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Apropos of Thanksgiving and their namesakes, Turkey Vultures are a very social and family-oriented bird, gathering together to share a meal (which doesn’t include pumpkin pie—WERC’s educational vulture Zorro, above, is just checking out whether the squash makes a suitable perch).

Back in early March, I was invited to be one of the featured speakers of a local “farmer to you” direct sales marking group called Country Crossroads. The topic of my presentation was called “Creating Branded Recipes.” I presented a list of steps, ideas and inspiration to help guide the members of the group towards creating their own recipes with their name as part of the title. One of the presentation bullet points led to the inspiration of this week's column.

Friends and family are mourning the loss of San Martin resident Shannon O’Keefe, who died in a motorcycle accident in South San Jose March 16.

I have been rethinking Nevada. It took a number of years for me to see the special beauty of the desert. But much of the Great Basin, which comprises most of Nevada, still seemed like a wasteland that held no allure. The state, at least the portion of it one sees from Interstate 80, is a succession of drab brown mountain ranges dotted with dull gray-green sagebrush. It is a landscape I was always anxious to cross as quickly as possible.

Beautiful and warm, that’s how the weather’s supposed to be this spring weekend and that’s how the San Jose Sharks are playing after the Olympic break. A Stanley Cup would be fitting for Joe Thornton, in particular. The longer he plays, the more legends he passes in the record books. When you watch him carefully, he’s clearly a “Jedi Master” feeding teammates the puck for scoring opportunities. At just the right moment in just the right place, the disc arrives on the stick and it’s a thing of beauty to watch and marvel over.

The steady two-year turnaround of the Gilroy High girls