The Buzz 12.02.21

FREE SPEECH

As if there weren’t already too much consolidation in the business of American media outlets, more appears to be on the way as Alden Global Capital is making moves to acquire Lee Enterprises. Alden, a New York-based hedge fund with a reputation for slashing newsrooms and budgets, already owns 6 percent of Lee, and on Monday, Nov. 29, offered to buy the publishing company for $24 per share, or $141 million. Investors embraced the news – Lee’s stock rose by 26 percent – but newspaper employees at Lee-owned outlets voiced concern. In a statement, Lee wrote its “Board of directors is carefully reviewing Alden’s proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interests of the company and Lee shareholders.” Alden currently owns the second-most newspapers in the U.S., after Gannett/Gatehouse, which merged in 2019. (Alden owns the Monterey Herald, and Gannett owns The Salinas Californian.) If the deal goes through, it would effectively create a duopoly with more than 1,000 newspapers owned between the two companies.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“English gardens should stay in England.” - Master Gardener Jan Fedor on one offering of Monterey Bay Master Gardeners, which educates home gardeners on native plants and landscaping, as well as growing backyard vegetables (see Gives story).

GOOD WEEK / GREAT WEEK

GOOD:

Congratulations to Carmel Valley-based photographer Jerry Takigawa, who is the second-place winner in an international photography competition hosted by All About Photo. His piece, “Untitled F-305,” is part of his False Food series and depicts brightly colored shards of plastic laid on top of a blank white page of a book. The piece won in the category “Colors,” and the colors really pop. The vivid plastic pieces, which were collected from stomachs of dead alabtrosses, are against a white page on a stark black background. The first-place photo by Russian photographer Vitaly Golovztyuk is all shades of green on green, depicting a football field surrounded by Moscow’s trees, as seen from above. Both pieces depict human-environment interactions. In Takigawa’s artist statement, he writes: “False Food portrays recovered plastic waste in surprising and unfamiliar contexts. It’s my intention that presenting the problem in a different light may promote new ways to think about (and act on) it.”

GREAT:

Early rainfall has been welcome news for much of California when it comes to at least temporary drought relief, and it’s also great news for fungus. Monterey pines are beloved by Boletus edulis, known as porcini, and a meaty, filling porcini can easily replace (or enhance) meat in a diet. While prices of food are skyrocketing, consider a trip to the forest. “It will be nonstop,” says Allan Spehar, a mushroom gatherer. He describes people leaving Del Monte Forest with “boxes and boxes” of mushrooms every day. While pointing to a specific location is against mushroom foraging etiquette, “there are enough mushrooms for everyone,” says Peter Mu, who has been foraging mushrooms in the area for years. “It’s hard to not find them if you are ready to devote time.” Based on rainfall, they predict next week will be optimal for a good old mushroom hunt. Look for more on wild mushrooms – how to identify them safely and what to do with them – in our Dec. 16 issue.