Free Republic

Jenny Wu is trying to give me a lot of stuff for free. She’s the owner of The Red Pearl, a beloved Chinese restaurant in downtown Boulder Creek, the gateway to what’s left of Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Wu lost her house in the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex fires and temporarily shuttered her restaurant due to the fires and pandemic, and recently her business was robbed. But here she is, shoving extra egg rolls in with my order, and dashing across the restaurant to the refrigerator, insisting I take a soda, or how about two? No charge. It’s not...

Dozens on Saturday were slathering sunscreen where the sun doesn't usually shine. Boulder residents participated in the third annual naked bike ride as part of World Naked Bike Ride, an international mass of cyclists who, each June, abandon their underwear to protest oil dependency while having some summertime fun. “A guy (said) last night, ‘why protest if you don't get noticed,'” said Scot Colburn, 39, who moderates the group's email list. Wearing nothing but a topaz bicycling helmet and New Balance shoes, Colburn said, “this is a good way to get noticed.” The group - which “disorganizers” counted at 58...

Osama bin Laden tried to purchase the world's largest pearl, the Pearl of Allah, as a gift to Saddam Hussein "to unite the Arab cultures," and Hussein was prepared to accept, according to the pearl's owner. Victor Barbish, who owns sixty-six percent of the pearl on behalf of his daughter, told WorldNetDaily he received an offer in 1999 from individuals who said they were "from bin Laden's group" to purchase the pearl for $60 million to give to Hussein as an overture of unity between al-Qaida and the Iraqi government.