Tasty night of jazz, wine

There's Jazz and Wine Tasting night in Gardnerville at Nelson's Take Five at 1435 Highway 395 in Gardnerville on July 22, Aug. 26 and Sept. 23.

Each night will feature different wines and complementing appetizers, and costs $20 per person. Tahoe Jazz includes of Dave Gustafson on keyboards, Mark Ashworth on the drums and Catherine Cook on vocals.

Other jazz musicians to bring their instruments and sit in for a song or two are welcome. Call 813-3609

Nancy Clark on show

Clark has hung nine small, original oil paintings in the City Cafe Bakery in town. They will be there until Friday. The address is 701 S. Carson. Hours are 6 a.m.-5 p.m.

Clark lives in Minden and is a member of all the best art groups.

She regularly shows her larger paintings at the Brewery Arts Center Gallery and the East Fork Gallery in Gardnerville. Call 782-8035

Party with the stars

Next time there's no live plays or musicals Saturday in town, we'll get "up close and personal" with the moon and planets. Or we'll take a walk through the solar system at Western Nevada Community College's "Star Parties" from dusk until 11 p.m. at the Jack C. Davis Observatory, 2699 Van Patten Ave.

Volunteers from the Western Nevada Astronomical Society serve as hosts, opening the observatory approximately one hour before dark and offering one-on-one telescope training for novices. You can look through different telescopes, discuss the night sky, and ask astronomy-related questions.

The observatory features 16-, 14- and 10-inch telescopes. Outside is a fourth telescope in a robo-dome, used for studying the sun.

Call 445-3240 or visit www.western-nevada-astronomical-society.com.

Visit ancient Peru

Just the ticket for these hot days is "Art & Archaeology of Ancient Peru," an exhibition of photos by Western Nevada Community College anthropology instructor Hal Starratt.

The show will hang in the Main Gallery at the community college Bristlecone Building, Monday through Sept. 29. This exhibition will showcase Peru's fascinating past, from the mud-brick huacas of the coastal Moche to the grand stone cities of the highland Inca.

Dr. Starratt recently participated in a five-week study tour of Peru and Bolivia that was co-sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Community College Humanities Association. Travel included lectures and tours in the Sacred Valley, Lima, Machu Picchu, Cuzco, and Lake Titicaca.

The professor filled two notebooks with observations, and shot more than 400 digital photos.

Going home to find it gone

An 11-day vacation is a grind these days when you want to see Dayton, Ohio; Ohio University in Athens; meet old grads from the high school; and hike in Minnesota. Planes are packed, terminals are madhouses, and a thunderstorm can tie the whole airline industry in knots in the Midwest. Motels are expensive, rental cars dear, and restaurants less than charming.

But it is all worth it, including a chance to see more green in an hour than in a week in Nevada. And it can be educational. One chicken dinner at a high school reunion is enough to make one reach for the Tabasco to at least give the old bird some taste.

After driving through the old neighborhood and finding the homestead is now the parking lot of a car dealer, one thinks that despite what Thomas Wolfe (the elder) said, you can go home again - but you may not like it.