Couple Severely Burned in Tea Fire Continue Slow Recovery
Lance and Carla Hoffman face three more months in the hospital, but their progress brings joy to relatives.
The couple who suffered severe burns in last month’s Tea Fire are gradually improving. The husband remains unconscious under sedation and is hooked up to a ventilator; his wife has begun to breathe on her own.
The medical conditions of Lance and Carla Hoffman, both 29, have been upgraded by doctors at UC Irvine Regional Burn Center from critical to serious and fair, respectively, family members and hospital officials said Monday.
Lance, a security guard at Paseo Nuevo, and Carla, a manager at Metro Entertainment on West Anapamu Street, suffered second- and third-degree burns all over their bodies when leaving their rented cottage on East Mountain Drive shortly after the fire broke out Nov. 13. The blaze consumed 210 homes, including theirs.
“Since all this happened, we’ve been in a state of depression,” said Alice Mills, Lance’s grandmother. “As of yesterday, we finally can start seeing really positive improvements, and we’re jumping for joy.”
Both victims are expected to undergo skin-graft surgeries this week, said John Murray, media relations manager for the UC-Irvine Medical Center.
Although Carla is no longer in a medical-induced coma, she is still under heavy sedation and had not yet begun to converse with people, Murray said. “But she is responding to them,” he said.
Family members said the couple’s swelling has improved significantly, as well as their smoke-damaged lungs.
“Before, he was so bloated like a balloon you would not have recognized him,” said Jim Mills, Lance’s grandfather.
On the evening of the fire, the couple apparently were running to their car from their cottage when they were overtaken by a flash fire.
Although badly burned, the couple drove to Santa Barbara Fire Station No. 7, at Stanwood Drive and Mission Ridge Road.
From the station, they were transported by ambulance to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, and later were flown by helicopter to Irvine.
Twenty-two percent of Lance’s body was burned, and 9 percent of it was covered in third-degree burns, Jim Mills said. About 30 percent of Carla’s body was burned, although she had fewer third-degree burns, he said.
“It’s going to be a crawl, but that’s all right,” Alice Mills said of their recovery. “We’re on cloud nine right now.”
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Schools Superintendent Pulls Request for Contract Extension
Brian Sarvis, who drew fire amid complaints about the district's special-ed department, says he wasn't the one to put his request on last week's school board agenda.
Nearly a week after being criticized for a request to extend his contract, Santa Barbara School District Superintendent Brian Sarvis on Monday said he will withdraw that request until the end of the school year.
Last week, the request to extend his three-year contract by one year was discussed but not voted on by the school board, and came during a time of unrest over the district’s troubled special-education department, whose leader recently resigned amid parent criticism.
On Monday, Sarvis, who is about six months into his three-year contract and whose annual salary is about $204,000, said he didn’t ask for the request to be put on last Tuesday’s agenda, saying it was put there by outgoing school board president Laura Malakoff.
However, Sarvis said it is common for superintendents to seek contracts that are three years out.
Malakoff could not be reached for comment Monday. On Tuesday, she and two-term board member Nancy Harter will participate in their final meeting, a closed-session discussion, during which the board will evaluate Sarvis’ performance.
At the last meeting, Sarvis took heat from one of the special-education parents, who said it’s too early for the board to determine whether to extend his contract, as well as from a board member, who walked out of the meeting in protest.
Also on Monday, Sarvis issued a news release spelling out his plans to rebuild the special-education department, whose leader, Anissa McNeil, quit Nov. 21, just six months into the job, making her the seventh leader to leave the department in about as many years.
Before her departure, a group of special-education parents had shown up to several consecutive board meetings to express their dissatisfaction, complaining that their children — many of whom have autism — often were not paired with properly trained aides, and that the district was breaking the law in its failure to provide substitutes on the days the aides were absent.
Parents also said the district wasn’t honoring the legally binding education plans for their children. For instance, one woman said last week that her child has been given only three of the 28 speech-therapy sessions to which he has been entitled. Another said her child with autism once had a seizure in a classroom where the aide was absent, forcing the teacher to stop the class.
Sarvis’ plan calls for an independent analysis of the special-education department by an outside agency. The demand seems to address a concern raised last week by school board member Bob Noel, a sometimes confrontational champion of governmental transparency who, after butting heads with his four board colleagues last week, stormed out of the meeting. Noel was upset that the board had decided to table the request to extend Sarvis’ contract without discussion. That same night, he also pointedly called for the review to be “done independently of the superintendent, because indeed he may be part of the problem.”
Sarvis’ plan also includes gathering significant amounts of input from special-education staff members and parents. He said he will take suggestions from a small group of parents and teachers before hiring an interim director — a post he wants filled before winter break. He wants the permanent position filled by spring.
Sarvis added that top district administrators will meet with parents through December and beyond.
His plan also calls for an immediate solution to the glaring omission of a district policy on substitutes for aides.
As for the independent review, Sarvis said that although it could take the agency until next school year to finish making all of its recommendations, he wants some of them earlier. Specifically, he wants the ones associated with leadership to be completed by March, so he can hire a permanent replacement for McNeil before the end of the school year.
He said the recommendations could address whether the district needs to raise the salary range for the special-education director to attract a bigger pool of qualified applicants. Sarvis said that while he isn’t pre-judging the results, an earlier analysis completed by the district has shown that the higher end of its salary range for the special-education director — about $120,000 — is below that of comparable districts.
He said the district most likely will ask several consultants and agencies around the state to put together proposals, and that the board will decide which group receives the contract.
On Monday, Jennifer Griffin, co-chairwoman of a local group called Parents of Special Education, said it’s too early to tell whether Sarvis’ plan is satisfactory.
“The attitude (among some parents and teachers) is ‘here we go again,’” she said, adding that she has been in Santa Barbara for only two years. “So what’s different now? I don’t know.
“These parents are just asking for what is by law their right: putting a kid in a class with a trained aide. They are not asking for any special treatment.”
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Student’s Memories of His Year in Santa Barbara Marred By Assault
A foreign exchange student is recovering after being beaten just days before he was to return to China.
When Henry T. returned to China this winter, his plan was to take back with him a stronger command of the English language and memories of the year he spent in Santa Barbara.
“I want to use what I learned and do something with languages,” said the 21-year-old foreign exchange student attending the ELS Language Center on Anapamu Street.
The English he’ll take with him, but the fond memories of life in Santa Barbara have been eclipsed by a brutal beating he took as he walked back to his host family’s home last Tuesday.
According to Henry, he was walking alone in the area of Bath and Valerio streets about 2 a.m. Nov. 25 after a night of celebrating at the local Sharkeez when he heard steps behind him.
Henry was able to dodge the blow but lost his balance and landed on the ground. The next thing he knew, he said, his attacker was punching and kicking him in the head and face.
“I said, just take my wallet.” Henry took several blows to his face, enough to cut him above his eye and break his nose. The attacker took his wallet and a camera. His head throbbing and face streaming with blood, he managed to make it back to his host family’s house, and they called 9-1-1.
Things seemed to get worse, he said, when he went to the emergency room at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. Already traumatized by such a brutal beating, he had to endure rough treatment by hospital personnel, he said.
“The doctor called me a crybaby,” he said, for weeping during his examination and treatment. Janet O’Neill, a spokeswoman for SBCH, said she didn’t know about the incident so had no comment. She did, however, suggest that Henry file a complaint to give her more information on the issue.
Henry, who was to go home last Friday to his family with an English-language certification and a camera full of memories, wound up having surgery that day instead to correct his displaced septum. Instead of pictures and video, he’ll have scars to remind him of Santa Barbara.
According to Sgt. Lorenzo Duarte of the Santa Barbara Police Department, the report of the incident has been forwarded to investigators for review and investigation.
“We are not treating it as gang-related at this time,” he said. “Right now, we’re looking at it as an assault and robbery.” There was only one suspect, whom Henry and one other witness saw only in the dimly lit street and described as Caucasian or Hispanic.
Henry is now staying with a friend he met through classes at Santa Barbara City College, who agreed to see him through his operation and weeklong observation and recovery. During that time, he’ll have to figure out what to tell his parents, who were expecting him home by now.
“I told them I would be delayed,” he said, “but I didn’t tell them why because I don’t want them to get worried.”
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Clay Nelson Life Balance: Get Connected — and Stay Connected
A perfect family — a connected family — is one that works and plays together, and is there for one another.
With the holidays upon us, there may be more “connections” being made than you really care to have. Before you get hooked by the thought of making nice with your distant fourth cousin over dinner, think about this:
What is it about those relationships that are different from those we are disconnected from?
» We feel safe.
» We feel no need for pretense.
» We feel no pressure to be someone we aren’t.
» We communicate fully and completely.
Knowing this, why not re-create this in all of your relationships?
» Make others feel safe and secure.
» Give others room to be who they are. They’ll give you the same.
» Communicate fully and completely. You’ll teach others how to communicate.
» Be patient, and your family will be patient with you.
» Give to others what you want to get back.
In the end, the key to being connected with family and staying that way long after the warm and fuzzy holidays have passed is being with them in the same way you want them to be with you.
Be careful not to get stuck in believing that somehow our relationships are flawed if they don’t look like the ones on Leave It to Beaver. The perfect family — the connected family — is the family who works together, plays together and knows that they love one another and will be there for one another no matter what.
Getting connected doesn’t have to take a lot of time and it doesn’t require money. It only requires that you get committed to having quality relationships with those you love.
Take the opportunity that the holidays bring to connect with your loved ones. Get in the habit of being connected and enjoy the happiness and fun that those relationships bring. Then, when the craziness of 2009 comes barreling along, you’ll have a great foundation to carry you through.
Santa Barbara resident Clay Nelson founded Clay Nelson Life Balance™ to provide businesses and individuals with what may be missing in their lives: purpose, personal and business planning, fun, effective delegation through team management, and accountability. Click here to download Clay’s complimentary e-book, The Balanced Life — How to Put Fun, Family and Financial Freedom into Your Business and Personal Life. Click here to subscribe to the free podcast of The Clay Nelson Life Balance™ Hour radio show at 2 p.m. Wednesdays Pacific time.
UCSB Ensemble Celebrates Music’s ‘One-of-a-Kinds’
Ensemble for Contemporary Music will offer its first performance of the season on Tuesday.
As T. S. Eliot would have said, “In my end is my beginning.” It is the end of fall quarter at UCSB, but it is also the beginning of the 2008-09 season for the UCSB ECM, Ensemble for Contemporary Music, which will offer its first performance at 8 p.m. Tuesday in Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall.
ECM Director Jeremy Haladyna calls the concert “One-of-a-Kinds” — “a program of curious new music stand-alones.”
Among the works offered for our entertainment and edification are a case of Stravinsky “doing Bach," musical interrogators in white coats and a “beat” drawn from the humble armadillo. Two works of Santa Barbaran Henry Brant show the more intimate, solo and/or chamber side of this recent immortal: Four Traumatics for piano and An Era Any Time of Year, sung by guest artist Emil Cristescu.
Stravinsky wrote the “Dumbarton Oaks” Concerto in 1937 on a commission from Arthur Woods Bliss and his wife, and it was premiered at a concert on their Washington, D.C., estate, Dumbarton Oaks. Eric Salzman says the work is “like many such works of the composer, a kind of concerto to the second degree, a concerto about the experience of concertos.” At 16 minutes, it is over too soon.
Brant (1913-2008) lived in Santa Barbara from 1980 until his death April 26. He wrote in many styles, but was probably best-known for what he called “acoustic spatial music.” As early as the 1950s, Brant decided that “single-style music … could no longer evoke the new stresses, layered insanities and multidirectional assaults of contemporary life on the spirit.” The whimsical Four Tramatics dates from 1942, when he was 29. The more serious An Era Any Time of Year was composed in 1987, for UCSB‘s stellar baritone, Michael Ingham.
Johnson, a composer and critic (Village Voice), is probably the only American minimalist who admits to being one — he may have even coined the term in one of his columns. Greg Sandow said of him: “In many of Tom’s works, theory and practice are identical.” Music and Questions is a kind of audience participation number — you’ll see what I mean.
Haladyna’s wonderfully titled new work is for scratch turntable and string quartet and treats a cartoonlike story from the Mayan sacred book the Popol Vuh. Enough said.
Matuszczak is a figure from the Polish avant-garde. Her Musica da Camera of 1967 is a wild, stark and occasionally violent essay for three flutists (one doubling on piccolo) and two drummers.
Tickets to the ensemble’s concert are $15 for general admission and $7 for students. They will be available at the door of Lehmann Hall beginning about one hour before the performance. For more information, e-mail the department at .
Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributor.
Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony to Mark Opening of Goleta’s Fairview Business Center
The center is one of three buildings that make up the Fairview Corporate Center.
The Towbes Group, the city of Goleta and the Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce have planned a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Fairview Business Center in Goleta. The celebration will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at 420 S. Fairview Ave.
The center is one of three buildings that make up the Fairview Corporate Center. Now complete, the Fairview Corporate Center accounts for about 242,000 square feet of office space in Goleta.
The Fairview Business Center also brings major street improvements to Fairview Avenue. Street widening and street frontage landscape improvements have transformed this corridor for pedestrians, bicycles and automobiles. A newly constructed sidewalk and MTD bus shelter provide for more safety and better access. Project frontage along Fairview Avenue has undergone a visual improvement that includes drought-tolerant landscaping and newly installed street lights.
The Fairview Business Center demonstrates continued efforts to improve Old Town Goleta.
Jennifer Carmona is a commercial properties assistant for The Towbes Group.
Santa Barbara County Vote-Counting Down to 150 Ballots
Jackson concedes to Strickland in the 19th District race as front-runners for other seats maintain their leads.
With only 150 ballots left to count in Santa Barbara County, candidates-elect in the close local races can breathe a sigh of relief as their vote count nears completion.
Leaders in close local races — Doreen Farr for Third District supervisor, Ed Heron for the Santa Barbara School District and Kathleen Reddington for the Carpinteria City Council — need only to wait until the county elections office certifies their results.
As for the region’s hottest race — the 19th Senate District — Hannah Beth Jackson, who brought up the possibility of a recount at a recent women’s political luncheon, last week conceded to rival Tony Strickland. Jackson’s wide lead in Santa Barbara County was buried by Strickland’s lead in Ventura and Los Angeles counties.
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Community Gearing Up to Build Bikes for Kids
Residents plan to spend Saturday assembling nearly 600 bikes just in time for the holidays.
On Saturday, community members will come together at a Goleta home to spend the day building nearly 600 bikes for local children in need. The bikes and helmets will be distributed to local charities to donate to children in time for the holidays.
The bikes were purchased through donations to the nonprofit Kids and Bikes Foundation.
Kids and Bikes is the brainchild of local businessman Lou Ventura. “We believe that everybody remembers his or her first bike, and we want to be part of that memory,” Ventura said.
Since its inception five years ago, the number of bikes built by what started as a group of friends and neighbors has gone from 38 to the nearly 600 that will be put together on Saturday. “We had no idea of the number of request for bicycles we would receive,” Ventura said.
Last year, the group gave 452 bikes to charities including The Unity Shoppe, Transition House, Catholic Charities, The Teddy Bear Foundation, Saint Raphael’s Church, Saint Raphael’s School, The Goleta Boys Club and Project Santa. The group also donated directly to individual families.
Susan Deacon represents the Kids and Bikes Foundation.
Swimming Together Suits These Longtime Teammates Just Fine
Santa Barbara High's Lolo Blair and Lindsay Parrish will continue their swimming careers, together, at USC.
You could say Lolo Blair and Lindsay Parrish go way back. But at this point, that’s probably an understatement for the two standout senior swimmers at Santa Barbara High.
Given their shared background, similar athletic abilities, tendency to finish each other’s sentences — even the nice ring of their first names when uttered in the same phrase — Lolo and Lindsay might as well be sisters.
Both grew up a couple of miles away from each other in Hope Ranch, with parents who have known each other since they were students at UCSB.
For years, their families have celebrated holidays together in Sun Valley, Idaho, where the girls learned to snowboard.
Last month, their families created yet another mutual memory: a celebration at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse for an outstanding achievement. Both girls had just signed on to swim for USC.
Both are excited about the adventure that lies ahead, although Lolo admits she’s a little nervous, as well.
“It’ll be different not living with your parents, and just really being responsible, and taking care of ourselves,” said Lolo, sitting with Lindsay at the South Coast Deli on Chapala Street, an hour or so before swim practice.
“But,” interjected Lindsay, “we’re only like an hour and a half away.”
The hardest thing about the good news, Lindsay said, is staying motivated to attend high school.
“It’s hard to wake up in the morning and go to school,” she quipped. “But it’s our senior year, so it’s more relaxed.”
Although the girls are so close they might as well be sisters, they’re definitely not twins. Their particular swimming strengths are different, for one thing.
Lolo excels in the middle-distance freestyle events and the backstroke, holding the school record in the 100 backstroke with a time of 58.66. Lindsay specializes in sprint freestyle and the butterfly, holding the school and Channel League records in the 100 butterfly with a time of 54.73.
Also, while Lolo is the middle child in her family, with an older brother and a younger sister, Lindsay is the youngest child, with four older siblings. (Her brother, Chris, is the head coach of the Dos Pueblos High boys’ swimming and water polo teams.)
Perhaps for this reason, Lindsay is a little less nervous about diving head first into the college life.
“She’s had so many siblings go through college,” Lolo said, “whereas I saw my (older) brother graduate high school recently.”
Last summer, both girls sent their transcripts and swimming times to not only USC, but also UCLA. Both schools were impressed, and invited the girls on a recruiting trip to meet the teams and coaches.
In each of their trips to USC and UCLA, the girls got along swimmingly with their prospective teammates and coaches, who took the girls out for dinner, to football games and to classes.
“The people at both schools were so nice to us,” Lindsay said.
“They made us feel really welcome,” Lolo added.
It was a difficult decision.
For a couple of days prior to the November signing period, the girls decided not to talk about the matter, to avoid pressuring one another. Both wound up choosing USC.
“It would have been fine if we had signed with different schools, but it definitely would have felt weird,” Lindsay said. “It would have been like: Did I make the right decision?”
“You kind of just have to go where your heart wants to go,” Lolo said.
Lindsay and Lolo both said they preferred USC in part because its status as a private school felt familiar. Lindsay had attended Marymount of Santa Barbara through eighth grade, and Lolo had gone to Crane Country Day School.
Both also appreciated USC’s smaller size.
“At USC you can pretty much walk everywhere on campus, whereas at UCLA, it’s a lot bigger,” Lolo said.
In return for the girls’ agreement to swim for the Trojans, USC will cover their costs for textbooks.
Although few, if any, students in Santa Barbara were recruited to swim at such a prestigious school, neither girl is presently harboring serious Olympic dreams.
“It’s always good to set your dreams high, but it’s not necessarily the main objective,” Lindsay said.
Both girls are tentatively planning to major in business next year, but realize they have some time to sort all that out. As members of the USC swim team, they will live in a suite section of a dormitory. They don’t yet know if they’ll be roommates, but one thing’s for certain: They’ll still live in the same neighborhood.
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UCSB Kavli Institute Makes Physics Accessible to High Schools
Award-winning classroom science presentations produced by outstanding teachers and selected by one of the country’s pre-eminent physics research centers are now available for use by educators everywhere.
The Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at UCSB has awarded $7,000 in cash prizes to six science teachers for their exceptional multimedia classroom presentation on particle physics in the age of the Large Hadron Collider. Click here to view the teachers’ winning presentations.
The conference was held in conjunction with a KITP research program on the Large Hadron Collider. Conference lecturers were chosen from among the leading international researchers who were invited to the institute to advance research in particle physics.
The Large Hadron Collider at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Geneva, Switzerland, involves scientists from 111 nations who are expected to carry out experiments that will change our understanding of the fundamental makeup of the universe.
Participating teachers were asked to prepare a talk summarizing the conference lectures and accompanying discussions, suitable for presentation during a single science class period. Entries in the competition were reviewed by a panel of peer teachers and distinguished physicists. The prizes, which recognize excellence in teaching high school physics, were established by Simon and Diana Raab of Santa Barbara.
First prize was awarded to Kevin McKone, Copiah-Lincoln Community College, Wesson, Miss. Jon Anderson from Centennial Senior High School, Circle Pines, Minn., won second prize. Four teachers shared third prize: Steven Brehmer, Mayo High School, Rochester, Minn.; Cheryl Harper, Greensburg Salem High School, Blairsville, Pa.; Nick Nicastro, Wachusett Regional High School, Holden, Mass.; and Gail Van Ekeren, Gill St. Bernard’s School, Gladstone, N.J.
In addition to funding visiting scholars and graduate fellows, the KITP undertakes many outreach activities, including a public lecture series, visits by KITP postdoctoral researchers to local high schools to talk about their research, conferences that foster interaction between the humanities and sciences, a journalist-in-residence program to promote excellence in scientific journalism, and an artist-in-residence who fosters exploration of relationships between science and art.
CLU’s Updated Speakers Bureau/ Experts Directory Now Available
California Lutheran University’s latest Speakers Bureau/Experts Directory is now available for local clubs, businesses and organizations in need of speakers for meetings or special events.
The speakers guide lists more than 250 speeches that CLU faculty and administrators are available to present.
The specific areas of expertise of the more than 75 professors and administrators range from planning a financial future to the nature of contemporary racism. The booklet is organized by topic with cross-referencing to related subjects.
The directory also serves as a resource for print and broadcast media.
Biographical information, contact information and additional listings are available online at www.callutheran.edu/speakers.
For a free copy of the guide, call the university relations office at 805.493.3151.
Karin Grennan is a media relations coordinator for California Lutheran University.
Michelle Malkin: Giving Thanks for Self-Reliant Americans
America's indomitable spirit will survive the bailout phase.
In the Year of Bottomless Bailouts, I am most grateful this Thanksgiving for Americans who refuse to abandon thrift, personal responsibility and self-reliance. When the moochers and entitlement-mongers drive you mad, remember that our nation still serves as home to millions of citizens who do for themselves. Like our Founding Fathers, they are God-fearing people — the ones elitist pundits ridicule as “oogedy-boogedy” — who will never put their faith in the Cult of You Owe Me.
“I am writing to you to share my story of how one can survive hard times and land solidly on one’s feet. ... So here goes: My husband had an auto accident on Jan. 1, 2005, and our lives and finances changed dramatically. Our income was cut in half, as he has permanent injuries and went from being a field officer to a desk job in a less fast-paced career.”
Instead of staying in a home they couldn’t afford and waiting for a mortgage rescue from the savior Barack Obama, Jen, her husband and their four children moved to New Mexico because of the much lower cost of living and college tuition expenses. One of her sons is now a soldier — the third generation in her family to serve, including Jen’s father, who was killed in Vietnam. The other kids are home-schooled students (among a growing population of home-schooled kids, whom The View’s condescending co-host Joy Behar recently derided on the show as being “demented"). Jen continues:
“We sold our lovely home, bought a rundown, fixer-up place and converted it into a farm that could provide garden vegetables to can and an area to have some animals to provide eggs, chickens, ducks, turkey, geese, sheep and goats. ... Freecycle and Craigslist turned out to be wonderful assets, as most of our animals came for free or for barter — and the children and I mucked out stalls on a ranch for sheep.”
But I digress.
Instead of awaiting the next stimulus check from the Borrow-Spend-Repeat-Panic politicians in Washington, Jen explains how the family has cut costs:
“I learned how to make my own shampoo, toothpaste, soaps, cloth napkins, dish scrubbies, potholders, skirts (mend all clothes) and most meals from scratch. We heat our home exclusively with wood, and I am currently growing a winter garden. The spring garden will be in containers by the last week of December to prepare for spring planting. I do not see this as a downfall or a tragedy. For those worried about holiday spending: I spent only $100 for a family of six last Christmas, and most of that (on) underwear, socks and the meal.”
And she adamantly rejects the victim card:
“This accident has been a blessing for my family. The pain that my husband has daily is not the blessing, but that he is alive and able to continue to watch his children grow into adulthood.
“It also has been wonderful to know that we live in a nation that affords us the opportunity to reinvent ourselves from suburbanites to a country-dwelling farm family. I am ashamed to see the American spirit that made our nation so great now turned into nothing.”
Thanks to self-reliant Americans like Jen, that spirit lives. In times like these, they are our greatest blessing.
Michelle Malkin is author of Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild. Click here for more information. She can be contacted at .
Basketball: Vaqueros Get a Foul Feeling in Loss to Oxnard
SBCC starts fast but can't overcome foul trouble in Condor Classic's third-place game.
OXNARD — SBCC jumped out to a 25-10 lead in the first 10 minutes of Sunday’s third-place game at the Condor Classic before foul trouble and turnovers foiled the Vaqueros in an 89-78 men’s basketball loss to Oxnard.
“When we had that early lead, we had a chance to extend it but we missed about five uncontested layups,” SBCC coach Morris Hodges said. “A lot of guys got in foul trouble in the first half.”
The Condors outscored the Vaqueros 29-7 in last 10 minutes of the first half. SBCC shot 34 percent in the first half and committed 23 turnovers in the game, leading to 27 points. Oxnard made 30-of-49 from the free-throw line while SBCC was 16-29.
The Vaqueros will travel north to play Sierra at 7 p.m. Thursday in the opening round of the Monterey Peninsula Tournament.
Dave Loveton is SBCC’s sports information specialist.
Basketball: Warriors’ Kittle Scores 20 in Menlo Tournament Title Win
Westmont readies for GSAC play by running undefeated record to 7-0.
Freshman guard Katie Kittle provided Westmont with 20 points and six rebounds as the undefeated Warriors cruised to an 80-55 victory over Cal State-East Bay at the Menlo Tournament in Atherton. Westmont (7-0) jumped out to a 12-2 lead early on and never looked back.
“It was a great team effort with everyone getting to play,” Westmont head coach Kirsten Moore noted. “Katie was an exciting spark off the bench making three, three-point shots. We also had a good inside presence. Alisha Heglund scored 16 points and pulled down eight rebounds and Angel Blanco had 13 points and nine rebounds.”
“We were relentless on the boards where we out-rebounded East Bay, 46-27,” said Moore. “Twenty-one of our rebounds were on the offensive end, which gave us a lot of second-chance baskets. We played very disciplined basketball.”
Westmont will take its undefeated record into Golden State Athletic Conference play Thursday when the team travels to Irvine to take on Concordia. The Warriors will host Hope International at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
Ron Smith is Westmont’s sports information director.
Dos Pueblos Cues Up Annual Winter Concert on Thursday
Jazz combos, orchestra and string quartet will perform seasonal entertainment.
Dos Pueblos High’s eagerly awaited annual Jazz Band & Orchestra Winter Concert will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at the school’s new performing arts center.
For more information, call Dos Pueblos High music director Les Rose at 805.968.2728 x222.
JM Holliday Associates: Silvergreens Opens Paseo Chapala Restaurant
Isla Vista's health-food mainstay now serving downtown in a green atmosphere, too.
Continuing a successful tradition started in Isla Vista, a new flagship Silvergreens restaurant has opened within Paseo Chapala, 791 Chapala St., just across from Paseo Nuevo.
Jay Ferro and Brian Rocha, purveyors of fine health food on the South Coast for more than a decade, are bringing the best of their healthful culinary talents to Santa Barbara from their original location in Isla Vista. The new locale will serve lunch and dinner and will eventually offer breakfast with an expanded menu of healthy foods in keeping with the restaurant’s “Eat Smart, Live Well” motto.
The interior architecture represents a refreshing, contemporary departure from many other health-food venues in town and has also received a Built Green 3-Star Certification as a green restaurant, the first in Santa Barbara. The crisp clean interiors resonate the smart, healthy, green focus of the Silvergreens fare. The facility incorporates clean, efficient design features; energy-efficient lighting, recycled building materials, low Volatile Organic Compound paints, finishes and adhesives; tables made from locally harvested wood; high-efficiency HVAC units; and other energy-conserving systems that exceed minimum Title 24 Energy conservation requirements.
“Silvergreens has presented a great opportunity to work with forward-thinking clients to design an innovative new Green restaurant, one that sets a new green standard for Santa Barbara,” said Holliday, who was also the architect for the recently opened Esau’s Café, also in Paseo Chapala.
From Silvergreens’ fresh breads, soups, dressings and hand-cut fries, to roasting its own meats and vegetables, the bulk of the menu is made from scratch each day. The restaurant uses only natural, fresh ingredients. Creating its own recipes allows control of the flavor and nutrient value of every menu item. The Silvergreens mission has always been to prepare food that is as healthy as possible without compromising taste.
The Nutricate receipt system, which prints the precise nutritional information directly on each customer’s receipt, will also allow customers to be informed of the nutritional value of their food. Nutricate empowers individuals to manage their own health and dietary intake which is good for society and ultimately for business.
The new Silvergreens restaurant is an exciting health-conscious restaurant concept for Santa Barbara and, judging by the creative interior design and great-tasting food, it is sure to be a success with the downtown business crowd.
Barbara Pearson represents JM Holliday Associates.
Basketball: Gauchos Turn Over Game to USC, 62-53
UCSB commits 18 second-half turnovers in third-straight loss.
LOS ANGELES — Hounded by a full-court press for much of the second half, the UCSB women’s basketball team committed nearly a turnover a minute in the final 20 minutes of a 62-53 loss to USC on Sunday at the Galen Center.
UCSB led by as many as nine points several times through the first half but saw its lead evaporate during a 15-2 run midway through the second half as the Gauchos fell to 1-3 for the first time since the 2006-07 season.
Jenna Green led the Gauchos with 15 points as the sixth-year senior carried the team for parts of the second half while Lauren Pedersen and Kat Suderman, a senior from Mission Prep in San Luis Obispo, were in foul trouble throughout the game. Pedersen fouled out with 5:49 remaining and the Gauchos trailing 49-42.
Jordan Franey finished with nine points and eight rebounds but had five turnovers. Ashlee Brown and Meagan Williams each had seven points with Williams pulling down six rebounds.
The Gauchos jumped out to a 19-10 lead with 11:28 remaining in the first half on Brown’s jumper only to see USC rally and cut the lead to 19-18 on Nadia Parker’s bucket. UCSB, though, fought back to a 25-18 advantage on Franey’s jumper and ended up leading 27-21 at the half.
UCSB again pushed the lead to nine points, 31-22, on Whitney Warren’s pair of free throws, only to see USC begin employing the pressure defense and force the Gauchos into numerous mistakes. Warren finished with six points and two rebounds.
USC went 19 of 25 from the free-throw line as UCSB was whistled for 24 fouls, seven more than the Trojans. UCSB, which entered the game shooting 80.4 percent from the charity stripe, finished the game 11 for 14 from the line.
The Gauchos shot 38.5 percent from the field compared to 34.5 percent for USC, but they did hold the Trojans to just 3 of 15 shooting from beyond the three-point line after USC came in to the game 31.1 percent from downtown.
The Gauchos host Nevada at the Thunderdome at 7 p.m. Thursday. Click here for tickets, visit the Athletics Ticket Office in the ICA Building or call 805.893.8272.
Matt Hurst is UCSB’s assistant athletics communications director.
UCSB Singers Make with ‘The Gaudie’
Concert choice a fitting end to fall quarter.
Few concerts signal the close of the current quarter more definitively than that by the University Singers. When you learn that this quarter’s concert — called “Gaudeamus Igitur” (Let us rejoice, therefore) — is upon us at 8 p.m. Monday at Trinity Episcopal Church, 1500 State St., you can bet that every student not at rehearsal is studying for finals and putting the finishing touches on one or more term papers.
“Gaudeamus Igitur” could actually serve quite handily as the title of any concert by university students, anywhere, and especially at the end of term. It is the first line of a Latin song that has long been a favorite — for rejoicing and/or drinking — of students celebrating the close of their academic experience. The original poem was called “De Brevitate Vitae (on the Shortness of Life)” and was written by the grim Stoic philosopher Seneca (4 B.C.-A.D. 65). To keep in a happy mood while you’re listening to it, it helps to not understand Latin. Here is a translation of the first stanza:
Let us rejoice therefore
While we are young.
After a pleasant youth
After the troubles of old age
The earth will have us.
Longtemps, the University Singers was a women’s ensemble, a group of majors and nonmajors. Now, just recently, they have added a men’s ensemble to the mix, and both ensembles will participate in Monday’s concert. If the song, “Gaudeamus Igitur” is on the program, it is doubtless the men who will sing it. The women’s ensemble, under the leadership of Michel Marc Gervais protegees Helena von Rueden and Adam Kurihara will sing François Poulenc’s Litanies à la Vierge Noire (Hymns to the Black Virgin) and Benjamin Britten’s Missa Brevis for female voices and organ. The Men’s Chorus will sing a program of sacred and secular 20th century music for male voices, handbells, oboe and piano.
Poulenc wrote the Litanies in 1936, shortly after he made a pilgrimage to the Marian shrine of Rocamadour. The death earlier in the year of his longtime companion, the composer Pierre-Octave Ferroud, had the effect of reviving his Catholic faith. The Litanies is the first in a distinguished series of religious choral works, including the celebrated Gloria, which place him — almost by default — in the front ranks of 20th century religious composers. It is a very personal work, a series of prayers to Mary, and a deeply moving one.
There will be a donation collected at the door of $15 (general) or $7 (students). Click here for more information or call the UCSB Music Concert line at 805.893.7001.
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She Said, Z Said: The Season for Wheezin’
Does a sick feeling come over you at Christmas? Welcome to the club.
Z: Check our throats for lots of wheezing
She: Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
Z: ‘Tis the season to be sneezing
She: Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
Z: Down we now our Theraflu
She: Fa-la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la
Z: Bid our phlegm a fond adieu
She: Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
Z: What is up with you and Koss between Thanksgiving and New Year’s?
She: Fa la la?
Z: We’re done with the song.
She: Oh. Sorry. First time I’ve been able to sing in a couple of weeks. Could we do, “O Barf All Ye Faithful” next?
Z: Why do the two of you always get sick at least once during the holidays?
She: Probably the raging snowstorms. Or our seasonal work with the lepers. Sometimes they’re contagious.
Z: I’ll tell you who’s contagious. Four hundred elementary school kids, that’s who’s contagious. It’s like a raging pool of viral fun, a science experiment that just can’t end well.
She: It amazes me that teachers aren’t perpetually sick. How do they do it?
Z: Some seriously built up immunities. I imagine the first couple of years are miserable.
She: Kind of like the first couple of years of preschool, where Koss brought home germs like some kids collect Yu-Gi-Oh! cards.
Z: Only without the synergistic games, movies and TV shows to make it all worth it.
She: I have a theory that we always get sick at the holidays because we can. It’s left over from college, when I’d come home from not being able to be sick for three months, and just let it all go.
Z: It’s getting so that my family doesn’t even believe that you’re really sick on Christmas anymore. They think you’re just Jewish or something.
She: I wish. I mean, I am Jewish, but I love Christmas. Maybe that’s God punishing me for wanting a Christmas tree?
Z: My father used to tell us that we got sick because we didn’t eat our vegetables.
She: Then you should be running a constant fever.
Z: No. I think I’m safe because I swim so much. Really, you guys need to work out more. That’s my theory.
She: That’s so caring of you.
Z: Just carrying on a proud familial tradition of blaming the sick person for being sick. Do you feel better now?
She: As long as you don’t get sick.
Z: I swim almost every day. I am immune to sickness.
She: Let’s hope so. I’m still not completely recovered from the last time you got the sniffles.
Z: What do you mean?
She: It’s OK, honey. You don’t have to be ashamed of being such a wimp when you get sick. You’re tough in other ways.
Z: I’m not a wimp! Sniffle.
She: You can ignore your swimmer’s-shoulder pain, open really tight jars of spaghetti sauce, and carry 60 pounds of dead weight in the form of a sleeping child; but face it, honey, colds, fevers, and flu are your Kryptonite.
Z: You’re calling me a superhero. Sweet!
She: Is that a fever talking?
Z: Will you blease make me sub of thad tea and bass me the Tylenol?
She: Fa-la-la-la-la!
Z: Yes, dear.
When She and Z are healthy, they can be reached at .
Bob Ponce Still Gets the Picture
Veteran newspaper lensman reflects on the thrills and the dangers of fireline photography.
What makes some people rush headlong into places others flee? What makes some folks risk life and limb to be there when things go from bad to worse?
For veteran newspaper photographer Bob Ponce, it was the thrill of being the first one on the scene. It was the reward of getting the photo that told the story.
“When you’re a photographer, you’ve got to be in there with your camera,” he said. “You can only take so many shots from a distance.”
So when the Tea Fire broke out a couple of weeks ago, Ponce no doubt felt the same itch all shutterbugs in the area got when the beautiful and terrible flames lit up the evening sky over the Montecito foothills.
And if he could get around the way he used to, he’d still have a few tricks up his sleeve, tricks he learned as he photographed several of Santa Barbara’s historic fires.
Ponce had just graduated from San Marcos High in 1961 when he got his first camera, a used piece of machinery he picked up for $50. From that point on, he said, he took photos of “anything and everything” he could.
By 1964 he had the chops to become a Santa Barbara News-Press photographer, just in time to document the Coyote Fire, a monster of a blaze that tore through 67,000 acres in the hills north of fire-prone Montecito.
“I was actually down at City College when it broke out, photographing football players. And I saw the column of smoke up on the hill,” said Ponce. He kept tabs on that thin column of smoke, which stayed that way for hours. Only later did the evening winds whip the small fire into a huge blaze.
“When I came out (from a friend’s house) at 6:30, the whole mountain was on fire,” he said. “So I went out there and started taking pictures.”
Photographing a wildfire up close is never as easy as the photographers make it look. In fact, said Ponce, you can never let your guard down. In 1971, the year of the Romero Fire, on Montecito’s eastern flank, he learned just how unpredictable wildfires can be.
“I started driving up the road, and I had fire on three sides,” Ponce said. “I kept looking in the mirror. Sure enough I saw the fire erupt behind me.”
He said he threw his car in reverse and got out of there as fast as he could.
Then there was the time in 1977, during the Sycamore Fire, a relatively small blaze in the Sycamore Canyon area. This time, said Ponce, who was by now the paper’s chief photographer and photo editor, the close call he had didn’t come from the flames and the smoke.
“I was taking pictures out in the field, and I looked around, and here comes the plane. I see the bomb bay doors open, and I thought, ‘Oh, no.’”
Fortuately, the aircraft delivered its load of flame retardant before the material could drop on him, but he didn’t realize that until after he came out of the ball he was taught to curl up into to keep from getting battered by the heavy stuff.
When you mention the 1990 Painted Cave Fire, the first thing people remember is the horrible speed with which which the wildfire consumed everything in its way from high atop the Santa Ynez Mountains above the Goleta Valley down past Highway 101. Ponce is no different.
“That was the fastest moving thing I ever saw in my life,” he said of the blaze that destroyed 440 houses, apartments and other buildings in its way.
Ponce was leaving another fire that day, one eating up waste at the Transfer Station off Calle Real. Call it blissful ignorance, call it luck, but Ponce heard about another fire not too far away, and hustled to get to it even as people on the other side of Old San Marcos Road were racing past him in the opposite direction to get away from the flames.
“When I got to the top, I just saw these flames, rolling down the hill,” Ponce said.
The flames were low, but driven steadily forward by the winds. His work from this fire earned him an award.
Over the years he cultivated a relationship with local firefighters who would come to recognize him out in the field. Instead of having to sneak out there, he was even given safety equipment of his own — boots, turnouts, a fireproof tent — to help him do his job.
Eventually, however, his body began to pay the price for the strenuous life he was living, resulting in a series of surgeries. Diabetes caught up to him. Ponce had to come to the conclusion that he couldn’t do it anymore and went on disability until his official retirement last year.
These days, weather permitting, Ponce heads down to the Vices & Spices cafe, 3558 State St., near his San Roque-area apartment, and hangs out with a bunch of friends. They’ll talk current events, drink some coffee, and Ponce will swear that his beloved USC Trojans will take home another national title this year.
But he hasn’t lost his love for the scanner (he has two), which he listened to during the Tea Fire.
“It was eerie,” he said, comparing the recent wildfire to the Sycamore Fire more than 30 years ago.
And, stashed away in the storage compartment of his walker is a late-model Canon digital SLR camera. Just in case he’s the first newsman on the scene.
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Basketball: Westmont Refuses to Quit in 69-66 Win over Menlo
Undefeated Warriors face CSU-East Bay for tournament title.
ATHERTON — Undefeated Westmont beat back a challenge from host Menlo for a 69-66 victory on the opening day of the Menlo College Thanksgiving Classic women’s basketball tournament Saturday. The Warriors face CSU-East Bay in Sunday’s championship game.
Menlo took a 62-61 lead on a pair of free throws by center Leah Manning with 3:18 to play, but the Oaks wouldn’t find the basket again until the final 10 seconds of the game.