TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Recent Stories

1. VALERIE SCHULTZ: Something fishy about genetically engineered salmon

   What is the deal with salmon? They seem to be the hardest-working fish in the stream. Or in the sea. Actually, a display about ocean travelers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium surprised me by featuring salmon, because I forget that salmon live...

2. VALERIE SCHULTZ: No more V-Days of whine and roses

   I was named after my father, who was named after his father, both named Valentine, both now gone. People often thought my dad's birthday was Valentine's Day, because why else would someone name a child Valentine? My dad used to say that,...

3. VALERIE SCHULTZ: In a sea of losers, an athlete worth emulating

   Oh, Lance, Lance, you have let down so many people whom you don't even know. Lance Armstrong was, at one point, a role model in two worlds, for cyclists and for cancer patients, his narrative one of heartening survival and impossible...

4. VALERIE SCHULTZ: Traditional gender roles only hold us back

   The connection between women in combat and seahorses may be a strange one to make, but let's try. Consider the seahorses, as they mate in the moonlight. Gliding in the ocean, they meet, greet each other, and dance the steps that have been...

5. VALERIE SCHULTZ: Late dad's lark becomes family legacy

   "What about this?" my youngest sister asked. She was elbow-deep in a box of old VHS tapes in our parents' garage. With our dad's death and our mother's move into an assisted-living apartment, my siblings and I were almost done with...

6. A nose spray to keep a man from straying

   A rather breathtaking entry in The Atlantic's online health blog reports that just the right amount of a hormone called oxytocin could keep your man from straying. Before we sprinkle it on our husband's oatmeal, however, we might want to...

7. VALERIE SCHULTZ: Tehachapi's First Friday a creative coming-together event

   The First Friday Art Walk in Tehachapi is a popular monthly event, and I confess that I had never attended one until my daughter, who is an artist, had a show of her work at Fiddlers Crossing, a local gallery/performing arts space. After...

9. VALERIE SCHULTZ: Today is the day to talk about gun control

   The death of a child is every parent's worst nightmare. Even imagining losing a child to illness or accident is the kind of thought that keeps us mothers and fathers awake at night. So I cannot imagine the anguish of parents in Newtown,...

10. VALERIE SCHULTZ: O Christmas tree, thy leaves - and traditions - are so unchanging

    Once upon a time there was a house with a Christmas tree in it. Or once upon many times, actually, because every Christmas tree in every house around the world tells its own story. When you gaze upon the evergreen in your home, have you...

11. VALERIE SCHULTZ: Hate violence but love football - how can that be so?

    Although my father raised me to be a committed fan of the New York Giants, my heart has belonged to the Green Bay Packers since I was 11. In fifth grade, I followed my best friend's lead and became a supporter of the legendary quarterback...

12. VALERIE SCHULTZ: Look for the real spirit of Christmas

    The calendar this year must surely cause the beast of the marketplace to salivate: This year there is the maximum number possible of shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. We have even more days to shop till we drop, to plan,...

13. The way we were, or only think we were?

    "Memories Light the corners of my mind ..." -- Bergman/Hamlisch, "The Way We Were" My husband and I are at the age when every time we can't remember something, we worry that we are in the early stage of Alzheimer's disease. It comes...

14. VALERIE SCHULTZ: Honor your family's marriages equally

    Two of my four daughters are now married. Two down and two to go, if the younger two so choose. The family dynamic changes with a marriage: When a child gets married, there is not only another child now related to you, but another whole...