Maple

Maple is a very sweet Boston Terrier/Chihuahua mix who just arrived at the Tahoe shelter from Placerville along with three other little dogs. She is 3-years-old and seems to get along with everyone. There is also a cute 10-week-old cocker spaniel/Jack russell terrier puppy at the shelter, named Hans Solo.

Maple is spayed, microchipped, tested for heart worm, and vaccinated. She is at the El Dorado County Animal Services shelter in Meyers, along with many other dogs and cats who are waiting for their new homes. Go to the Tahoe animal shelter’s Facebook page to see photos and descriptions of all pets at the shelter.

Call 530.573.7925 for directions, hours, and other information on adopting a pet.

For spay-neuter assistance for South Tahoe residents, go online.

— Karen Kuentz

Lake Tahoe’s Dead Winter Carpenters play July 11 at the inaugural Bluegrass Festival at Lake Tahoe Hard Rock. Photos/Terra Breeden

By Terra Breeden

STATELINE – It was all fun and fiddles Saturday at the inaugural Bluegrass Festival on the South Shore, part of the Hard Rock’s summer concert series.

Thousands of people came to enjoy the all-day event and dance to the twanging tunes of an all-star lineup of bluegrass bands, which included New Monsoon, Dead Winter Carpenters, Del McCoury Band, Greensky, David Grisman Sextet, and Earls of Leicester.

New Monsoon kicked off the show with upbeat jam music and tons of vitality.

Dead Winter Carpenters from North Lake Tahoe played next, bringing heavy bluegrass music to the stage. The Dead Winter Carpenters have had a busy year touring throughout the United States and Brian Houston, a member of the band and Tahoe native said, “We are very excited for the show, it’s nice to be back in Tahoe after so much time on the road.”

Later in the afternoon, big-name bluegrass groups such as Earls of Leicester, which won the 2015 Grammy Award for best bluegrass band, dominated the stage and crooned to the audience. Earls of Leicester showcased a traditional bluegrass sound defined by banjo fingerpicking and soaring fiddles. Their music is inspired by the classic songs by Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt, and the Foggy Mountain Boys.

“The Earls of Leicester is the band we came to the festival to see,” said concert-goer and fan Robert Glover. “Their music is good ol’ honky-tonk twang and it’s the original bluegrass sound.”

Many people came to the outdoor festival for the atmosphere.

High-stepping energy and good vibes abounded at this event as the sound of bluegrass filled the air.  Families and friends spread their blankets out in front of the stage and joined in conversation and laughter, sipping drinks and munching on good food. Laughing children darted around their legs, hula-hooping and dancing to the tunes at this family-friendly concert.

Hundreds of people congregate at Hard Rock to listen to bluegrass.

The Bluegrass Festival is the brainchild of PR Entertainment, a company that puts on other bluegrass events like Hangtown Halloween in Placerville and Winter Wondergrass in North Lake Tahoe.

Ryan Kronenberg of PR Entertainment said that, “I had the thought that we should just get a Tahoe bluegrass show going that’s more of a summer event, something that would bring bluegrass music to South Lake.”

The plan is for it to be an annual event.

“It’s fun to get outside and listen to music,” Kronenberg said, “and I am glad the weather worked out.”

After a week of gray skies and rain, July 11 was the first clear, blue-sky day Tahoe has seen in a while. Concert-goers lazed on blankets, soaking up the sun and jamming to the music.

“This is a great venue and the Hard Rock staff has been amazing,” Bluegrass Festival attendee from North Lake Tahoe Samantha Gruetcemach said. “I think this festival is great. Everyone is super nice, the food is good, everyone is having fun, and the weather is perfect after all that rain.”

By Peter Whoriskey, Washington Post

For anyone wondering about whether to take a fish oil pill to improve your health, the Web site of the National Institutes of Health has some advice.

Yes. And no.

One page on the Web site endorses taking fish oil supplements, saying they are likely effective for heart disease, because they contain the “beneficial” fatty acids known as omega-3s.

But another page suggests that, in fact, the fish oil pills seem useless: “Omega-3s in supplement form have not been shown to protect against heart disease.”

“I can see how you might think that there is some inconsistency,” Paul R. Thomas, a scientific consultant in NIH’s Office of Dietary Supplements wrote in response to questions about the NIH pages.

Few issues better reflect the American confusion over diet.

Read the whole story

The UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center’s 16th annual Children’s Environmental Science Day is Aug. 2 at Commons Beach in Tahoe City.

The event is from 12:30-3:30pm, with a Mumbo Gumbo concert at 4pm.

The carnival-style science festival will include 10 hands-on science activities and games. These activities will cover lake clarity and physics, lake level, water quality, water conservation, fish, invasive species, fire and forests, climate change, litter and recycling, stewardship, and more, and will be facilitated by some of the Tahoe basin’s leading environmental organizations.

Children’s Environmental Science Day is a free community event for children ages 4 and up and their families. This year’s activities are designed to create an awareness of the unique ecology of Lake Tahoe and provide an opportunity for young and old alike to learn about science and the environment and have fun.

For more information, contact Diana Hitchen at 775.881.7560, ext. 7483 or dkhitchen@ucdavis.edu.

Quinn De Veaux and the Blue Beat Revue will be at the Boathouse Theatre on the South Shore on July 29. Photo/Provided

By Evangeline Elston

One of the many special attributes of the Valhalla Boathouse Theatre is its size. At 164 seats it is intimate with a unique, rustic elegance. You feel, when you walk in that magic is about to happen … and it inevitably does.

Because of its size the boathouse requires a special approach to programming for the Valhalla Art, Music & Theatre Festival. Artists and productions must be chosen specifically for their ability to bring the space to life and to fill it with something unique. Our artists don’t always have the big names, but our venue and the quality of the performers are what set us apart from the big casinos and higher profile shows.

As the festival director I spend a great deal of time in the fall and winter selecting artists and performers and working with the Valhalla theater community to choose our line-up of summer entertainment. I look for an eclectic mix of music that I feel will appeal to a wide range of folks. And of course theater productions are selected with the Boathouse and our audience specifically in mind. Our patrons are locals and visitors. Campers and summer homeowners. They are families, young adults and mature people. I want to honor them all with the lineup I select.

For example, this summer we are presenting, with the Dakota Organization, the American classic adapted from the screen “On Golden Pond” featuring an all-star cast of local actors. This production is perfectly suited for our theater, the setting and our audience. It has been very well received and will continue July 11-12 and July 16-18.

For live music I strive to attract artists who I feel will embody the spirit of our unique festival and fill the Boathouse Theatre with sound and audience. I book world music, jazz, rock, singer-songwriters, bluegrass, R&B, classical and country. Pretty much every genre is represented in our summer season.

Coming up we have some of the finest songwriters, players and performers in the musical world where I dwell coming to Valhalla. On July 15 the stylings of songs from the American songbook by local jazz vocalist June Joplin and Me & Bobby McGee. Then, on July 22 it’s two of the finest singer-songwriters that I know of together on the Valhalla stage, Tasmanian born Audrey Auld and Sopchoppy, Florida native Grant Peeples. They are true song crafters and masterful, funny, engaging performers. From the urban grit of Oakland via the great state of Louisiana, Quinn Deveaux and the Blue Beat Revue will bring their full R&B sound, complete with back-up singers, to Valhalla on July 29. And it continues like this through August with bluegrass, roots rock, classical and country concerts.

The Tahoe Improv players continue their decade-long run at Valhalla all four Mondays in July and we have free outdoor concerts featuring the best local talent available on July 12, July 19 and Aug. 2 from noon to 2 pm on the Grand Lawn. And our artists in residence are showing in the Viking Gallery through mid-July daily from 11am to 4pm. Gina Stowell offers her kids painting camp July 13-17 and again in August.

I’m proud of what we are building at Valhalla. I work very hard to bring the finest entertainment available to our little corner of the globe, nestled in the tall pines and on the shore of beautiful Lake Tahoe. It may be the best kept secret in arts festivals west of the Rocky Mountains now, but little by little we’re going to let the world know what an amazing thing is happening here at Valhalla Tahoe.

Information and tickets are online.

Evangeline Elston is director of the Valhalla Art, Music & Theatre Festival.

Douglas County Public Library will present a special program at Mormon Station State Historic Park on July 23 at 10:30am.

Guest puppeteer Beth Hyland will team up with Captain Underpants and Superman to share fables and tales that prove there is truly a hero in each of us.

Discover a hero in “The Lion and the Mouse,” “The Rooster’s Diamond Button,” and “Jack and the Beanstalk.” There will be chaotic visits from the Mad Scientist Dr. Diaper, the Evil Professor Poopypants and Ferocious Talking Toilets.

Following the puppet show, children will make a craft.

All ages are welcome.

Mormon Station is located on the corner of Main Street and Genoa Lane in Genoa. Meet under the trees. For more info, call 775.782.9841.

By Michael S. Rosenwald, Washington Post

The hallmark of public libraries — the printed book, bound by covers and centuries of page-turning — is being shoved aside by digital doppelgangers.

Around the country, libraries are slashing their print collections in favor of e-books, prompting battles between library systems and print purists, including not only the pre-pixel generation but digital natives who represent a sizable portion of the 1.5 billion library visits a year and prefer print for serious reading.

Some of the clashes have been heated. In New York, protesters outside the city’s main branch have shouted: “Save the stacks! Save the stacks!” In Northern Virginia, the Fairfax County library system chief recently mused that the Friends of the Library were no longer friends — a feud fueled by outrage over a print collection that has shrunk by more than 300,000 books since 2009. The drop in the District is even more dramatic: Nearly 1 million books have vanished since 2009.

Read the whole story

By Dacher Keltner and Paul Ekman, New York Times

Five years ago, the writer and director Pete Docter of Pixar reached out to us to talk over an idea for a film, one that would portray how emotions work inside a person’s head and at the same time shape a person’s outer life with other people. He wanted to do this all in the mind of an 11-year-old girl as she navigated a few difficult days in her life.

As scientists who have studied emotion for decades, we were delighted to be asked. We ended up serving as scientific consultants for the movie, “Inside Out,” which was recently released.

Our conversations with Mr. Docter and his team were generally about the science related to questions at the heart of the film: How do emotions govern the stream of consciousness? How do emotions color our memories of the past? What is the emotional life of an 11-year-old girl like? (Studies find that the experience of positive emotions begins to drop precipitously in frequency and intensity at that age.)

Read the whole story

By Donovan Webster, Outside

A well-trained dog is the product of its owner’s diligent effort and persistence. If you would like to train your dog but are unsure how to begin, consider these recommendations.    Photo: Hannah Dewey/Tandem

About 12,000 years ago, canines came to the fire.

Before long, humans and dogs became very close friends. No one can say exactly where it happened, though it was likely in southern Europe or North Africa. But the terms of the arrangement were simple: The two species would look after one another. Dogs would sniff out and run down game as well as guard the homefront. Man would offer food and shelter. Neither would be lonely.

Since then, it’s been man who most often fails to live up to the bargain—not by skimping on kibble, but by allowing his dog to become a do-nothing layabout or even a nuisance. The idea of a dog as purely pet is a 20th-century concept and, frankly, a bad one. Of course, I’m not telling anyone anything they don’t already know: Dogs like daily order and work. Hell, they need it. If you’re not willing to give a dog a job, whether it’s running with you, sitting calmly while you fish, or running behind you while you ski, you should probably stick to having goldfish—or ferns.

But if you’re ready to dedicate time to training a dog that’s up for adventure, then we’ve got the drill sergeant you need. Mike Stewart, 58, is a former police officer—he spent seven years on the force in Oxford, Mississippi, then 18 years as chief of campus police at the University of Mississippi—who’s been “piddling around” training dogs since he was a young man. Today, he is widely regarded as one of the best dog trainers in the world. He breeds, trains, and sells British Labradors out of his Wildrose Kennels, a lovely and well-tended farm on 143 acres of fields, ponds, and woods outside Oxford. Stewart’s new book, “The Wildrose Way”, details how you and your dog can be better in tune with each other in all sorts of situations, from boating to snowshoeing to birding—even just walking along Fifth Avenue in New York. While he trains everything from hunting dogs to diabetic alert dogs, Stewart’s favorite pastime these days is training adventure dogs.

Read the whole story

Teacher and student will have their artwork on display at South Lake Tahoe’s Champions Plaza.

David Foster at the July 7 City Council meeting was awarded the contract to create the centerpiece sculpture. Mark Allione will design the flags.

Foster is the former chairman of Lake Tahoe Community College’s art department, having retired in 2008.  Allione is a former student of his.

The plaza was created by the city at Lakeview Commons as a way to honor athletes from the area. The idea came about after the 2014 Olympics – even though Jamie Anderson, Maddie Bowman and Hannah Teter are all from Meyers. And while athletes other than Olympians are likely to be recognized, the winning art piece is called Olympic Flame and is Foster’s interpretation of that iconic symbol.

Criteria for those being singled out have yet to be determined.

There is room on the pedestal of Foster’s bronze for words that might encapsulate the essence of the plaza.

— Kathryn Reed