Week of Dec. 7, 2022

From the editor’s desk

As winter tightens its grip on Northern Nevada, some houseless residents are living in vehicles parked on Reno-Sparks streets. Reporter Matthew Berrey tells some of those folks’ stories.

Nevada authors have been busy this year producing fiction and nonfiction volumes that would make great stocking stuffers for the literati on your holiday gift lists. We rounded up some of the new books by (and often about) Nevadans.

Michael Moberly, meanwhile, pours out recipes for holiday drinks in his Liquid Conversations column, including boozy eggnog and a dairy-free Apres Ski hot toddy.

For movie-goers who prefer carnage to caroling this Christmas season, reviewer Bob Grimm recommends Violent Night, in which a drunken old St. Nick takes on some really naughty bad guys. Disney’s long-awaited Disenchanted, though, is one of the worst sequels to a decent movie in the history of modern cinema, according to Mr. Grimm.

If music is more your style—specifically, the music of The Band—Matt King recommends you head to the Cypress on Dec. 16 to watch San Diego-based Chest Fever perform The Last Waltz, the iconic final concert by The Band. Matt talked to a couple Chest Fever members about the challenges of being a tribute act.

The winter months seem to cry out for robust red wines as accompaniments to holiday comfort foods, but that’s not necessarily the way to go, says Steve Noel, a viticulturist, winemaker and the RN&R’s wine columnist.

Guest opinion writer Rita Luikart, 12, an eighth grader at Mountain View Montessori School, knows that if the current rate of climate change persists without further mitigation measures, today’s kids will be facing an environmental disaster by the time they reach adulthood.

Photo editor Dave Robert spends this month’s 15 Minutes with Sylvia DuBeau, CEO of the Veterans Guest House, which serves thousands of guests each year while their relatives are receiving care at Reno’s VA hospital. Prior to the Guest House being created in the 1990s, some families would sleep in their cars, because they lacked the means to stay in motels.

Keep an eye out for our December print issue in stores, shops, restaurants and other venues across Northern Nevada.

I’ll see you in the funny papers.

Take care,

—Frank X. Mullen, Editor