

Darby Lee Patterson
- Jul 7, 2021
- 4 min
The Mighty Miss of Give and Take
Suffocating through the extreme heat of the past weeks, my mind drifted back to a different time and place when weather conditions were...


Darby Lee Patterson
- Jun 29, 2021
- 4 min
Aging Stereotypes, Please meet Reality
Mollie Burrows was a dear friend and role model for me. She died at the age of 97 a couple of years ago. Though she’s never far from my...


Darby Lee Patterson
- Jun 22, 2021
- 4 min
Burning Man Fest Comes to the Kitchen
Now that a respectful Father’s Day is behind us, I am feeling freer to talk about some observations I’ve gathered through countless...


Darby Lee Patterson
- Jun 15, 2021
- 5 min
Marching with a Father of Change
In 1974 I landed a pretty sweet job in the news department of KTMS Radio in Santa Barbara. I started out by doing simple interviews with...


Darby Lee Patterson
- Jun 8, 2021
- 4 min
Magic, Music and the Mediterranean Sea
Darby Lee Patterson It was a dream trip. A cruise around the Mediterranean with stops in ports I thought I’d only read about in glossy...


Darby Lee Patterson
- Jun 1, 2021
- 4 min
A Writer’s-Block Buster
It was not so far past the days when newspaper reporters hunched over their desks with cigarettes dangling from their lips. When the...


Darby Lee Patterson
- May 26, 2021
- 4 min
Black Cats, Ladders, and Sidewalk Cracks
Superstition was a fundamental guiding principle in my grandmother's life, along with Catholicism, her home, and how she was perceived by...


Darby Lee Patterson
- May 18, 2021
- 4 min
Missing the Moment but, Alas, Not the Man
It was decades ago, and I was about to acquire yet another new husband. He was fit for Holywood. Tall, green eyes, tousled blond hair,...


Darby Lee Patterson
- May 11, 2021
- 3 min
From a Crow in the Pines to Pope Francis in Bronze
by Darby Lee Patterson Why does a fully-lapsed Catholic, having been kicked out of Catholic school three times before the age of twelve,...


Darby Lee Patterson
- May 4, 2021
- 4 min
Back Door to a Journalism Career
In keeping with my life as a human ping pong ball, I chose to study archeology, anthropology, and African Studies at UC Santa Barbara. I...