Mark Epstein

Saint Helena

Columnist at Napa Valley Register

https://t.co/R2lgQhNC16

Articles

Vantage Point: A March for memorials

2 weeks ago | napavalleyregister.com | Mark Epstein

Our Native Sons Hall is a venue for many events and celebrations. I particularly like the annual Christmas bazaar that attracts artisans and craftsmen and women from all over Northern California. But it’s also a place for sober and reflective occasions. Twice this March I walked over to the hall to attend memorial celebrations for St. Helenans, as I have done a few times in past years. The first was for Dave Zumwalt; the second was for Beverly Kinney. For me, these events are always bittersweet.
Cape Cod Baseball League one of America's grand traditions

3 weeks ago | postandcourier.com | Mark Epstein

Baseball is as American as apple pie — with a dollop of vanilla ice cream. The game is played in every city and town. It remains our national pastime. From the S.C. Lowcountry to sunny California, from Iowa cornfields to the Massachusetts shore, children everywhere learn to play. Some even dream of one day playing in the majors. Cape Cod, Mass., is home to one of the last amateur athletic organizations after high school that is left in America.
Vantage Point: It shouldn't be this hard

2 months ago | napavalleyregister.com | Mark Epstein

Late February is tax season for many St. Helenans. That’s because we hire accountants to do our taxes and our deadline for providing our data is this month. I hired an accountant for my taxes in my first winter here more than two decades ago. One morning back then I heard a thud on my doorstep. I opened the door to find a book-like document which I thought was a store catalog. Nope, it was the California state tax package. Coming from Washington, D.C., that was a shock.
OPINION | Building an Indigenous Future in Rainier Beach, Sawhorse and yəhaw̓ Focus on Youth

Jan 17, 2025 | southseattleemerald.org | Mark Epstein

Each of us — all of our thoughts and feelings — is grounded in the intersection of time and location. Every thought we have is connected to the place where we are at that particular moment. Every Tuesday since early September, an after-school cohort of 10 high school students have been meeting in a space nestled by a creek above Rainier Beach to stretch their minds about what is possible. They are learning to develop power, both collectively and in their own lives.
Vantage Point: Sifting the political tea leaves

Nov 12, 2024 | napavalleyregister.com | Mark Epstein

“All politics is local,” famously said the late Boston pol Tip O’Neill. His insight was that people vote according to their personal and neighborhood concerns. Our key local race was Measures A1/A2, to change our governing structure and to approve a property transfer tax. A2, the tax question, is losing by a landslide, 57% to 43%, rejecting the advice of all our local politicians. This defeat may have been propelled by one recent photo on social media: a picture of a tub full of dirty brown water.
The Beehive: How Can We Create the Buzz?

Oct 18, 2024 | southseattleemerald.org | Mark Epstein

As summer winds down, if you have time to watch a flower, you may get a chance to witness the tremendous potential of collective purpose: bees in action. In just five minutes last month, I witnessed over 30 honeybees — sometimes two at a time — visiting one flower. Watching that one zucchini flower in our garden inspired these thoughts.
Vantage Point: In the shadow of Vietnam

Sep 24, 2024 | napavalleyregister.com | Mark Epstein

On a wall in my home office I have a half-dozen family documents. Among them are my draft papers: registration certificate (AKA “draft card”), statement of acceptability, and notice of classification. Younger visitors often ask me why I kept these aging pieces of paper. I tell them that’s because there was a time when they were the most important documents in my life. I recently looked closely at them for the first time in many years. I was motivated by two events.
Vantage Point: From SPECTRE to Movendi

Aug 6, 2024 | napavalleyregister.com | Mark Epstein

Every good struggle needs a strong opponent. In the early James Bond films of 60 years ago, the enemy was the international criminal enterprise SPECTRE with its diabolic chief, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Commander Bond righteously defeated his enemies across the globe in movie after movie. Wine played a role. In “From Russia with Love,” a counterfeit ally orders red wine with fish during dinner aboard the Orient Express.
Vantage Point: The price of (almost) everything is up

Jun 18, 2024 | napavalleyregister.com | Mark Epstein

Like humans and dogs, appliances and other major consumer purchases tend to wear down over time. The question is when to replace them (appliances, not friends and Fido). Do we wait until they collapse or jump in now? I’ve had a reliable refrigerator from St. Helena Appliance for 23 years. It’s modest, in St. Helena interior design terms: not built-in and no cold water or ice dispensers (given the poor quality of our water, I didn’t need or want those features).
Vantage Point: Confronting the new prohibition

Apr 30, 2024 | napavalleyregister.com | Mark Epstein

The past century has been both famine and feast for wine in Napa Valley. Prohibition almost killed off the industry, and it took decades to recover. We can chart the start of the modern era in Napa wines with the building of Robert Mondavi’s winery in the late 1960s. But growth was slow; a decade later the number of wineries here numbered just three dozen.