible.
Outlines around black holes
One of the most famous “white outlines” is the image of a black hole from the movie “Interstellar.” In that movie, they were trying to show the white-hot, glowing ring of gases that are falling into the actively growing black hole.
In real life, we don’t get such a close-up view. The best image of the ring around a real black hole comes from the Event Horizon Telescope, showing scientists the supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy called M87. It might look blurry to you, but this doughnut is actually the sharpest image ever taken of something so far away.
There are lots of types of black holes out there in the universe. Some are small and invisible, and some grow to gigantic proportions by eating up stuff inside a galaxy and shining bright. But don’t worry, black holes can’t just keep sucking in everything in the universe – eventually there is nothing close enough to the black hole to fall in, and it will become invisible again. So you are safe to keep asking questions about black holes.
Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.
And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The National Weather Service is giving Lake County a forecast of rain for Christmas week.
Christmas day is anticipated to have increasing clouds with temperatures in the mid to high 50s.
The Christmas night forecast calls for a 20% chance of rain, with temperatures dropping into the low 40s.
Tuesday’s conditions are forecast to have patchy dog during the day and an expectation of showers that night,
From Wednesday through Sunday, the forecast calls for chances of rain. An inch to an inch and a half of rain is expected to fall on Wednesday alone.
Temperatures this week are forecast to range in the low 50s during the day and low 40s at night.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — There are many dogs at Lake County Animal Care and Control waiting to be adopted during the holidays.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Australian shepherd, border collie, Chihuahua, Doberman pinscher, German shepherd, Great Pyrenees, hound, Labrador retriever, pit bull, Queensland heeler, shepherd and terrier.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
Those dogs and the others shown on this page at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption.
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.
The shelter is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — On Friday, Blue Shield of California and Adventist Health announced that they have settled their monthslong contract dispute that had resulted in Blue Shield members not having access to Adventist hospitals.
The contract between Blue Shield of California and Adventist Health Keep Care Local | Adventist Health provides Blue Shield members in-network access to all 18 Adventist hospitals across California.
In a joint statement, the two organizations reported that the new arrangement’s effective date is retroactive three weeks, to Dec. 1 — the date when the contract dispute resulted in Adventist Health hospital facilities no longer being part of Blue Shield’s network.
“As a mission-driven health plan, our goal is for our members to have access to quality care that’s sustainably affordable,” said Aliza Arjoyan, Blue Shield’s senior vice president of provider partnerships and network management. “Adventist Health has been a part of Blue Shield’s network of providers for a long time, and I look forward to continued collaboration with the hospital system.”
“We are pleased to continue our long-working relationship with Blue Shield of California,” says Kerry L. Heinrich, president and CEO. “Our mission calls us to provide access to high-quality care close to home in the communities we serve, and we are excited to continue caring for Blue Shield members.”
Adventist and Blue Shield have been in negotiations for nearly a year, and the attempts to come to a new contract broke down by the end of November.
On Monday, Kim Lewis, spokesperson for Adventist Health Clear Lake, told Lake County News that Adventist Health remained open to discussions.
Lewis said she couldn’t say how many Lake County residents were affected by the contract issues. “Blue Shield will not currently share the number of members with Adventist Health who are impacted. They are the only ones who have this information as the health insurance provider.”
Statewide, Blue Shield reported that it serves more than 4.8 million members through network relationships with about 350 hospitals and more than 122,000 providers across the state.
Then, on Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors approved a letter urging both sides to come to an agreement and pointing to Lake County’s low health rankings.
The letter recognized that transportation can be difficult for many in Lake County. Blue Shield had suggested by that point that its Lake County members travel to Enloe Medical Center or Oroville Hospital in Butte County, Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa County or Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital for Blue Shield facilities that can provide the care they need.
During that Tuesday discussion, Supervisor Bruno Sabatier pointed out that 51% of Lake County’s population is covered by Medi-Cal.
The letter was approved unanimously.
It explained, “While Blue Shield does not represent a large portion of the health coverage in Lake County it still represents a significant portion of our community members being impacted by this terminated contract. Lake County is 56th out of 58 counties when reviewing our health rankings in the State of California. Any action that breaks the continuity of care that our community members require exacerbates the health issues that we are already encountering across our county.”
Editor’s note: The article previously stated incorrectly that 51% of Lake County’s population is covered by Medicare, when in fact it is Medi-Cal.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — CDFA’s Office of Farm to Fork has announced the awarding of approximately $9 million in grants for 103 projects through the Healthy Refrigeration Grant Program, including two projects in Lake County that seek to address food insecurity.
The grants will fund energy-efficient and climate-friendly refrigeration and freezer equipment for corner stores, small businesses, and food donation programs in low-income or low-food access areas throughout the state.
Grantees will use the new equipment to stock California-grown fresh produce, nuts, eggs, meat and dairy products, as well as minimally processed and culturally appropriate foods.
Redwood Empire Food Bank, which serves Lake, Sonoma, Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte counties, has received $200,000 for 22 units — reach-in coolers and reach-in freezers — that will either replace aged, inefficient equipment or will supplement existing refrigeration capacity to allow their partners to drastically increase the scope of their work and the quality of the food they can provide.
The Kelseyville Food Pantry, managed by Kelseyville Presbyterian Church, has been awarded $5,238. The pantry, which has operated since 2012, serves all of Lake County, with a focus on the greater Kelseyville and Lakeport areas.
They will receive one standalone refrigerator and one standalone freezer. Both will be in their food pantry and will increase their capacity to store and distribute perishable items for the twice-monthly food distributions.
“This program is funding refrigeration units across California, from Humboldt County to San Diego,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “That demonstrates the importance of these grants in increasing food access in underserved communities. We thank Gov. Newsom and the California Legislature for funding this effort.”
A record number of Californians are reported to be traveling this holiday season, one of the busiest holiday periods AAA has tracked in more than 20 years.
More than 115.2 million people are expected to travel during the holiday between Dec. 23 and Jan. 1. That number is 2.2% higher than last year and marks the second-highest number since 2000.
More than 15.4 million Calfornians will be among those packing their bags, beating the previous record set in 2019 by 2.6%.
“The travel outline for the year-end holidays echoes what we’ve been seeing in travel throughout 2023,” said Brian Ng, senior vice president of membership and travel marketing for AAA Northern California. “Despite high costs, more Americans are prioritizing creating memories with loved ones and exploring new destinations.”
The organization said drivers should anticipate up to 20% longer travel times nationwide.
The heaviest congestion is expected Saturday, Dec. 23, and Thursday, Dec. 28.
AAA Northern California urges people to check the forecast, consider reservations for airport parking spots and avoid checking luggage if possible, make sure your vehicle is ready and to travel during off-peak periods.
The California Highway Patrol is once again holding its Christmas Day Maximum Enforcement Period, or MEP.
This additional enforcement initiative aims to enhance the safety of the public on California’s roads during the busy travel period.
The MEP began at 6:01 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 22, and continues through 11:59 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 25.
While the primary focus of the MEP is on speed enforcement, CHP officers will also be vigilant for impaired drivers.
Throughout this period, all available officers will be deployed on the roadways, intensifying enforcement efforts, and assisting motorists.
"As we celebrate the joy of the season, let's make a collective commitment to prioritize safety on our roads,” said CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee. “Your loved ones are waiting for you at home — buckle up, drive responsibly, and have a plan that includes a safe, sober ride before you head out for the evening.”
The annual surge in holiday travel brings with it an increased risk of crashes and alcohol-related incidents on our roadways.
Poor choices behind the wheel such as speeding, driving under the influence, or distracted driving can have tragic results.
During last year’s Christmas MEP, 26 people were killed in crashes within the CHP’s jurisdiction and nearly half of all the vehicle occupants killed were not wearing a seat belt.
Additionally, during last year’s Christmas MEP, CHP officers made 639 arrests for DUI — the equivalent of one arrest for DUI nearly every seven minutes throughout the holiday weekend.
Celebrate responsibly to help ensure everyone reaches their destination safely. Always designate a sober driver or use public transportation, rideshare services, or taxi.
The CHP encourages the public to call 9-1-1 to report impaired drivers, excessive speeding, and unsafe behavior on the roadways. The life you save could be your own.
Irving Berlin was a Jewish immigrant who loved America. As his 1938 song “God Bless America” suggests, he believed deeply in the nation’s potential for goodness, unity and global leadership.
In 1940, he wrote another quintessential American song, “White Christmas,” which the popular entertainer Bing Crosby eventually made famous.
But this was a profoundly sad time for humanity. World War II – what would become the deadliest war in human history – had begun in Europe and Asia, just as Americans were starting to pick up the pieces from the Great Depression.
Catholics in Europe had celebrated Christmas with public merriment since the Middle Ages, but Protestants often denounced the holiday as a vestige of paganism. These religious tensions spilled over to the American colonies and persisted after the Revolutionary War, when slavery divided the nation even further.
After the Civil War, many Americans pined for national traditions that could unify the country. Protestant opposition to Christmas celebrations had relaxed, so Congress finally declared Christmas a federal holiday in 1870. Millions of Americans soon adopted the German tradition of decorating trees. They also exchanged presents, sent cards and shared stories of Santa Claus, a figure whose image the cartoonist Thomas Nast perfected in the late 19th century.
Despite these evolving secular influences, Christmas music and entertainment continued to emphasize Christianity. Churchgoers and carolers often sang “Silent Night” and “Joy to the World.”
‘The best song anybody ever wrote’
Berlin’s inspiration for the song came in 1937, when he spent Christmas in Beverly Hills. He was near the film studios where he worked but far from his wife, Ellin – a devout Catholic – and the New York City home in Manhattan where they had always celebrated the holiday with their three daughters.
Being apart from Ellin that Christmas was particularly difficult: Their infant son had died on Dec. 26, 1928. Irving knew his wife would have to make the annual visit to their son’s grave by herself.
By 1940, Berlin had come up with his lyrics. In his Manhattan office, he sat at his piano and asked his arranger to take down the notes.
“Not only is it the best song I ever wrote,” he promised, “it’s the best song anybody ever wrote.”
Berlin had connected his lonesome Christmas to the broader turmoil of the time, including the outbreak of World War II and fraught debates about America’s role in the world.
This new song reflected his response: a dream of better times and places. It evoked a small town of yesteryear in which horse-drawn sleighs crossed freshly fallen snow. It also imagined a future in which dark days would be “merry and bright” once again.
This was a new kind of Christmas carol. It did not mention the birth of Jesus, angels or wise men – and it was a song that all Americans, including Jewish immigrants, could embrace.
Berlin soon took “White Christmas” back to Hollywood. He wanted it to appear in his newest musical, one that would tell the story of a retired singer whose hotel offered rooms and entertainment, but only on American holidays. He titled the film “Holiday Inn” and pitched it to Paramount Pictures, with Crosby as the lead.
Fighting for ‘the right to dream’
Raised in Spokane, Washington, Crosby had launched his music career in the 1920s. A weekly radio show and a contract with Paramount led to stardom during the 1930s.
With his slim build and protruding ears, Crosby did not look the part of a leading man. But his easygoing demeanor and mellow voice made him immensely popular.
“Holiday Inn” premiered in August 1942. Reviewers barely mentioned the song, but ordinary Americans couldn’t get enough of it. By December it was on every radio, in every jukebox and, as the Christian Science Monitor newspaper noted, in nearly “every home and heart” in the country.
The key reason was the nation’s entry into World War II.
“White Christmas” was not overtly patriotic, but it made Americans think about why they fought, sacrificed and endured separation from their loved ones. As an editorial in the Buffalo Courier-Express concluded, the song “provided a forcible reminder that we are fighting for the right to dream and for memories to dream about.”
This made it a song all Americans could embrace, including those not always treated like Americans.
Affirming faith in humanity
Berlin and Crosby didn’t set out to change how Americans celebrate Christmas. But that’s what they ended up doing.
Their song’s universal appeal and phenomenal success launched a new era of holiday entertainment – traditions that helped Americanize the Christmas season.
Like “White Christmas,” popular songs such as “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (1943) tapped into a longing for being with friends and family. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1949) and other new songs celebrated snow, sleigh rides and Santa Claus, not the birth of Jesus.
“White Christmas” had already sold 5 million copies by 1947 when Crosby recorded “Merry Christmas,” the first Christmas album ever produced. On the album, “White Christmas” appeared alongside holiday classics such as “Jingle Bells” and “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.”
Hollywood followed suit. In the popular 1946 film “It’s a Wonderful Life,” for example, bonds of family and friendship proved their value just in time for Christmas.
Faith was affirmed, but it was a faith in humanity.
Over the coming decades, Christmas entertainment continued to reach new audiences.
The upbeat songs of Phil Spector’s 1963 album “A Christmas Gift for You,” for example, appealed to baby boomers. Producers also catered to younger audiences with television specials such as “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”
Hollywood then rediscovered Christmas during the 1980s, largely because of “A Christmas Story,” a film that didn’t exactly view Christmas through rose-colored glasses. While satirizing the chaos and angst of the holiday season, the film nonetheless embraced Christmas, warts and all. A steady stream of Christmas films followed – “Scrooged,” “Home Alone,” “Elf” – where themes of nostalgia, family and togetherness were ever-present.
Since the 1940s, the Christmas season has become even more inclusive. A 2013 Pew Research survey found that 81% of non-Christians in the U.S. celebrate Christmas. Yes, the holiday has also become more commercial. But that, too, has made it all the more American.
Amid these changes, Irving Berlin’s song has been a holiday mainstay, reminding listeners of what makes them not just American, but human: the importance of home, a longing for togetherness and a shared hope for a better future.
As an American living in Britain in the 1990s, my first exposure to Christmas pudding was something of a shock. I had expected figs or plums, as in the “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” carol, but there were none. Neither did it resemble the cold custard-style dessert that Americans typically call pudding.
Instead, I was greeted with a boiled mass of suet – a raw, hard animal fat this is often replaced with a vegetarian alternative – as well as flour and dried fruits that is often soaked in alcohol and set alight.
It’s in no danger of breaking into my top ten favorite Christmas foods. But as a historian of Great Britain and its empire, I can appreciate the Christmas pudding for its rich global history. After all, it is a legacy of the British Empire with ingredients from around the globe it once dominated and continues to be enjoyed in places it once ruled.
Christmas pudding takes its shape
Christmas pudding is a relatively recent concoction of two older, at least medieval, dishes. The first was a runny porridge known as “plum pottage” in which any mixture of meats, dried fruits and spices might appear – edibles that could be preserved until the winter celebration.
Until the 18th century, “plum” was synonymous with raisins, currants and other dried fruits. “Figgy pudding,” immortalized in the “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” carol, appeared in the written record by the 14th century. A mixture of sweet and savory ingredients, and not necessarily containing figs, it was bagged with flour and suet and cooked by steaming. The result was a firmer, rounded hot mass.
During the 18th century, the two crossed to become the more familiar plum pudding – a steamed pudding packed with the ingredients of the rapidly growing British Empire of rule and trade. The key was less a new form of cookery than the availability of once-luxury ingredients, including French brandy, raisins from the Mediterranean, and citrus from the Caribbean.
Few things had become more affordable than cane sugar which, owing to the labors of millions of enslaved Africans, could be found in the poorest and remotest of British households by mid-century. Cheap sugar, combined with wider availability of other sweet ingredients like citrus and dried fruits, made plum pudding an iconically British celebratory treat, albeit not yet exclusively associated with Christmas.
Such was its popularity that English satirist James Gillray made it the centerpiece of one of his famous cartoons, depicting Napoleon Bonaparte and the British prime minister carving the world in pudding form.
In his 1843 internationally celebrated “A Christmas Carol,” Charles Dickens venerated the dish as the idealized center of any family’s Christmas feast: “Mrs Cratchit entered – flushed, but smiling proudly – with the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quarter of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top.”
Christmas pudding owed much of its lasting appeal to its socioeconomic accessibility. Victoria’s recipe, which became a classic, included candied citrus peel, nutmeg, cinnamon, lemons, cloves, brandy and a small mountain of raisins and currants – all affordable treats for the middle class. Those with less means could either opt for lesser amounts or substitutions, such as brandy for ale.
Eliza Acton, a leading cookbook author of the day who helped to rebrand plum pudding as Christmas pudding, offered a particularly frugal recipe that relied on potatoes and carrots.
White colonists’ desires to replicate British culture meant that versions of Christmas pudding soon appeared across the empire. Even European diggers in Austrialia’s goldfields included it in their celebrations by mid-century.
In the 1920s, the British Women’s Patriotic League heavily promoted it – calling it “Empire Pudding” in a global marketing campaign. They praised it as emblem of the empire that should be made from the ingredients of Britain’s colonies and possessions: dried fruits from Australia and South Africa, cinnamon from Ceylon, spices from India and Jamaican rum in place of French brandy.
Such promotional recipes and the mass production of puddings from iconic grocery stores like Sainsbury’s in the 1920s combined to place Christmas puddings on the tables of a myriad of peoples who resided across an empire on which the sun never set.
After the empire
Decolonization did not diminish the appeal of the Christmas pudding. Passengers transiting through London’s airports can find them in abundance this time of year. Their shape and density have baffled airport security scanners for some time, leading to requests to carry them as hand luggage.
In former white settler colonies, like Canada, the tradition endured, although in Australia, where Christmas falls in summer, trifle and pavlova are at least equally common. In parts of India, where it is sometimes known as “pudim,” it remains a traditional favorite, “steeped in tradition,” according to the leading English national daily newspaper, the “Hindustan Times.”
Reflecting modern palates and trends, Jamie Oliver, the celebrated British chef and author, has gluten-free and more modern options this year. His “classic” recipe, however, would not have been out of place on Queen Victoria’s table.
Like so many adaptations around the former empire, it includes some American ingredients: pecans and cranberries as well as bourbon substituted for brandy – an Anglo-American concoction – much like my own family. And I will embrace this one.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Clearlake Animal Control has many dogs waiting for new homes at Christmas.
The Clearlake Animal Control website lists 34 adoptable dogs.
The adoptable dogs include “Brutus,” a male American pit bull terrier mix with a short white coat. He has been neutered.
There also is “Ninja,” a 1-year-old male pit bull terrier mix with a black and white coat. He’s also neutered.
The shelter is located at 6820 Old Highway 53. It’s open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
For more information, call the shelter at 707-762-6227, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.
This week’s adoptable dogs are featured below.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.