Blame it on Socrates. “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

“I try to let no day pass without discussing goodness and all the other subjects about which you hear me talking and examining both myself and others,"
No one is going to confuse anything here with his words, thoughts or deeds, but in his spirit, here are some random remembrances of this past year.

In no particular order:

The Naked Truth: The year began with members of the Napa Valley Farm Bureau posing nude for their annual calendar. Female vintners have threatened to follow suit his year, wearing nothing but a glassy winged sharpshooter .

The year’s scariest development: PUC’s proposed “Eco-Village.” In true Orwellian doublespeak, there is nothing “Eco, nor Village” about it.

Most exhilarating moment? Kentucky upsets #1 LSU, while #2, Cal is leading underdog Oregon State.

Most painful moment: What happened next..

Creepiest group of the year: LRC (Living River Clansmen). Under the guise of ecology, they prey on the elderly.

Best restaurant of the year: Market. Great food, great prices—filled with locals. And, since Tony left Tra Vigne, Eddie’s the friendliest maitre’ d in town.

Best Burger: Taylor’s—better, even than when they cost 24 cents (with a penny tax one could get a burger and shake for four bits).

Best for families? Tomatina’s (Some call it Pizzeria Tra Vigne, but they also think Conn Lake is called Lake Hennessey).

Best technopgizmo: Gotomypc.com


Best gas station: Jacquie’s Exxon—though she’s gone and Steve lit out for Idaho. Amanda and Chris still keeping up the charm and personality.

Best Book: Re-reading Virgil’s Aeneid. Fifty dollar tip to Lou Coleman at Dreamworks. Animate the classics. You’ll make millions..

Best Wine: 2004 Lewelling Vineyards Wight Vineyard, (released 9/7). Parker gave it a 96 and was only 4 points off.

Best Winery: Sutter Home. Anyone go to a community charity event which wasn’t held there this year?

Best Fund Raiser of the year? Saints Athletic Association’s Fajita Fest held at Native Sons.

Boldest prediction: Lee Hudson that this could be the best harvest in 100 years.

Dumbest idea: Spending over $12,000 to paint both sides of Crane Ave. with thick red stripes. Do all rural towns do that?

One who probably thinks this was a wise expenditure: Future cartographer of the year, Miss South Carolina, and “The Iraq—such as.”

One gal who did it right: Charlotte Wagner and her tenure running the Cameo Theater. No other small town has anything like it.

Two guys who did it right: Roger Trinchero and Gary Ericson who were the major bwanas for the new football field and track respectively. Roger and I not only played on Carpy field for many years, we actually played for Mr. Carpy, who gave us our first field. Something about folks smiling down from heaven.

Best sports team: Carpy Gang Varsity and JV’s who both went undefeated. Yes, that’s the same Al Carpy smiling.

Four reasons we watch teams we care little about: The Rams’ Drew Bennet; Niners’ Trent Dilfer, The Bryan Twins who brought home the Davis Cup from the Russians.

Why? When we were their ages, their fathers and I used to “play well together” (but not without disturbing others).

The down side of well intentioned ideas like local Global Warming Task Forces:

Napa Unified School district spending $249,000 on a “Green” school bus, then finding out one school is in danger of being punished via No Child Left Behind, because 10 children weren’t proficient in English. Anyone think, had that money been spent towards helping those kids, they might have scored higher?

Second downside of such groups and why Economics should be required in 2nd grade. Writer to the Star defending Napa’s purchase of green bus because “they only had to pay $50,000 and the rest came from grants.” Who can forget that Grant money grows on grant trees on the banks of the Potomac. How stupid are we?

Another example of Global Warming hysteria run amuck. Farmer had approved erosion control program for new vineyard, and had to amend it to include it’s effects on Global Warming. The conclusion: It won’t be quite as bad as the one-per-week coal plants scheduled to be built in China this year.

Man of The Year: General Petreaus.

Woman of the Year: Benizar Bhutto.

Sister of the Year (who doesn’t wear a habit). Vera (Like Michael, Kareem, and Reggie) her last name is unnecessary.

Brother of the Year: Richard (not many of us can actually shrink tumors on faith alone).

Best local politico? Da Mayor, Dell Britton.

Most Missed: Keller’s Market.

Most missed personal loss: Family Cat, nee Fawn Liebowitz (if you have to ask you’ll never, ever understand the answer).

Trip of the year: Rwanda to go mano a mano with a 450lb Silverback. Weirdest sensation of the year: Standing next to a Hutu, who by age and temperament had almost surely hacked to death with a machete some of his Tutsi neighbors.

2nd Weirdest sensation: Drinking beers at Hotel Rwanda (Hotel des Milles Collines) with two Tutsi’s who lost relatives in the genocide—maybe to our friend.

Dullest story of the year which didn’t contain the words Paris or Lindsay: Anna Nicole Smith.

Biggest boobs of the year: The producers who ran endless reels of tape on the sordid topic. (Ok. The biggest boobs were those of us who were too lazy to turn the set off).

Sign the Apocalypse is upon us: 500,000 acres sadly destroyed by fire. 200 homes destroyed. The response: The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has decided to ban home fireplace burning on certain days. All the fireplaces in all of California, burning each and every day, could never match the “particulate” matter of that one fire.

Best place to live? Mrs. Dowdell’s house on Allyn Ave. where (as the country song goes) the most beautiful view is from the front porch looking in..Happy New Year!




























































Jeffrey Earl Warren
James Warren & Son
1414 Main St.
St. Helena, Ca.
94574
707-963-2748





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