Guatemala, where part of my family lives, has suffered more in recent weeks than many regions ever do. First it was the Pacaya volcano, which is about 15 miles from my family’s home in Guatemala City, the capital.

On May 27, Pacaya began erupting, blanketing the region with ash. Three children disappeared, and a television reporter, Anibal Arachila (left), died when he got too close to the volcano and was hit by a fiery shower of rocks. At least 1,600 people living in rural villages near the volcano had to be evacuated.

Workers sweep ash off Guatemala City streets.

Ash closed the international airport, and two to three inches piled up in streets of the capital, as well as on cars and buildings. “It was amazing walking through the streets covered with a black sand, like that at the seaport,” my former wife Ana Carolina wrote me a day after the eruptions began.

A worker cleans ash off a sidewalk in the capital.

Outside her house, Ana Carolina added, “there are bags and bags of ash, which are supposed to be picked up, on the pavement. We are so tired of cleaning the walkway to the house, and we haven’t cleaned the sidewalk around it.

In a rural area outside Guatemala City, a villager examines his home’s roof, which collapsed from the weight of falling ash.

“Two men spent hours cleaning ash off our roof,” Ana Carolina wrote, “and I do not think it is totally clean. A little ash continued to fall today.”

Guatemala’s second disaster came in the form of Tropical Storm Agatha, which struck the country only two days after Pacaya began erupting. At least 123 Guatemalans died from flooding and mudslides when the storm dumped more than three feet of rain on the country.

An additional 23 people died in neighboring El Salvador and Honduras. In Guatemala City, thousands of residents had to be evacuated because of the storm.

Particularly dramatic storm damage in Guatemala City. A sink hole 66 feet wide and roughly 300 feet deep opened up under a downtown intersection. A home and a three-story building, in which there was a security guard, dropped into it.

Guatemalan officials warned of ash from the volcano plugging drains and exacerbating flooding. Nonetheless, my 17-year-old stepdaughter Shaili wrote last Thursday, “the city is barely having any problems. We’re okay, but it’s heartbreaking to read the news. People in rural areas are suffering the most consequences.”

One of hundreds of collapsed bridges that have reduced travel in parts of Guatemala.

“Over 300 bridges have fallen down from all the rain,” Shaili wrote, “and it’s mostly because people [in charge of building them] are corrupt. Instead of using all the money for construction, they steal most of it and then they build mediocre bridges and roads. So there are many blockages around the country.

“Many people are homeless,” she added. Because Shaili is in her final year of high school, she is taking part in a year-long Seminario, which has unexpectedly ended up helping disaster victims.

“The third and last phase [of the Seminario] is called the ‘Investigation-action project,'” she explained, “and it is the most fun of the three. With the group you worked with during the second phase, you have to find a place to help. Usually it’s a public school.

“You go to the public school, making several visits. The first is a diagnosis, in which you detect which problem is the most important to deal with. On the other visits, you fix that problem. For example, you could fix desks, or make a yard for the kids to play in, or paint the walls. The Seminario students use the money that they have been saving up throughout the school year to pay for what they do.

Her Seminario project is the second time this year Shaili (center) has helped solve housing problems for Guatemala’s impoverished residents. Last April, she volunteered with Un Techo Para Mi Pais (A Shelter for My Country) to upgrade the homes of indigenous villagers.

“This year, the third phase [of the Seminario] was different because of Pacaya and Agatha,” Shaili wrote me this week. “The Ministry of Education let the whole grade work in a shelter instead of a school. We all went to a shelter near my school, and each group has been working on something different.

“Twenty-three families are living in the shelter. They lost everything. My group divided off areas for each family by creating temporary walls, so they can have their privacy. Another group bought them cooking utensils. Another group made a chicken pen, and they will give these families chickens, so the families can sell the eggs and have some money.

“In the end, we will go back to the place where we worked and see what impact we had. I’m Seminario president, so I’m in charge of making sure it all goes right. It’s a big responsibility, but I really enjoy it because I know that what we’re doing will help Guatemala.”

There’s a cult in Mexico with two million followers who worship Santa Muerte (Saint Death), The Economist reported last January.

Describing a statue of her in a Mexico City sanctuary, the magazine noted it’s an “image of a skeleton, clad in hood and tunic and bearing a scythe and globe….

“She accepts offerings of beer and tequila…[and] is sometimes portrayed smoking a joint.”

Santa Muerte “is thought by believers to protect criminals and the law-abiding alike,” the magazine reported and added that candleholders in the sanctuary carry the inscription: “Death to my enemies.”

Last fall, the Mexican army destroyed 30 Santa Muerte altars in northern Mexico on grounds they were linked to drug trafficking, but that prompted her followers to hold rallies in Mexico City demanding religious freedom. “Indeed,” commented The Economist slyly, “some police and soldiers fighting the narcos ask Santa Muerte to bless their weapons.”

Intrigued by all this, I relayed the story to my 17-year-old stepdaughter Shaili in Guatemala. She wrote back, “When you mentioned Santa Muerte, I don’t know why but I thought of a Guatemalan legend called ‘El Cadejo,’ which supposedly is a black dog that takes care of the drunks and hobos that live on the street.”

The piercing gaze of El Cadejo guarding an old debauchee?

“Some Guatemalan folklore tells of a cadejo that guards drunks against anyone who tries to rob or hurt them,” Wikipedia agrees but adds that in other Central American countries and southern Mexico, “there is a good, white cadejo and an evil, black cadejo.

“Both are spirits that appear at night to travelers: the white to protect them from harm during their journey, the black (sometimes an incarnation of the devil), to kill them.”

I had forgotten about all this until what looked like a cadejo appeared on my deck Wednesday night. It certainly had the piercing gaze El Cadejo is supposed to have, but it didn’t look quite big enough.

Before it disappeared, I managed to shoot a second photo of the creature, and my suspicions were confirmed: just a common gray fox, nothing as otherworldly as a black dog.

Meanwhile, West Marin’s newspaper wars are heating up again, with The West Marin Citizen accusing The Point Reyes Light of taking a Santa Muerte approach to competition. A report on that complicated matter will have to wait until next week.

The longest and one of the best-attended Western Weekend parades in years enjoyed blue skies and warm weather Sunday. There were, in fact, so many parade entries there’s room for only a sampling of their pictures here.

In undoubtedly the most impressive individual showmanship, Bonnie Porter of Inverness blows a kiss of fire. In her day job, she’s a computer techie.

The Aztec Dancers keep rhythm with the beat of a drum (next to centerline at rear).

West Marin School Dancers

Going to the parade as a family has a long tradition in West Marin.

Progressive politics and the Old West combine each parade in a Cowgirls for Peace entry.

Western Weekend Queen Ashley Arndt rides in a royal coach.

Barbara and Michael Whitt were parade marshals this year. Dr. Whitt has been a family physician in Point Reyes Station for almost 40 years.

Planned Feralhood’s entry with director Kathy Runnion riding on top, along with an assortment of feline ornamentation. The group catches and sterilizes feral cats, then returns them to their colonies and feeds them.

Planned Feralhood also maintains a shelter in Nicasio, where the most problematic cats are kept, but that shelter has until June 30 to move. It is looking to rent a spot that includes space which can be enclosed. Living space for two staff would be especially helpful, as would contributions to help pay moving expenses. For more about this please see my May 27 posting.

Grand Prize-winning float. El Radio Fantastique performs while rolling down the main street in a cabin on wheels.

Point Reyes Station Realtor Fred Rodoni Jr. rides in his late father’s 1970 Chevrolet Caprice.

Dancers having fun on an entry advertising Very Nice Firewood of Point Reyes Station.

The Nave Patrola annually spoofs the Italian Army, with the patrol’s soldiers marching chaotically and pausing to chant, “Iln Duce.”

In the early 1970s, an official from the Italian Consulate in San Francisco complained to parade organizers, the West Marin Lions Club, that the patrol disparaged Italians, what with its seemingly confused marchers colliding with each other and going off in all directions.

Defenders of the patrol replied that many of the members are of Italian descent.

The 61st annual Western Weekend began this Saturday morning with a 4-H Fair at the Dance Palace.

Horses and cows were on display at the Giacomini Ranch field across Sixth Street. Here Sawyer Johnson of Inverness rides an enormous horse named Major, which is being led by Sawyer’s father Chip Johnson. The 18-hand Belgian (six feet high at the withers, i.e. shoulders) was purchased from Walt Disney Studios. Photo by Linda Petersen, West Marin Citizen

Western Weekend Queen Ashley Arndt shows off a Dorset sheep named Scarlet. The woolly sheep weighs about 200 pounds, she said.

Small animal judging: Judge Michele McClure examines a Mini-Rex. Showing her rabbit named Roo is Nicole Casartelli of Nicasio, a member of Tri-Valley 4-H Club.

This two-day old Holstein from the Nunes Ranch on Point Reyes was a hit of the fair. Holding the calf, which has been named Buster, is Nathan Hemelt, who lives on the ranch.

Fairgoers were treated to a demonstration of horse vaulting, which amounts to gymnastics on horseback. A lunger holding a lunge line keeps the horse moving in a circle while the rider performs. Photo by Linda Petersen, West Marin Citizen

Called voltage in some parts of Europe, horse vaulting has traditionally been a popular sport in France, Germany, Holland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. More recently, horse vaulting has been gaining fans in the US, Brazil, and Australia.

During the 1970s, West Marin had one of the best vaulting teams anywhere. The team coached by Anne Dick of Point Reyes Station won the nationwide C Championship one year, moved up a division and won the B Championship the next year and ultimately won the A Championship. In 1979, the all-girl team won the International B Championship.

A Western Weekend barn dance Saturday evening drew a good-sized crowd to Toby’s Feed Barn. Musicians included Ingrid Noyes, Tawnya Kovach, Paul Shelasky, and Sue Walters. The caller was Erik Hoffman.

The queen’s coronation. During a break in the barn dance, last year’s Western Weekend Queen Mindy Borello adjusts the queen’s sash on 1010 Western Weekend Queen Ashley Arndt before presenting her with a trophy and crown. The contestant who sells the most Western Weekend raffle tickets is named queen.

Ashley, 16, who describes herself as “a fourth-generation rancher,” lives in the Point Reyes National Seashore on a ranch started in 1939 by her grandfather. Her parents are Rob and Joyce Arndt, and she has two sisters, Jessie, 14, and Katie, 13.

First Princess Taley Romo (left) receives a trophy, sash, and crown for having sold the second most tickets.

Second Princess Yazmin Rico (left) receives her ribbon, trophy, and crown for having sold the third most tickets. The queen and her court will all ride in this Sunday’s parade.

A group of mostly West Marin residents calling themselves Marin Media Institute last Friday bought The Point Reyes Light from Robert I. Plotkin, who had owned it four and a half years.

Having owned The Light for 27 of its 62 years, I’ve been following the developments closely.

The paper plans to incorporate as a nonprofit with scientist Corey Goodman of Marshall as chairman of the board and journalist Mark Dowie of Inverness as vice chairman.

Tess Elliott will remain as editor, and ad director Renée Shannon has been promoted to business manager. Missy Patterson, 83, who has worked at The Light for 28 years, will continue as front-office manager.

From left: Missy Patterson shows off the new look of The Light, which once again has the Point Reyes Lighthouse in its front-page flag; editor Tess Elliott; and business manager Renée Shannon, who holds an issue with the flag Plotkin had used.

Eighty-six contributors ponied up $350,000 to: 1) buy The Light; 2) provide two years of working capital; 3) pay for a professional appraisal; and 4) cover the the legal costs of the sale, of incorporation, and of creating a nonprofit. Goodman said the price of The Light was confidential, but based on all this, I would guess it was in the $150,000 to $175,000 range.

In The Light’s Jan. 15, 2009, issue, Plotkin wrote that although he’d paid me $500,000 for the newspaper three years earlier, he’d been trying to sell it for $275,000 but had found no takers. It would be a “financial bloodbath,” Plotkin added, but “I was prepared to discount the price even more.” The Light at the time was “losing between $5,000 and $15,000 a month,” he reported.

Across the country newspapers were losing money, Plotkin wrote, so “this is not unique to The Light, although there have been some aggravating factors, namely myself….

“My sensibility is at odds with many in the community.”

Of that there was no doubt. “During the first couple of years under the last publisher,” editor Elliott wrote this week, [The Light] lost one third of its subscribers; the effects of those years continue to reverberate. Our reporters still regularly hear complaints and flat out refusals to talk.”

In an article for The Columbia Journalism Review two years ago, Jonathan Rowe of Point Reyes Station wrote: “First, there was the braggadocio and self-dramatization. Most people in his situation would lay low for a bit, speak with everyone and get a feel for the place. Instead, Plotkin came out talking.

“We read that he was going to be the ‘Che Guevara of literary revolutionary journalism. The Light would become The New Yorker of the West’ [However] he soon showed a gift for the irritating gesture and off-key note.”

I encountered Plotkin’s “snarkiness” (Rowe’s word) almost as soon as I sold him the paper. When I tried to background him on a land-use planning issue in February 2006, he became abusive, and we had a falling out.

Plotkin (at right) then began publishing such malicious attacks on me that columnist Jon Carroll felt moved to complain in The San Francisco Chronicle about Plotkin’s “sleazy” editing.

I had been volunteering an occasional column after the sale, but I naturally stopped when Plotkin began maligning me. Joel Hack, who owns The Bodega Bay Navigator website in Sonoma County, then invited me to submit stories, and I did.

When I sold The Light to Plotkin, I had agreed not to write for another Marin County newspaper as long as he owned all the stock in The Light. Upset that my writings were now online, Plotkin then claimed in court that a Sonoma County website is no different from a Marin County newspaper. Now-retired Judge Jack Sutro, who appeared not to understand the Internet, agreed and issued injunctions against Hack and me.

But it was a disastrous victory for Plotkin. Hack would eventually respond by launching the competing West Marin Citizen, which cut significantly into The Light’s revenues. The Citizen quickly grew in circulation while The Light’s circulation was plummeting, with many of its readers switching papers. The Citizen likewise picked up a number of Light advertisers who were unhappy with Plotkin’s editorial “sensibility.”

In getting a court to bar my writing for Hack’s website, Plotkin, to paraphrase the Book of Hosea, sewed the wind and reaped the whirlwind.

As for Plotkin, how does he explain his publishing debacle? “Sadly, West Marin did not want editorial excellence,” he told The Chronicle this week. “They wanted a newspaper that would record their births, celebrate their accomplishments, and habitually congratulate them on living here.”

Last weekend, the new owners notified the press of Friday’s sale but embargoed their news release until this Thursday. Nonetheless, the moment the sale occurred, word of it spread throughout West Marin. Jeanette Pontacq of Point Reyes Station told me she returned home Friday after a month in Paris and in less than 24 hours had been filled in on most details.

Technically, The Light is now owned by The Point Reyes Light Publishing Company L3C (a low-profit limited liability company). It is incorporated in Vermont, which is common for L3Cs. That company is, in turn, owned by Marin Media Institute, which is applying for nonprofit status.

Mark Dowie (left) and Corey Goodman with the sign that once hung over The Light’s front door.

Along with Goodman and Dowie, directors of Marin Media are David Escobar of Contra Costa County, aide to Marin County Supervisor Steve Kinsey, also active in Democratic, Latino and Native American politics; Chris Dressler of Marshall, former coastal commissioner and co-founder of Women’s Voices, Women Vote; Phyllis Faber of Mill Valley, former coastal commissioner and co-founder of Marin Agricultural Land Trust; Jerry Mander of Bolinas, author, former ad agency president, and founder of an anti-globalization think tank; David Miller of Inverness Park, international-development specialist; Scoop Nisker of Oakland, Spirit Rock Meditation Center teacher and former KSAN newsman; Norman Solomon of Inverness Park, journalist and political activist.

There are too many contributors to list here. Contributions ranged “from a few dollars to $50,000,” Goodman said.

The question currently on many people’s minds is what will happen to The Citizen now that The Light is being revitalized. I had hoped to see the two papers merge, but a merged operation became difficult when the new owners of The Light decided to create a nonprofit.

However, both Hack and Goodman told me this week that the option of combining the two papers “is still on the table” although nothing is likely to happen right away.

Hack (above), who is justifiably proud of what The Citizen has accomplished in a little less than three years, isn’t interested in simply selling out and walking away. His paper’s hyper-local coverage of public gatherings and West Marin commerce, along with its publishing of innumerable submissions from readers, has been popular with many residents and merchants.

The Light, in turn, has made its mark with investigative reporting ever since Elliott took full charge of its newsroom.

For the past month, some people have been saying The Citizen is about to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and go out of business, but Hack insists there is no truth to the rumor. The only money he and his wife Kathy Simmons owe is about $25,000 in state and federal income taxes, Hack said. They have filed for Chapter 13 protection, which will allow them to pay off this relatively small amount over three years without incurring additional penalties for late payments.

That’s all that’s going on, and it in no way threatens The Citizen. In fact, the state and federal governments benefit from The Citizen’s staying in business because it gives Hack a source of income to pay the back taxes.

I have friends at both papers, and I hope both have profitable futures. Most of Marin Media’s directors are known to me, and I respect them. I also have a high regard for the contributors. I’m delighted they are reinvigorating my old newspaper and wish them well.

I also hope the community continues to support The Citizen. The changes at The Light have obviously changed the dynamics between the two papers, and I would be surprised if each didn’t find its own niche, which will probably require some adapting.

The Light and The Citizen have each invited me to periodically submit columns and articles, and I’ve agreed to write for both. It’s been a long winter, but springtime has finally arrived.

Seeing the massive emergency-worker response, one could have imagined al Qaeda had struck in Point Reyes Station Friday evening. However, if there was a suicide bombing, it was a bird-brained idea.

A crowd of fire engines and sheriff’s patrolcars blocked off Mesa Road behind Wells Fargo Bank after a powerline snapped at a pole behind the Palace Market’s parking lot around 8 p.m.

The mishap blacked out Point Reyes Station and the rest of the Tomales Bay area for roughly half an hour beginning around 9 p.m. when PG&E shut off power.

It all began when a transformer blew on the pole at center. A firefighter told me that some people at the scene believe a bird flew into the transformer, but no evidence of any bird was found when Marin County firefighters arrived from two blocks away. Around town, however, the bird was being described as a turkey vulture.

The blown transformer caused a powerline to burn through, with one end of the line dropping to the ground roughly 20 feet from a car parked on Mesa Road. The line burned along the ground almost to the car (seen just right of center above) but then went into a hedge behind the bank and up past a small tree.

The line burned almost a cubic yard of hedge but did not start a major fire. The firefighter noted no water was sprayed on the shrubbery because of the electrical risk.

The broken powerline was so hot it not only burned a groove into the sidewalk, it melted the cement around it into obsidian-like glass.

Bird environmentalist Phil Nott later pointed out that one bend in the downed line went over the entrance to a “vole hole” (right), causing the sides of the hole to become “glassified.”

Virtually everyone who gets mail at the Point Reyes Station Post Office knows postal clerk Kathy Runnion of Nicasio. Most townspeople also know she heads an organization called Planned Feralhood, which uses humane methods to keep the local feral cat population under control.

Kathy in Planned Feralhood’s shelter for cats no one will adopt. Most are too old, have health problems, or have been wild too long.

At the moment, Planned Feralhood urgently needs to find a permanent home. For reasons having nothing to do with its feral cats, the shelter’s rental arrangement will end June 30, Kathy told me Sunday.

The organization’s Trap/Neuter/Return program has become a model for other communities, and it’s up to us in West Marin to make sure it survives.

Planned Feralhood has been taking care of West Marin’s feral cats for nearly eight years, and for the past four years, Kathy said, no kittens have been born in the targeted areas. Colonies that were exploding in size eight years ago are now stable and healthy, the cats living out their lives without reproducing.

Volunteer feeders help keep the colonies localized. Between these colonies and the cats in its shelter, Planned Feralhood is now taking care of an average of 75 cats a day, Kathy added.

The organization’s value is widely recognized. The Marin County Board of Supervisors has commended Planned Feralhood “for its dedication in utilizing the ‘Trap-Neuter-Return’ program in West Marin and “encourages the residents of West Marin to assist and support Planned Feralhood in its activities.”

Faced with the prospect of having to move in a matter of weeks, Planned Feralhood is desperately seeking donations to finance relocating.

I urge readers to help.

The organization would also welcome suggestions regarding a new home for its shelter. Kathy can be reached at plannedferalhood@gmail.com.

Along with a building, the cats need yard space that can be fenced. It’s obviously not essential, but if rental accommodations for one or two staff were available nearby, that would be icing on the cake.

The challenge of finding a new shelter and moving the cats into it in less than a month and a half seems daunting; however, with the community’s help, Planned Feralhood will be able to ensure the local feral cat population continues to be kept under control in a humane fashion. From talking with Kathy and meeting the shelter’s cats, I can guarantee all help will be greatly appreciated.

Checks should be made payable to ASCS. The Animal Sanctuary and Care Society is Planned Feralhood’s IRS 501C (3) fiscal sponsor. Please mail your tax-deductible contributions to Planned Feralhood, PO Box 502, Point Reyes Station, CA 94956.

When John Francis and his family moved from Point Reyes Station to Cape May, New Jersey, last November, he assured us we hadn’t heard the last of him. And we haven’t. Yesterday he called from Cape May to say hi and fill me in on his latest adventure.

Most long-time residents of West Marin know John’s story. For 22 years beginning in 1971, John refused to ride in motorized vehicles (largely as a reaction to a humongous oil spill at the Golden Gate).

For the first 17 of those years, he also maintained a vow of silence. His not talking caused him to listen more and kept him out of arguments over his not riding in motorized vehicles, he would later explain.

During those years, John walked across the United States. Along the way, he earned a master’s degree in Environmental Studies at the University of Montana and a doctorate in Land Resources, with a specialty in oil spills, at the University of Wisconsin. (National Geographic last week put online John’s observations regarding the current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.)

On Earth Day in 1990, John, who was in Washington, DC, at the time, started talking again, and soon afterward called me to break the news. Because I had never heard him speak before, I needed a bit of convincing before I believed it really was John on the phone.

John subsequently walked across the Amazon and down the west coast of South America to the tip of Argentina. He also walked around Antarctica a bit and north through Patagonia.

At the moment, John’s long-distance walking is again receiving public attention, this time in Australia. He’s been repeatedly interviewed by Australian television and is now frequently recognized there. Here’s what happened.

Last November, the Australian government financed a documentary, The Art of Walking: The Great Ocean Walk, which promotes a new trail along a scenic stretch of coast in Australia’s southern state of Victoria.

Katarina Witt, John Francis, and (with a spotting telescope) Shayne Neal, who owns Great Ocean Ecolodge.

To demonstrate different approaches to long-distance walking, three notable people each walked a section of the 65-mile-long, sometimes steep trail. John, who took the first section, provides a look at slow, contemplative walking.

At the beginning of his walk, John started a journal of his observations and drawings.

At the end of his section of trail, John handed the journal off to the next walker, Katarina Witt, who is better known as a figure skater.

For her, the walk was more like a sports event, and at the end of each day, she relaxed like the major athlete she is, with a massage, fine food, and wine.

Unlike John, Katarina said she does not like walking alone although that was not a problem on this hike. All the walkers were accompanied by guides and photographers.

Katarina, who was born in East Germany in December 1965, is best known as a figure skater who won gold medals in the 1984 and 1988 Olympics. She is seen here in 1982 on the eve of her first European Championship.

She also won World Championships in 1984, 1985, 1987, and 1988, and six consecutive European Championships from 1983 to 1988.

Katarina went on to become an Emmy-winning performer (for Carmen on Ice, 1989) and a nude model for the December 1998 issue of Playboy.

The issue is one of only two that has sold out during the 56-year history of the magazine. The other is the first issue, which had Marilyn Monroe for its centerfold.

Katarina, in turn, handed off John’s journal to Michael Milton of Australia. Michael, who lost a leg to bone cancer at the age of nine, is a celebrity is his own right.

In the 2002 Winter Paralympics, Michael won every skiing event, and in 2006, he became the fastest speed skie, disabled or not, from Australia, reaching 132.76 mph during competition in France.

Michael said he took part in the walk to show that his disability does not hold him back from physically excelling.

A koala along the Great Ocean Walk. “The scenery is stunning,” John told me. “You can feel very much like you’re in California because of the eucalyptus trees.”

John noted that when he was on the trail, “I had four or five cameras following me around. Sometimes I had my own camera harness.”

You can see John’s part of The Art of Walking: The Great Ocean Walk by clicking here. The section featuring Katarina Witt can be found here. And the section featuring Michael Milton can be found here.

A Mustang convertible ran off Highway 1 near its intersection with the Point Reyes-Petaluma Road about 8 p.m. Saturday, caving in the front end of the car. It’s an all-too-familiar accident at this location.

After overshooting a curve in the highway, the Mustang dropped into a roadside ditch and hit a speed-limit sign and a utility pole, causing driver’s side airbag to deploy. Apparently no one was seriously hurt. Residents living nearby said they saw people walking away from the scene, heading toward downtown Point Reyes Station.

When firefighters and the Highway Patrol showed up, whoever had been in the wreck was long gone.

For years, numerous northbound cars and motorcycles going too fast up Highway 1 have run off the roadway at the first curve north of downtown. Terry Sawyer, who lives nearby, told me, “This is a once a week or once every two weeks thing.” Indeed, this blog on March 15 reported on a very similar crash, which also knocked down the speed-limit sign.

The crashes “most of the time stop the car,” Sawyer said, but some vehicles manage to get back on the highway and drive off even when they’ve been damaged. One damaged Corvette made it all the way to Nicks Cove, leaving pieces of shredded tire all along the way, both Sawyer and a firefighter said.

So far no one has been killed in crashes on the curve, but a number of speeding motorcyclists have been injured when they ended up in the ditch.

Although the speed limit is only 25 mph on this stretch of highway through a residential area, Sawyer said he often has trouble pulling out of his own driveway safely. I don’t know what the solution is, but Caltrans clearly needs to do something to slow traffic heading north out of downtown.

Cartoon in the April 12 New Yorker: Cheerful old lady saying to priest, “Of course, my confessions probably aren’t nearly as interesting as yours.”

In 2002 alone, the Catholic Church removed 450 US priests from parish duties because of allegations of child molesting. Two years later, the US Catholic Conference of Bishops reported that during the previous half century, 10,667 Americans had come forward to complain of molestations by church clerics, with the number of complaints peaking in the 1970s.

However, most priests accused of child molesting were never prosecuted. Many were merely reassigned to other parishes where some kept right on molesting. Referring to one such case, The New York Times last month reported, “The Vatican’s inaction [was] not unusual.

“Only 20 percent of the 3,000 accused priests whose cases went to the church’s doctrinal office between 2001 and 2010 were given full church trials, and only some of those were defrocked, according to a recent interview in an Italian newspaper with Msgr. Charles J. Scicluna, the chief internal prosecutor at that office.”

Until recently, most allegations against priests had come from the United States, Canada, and Ireland, but in recent months the scandal has mushroomed with reports of molestations also pouring in from all over Europe and Mexico. Equally disturbing have been new revelations about members of the church’s hierarchy covering up the crimes.

With a growing number of Catholics acknowledging they’ve been victimized, many other victims have come to realize they’re not alone, and this has given them the courage to seek counseling. Here’s an example.

A “Help and Law” line established by the Dutch Bishops’ Conference in 1995 had until this spring been getting an average of 10 calls a year regarding molestations, but in the past three weeks alone, it has received 1,300 new reports, a spokesman told the press.

So what are we to make of legislation proposed in Sacramento that would establish even harsher sentences for child molesters? Does it not target four or five percent (according to church estimates) of our Catholic clerics?

Many people including some prominent Protestant clergymen blame the thousands of molestations on the Vatican’s insistence on priestly celibacy, its ban on openly gay priests, and its refusal to admit women to the priesthood.

In September, the Vatican responded that the percentage of child molesters in the priesthood is no higher than in society as a whole. But the defense sounded disingenuous, for what animates the abuse is sex, not statistics.

Lest we become too focused on one religion, however, let’s also look at a religious movement that frequently seems even more irrational regarding sex: Islamic fundamentalism.

Take the disintegrating country of Somalia where the most-powerful insurgent group is al Shabab, which has ties to al Qaeda. At the moment, al Shabab fighters appear close to seizing control of the capital, Mogadishu.

On Thursday, The Times reported that as al Shabab tightens its grip on Somalia, it is enforcing an ultra-conservative version of Islam that among other things prohibits brassieres because they supposedly create a deception. Women caught wearing bras are being publicly whipped.

Meanwhile across the Arab Sea, conservative Islam’s dress code for women resulted in yet another absurdity earlier this year. As the Huffington Post reported in February, “An Arab ambassador in Dubai has had his marriage annulled after discovering that his bride, behind her veil, was bearded and cross-eyed.

“The couple had only met a few times during their courtship. Each of these times the woman had worn a niqab, an Islamic veil that covers most of the face.

“After the marriage contract was signed in Dubai, the ambassador tried to kiss his new wife. However, as he removed the veil, he was shocked at what he saw. The unnamed ambassador went straight to court to annul the marriage…leaving his wife in tears….

“The Islamic Sharia court annulled the marriage but refused to compensate the ambassador for the estimated 500,000 dirhams ($136,000) in gifts he had bought the woman.”

Appearance is obviously playing too large a role in human society. Here’s another example, this one from the Florida Keys. On March 2, a 37-year-old woman caused a two-vehicle crash by trying to shave her privates while driving. Her ex-husband sitting in the passenger’s seat had been doing the steering.

Why? KeysNews.com quoted Florida Highway Patrol trooper Gary Dunick as explaining, “She said she was meeting her boyfriend in Key West and wanted to be ready for the visit.” The trooper went on to comment, “If I hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have believed it.”