Trending Topics
Billions in Flight: Migratory Birds 
Autumn doesn’t officially begin until the equinox on September 22, but all across North America birds are already on the wing—billions of them. Migration times and destinations vary based on the species and variables like weather and food sources—some...
One-Room Schoolhouse 
Back to school. A hundred years ago in Topanga, it would have been on foot—and often barefoot—to the little, red, one-room schoolhouse by the creek in the bend of the dirt road.  Public education in California was still relatively...
Desert Voices 
“‘Just now our blood dances to other music.’ They fell a-twittering among themselves once more, and this time their intoxicating babble was of violet seas, tawny sands, and lizard-haunted walls.” The swallows in Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows...
Desert Daytrip 
A desert experience doesn’t always require one to crawl on hands and knees through the thornbush and cactus, regardless of what Edward Abbey says. Anyone seeking cactus, sandstone, and volcanic peaks need look no farther than our own Santa...
Food

Family Secrets 

Cranberry Relish It’s a tart, ruby-red cylinder of quivering, glistening jelly, and it’s been part of America’s Thanksgiving menu since 1941. It’s estimated that Americans consume 5,062,500 gallons of jellied cranberry sauce every year, most of it at Thanksgiving...
Books & Such

A Podcast Primer 

Liberal MSNBC commentator Rachel Maddow has stepped back from her long-running eponymous primetime show (TRMS), but just inked a $30 million per year contract with NBCUniversal, MSNBC’s parent company. While citing a number of health problems related to potential...
Food

Perfection Salad 

Letter to the Editor – December 2021 Regarding Suzanne Guldimann’s article on Gelatin I always enjoy Suzanne’s articles, well-written, researched and interesting. However, in reading her “Festive History of Jell-O” (Topanga New Times, Vol. 2, Issue 23 topanganewtimes.com/2021/11/19/breaking-the-mold-a-festive-history-of-jell-o/ )...
ArtBeat

A Christmas Memory 

Topanga Library, December 18. 2 p.m. A staged-reading with music: FREE. Stories become classics for a reason. Topanga Actors Company is so excited to announce a special engagement performance of Truman Capote’s lyrical and touching classic “A Christmas Memory.”...
Books & Such

Bobby 

There is a great deal of chatter out there about our divided dysfunctional political system which now includes a growing incidence of references to impending civil war. While the folks who study these things see it as unlikely that...