Week of April 6, 2022

From the editor’s desk

Rising Nevada gas prices—the third-highest in the nation—are the talk of the town. Residents tell our Streetalk correspondent how the pain at the pump is affecting their lives.

William Brinsmead of Reno doesn’t have to pout about petrol; he tools around town in a 1973 Cadillac hearse converted to electric power. He’s a techie, but he’s more interested in the dawn of the electronics age than in its current microchip manifestation. Brinsmead curates a one-man museum of vacuum tubes that date from Edison’s time to gadgets used by CIA spy stations during the height of the Cold War.

A recent online workshop helped educate Nevadans about Alzheimer’s disease, which has been diagnosed in more than 45,000 Nevadans, who rely on 149,000 family members and others to provide their care. Our story provides links and contact information for families who need help coping with the insidious illness and describes the warning signs of Alzheimer’s.

Five planets will be dancing in the heavens this month. To zero in on their celestial paths, check out this month’s astronomy column by stargazer Robert Victor.

Bob Grimm reviews the streaming “Moon Knight” series, the latest addition to the Marvel Universe, which starts off slow but improves with each episode. But Grimm pans Judd Apatow’s “The Bubble,” a silly commentary on pandemic-era Hollywood which boasts a talented cast but whose jokes just don’t pop.

Darn! And just when we thought there might be something comedic about the pandemic. (Too soon?)

Take care,

—Frank X. Mullen, Editor