Culture | Beth Byrnes

City gritty

Posted on July 31, 2018 6 Comments

All summer long I have been thinking of all of you and meaning to add a new post. I hope you have all been well. One of the things that has prompted this post is the fact that our best friends in the neighborhood, who arrived on our street when we did years back, are […]

The Un-y-mooners: the grand finale

Posted on June 1, 2018 26 Comments

Where did we leave off? I think we were in India, on the last day of our second Un-y-moon (the first being in Vermont in the winter) in August, the height of monsoon season. Here are the links to previous chapters in this series: https://bethanybyrnes.com/2014/07/23/the-un-y-moon/ https://bethanybyrnes.com/2014/07/26/the-un-y-moon-part-ii/ https://bethanybyrnes.com/2014/08/02/the-newly-wed/ https://bethanybyrnes.com/2015/05/22/the-newbie-wed-our-journey-continued/ After a wonderful whirl-wind trip with the […]

Hot saws

Posted on January 25, 2018 20 Comments

— Mexico has been in the news repeatedly for the past two years, and we all know why. A deranged toddler averred that Mexico has not been sending their best. Really? Has this clown ever been there? Has he been in the Southwestern United States much? One thing I appreciate about being in Southern California, […]

Calaughornia

Posted on March 10, 2017 20 Comments

When I first visited out here back in the 1980s, I was immediately struck by how cheerful everyone was. It didn’t seem forced or phony. People were literally happy. I cannot explain it. Golden state atmosphere, perhaps? Everything turns to gold. Or could it be that unhappy people just leave. Unhappy like — forgive me […]

Gilty pleasure

Posted on July 8, 2016 20 Comments

For some reason, the Santa Clarita Valley where we live has three glossy magazines about living here in shangrila. Things like Inside Santa Clarita or Elite Valencia, of all things, Seasons, now that’s rich (we really have only one). A couple of weeks ago, as I was thumbing through them for once (instead of instantly […]