Hits & Misses: The April Fool’s Magic Show is a HIT

EEach week we will review the sublime, trivial and profound issues, decisions and events that strike us as successes or failures. you can also enter by emailing your Hits & Misses to editboard@theunion.com.

HIT (from reader Gregory Shaffer): To the Nevada County Magicians Guild for their two-night April Fool’s Day magic show. Amazing work from all the performers, from close up magic to big venue magic and a mentalist. (I’m still baffled at how he read my mind!) Best of all was Coco, an 8-year-old magician and guild member who did a great job, including stealing all of our rights heard under our eyes. The guild is an asset to our county and budding magicians (of all ages).

MISS (from reader Terry Lamphier): To the local contractors who seem to be scamming. A friend received two quotes for replacing a water heater in a 20 year old home ranging from $7,000 to $9,000. A 30 gallon water heater can be purchased for less than $800 and takes about two hours to drain, remove and replace. Purchase and delivery, disposal (and permits?) time should not exceed an additional three or four hours, so a day at $50/hour costs around $400. The standard replacement should easily cost under $1,500. Do we have premises that exploit the labor shortage?

HIT (from reader Shanti Emerson): To Onyx and Sutton Cinemas who were able to bring us “Coda” very soon after winning the Best Picture Oscar. You have to go see him. Remember to bring tissues.

HIT (from Emerson): At the Nevada County Photography Club with exhibits at the Center for the Arts and Courtyard Suites. So much talent. So many exquisite images.

HIT (from Emerson): To all the people, especially the young organizers, who showed up at the Rood Center to demonstrate for shrinking suffrage across the country. Our democracy is based on the right to vote of every citizen. Don’t let anyone take that base just yet.

HIT (from reader Phil Reinheimer): To Ketanji Brown Jackson on his pending addition to the Supreme Court.

MISS (from Reinheimer): To the negative attitudes of Clarence and Ginni Thomas.

HIT (by Jo Ann Rebane, member of the editorial board): to Music in the Mountains, who has done it again! They presented a very special program by Sinfonia Spirituosa. It was a rare opportunity to hear baroque music played on original instruments by endearing instrumentalists. The music was bright and catchy.

HIT (from Rebane): Adding Alexander’s Station Steakhouse to Nevada County’s dining scene. The menu is sophisticated, the service good, the food delicious and the place conducive to conversation.

HIT (from Editorial Board Member Paul Matson): To a photo in last Saturday’s Union that featured the rehabilitated Bridgeport Covered Bridge. This inspired me to head straight to South Yuba River State Park. This $6.9 million project resulted in a colossal, beautiful, and stunning finished product. It was the result of large-scale, unified community efforts to secure funding. As much of the original wood was reused as possible. It’s great to be able to walk around while using openings to take in views of the river upstream and downstream. This remarkable bridge, river, park and boardwalk are well worth a visit. Also, wildflowers are in full bloom right now.

HIT (from Matson): To guided wildflower walks through May 8 in Bridgeport. State Park Interpretation Specialist Allyssa Borich: “Due to recent rains, the flowers are really at their peak right now. If there’s no more rain in sight, we still have about two more weekends of that peak. If we get a little more rain it will continue. Of particular note are spider lupine and foothill poppies. Tours begin in the North parking lot on Saturdays and Sundays at 10 a.m. The tour is 1.5 miles round trip and approximately two hours. Parking is $5 per car and $4 for seniors. For more information, please visit http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=496

HIT (from Editorial Board Member Thea Hood): To Nevada County for harboring the only railroad in the West that was never robbed, even though its main cargo was gold.

HIT (from Hood): To Out on a Limb tree service in Rough and Ready. With so many tree service businesses in demand after our December storm, prices have skyrocketed, as have wait times and overnight scammers. But then we found the perfect company, Out On a Limb – professional, reasonably priced, quality work, efficient, friendly, no expectation of service, insured. Dial (530) 432-9903.

HIT (by Editorial Board Member Judy Silberman): On the return of glorious tulips to Ananda after a pandemic hiatus.

MISS (from Silberman): To the loss of innocent lives from Ukraine to Sacramento, and all over the world.

HIT (from editorial board member Tom Durkin): To an intimate and elegant essay in Alta magazine by local writer/actor/musician Sands Hall on who really wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Angle of Repose.” Hall’s “The Ways of Fiction Are Devious Indeed” is not only an irrefutable indictment of Wallace Stegner as a guilt-conscious murderer and plagiarist, but it’s also an affirmation of the brilliant and talented woman who was Mary Foote. Mary Foote not only lived a nobler life than Stegner portrayed her as Susan Ward, she wrote it better.

HIT (from Don Rogers editor): indeed where it pops up like lupine and poppies in the spring, if we’re lucky, when it doesn’t favor our political positions as well as when it does, and to the demands it places on our character include what’s awkward and seems to make our arguments harder, more nuanced, and — oh! – more honest too.

MISS (from Rogers): Getting it wrong and conveying assumptions and concerns as if the truth itself, something so easy to do in our “information” age.