Week of Dec. 14, 2022

From the editor’s desk

Star Village Coffee, one of Reno’s newest java shops, is touted as Reno’s first Native American-owned and -operated café. Owner Joel Zuniga, who grew up in the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, says the business employs a unique model of economic principles and business philosophies that support tribal communities, Owen Bryant reports.

Reporter Janice Hoke scouts local businesses for holiday gifts that put some green in a white Christmas. From handmade ornaments and one-of-a-kind crafts, to locally made Christmas cards and places to cut fresh pine trees, there are plenty of ways to have yourself an eco-friendly Christmas.

The U.S. Marines and other volunteers are playing Santa for the 75th year in a row as the Toys for Tots drive continues in Northern Nevada. New and unwrapped toys, books and gifts can be dropped off in collection boxes across the Truckee Meadows and Carson City until Dec. 30.

RN&R photo editor Dave Robert asked passers-by what they would give as a gift this season if they could give anything in the world—and price was no object. Their answers in this month’s Streetalk involve presents that can’t be ordered from Amazon, but are stocked in human hearts.

Outdoors writer Maggie Nichols visits Chickadee Ridge, where birds and humans mingle amid a series of rocky outcroppings overlooking Lake Tahoe. The magical spot can be reached via a short trek on snowshoes from the road. The reward is experiencing hundreds of wild mountain chickadees eager to dine on seeds offered on visitors’ palms.

Will Smith, whose altercation with Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars was a slap heard ’round the world, also seems to be in a bad mood in Emancipation, a well-meaning but dull flick about an enslaved man making his escape during the Civil War, Bob Grimm writes. Our movie critic gave higher marks to director Noah Baumbach’s White Noise, a funny and dark 1980s period piece that will strike a chord among the generation that grew up in the period—and their elders who also endured the days of New Coke and mullets.

I’ll see you in the funny papers.

Take care,

—Frank X. Mullen, Editor