Week of Feb. 23, 2022

From the editor’s desk

Cannibalism often takes center stage in the story of the Donner Party, but four long-distance runners last week put the focus on the men who risked their lives to save strangers during the terrible winter of 1846-47. The athletes traced the 100-mile, backcountry route of the initial relief party and arrived at Donner Lake 175 years to the day that seven exhausted rescuers reached the high camps.

My sidebar to the athletes’ story provides answers to some of the frequently asked questions about those unfortunate emigrants, who were trapped for months in the beautiful, deep and deadly Sierra snow.

It’s a week for remembering courage: In honor of Black History Month, Janice Hoke puts a spotlight on Black women who fought for civil rights when Nevada was known as the “Mississippi of the West.”

Longtime RN&R contributor Jessica Santina is back on our digital pages! She talks to performers in Good Luck Macbeth’s performance of “White Rabbit Red Rabbit,” which opens this Friday for a three-week run. One actor takes the stage each night—without having ever read the script before.

Film/TV reviewer Bob Grimm gives high marks to director Ben Stiller’s “Severance,” a series about a dystopian future where employees can opt to have a brain procedure that completely separates their work-time memories from their real-life recollections.

Foodie Johnathan Wright offers breaking news about three James Beard Award semi-finalists from Reno. And as pandemic-weary diners return to local eateries, Johnathan takes a look at six new and upcoming restaurants in Reno and Sparks. Our Taste of the Town, meanwhile, advances the Spring Celebration Dinner with chef Charlie Palmer at Grand Sierra Resort, a slate of cooking classes, an indoor-gardening workshop and the return of the annual Rocky Mountain Oyster Fry. (Spoiler alert: these “oysters” are not seafood.)

Take care,

—Frank X. Mullen, Editor