Rick Thomas
Author Rick Thomas is the former museum curator and vice-chair of education for the South Pasadena Preservation Foundation. He served on the South Pasadena Natural Resources Commission, helping to maintain a strict policy protecting the city’s great old-growth trees. Using touchstone photographs from his own collection—one of the San Gabriel Valley’s largest accumulations of historical images and artifacts—as well as national, state, and local historical archives, Thomas provides a window to his city’s past and an understanding of why its preservation is so important.
A World Less Certain | Mother Mary
My mother's birthday is Monday. She suffers from the advance stages of emphysema. Sometimes she reminds me of a goldfish, mouth opening wide, trying to breathe air as dense as water. Since March, she...
A World Less Certain | Why Kill If We Don’t Have To?
Thou shalt not kill unless it wears feathers, fur, or fins.
We grow trees to be cut down, raise animals to be slaughtered, and give praise to a human-like God without proof of His (not...
A World Less Certain | Raising Baby Mozart (Part 3)
Children need exposure to extremes and opposites. A steady diet of anything too structured or too permissive is not what I'm suggesting. It's best to have both together. In a word: balance.
No Baby Talk
Your...
A World Less Certain | Raising Baby Mozart (Part 2)
In 1984, while attending college, I went to see the movie Amadeus. I wrote a poem about the scene after Mozart died. He was only 35 years old. I submitted the piece to a...
A World Less Certain | Raising Baby Mozart (Part 1)
It’s BS to believe that talent or skill, or even intelligence, can be enhanced by playing Mozart music – or any other European “dead composer” works – to a baby. It may help put...
A World Less Certain | The Urban-Rural Alliance Party (Part 2)
Be honest. How are you spending this Thanksgiving? There are probably fewer people at your table this year. Social gatherings – limited to close friends and family – still may invite the killer virus...
A World Less Certain | The Urban-Rural Alliance Party (Part 1)
There is a narrative about America that many believe in this country, and is shared by many more on this planet: the United States of America is the land of opportunity. Through hard work...
A World Less Certain | Blue Velvet Politics
Joe Biden gazes up to Heaven giving thanks for his victory in the 2020 election.
“Dude,” God replies, “you should thank the Golden State. California’s 55 electoral votes alone are more than 11 West/Midwest states’...
A World Less Certain | REVOLUTION.
The American political system is transforming in historic fashion.
More than any time (since the eve of the Civil War), this election is a referendum on our American way of life. Our great civilization offers...
A World Less Certain | The Day I Met Ray Bradbury
My publisher arranged for me to appear at the Duarte Festival of Authors on October 4, 2008, to promote my four regional history books. I met Ray Bradbury for the first time in the...
