Graffiti is plain ugly, everybody knows that ... in fact, this week it's been talk of the town ... or at least the bloggers that inhabit the Napa Valley Register's Web site.

California has a seemingly endless number of fascinating nooks and crannies, places where human history touched down for just a second or where some natural feature is the only one of its kind — or spots where the natural and the historical came together to make a location memorable, like the James Dean Tree near Cholame, Captain Jack‘s Stronghold near Tule Lake or Scotty‘s Castle in Death Valley.

The Triad corporation of Seattle has posted on its Web site an elegant presentation of the 380-unit subdivision it proposes for Angwin. It presents it as an eco-village, so beautiful that it will capture national attention.

The Summer Olympics started in Beijing on Friday, and I’m having some trouble getting excited about the spectacle this time around ... too many pro athletes, too many endorsement deals and too many sports that have passed their prime.

It was the week of the incredible shrinking ballot in Napa County.

Dear editor, I recently returned from a family vacation visit to northern Germany and was amazed at how immaculately clean the streets, sidewalks and autobahns were.

Dear editor, I am writing to ask all cat owners to please keep your cats at home. For the past year or more, I have been feeding cats who stray into my yard, which is small. Lately, I have had an explosion of two mother cats and 10 kittens. I suddenly realized I was in over my head. I have been trapping any and all I can catch and sadly, off they go to the humane society.

Dear editor, Serenity Homes provides the opportunity for those individuals who have very little help, if any, to overcome their addictions, whether it is that of drugs or of alcohol.

Yesterday the proposed election for a transportation tax died a quiet death in the Board of Supervisors chambers. I was disappointed because I would like to see the roads fixed, and I do not believe they will be fixed without one in any reasonable time frame, but I agree it was the right decision. Taxpayers are scared right now for a lot of reasons, and I think the final blow was our Governor proposing the 1 percent state sales tax.

Proposition 8, the "Limit on Marriage, Constitutional Amendment," on the November ballot, calls for an amendment to the state constitution, declaring that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

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