Trending Topics
Mushroom Madness 
Fungi can cure or kill, nourish life, and also decompose it back into soil. Fossil evidence for fungi is limited, but the ability to analyze molecular data has led to revelations about the evolution of this extraordinary family of...
Fool’s Gold: The Myth of Tiburcio Vasquez 
“And still of a winter’s night, they say,  when the wind is in the trees, When the moon is a ghostly galleon  tossed upon cloudy seas,    When the road is a ribbon of moonlight  over the purple moor,    A...
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...
Editorial

Parrots! 

They’re loud, smart, adaptable and colorful, and they’ve made a home for themselves far from their native Central and South America. Meet the wild parrots of the Santa Monica Mountains, birds that have found an ecological niche for themselves...
Editorial

ZUCCHINI DAY 

August 8 was national Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day. We are entering into the spirit of the holiday with squash history and recipes. Check out the story on page 10! Illustrations lovingly drawn and painted by...
Editorial

Clothing Optional 

COVER: Why was nudism such a big thing in the 1970s? Was it a reaction to repressive American mid-century modern conformity? A rejection of Puritanical prudery? Part of the new health and fitness phenomenon? Or just the latest fad?...
Editorial

Fourth of July 

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these...