Collected Magazine Articles and Essays

I wrote numerous articles about scientific research conducted at the University of California, Santa Barbara from 2008-10. You can see most of them on UCSB's Office of Research website.

Noozhawk.com featured my musings in June 2010 on watching my daughter graduate from high school. Read it here.

Noozhawk also wrote a lovely story about me and Sara Miller McCune when we were honored on June 3 with Women of Achievement awards from the Association for Women in Communications Santa Barbara Chapter. You can see the video of my speech here.

The Pacific Coast Business Times also wrote a story about me and the AWCSB award on June 14, 2010.

I write regularly for Miller-McCune Magazine, a print and online magazine focusing on the latest research in the social sciences, the environment, health and other public policy issues. My interview with a UC Santa Barbara scientist on the impact of the recent Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was published by Miller McCune online on May 11, 2010.

My essay on fear and society featuring Dr. Barry Glassner appeared in the Opinion section of AOLnews.com on May 26, 2010.

My personal essay on dealing with a mentally ill sibling appeared in the Los Angeles Times on February 28, 2010. My sister's thoughtful response to comments was posted by Times editors on March 2.

America's Mental Health (Care) is Getting Worse is the first of a four-part series on serious mental illness and its impacts I wrote for Miller-McCune. You can see the subsequent stories in the series, plus other articles on mental health I have written here.

The Huffington Post: Various blogs on politics and writing.

Visit my Red Room site to see recent freelance articles written for Santa Barbara Magazine and Central Coast Magazine.

Willow Rock Poetry

In the Willow Rock Writers newsletter for April 2011, I invited folks to send in their poetry in celebration of National Poetry Month. We received some lovely poems, reprinted below. Thank you to everyone who contributed!

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Keeping the Old West Alive in Santa Ynez Valley

Cold Spring Tavern and Mattei's Tavern were built in the 1880s as stagecoach stops

(A condensed version of this story appeared in the LA Times Travel Section online on Nov. 14, 2010.)

By Marcia Meier

Santa Barbara County’s Santa Ynez Valley is known primarily for its fine wines and upscale horse farms, but some of the Old West remains, including two historic stagecoach stops that continue to operate as successful restaurants.

Cold Spring Tavern, near the top of San Marcos Pass (Highway 154) between Santa Barbara and Solvang, and Mattei’s Tavern, in Los Olivos at the north end of the valley, date to the 1880s and are chockfull of historic collectibles and nostalgia from the stagecoach era.

One hundred years ago, travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco meant a stagecoach ride over the nearly 2,500-foot pass above Santa Barbara and through the Santa Ynez Valley. (The highway elevation of the pass today is 2,250 feet.) The route was treacherous, hot and dusty, and the stagecoaches had to negotiate hairpin turns with steep drop-offs on one side or the other all the way up the south side of the Santa Ynez Mountains. The road was so steep in places that the stages required six horses rather than the four typical on the remainder of the trip.

The journey from Santa Barbara to Cold Spring Tavern would have taken a good eight hours. In addition to the heat and dust, travelers had to worry about highwaymen intent on stealing the Wells Fargo cash box, the mail and, of course, personal valuables like money and jewelry.

The stage would have left Santa Barbara very early in the morning, so that by the time they reached Cold Spring Tavern, just over the top of the pass, a midday meal would be in order.

Today, Cold Spring Tavern looks much as it did a century ago. Built in 1886, it’s nestled deeply into the trees and skirted by a crystal-clear creek. Dark-wood planking and moss-covered roof shingles attest to its age. There are two main structures, the original tavern that houses the restaurant and the Log Cabin Bar next door. The restaurant serves traditional fare, like sandwiches, salads and even vegetarian meals, but is known for its wild game menu, including venison, rabbit, boar and wild trout.

“We try to keep it exactly the way Audrey had it,” restaurant manager John Locke explained.

Audrey Ovington and her mother bought the tavern in 1941 and lived in a back room together until the mid-50s, when they had an old box car hauled up to the property and converted it to a small home behind the tavern. Ovington collected old memorabilia and decorated the tavern over the years: ancient branding irons, old guns, stuffed animal heads and black-and-white pictures from the era cover the walls. Oil lamps on the tables provide illumination at night.

“She was a real collector,” Locke said, “but I believe people just brought the stuff to her as well. People still bring in old items today.”

In addition to lunches and dinners, the tavern is known for live music in the bar on the weekends, and tri-tip sandwiches, cold beer and music every Sunday.

My college roommates and I used to spend an occasional Sunday afternoon listening to bluegrass or country rock while sipping Coronas. My visit on a recent Sunday indicates nothing has changed in more than 20 years. A local duo, Tom Ball and Kenny Sultan, were playing guitar and harmonica, as they have nearly every Sunday for all that time. Harley-riding cyclists mixed with tourists, crowding the outdoor seating area, while motorcycles growled up and down the road in front of the tavern.

During stagecoach days, once the meal was over and the coach was outfitted with a fresh set of horses, travelers would re-board for another eight-hour journey down the mountain and across the valley to Mattei’s Tavern.

Mattei’s is home today to Brothers Restaurant, owned and operated by Jeff and Matt Nichols. It also was built in 1886, and was originally called the Central Hotel. History seeps from every creaky floorboard and is reflected in the dozens of stagecoach photographs that cover the walls.

The brothers have renovated a bit, but the tavern retains its Old West charm. A large stone fireplace dominates the front room. Along one wall a glass case protects hotel guest books dating to the early 1900s. A cozy bar gives the impression of a warm and inviting waystation.

Each dining room has a different name and feel to it, Jeff Nichols explained. The Red Room features red-velvet flecked wallpaper and white wainscoting. The Wicker Room is a vast closed-in porch named for the furniture it held for more than 100 years.

The tavern is named for founder Felix Mattei, who with his wife, Lucy, had five sons. One, Clarence Mattei, became a well-known artist after being discovered at age 16 by New York socialites traveling to Los Angeles, Nichols said. The tavern remained in the family until the early 1970s, when Brooks Firestone and his wife, Kate, bought it. Firestone, a former California assemblyman, also founded Firestone Winery and still owns and operates Curtis Winery with his wife. Mattei’s is owned today by an investment group.

To see a little of the Old West filtered through Hollywood, you can rediscover Davy Crockett and taste fine wine at the same time at the late Fess Parker’s winery on Foxen Canyon Road, just a few miles from Los Olivos and down the road from Firestone and Curtis wineries.

Parker died in March at the age of 85, but his iconic link to the Old West lives on at the winery, where you can buy little coonskin caps to top your wine bottles and see 1950s-era mementoes and photos of Parker as both Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone.

The Parker family continues to operate the winery as well as Fess Parker’s Wine Country Inn and Spa (formerly the Grand Hotel) in Los Olivos and his share of the oceanfront Fess Parker’s DoubleTree Resort in Santa Barbara. For many years before his death, Parker and his wife could be found on Thursday nights around the piano in the parlor of his Los Olivos hotel leading guests in sing-alongs of tunes from bygone times.

Parker reveled in his image as a frontiersman; in person he was a kind and gentle man who won the admiration of even those who disagreed with his development interests both in Santa Barbara and the valley.

His connection to the Old West was carefully cultivated but genuinely expressed, just like the old stagecoach taverns that remain reminders of those long-ago days.

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IF YOU GO:

Travelers can get a taste of what a stagecoach passage would have been like by following the old route from Santa Barbara and stopping at the two original stagecoach taverns for libations, just as folks would have in 1910.

If you leave Los Angeles early on a Saturday morning, you would arrive in Santa Barbara via Highway 101 about mid-morning. Take the Highway 154/Cachuma Lake exit. However, instead of staying on the highway (also known as San Marcos Pass), take the first exit, which is Cathedral Oaks/Foothill Road, and turn left onto Cathedral Oaks. Drive about two miles and turn right onto North San Marcos Road.

It only takes about 15 minutes to drive up, but you’ll get a good sense of what passengers would have experienced. The road is narrow and features hairpin turns and steep drop-offs on either side of the roadway.

Follow North San Marcos until it intersects with Highway 154 again, about three-quarters of the way up the mountain. Turn left onto the highway. Once you go over the top of the pass, watch for Old Stagecoach Road on the left, about a mile down, and turn onto it. Old Stagecoach Road takes you once again onto the old route, a windy, steep descending roadway where, about a mile down, you’ll find Cold Spring Tavern. The timing should be perfect to stop for lunch.

After your meal, continue down Old Stagecoach Road (again, it’s windy) until you come to Paradise Road. Turn left and follow Paradise Road as it winds back to Highway 154. Turn right, and from there it’s a relatively straight shot north past Cachuma Lake and across the valley to Los Olivos and Mattei’s Tavern. Dinner is served seven days a week at Brothers Restaurant, which opens at 5 p.m. That leaves plenty of time for wine tasting and visiting Los Olivos’ many art galleries along the way.

On the return trip Sunday, stop again at Cold Spring Tavern to taste their famous tri-tip sandwiches and experience Sunday afternoon with the band and the crowds. If you want to brave the old San Marcos Road back to town, it’s worth the stunning vistas of Santa Barbara and the Channel Islands.

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WHERE TO STAY:

In Solvang:

The Petersen Village Inn, 1576 Mission Drive, Solvang, Ca, CA 93463; (805) 688-3121 www.peterseninn.com. From $265 to $380 per night, includes complete dinner for two and a European buffet breakfast. Also available: packages that include wine tasting or tickets to the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts theater shows under the stars in Solvang.

In Ballard:

The Ballard Inn & Restaurant, 2436 Baseline Ave., Ballard, CA 93436; (800) 638-2466, www.ballardinn.com, Just 15 rooms, each uniquely decorated and some featuring fireplaces or private patios. From $245 to $315 per night. The restaurant is open to the public Wednesday through Sunday from 5:30-9 p.m., featuring gourmet cuisine.

In Los Olivos:

Fess Parker’s Wine Country Inn & Spa, 2860 Grand Avenue, Los Olivos, CA 93441; (800) 446-2455, www.fessparker.com. From $295 per weeknight for a King Deluxe to $525 per weekend night for the Grand Suite. Includes breakfast, a half-bottle of Fess Parker wine and complementary wine tasting at Fess Parker Winery & Vineyard and Epiphany Tasting Room. Also features Petros restaurant with upscale California-Hellenic Cuisine, and the Champagne Spa & Boutique.

WHERE TO EAT:

Cold Spring Tavern, 5995 Stagecoach Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93105; (805) 967-0066 www.coldspringtavern.com. Open for lunch (11 a.m.- 3 p.m. daily) and dinner (5-9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 5-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday). Breakfast served 8-11 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. Breakfast is $8.25; lunch ranges from $8.50-$12.50. Dinner is from $17.50-$28.

A.J. Spurs, 350 E. Highway 246, Buellton, CA 93427;  (805) 686-1655. Barbecue and steakhouse, Western décor and ambiance. Open daily for dinner from 4-9:30 p.m. Entrees from $15.

Brothers Restaurant, 2350 Railway Ave., Los Olivos, CA 93441; (805) 688-4820, www.matteistavern.com. Open daily for dinner 5-9 p.m., bar opens at 4 p.m. Reservations recommended, up to 30 days in advance. Entrees are $20 and up.

Los Olivos Café, 2879 Grand Ave., Los Olivos, CA 93441, (888) 946-3748. http://sbwinestore.com/wine-tasting/los-olivos-cafe. Given the Wine Spectator's Excellence Award for Best Restaurant of 2007, 2008 and 2009. Lunches from $9-$24.

Patrick’s Side Street Café, 2375 Alamo Pintado Ave., Los Olivos, CA (805) 686-4004; www.patrickssidestreetcafe.com. Lunches from $7-$24.

Kayaking on Santa Cruz Island

“OK, everyone, listen up!” the crewmember yelled. “Once you get off the boat, line up down the pier. We’ll take the gear off by bucket brigade.”

We climbed the six rungs up a rusting steel ladder to step off the Islander and onto the pier at Scorpion Ranch landing on Santa Cruz Island. Then we strung ourselves out from one end of the pier to the other, all 60-plus of us, and started to pass the sleeping bags, cook stoves, coolers, tents, kayak paddles and innumerable other items from one person to the next. Within 15 minutes the gear was unloaded and stacked in piles at the foot of the pier.

Meanwhile, the crew unloaded our kayaks and strung them together in a long colorful line to paddle them to shore.

After a 10-minute welcome from the National Park ranger, (be careful while kayaking; there are no snakes on the island, but there are scorpions), we faced the prospect of hauling all of our camping gear nearly a mile back to our campsite. Fortunately, my friend and our guide for the weekend, Cathy Armstrong, borrowed a cart. We piled the heaviest items on it: coolers filled with food for a weekend, the tents and some awkward beach chairs. Then we loaded the rest of the stuff on our backs, and off we trekked.

Five women, five teen-age daughters, four kayaks, and one isolated island off the Southern California coast. Mother’s Day weekend. This was not an adventure for the faint of heart.

It started innocently enough. Cathy had promised my then-15-year-old daughter, Kendall, that she would take her out to the island as a belated birthday present. Kendall and Cathy’s daughter, Torrie, have been best friends since fourth grade. Cathy has been camping and kayaking on Santa Cruz and the other channel islands almost since they became a national park in 1980. When I said I’d like to go, too, we had the makings of a girls’ weekend adventure.

Cathy’s best kayaking and camping buddy, Dr. D’Ann Lawson, came along, as did our friend Mary Marshall and her two daughters, Montana and Molly; my friend Toni Lorien, a Santa Barbara County attorney; and Kendall’s basketball teammate and friend, Momoko Gill. It could have been a recipe for disaster, but it turned out to be a weekend of distinct pleasures.

All of us discovered something about the island, and, in many ways, about ourselves. For example, I found out that, yes, I could kayak through a narrow tunnel of rock with a surging wave. Twice! Kendall discovered the crabs that live among the rocks at the shoreline are all different colors of red, burgundy and slate. I have dozens of photos to prove it. And guess what? The girls survived without Facebook, cell phones and (for the most part) their iPods.

Santa Cruz Island is one of five islands off the Ventura and Santa Barbara coastlines that are now included in the Channel Islands National Park, and, at 96 square miles, it is the largest. The others are Anacapa, Santa Rosa, San Miguel and Santa Barbara. With the exception of Santa Barbara, which is the most remote, all are visible most of the year from Santa Barbara and Ventura. You can visit all of them through Island Packers, which took us out to Santa Cruz from Ventura Harbor. Each island is unique in its topography, climate, flora, fauna and history. Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa were used for ranching in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; Santa Cruz for sheep ranching and Santa Rosa for cattle. All were settled by early native people, the Chumash, more than 10,000 years ago.

Today, the National Park Service is working to protect the delicate natural environments of the islands while allowing limited access so people can enjoy and appreciate the unique treasure they represent.

There are two campgrounds on Santa Cruz. The one at Scorpion Ranch, where we stayed, is more accessible. The campground at Prisoners Harbor, a half-hour boat ride beyond Scorpion Ranch, is a four-mile hike from the harbor mouth. Both have potable water and modern pit toilets. If you want a shower, you have to bring your own (which we did).

Cathy had prepared all the food ahead of time, and we ate exceptionally well. Pesto pasta with artichoke hearts and chicken was our first night’s meal, made in one pot on the cook stove. Breakfasts consisted of muffins, yogurt, granola and fresh fruit. Lunches were soup warmed on the cook stove and sandwiches. Saturday night we had burritos. On the last day, Sunday, we had fresh salads with smoked salmon for lunch.

Santa Cruz is a hikers’ paradise, offering trails that crisscross and circumnavigate the island. Once we had our camp set up, we ate lunch and several of us headed off to hike. The girls went off to explore and several of us took much-needed naps. Saturday morning, Cathy and D’Ann were up and on the water with the kayaks early. It was fairly cold Friday night (take lots of warm clothes and warm sleeping bags), and foggy Saturday morning, so I waited until later to kayak. The best time to kayak is actually when it’s foggy, because as soon as the sun comes up the wind also picks up. Kayaking against the wind can tire you quickly, which is why the rangers recommend going north into the wind on the outset of your trip, then coming home with the wind at your back. We did it the other way, but it allowed us to explore some of the more interesting rock formations, caves and tunnels to the south of the harbor entrance.

We saw lots of wildlife. On one excursion through Oooh Aaah Cave (when you enter, you say “oooh, aaah”), a large sea lion startled Cathy and the others by diving toward them and under the kayaks. The Santa Cruz Island fox, an endangered species, was a common sight, especially near the campsites in the early evening. The Park Service has an active breeding program for the foxes, and many of them wear tracking collars. They are surprisingly small, about the size of a house cat, and seem to have no fear of humans. On the boat ride out, we saw a juvenile humpback whale, but more spectacular was the vision of hundreds of white-sided dolphin that accompanied the boat for nearly a mile on the trip back to the mainland.

After two-and-a-half days of camping, kayaking and hiking, we were happy but exhausted. It was a Mother’s Day weekend we would never forget.

Things You May Not Know About Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara's Gone to the Dogs...And Other Tidbits About Our Fair City

Santa Barbara. Paradise on the Pacific. The American Riviera. Playground of the rich and famous, where the sun shines 365 days a year.

Well, yes and no. It’s true that Santa Barbara, just 90 miles north of Los Angeles, is one of the world’s most beautiful cities. With its signature red-tiled roofs and Spanish colonial architecture, lush vegetation and a stunning natural setting between the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Ynez Mountains, it’s the perfect vacation spot.

Here are a few things you won’t find in the tourism brochures.

1. Despite a reputation for year-around sunshine and mild temperatures, the best time to visit Santa Barbara isn’t during the summer. Between late May and early September, you are more likely to be sitting in a fog bank, wrapped in a wool blanket, than lounging on a beach blanket. One of the reasons the annual average temperature in the city is 70 degrees is because a marine layer keeps things cool in the summer months. The best times to enjoy Santa Barbara are April through early May (January, February and March can be lovely, but also wet) and October and November. December can be rainy and chilly, but also delightfully warm. I once spent a toasty Christmas Day on the beach, swimming in an unseasonably warm ocean.

2. In Santa Barbara, North is East and South is West. Really. The orientation of the city along the coastline is literally East-West, with south-facing beaches. So if you drive north on U.S. Highway 101 through Santa Barbara, you’re actually driving due West. It’s the only spot on the entire California coast that jags that way, and is also one of the reasons we have that lovely weather – most of the year.

3. Yes, there are a lot of rich people who live near Santa Barbara (Oprah spent $50 million on her digs in nearby Montecito) but most of the people who live in the city proper are decidedly not wealthy. At the 2000 Census, the median household income in Santa Barbara was $47,498. The per capita income was only $26,466. With the economic downturn the past two years, that is likely to have dropped. Half of the city’s housing stock is rental property, and more than 13 percent of residents live below the poverty line. The well-heeled suburbs of Montecito and Hope Ranch boost the wealth factor, and in fact employ many of the city’s gardeners, maids and other household workers. The wealthy love to live in Santa Barbara because, mostly, we leave them alone. But you can spy them all over town, wandering through the boutiques along State Street or dining at one of the city’s many eateries. Celebrity spottings are common at Lucky’s and Tre Lune restaurants on Coast Village Road, the Vons grocery store in Montecito (which once famously offered valet service) and at the San Ysidro Pharmacy in Montecito’s upper village.

4. The city’s broad and vibrant cultural offerings are due in large part to the generosity of wealthy magnates who came to Santa Barbara around the turn of the 20^th century for its healing waters. In the early 1900s, barons like yeast king Max Fleischmann, railroad multimillionaire Dwight Murphy and other wealthy patrons came to the city, drawn by spas touting the mineral springs that dot the foothills. Once here, they helped to build a cultural infrastructure. The Santa Barbara Art Museum, the University of California at Santa Barbara, the Santa Barbara Symphony, and many other top-notch educational and cultural organizations were started and continue to be supported by captains of industry. The Santa Barbara Zoological Gardens was built on property donated by the widow of a New England tea and coffee merchant. Lotusland, now a sumptuous botanical garden on 37 acres in Montecito, was built in the 1940s and ‘50s by a flamboyant opera singer named Ganna Walska, who had a talent for marrying very rich men. Nearly every cultural organization in Santa Barbara claims ties to one early-20^th-century benefactor or another.

5. The city has deep literary roots. Many people know that bestselling authors Sue Grafton and T.C. Boyle make their homes here, but they are just the latest talents in a long history of famous authors who have claimed Santa Barbara as home. The city’s earliest literary connection is perhaps Richard Henry Dana Jr., who wrote Two Years Before the Mast. Published in 1840, it chronicles his two-year journey (1834-36) as a sailor aboard the brig Pilgrim. Dana included detailed descriptions of the 19^th-century coastal cities they visited, including Santa Barbara. In the early-to-mid 20^th century, many writers discovered Santa Barbara. Ken Millar, who wrote detective novels under the name Ross Macdonald, and his novelist wife, Margaret Millar, were prominent members of the literary elite, which included Raymond Carver, Clifton Fadiman, Sinclair Lewis, Beryl Markham, Kenneth Rexroth and Christopher Isherwood. More recent author residents, besides Grafton and Boyle, include Fannie Flagg, Gayle Lynds, the late Dennis Lynds (who also wrote as Michael Collins), John Cleese, Dennis Miller, Arianna Huffington, Steve Martin, Pico Iyer and Jack Canfield. There are more than 800 published writers living in Santa Barbara County.

6. Santa Barbarans love their dogs! Celebrities tote their handbag pups. High-tech workers take their Labs to work. Agility-crazed owner-dog teams romp through obstacle courses in parks on the weekends. Pampered pooches even had their own bakery on State Street until the economy put the bite on it. An estimated 29,000 dog owners live in the city, nearly one-third the population. There are numerous off-leash parks and beaches in Santa Barbara and environs, one of the most popular being Hendry’s Beach (officially known as Arroyo Burro County Beach). Until it moved its headquarters, the Big Dog clothing retailer sponsored an annual Big Dog Parade, during which hundreds of owners and their costumed canines strutted up State Street and competed for various prizes. The city has literally gone to the dogs.

But don’t worry. True to Santa Barbara style, we pick up after our pets. Because, honestly, image is everything in this Mediterranean mecca.