The early returns were encouraging.

A little after 4 p.m., folks were filling up Bay Studios, photographer Bryant Anderson reported upon his return from there. Shortly after 5, he headed over to the courthouse, where a throng of people were enjoying a reception honoring the artists chosen for the annual Juried Multimedia Exhibit. He was a little late getting there, because by then the lobby of The Triplicate had gotten busy as well.

Is Crescent City ready for an Art Walk of the sort so many other communities enjoy on a regular basis? On Friday evening, people were voting with their visits, filling up seven venues downtown and three more in the harbor. By 6 p.m., you could’ve called the election.

Galleries, businesses and others are teaming up to present the first Crescent City Art Walk from 4 to 7 p.m. A lush variety of art will be displayed and refreshments will be served at 10 venues clustered in two locations.

Crescent City has been a little slow getting around to this Art Walk concept that so many other cities already employ to bask in the synergy of varied venues exhibiting diverse media. Brookings has been pulling off successful Second Saturday art walks since 2004, starting with four attractions and growing to as many as 18.

Unlike our Oregon neighbors, we haven’t developed a single art district with all venues easily reachable on foot. But with the help of art displays at the courthouse, the library, and several local businesses, Crescent City has two art districts today, downtown and at the harbor.

Tonight offers a chance to build on the art-appreciation momentum that was palpable just two months ago during the grand opening of the Gallery of Arts and Culture. The beautiful new gallery on H Street across from the Post Office was jammed that night with people mingling with sculptures and celebrating downtown’s new fine-arts showplace.

If you haven’t seen it yet, what better time than now? While you’re at it, take in the annual courthouse reception (5-6 p.m.) honoring artists in the Juried Multimedia Exhibit of the Del Norte Association for Cultural Awareness. Other downtown venues include The Daily Triplicate, Tomasini’s Enoteca, the Del Norte County Library, the KHSU/KHSR Studio and State Farm Insurance.

Local groups, hoping to keep important access open, have almost finished their proposals for closures. This process will result in one group of possible Marine Protected Area sites that match the sizing and spacing requirements of the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative. It is a local good-faith effort to minimize the impact of the closures on our fishing community.

This well-meaning group can’t change the MLPA Initiative process. The Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) makes the final decisions. This is the group that will decide what closures to send to the state Fish and Game Commission. They can choose from the proposals that come from the local arrays now being finished, the future Science Advisory Team (SAT), or Regional Stakeholder Group (RSG) yet to be formed. These proposals may or may not include local arrays. The Blue Ribbon Task Force is also allowed to mix, match or make up its own.

The fact I even had to ask differentiated me from plenty of folks in Crescent City, who were well aware the earth was quaking at 4:27 p.m. Saturday. Others sensed nothing at all.

Laura and I heard it rather than felt it, as if a big airplane was flying over, except the rumble was too brief for that.

The cell phone rang. Reporter Adam Madison had just finished his Saturday shift — or thought he had. He’d gotten home in time to feel the jar, although he wasn’t sure what caused it. We speculated about an explosion. He went back into reporter mode and called again minutes later.

A six-point-something off the coast of Eureka.

Suddenly, it didn’t matter that some of us hadn’t even felt the earth move. And frankly, as far as The Triplicate was concerned, for a moment it didn’t matter what devastation may have just been visited on Humboldt County. What mattered, especially in a city pretty much known as the tsunami capital of the lower 48 states, was the potential for a tidal wave.

Other times, it can simply be interesting, even entertaining.

Then there are the times when it is little more than divisive, delineating positions in an argument that has no chance of being resolved. That’s not the fault of the letter-writers, but these are the occasions when the recipient — the editor — should exercise discretion.

In retrospect, I think I let the letters about the true meaning of Christmas go on a little too long. It’s clearly an issue people care about, and thus deserving of some presentation. But once we had someone writing to say the religious nature of the holiday had been hijacked, and someone responding about how people could celebrate the season without the religious overtones, well, that pretty much covered it. Various manifestations of the same positions followed, and several more were printed.

After two years in divorce court, I decided it was time to see a therapist.

Family thought it might help with my anger problem toward my ex-husband.

The therapist suggested I write letters but don’t mail them.

I had thought my angry texting and e-mails were working very well for me.

But I am not the “professional.” I did what she asked, and despite the “writer’s cramp,” I wrote on. It must have worked because I stopped the dirty looks toward him in the courtroom. I felt so relieved to have actually gotten rid of my anger.

Timed passed and I found myself in family court yet again, along with so many other mothers, many of whom I had seen in divorce court. I just didn’t care about them. Now, here we were, pleading to the court for more child support. Father after father claimed little to no income. The judge asking them the same questions over and over. “How are you paying rent? Bills? Food and expenses?”

Why? Because some homeless people do not want to be rescued. Some homeless people want to be homeless. It is their chosen lifestyle. Furthermore, we don’t have all the money and resources in the world.  We have limited money and other resources.

So the question becomes: How do we best expend the money and resources we have? We must give attention to “best use” of our resources. With respect to the homeless, the philosophy of Community Assist­ance Network (CAN) is that we expend our resources on the most vulnerable, and those most eager to transition from homeless to housed.

CAN has neither the resources nor the desire to support the willfully homeless. So just as the willfully homeless are free to choose that lifestyle, we are free to choose to not support that lifestyle. The former position is derived from the scriptural admonition: “Let him who works not, eat not.” The latter position is issued with the understanding that genuine love helps spur folks to responsibility by not supporting their irresponsibility.

So through CAN’s 15 years of experience in ministering to the homeless and needy, who do we count as the most vulnerable? Families with children and single women. Children are almost always innocent victims of homelessness. No one chooses their parents.

We’re looking forward to kicking Ohio State’s butt, although the Christmas Day disappearance of my lucky Duck football on the rocks of Pebble Beach has me a tad apprehensive.

I’m counting on Oregon’s high-powered offense to overcome that setback, but there’s one other problem with what would otherwise be a perfect college football afternoon. That’s the fact that TV networks and the universities themselves have colluded to cheat both the Ducks and the Buckeyes — and a dozen other good teams around the country — out of the chance to play for a national championship.

Unlike every other college and pro sport, unlike every other level of college football, there is no true championship for the big schools in college football. Sure, ABC will tell you the game between Texas and Alabama on Jan. 7 is for all the marbles.