Elmo is a very cute little terrier mix who’s a bit shy, but he warms up quickly. He has very expressive ears that wiggle back and forth, and a wiry coat that has many colors.

Elmo would probably do best in a household with older children because of his shyness.

Elmo is neutered, microchipped, and vaccinated. He 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.

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

By Reno Gazette-Journal

Boy Scout Ryan Collins of Tahoe City is looking to bring local musicians together to perform for senior citizens.

“Play it Forward — Musicians Performing for Community” is Collins’ Eagle Scout Project.

Collins belongs to Incline Village’s Boy Scout Troop 37.

Collins, 17, of Tahoe City, developed the nonprofit project as a gesture of goodwill and companionship to the elderly.

“Play it Forward” is sponsored by the Reno Pops Orchestra, who will assume direction of the program following the initial series of performances.

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Who killed Flabbius Corpus? Was it Maximus Testosterus, or maybe Bogus Fortunatus? You have the opportunity to solve this ancient Roman murder at the Children’s Museum Murder Mystery on Oct. 1.

Enjoy a tri-tip dinner and meet the eight prime suspects as the audience works to unravel the clues to this mystery. And if you would like, wear your toga.

Tickets are $35 and are available at the Children’s Museum at 813 N. Carson St., Carson City or call (775) 884.2226.

Cocktails are at 5pm, with dinner beginning at 5:30pm.

By Greg Lucas, Capitol Weekly

John Laird is sitting in an armchair in his austere 13th floor office in the state Resources Building on O and 9th Streets. The former chair of the Assembly Budget committee is in shirt sleeves buttoned at the wrist. He gestures broadly while talking.

There are posters of parks on the walls, a hard hat from the state firefighters on a credenza, a row of baseball caps in the otherwise empty bookcase. His desk is ordered but full.

John Laird

Named secretary on Jan. 5 – one of Gov. Jerry Brown’s first appointments – the 61-year-old Santa Rosa native touched many of the issues he now is responsible for overseeing during his six-year tenure in the Assembly: state parks, the Sierra Conservancy, renewable energy, the future of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The former aide to East Bay Rep. Jerry Waldie, Santa Cruz City Council member, director of the Santa Cruz AIDS Project and Cabrillo College Board trustee talks with Capitol Weekly about his current job and some of its unique challenges.

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By Robert Schimmel

What a phenomenal week(s) our nation experienced leading up to the 10th anniversary of 9/11. From celebrating our innumerable heroes and soothing our still tender hearts and seared memories to encouraging vigilance along with forgiveness, this was a period of mixed joy, catharsis and hand holding.

Though I didn’t lose any immediate family members due to 9/11, I contributed heavily to Kleenex stock one afternoon as my heartfelt empathy for those less fortunate grabbed me by the tear ducts when I considered life without my beloved daughters or siblings. And now that the high-energy decompression process and emotional jet lag are constructively abating for everyone, I would like to share a few art-specific thoughts and encouraging suggestions with you.

Robert Schimmel

In my column last weekend I expressed feelings regarding the importance of art and artists to the overall healing and health (financial, spiritual and mental) of an individual and a community. My intention was not to elevate the artist because we all play a part in the success of our community in myriad ways, but rather to bring the artist’s role to center stage for consideration. My point now is to suggest that the artist is inadvertently, and possibly even reluctantly, the beneficiary of a self-medicating gift that allows for his creativity to not only participate in others ultimate emotional healing from times of crisis but also his own direct venting of deleterious, emotional steam or draining of a potentially poisoned pond of anger or guilt.

Yes, that was a mouthful, and I hope you get my point: the artist is very fortunate that creativity expunges negativity when reasonable care is taken in its expression. So, how do you engage?

Become creative, learn to express yourself, indulge in the sandbox of non-judgmental play and become excited about any manner of odd behaviors you once thought childish (or at the very least immature for an adult). Who knows, you might even establish a new medium or personal therapy that will benefit others and possibly reap financial as well as internal rewards.

Now you’re going to rebut with the “I have no talent” routine, right? Look at the benefits of changing your habits and taking on some artistic behavior, like attending a watercolor or oil painting workshop for beginners, a dance class (yes, line dancing, hip hop, waltz, you name it), music (instrument or voice) lessons, a writing class, etc.

Just what are the bennies? Without becoming gooey or highly medical, they are a distracted and consumed mind seeking to either produce something for the pure joy of it and/or participate in an activity that opens up the heart and soul to possibilities beyond dwelling on deep and painful emotions to which we often become slaves. You know and have heard this one before: get a hobby. Well, why not? Hobbies are often in the creativity camp and, even more altruistically, in the healing one.

More important, if you are already creatively active and want to share the joy of art’s magical qualities, allow me this final plea from Nancy Libby of South Lake Tahoe who says in response to last week’s column: “… (your point) about making people spiritually and emotionally healthy is a truth that goes far beyond understanding. … our son, who is now 20 (and finds great pleasure in art)… is developmentally disabled. I have been trying to find outlets for (his) unknown gifts and talents in the art arena, but there are no teachers, no one at the college teaching to this population. … There is little beauty in their lives because the opportunity for art and creative expression is absent. What would OUR lives be without art?”

Indeed, and though I know efforts have been made in the past to give classes locally for the developmentally disabled, they have needed help in funding, staging, and teaching.

So here we are in the “doctor, heal thyself” conundrum with “patients” in the wings. We need art as a source of enjoyment, life style, healing and giving (not to mention the ubiquitous economic sustainability), yet the very medication of which we abound is the very prescription we are struggling as individuals, community and governance to fill. We don’t need more Kleenex.

Robert Schimmel is a professional artist and teacher in South Lake Tahoe as well as host of “Lake Tahoe Art Scene” on KTHO radio on Thursdays at 5:15pm.

By Kathryn Reed

CAMP RICHARDSON – If there were any doubt about the written (and spoken) word not thriving in Lake Tahoe, those concerns were laid to rest Friday night.

Seven authors read from their work during the third annual Celebration of Writers Around the Lake at Valhalla. The event each year features authors from the basin or people who have written about Tahoe.

Readers and writers mix Sept. 16 at Celebration of Writers Around the Lake. Photo/LTN

Besides being an opportunity to mingle with the writers while sipping wine from Après Wine Company, it was a time to hear their words. Each read a passage from the books they were also selling and signing.

The writers and their work:

• Suzanne Roberts, “Three Hours to Burn a Body”

• Andrew Homan, “Life in the Slipstream: The Legend of Bobby Walthour Sr.”

• Janet Smith, “All of a Sudden, Nothing Happened”; and “Pretty Enough” from “Permanent Vacation”

• Terry Easley, “The Kismet Blade”

• Janet Kaidantzis, “Fallen Leaf Lake: A Lake and its People, 1850-1950”

• Gailmarie Pahmeier, “Shake It and it Snows”

• Ben Arnold, “Synaptic Traffic: Intersections of Prose & Poetry”.

While the poets seemed to better capture the attention of the nearly 40-people attending the event, to the credit of the others – it’s hard to adequately capture history or other genres in a short time span.

To all of their credit, it made the listener want more – either to have the night continue or add a book to the nightstand.

Arnold and Pahmeier displayed the most emotion. As Bona Fide Books Publisher Kim Wyatt said, “They throw themselves into the performances of their work.”

Roberts, who is also an instructor at Lake Tahoe Community College, relayed to the audience that after her mother read “Shameless” she said, “Please tell me you didn’t do this.”

While no mother would want their daughter to be the subject of that poem, many women might like the opportunity.

The celebration started as a way to showcase the talent around the basin – and increase their readership, Wyatt said. The celebration is put on by Tahoe Writers Works, a group dedicated to the written word. The South Shore-based organization puts out a collection of stories and images each year called “EDGE” – with the next volume due this fall.

“We have been told we need to charge more, but we keep the price low so people can afford to buy books,” Wyatt, a member of Tahoe Writers Works, said after the event. (The $10 fee also included wine.)

Having fewer writers (there were 12 in 2010) is a trend organizers want to continue. Now the criteria to be invited is an author has to have a book published in the last year.

Wyatt said the only downside Friday was another literary event that night in Incline kept those from the North Shore from attending. Creating a master calendar of all things literary in the region is being talked about.

Heart disease is treatable and preventable. It is the leading cause of death in the United States for men and women. Heart disease includes such conditions as congestive heart failure, congenital heart disease, heart attack, coronary heart disease and peripheral artery disease.

September is Peripheral Artery Disease Month. According to the American Heart Association, PAD affects about 8 million Americans and becomes more common as people get older.

Steven Brooks

Steven Brooks a doctor with Barton Family Practice will discuss Prevention & Treatment of Heart Disease on Sept. 21 from 6-7pm at Kahle Community Center, 236 Kingsbury Grade, Stateline.

Each type of heart disease has different symptoms, although many heart problems have similar warning signs. The symptoms people experience may depend on the type and severity of the heart condition.

This free lecture is part of the 2011 Barton Health & Wellness Lecture Series.

For more information, call (530) 543.5656.

A reception for Dorothy Davis’s collection “Around the Lake in Silk” will be at Bona Fide HQ in Meyers on Sept. 29 from 5:30-7:30pm.

The event is free. Refreshments and entertainment will be provided.

“Around the Lake in Silk” is a collection of watercolor paintings on silk, featuring iconic Lake Tahoe landscapes, which include images from the Angora Fire and local wildlife.

A 14-year resident of South Lake Tahoe, Davis is a native Californian, born into a family of artists. She has long been fascinated by the natural beauty of the basin, attempting to capture it in whatever medium is at her disposal. She considers herself an expressionistic painter and is best known for her silks, but also works in oil, watercolor, printmaking, sculpture and ceramics. Davis has studied art techniques at local colleges, and has attended plein air workshops with renowned artists such as Charles Movalli, Addie Chernus and Lady Jill Mueller.

Davis’s work will be on display at Bona Fide Books throughout October and can also be seen at Tahoe Art League’s Showcase Gallery in the Ski Run Center at 3668 Lake Tahoe Blvd., Ste. E.

Bona Fide HQ is located at 1069 Magua St., No. 4, behind the Getaway Café in Meyers.

For more information, contact Kim Wyatt at editor@bonafidebooks.com or visit the website.

Walk in the footsteps of John C. Fremont as he travels over the mountain to Lake Tahoe in 1844.

On Sept. 20 at 7pm in the lodge of Camp Richardson, Peter Lathrop will show photographs and tell of his following the trail from Highway 395 to Round Top, along the western flank of Lover’s Leap and down to Sciots Camp. Bob Graham, author of “The Crossing” will give some of the details used.

The event is free and refreshments will be served.

Camp Rich Lodge is on the South Shore on Highway 89.

By Yun Long, Reno Gazette-Journal

Two UNR professors examine the role women play in corporate gaming in their new book, “Casino Women: Courage in Unexpected Places.”

Associate professor Susan Chandler and associate professor emeritus Jill B. Jones spent 10 years interviewing housekeepers, dealers, union organizers and vice presidents about their struggles in the male-dominated world of global gaming.

“Part of it was, when you read about gaming, Las Vegas and Reno, it’s all about men,” Chandler said. “We wanted to give women a voice in that.”

The authors profiled women like Geoconda Arguello Kline, an immigrant maid who helped build one of the most powerful unions in the United States — the Culinary Workers Union.

“So many women are leaders in the union, and we don’t know anything about them,” Chandler said. “They make a huge chunk of the economy run.”

The book details several inspiring stories of union president Kline, African American leader Sarah Hughes and staff organizer Mirna Preciado, who overcame fear and low self-esteem to organize thousands to join together to fight for better workers rights and benefits.

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