What's a writer worth these days? Something more than nothing, right?

It feels like having linked this site to my PayPal account amounts to me begging for donations to the Help Pay Ted's Bills fund. Really, the idea is to see if I can generate some income doing the same work I've been paid to do my whole life.

That button to the upper left that enables readers to kick me a dollar or two or 20 should say something other than "Donate." Readers used to routinely pay to read what I wrote in newspapers. Times have changed.

I'm trying to keep in mind that while I need to ask people to consider paying me for any value they get from my work, I also have to work even harder to remember that there are huge voids in media coverage in communities around here. So, there actually could be some value (50 cents? A quarter?) in the work you read here.

There isn't a writer in Humboldt County who can write about the history of the Humboldt Crabs summer college baseball program. I can write about it because I grew up following the club, then writing about it for years.

Since I shop at a Wal-Mart, it seems like I can address the controversy of a Wal-Mart moving into my hometown in Eureka -- over the loud protests of folks who feel Wal-Mart will ruin everything up there.

There's no place in the Napa Valley for an opinion on a news event that might cast the business community in a negative light -- and, honest, sometimes somebody needs to ask hard questions about tough topics and not just cater to advertisers.

When the high school football summer workout season starts, I can go out and talk to players. There's no need for me to wait for the advertising director to tell me when the special football section runs. I can go find stories about, well, someone other than coaches who tend to repeat themselves ... as soon as they put on pads.

Solano County is not lacking for columns about the good, old days. There's a lot to be said about generating copy that makes us smile about television in the 1970s or what Fairfield and Vacaville were like in 1967. It just seems like there's more to living and being in Solano County in 2011 than thinking about "I Dream of Jeannie" and the old bowling center on North Texas. Isn't there?

I'm a sports dad and a guy who coached for decades. So, I can determine how there can be a national championship event featuring 12-year-old baseball players that runs concurrently with a different national championship tournament for 12-year-old players. There are lots of national championships and World Series events sponsored by different organizations. I can actually find out if a 12-year-old pitcher in Fairfield is one of the best his age in the U.S. or whether his folks just paid a ton of money to get him on a team that paid a ton of money to enter a tournament that they subsequently won against average competition.

I'm sure that what you read here is worth a buck or two, once in awhile.

Convincing myself of that will be an ongoing challenge.

Wine industry drives Napa Valley, attracts controversial illegal immigrants

(Please consider expressing whatever pleasure or insight you gain from reading by clicking on the "Donate" button above and contributing a dollar, 50 cents, a little more or a little less to my PayPal account. If you find value in the work, I hope you'll consider a financial donation that will help me continue to present my work to you. -- Ted Sillanpaa)


A study shows that 12 percent of the population in Napa County are there illegally. The debate going on over the results of research featured in the Napa Valley Register indicates that residents are talking around the actual issue.

The Register story reported that:

"Alicia Jaramillo, president of the Napa County Hispanic Network, said ... that Napa’s number would likely be higher than most. With agriculture as the county’s main economic engine, a high population of undocumented immigrants is to be expected, Jaramillo said. Other wine growing counties, however, fell short of Napa’s double digit figures."

The debate among residents in Napa centers on the damage immigrants here illegally do to the economy, job market, etc. Or, it focuses on the value the immigrants provide by working hard, paying taxes, etc.

Immigrant workers flock to the Napa Valley to work the vineyards. They don't head here for the weather or access to fine dining. So, if there's an issue with 12 of every 100 Napa area residents being in the valley illegally, it would center on the Napa-based businesses that employ immigrants in the United States illegally.

Go ahead and read all 100-plus comments about the Register story. It's available at:

http://bit.ly/o1cjdM

Try to find a resident who specifically mentions that the industry that drives the Napa Valley economy is the industry that attracts, then employs illegal immigrants.

The immigrants are here. They're working jobs that the average unemployed American doesn't necessarily fight to get. Teenagers and out-of-work sales folks rarely fight for jobs in the vineyards.

U.S. immigration laws are easily circumvented.

The problem that can be addressed, should be addressed, is how Napa Valley businesses so easily hire the immigrants who cause such a stir among Napa Valley residents.

There's not a word in Register about how many of the 12 percent of said immigrants work the vineyards. There's no mention of which wineries routinely hire immigrants lacking official documentation. Seems odd, doesn't it?

Blame the government.

Blame the immigrants here illegally.

Just make sure we all agree that there are Napa Valley business folks attracting the immigrants, giving them work (which they do very well and very faithfully) and then keeping them in the valley.

Residents who have a problem with information in the study on immigration have a problem with the wine industry in the Napa Valley.

TV, movies & music didn't ruin my children

(Please consider expressing whatever enjoyment you gain from reading by clicking on the "Donate" button above and contributing a dollar, 50 cents, a little more or a little less to my PayPal account. If you find value in the work, I hope you'll consider a financial donation that will help me continue to present my work to you. -- Ted Sillanpaa)


There's no such thing as bad TV, just TV that I'm not interested in watching. So, I watch a lot of TV and always let my children watch it, too.

It would impress many if I explained that I watched news networks and PBS. However, I watch "Dancing With the Stars" and "Project Runway." I'm very familiar with MTV's "Road Rules-Real World Challenge" series. If it entertains me, I'll watch it when I have time.

My older kids watched just about anything they wanted on TV. I even took the boys, when they were 6 and 4 years of age respectively, to see "Platoon." It was the violently epic, award-winning Vietnam War movie. I wanted to see it on my day off and guessed they'd be fine seeig it, too.

My oldest sons are grown men now, so the result are in from my allowing them to watch everything on TV while freeing them to sit through R-rated movies, too.

They kids are alright. They aren't violent and they don't curse with any particular frequency. They treat women with a great deal of respect.

What other pitfalls have they avoided that are associated with kids who watch too much TV or watch the wrong movies?

They didn't quit school, in fact they did really well in school. They've never committed a crime. They respect authority. Looking back, I can't really think of a single time either of them caused me or their mom any problem.

My youngest kids are watching just as much TV, eating just as much junk food and playing more video games than their much older brothers did.

They're non-violent and do as they're told. My 13-year-old daughter causes a little more stir than her 15-year-old brother, but I'm told that's a "girl thing." And, for now, I'm still trying to figure out what a "girl thing" is.

My 15-year-old son responds to authority so completely and without question that I remind him that he can think a second before he does exactly what adults he doesn't know tell him to do.

He actually chose to attend a private Catholic high school in Napa because the institution billed itself for having rules and regulations that are administered impartially. He spent a good year there, but decided the rules are no more black and white at the tiny school than anywhere else in the world. The rules are bent, twisted and applied differently to suit situations. He's headed to a public high school this year.

My daughter spends hours watching the Disney and Nickelodeon shows that, theoretically, ruin young girls.

Her personality stems more from her being an outgoing kid with a huge vocabulary and her parents' temperment than it does from her watching "Hannah Montana." When I have tried to insist she's acting out like a character on a TV show, she becomes very upset and insists her raising hell has nothing to do with TV. She can become angry as quickly as her mother and argue endlessly as well as I can.

I imagine that television and movies can have a negative influence on kids. It just hasn't had a negative influence on my kids and they've been drowning in all forms of media through their entire lives.

There's no logical reason they've turned out OK while there are caucasian kids from Eureka to Napa to Vacaville to Roseville walking around dressing and talking like extras from an MTV special about living in Detroit or South Central Los Angeles.

That reminds me, I don't understand why caucasian kids try to mimic the representation of inner-city black America that they see on TV. I never see black kids of color trying to act and sound like they were born and raised in suburban, white America. Odd isn't it?

I've always made sure I watched the TV shows and films my kids watch. That might've helped them understand that the stories and characters they enjoy onscreen have nothing to do with how they live their lives in the real world.

My youngest son started telling "Family Guy" stories, so I started watching "Family Guy." My daughter started watching "Hannah Montana" and so did I. As mentioned, my kids have watched R-rated movies -- but, they've watched them with me and, usually, with me holding the remote control in case I need to stop or fast-forward the movie and say, "This is bad. We don't need to see this."

The result? Well, when I took my younger boy to see the remake of the 1970s violent, crime drama "Walking Tall" some years back, he complained during a fight scene that, "This seems too violent ... I don't like the fighting."

I've never done anything that any parent couldn't do. I just figured a dad should know what his kids are watching and listening to -- although, it's easier to just blame the media outlets for not providing good role models for my children.

I don't think even some very caring and concerned parents know what their kids watch and listen to these days. That, I think, is how I keep stumbling on suburban high school athletes from rural areas who talk with a sort of ghetto drawl. It's why I see girls wearing clothes that would be too much for a stripper, but just right for Rihanna or Beyonce.

Nobody said it didn't take time and committment to be a parent. But, if I can sit through "The Suite Life of Zach and Cody" and "America's Best Dance Crew" -- or record "Tosh 2.0" to watch with my youngest son -- any parent can do it.

Sure, the media's a problem ... but, my kids are my problem and I guess I just made sure my kids never became somebody else's problem.

(Ted Sillanpaa can be reached at tsillanpaa1956@gmail.com)