The greeting card companies are still making money, though the inventive online "cards" are gaining ground.

Here's a poem about pen and ink greeting cards, by Cynthia Ventresca, who lives in Delaware.

Delivered

She lived there for years in a
small space in a high rise that saw
her winter years dawn. When the past
became larger than her present,
she would call and thank us for cards
we gave her when we were small;
for Christmas, Mother's Day, her birthday,
our devotion scrawled amidst depictions
of crooked hearts and lopsided lilies.

She would write out new ones,
and we found them everywhere—unsent;
in perfect cursive she wished us joy,
chains of x's and o's circling her signature.
And when her time alone was over,
the space emptied of all but sunshine, dust,
and a cross nailed above her door,
those cards held for us a bitter peace;
they had finally been delivered.
 
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. We do not accept unsolicited submissions. Poem copyright ©2015 by Cynthia A. Ventresca, “Delivered,” (Third Wednesday, Vol. VIII, No. 4, 2015). Poem reprinted by permission of Cynthia A. Ventresca and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2016 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – The Lake County Democratic Club will hold its monthly meeting on Tuesday, June 14. 

There will be a short business meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the social hall of the Lower Lake Community United Methodist Church, 16255 Second St.

The meeting will be followed by a potluck dinner. Feel free to bring a dish to share and enjoy an evening of socializing with Lake County friends and neighbors as they discuss the outcome of the June primary.

Meetings are open to the public. Membership is open to all registered Democrats.

The Lake County Democratic Club is an officially chartered club of the Democratic Party of Lake County.

For more information visit www.lakecountydemocraticclub.org or contact the club at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – All branches of the Lake County Library system will be closed Saturday, July 2, to observe Independence Day.

Normal hours at all branches will resume on Tuesday, July 5.

Even though the library will be closed you can still go online to the library Web site at http://library.lakecountyca.gov to download ebooks, audiobooks and magazines.

You can also check on your account, renew any items you have checked out or requests books from libraries in Lake, Sonoma and Mendocino to pick up at your local branch when the library does reopen.

Call your local branch if you have any questions.

Lakeport Library, located at 1425 N. High St., is open Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. The phone number is 707-263-8817.

Redbud Library, 14785 Burns Valley Road, Clearlake, is open Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Wednesday, noon to 7 p.m. The phone number is 707-994-5115.

Middletown Library, 21256 Washington St., is open Tuesday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The phone number is 707-987-3674.

Upper Lake Library, 310 Second St., is open Tuesday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The phone number is 707-275-2049.

LUCERNE, Calif. – The Northshore Community Center will host its Open Mic Lucerne event from 6 to 11 p.m. Saturday, June 18.

There is no charge for attending or performing.

The center is celebrating its third year anniversary of hosting the monthly event. There will be awards, special treats and honors for Father’s Day, which immediately follows. 

Performers are on stage with house band FOGG starting the evening at 6 p.m. with classic, heavy metal rock and roll with original numbers and covers of your favorites. FOGG and other entertainers will wrap up the evening by 11 p.m. Assistance is available with amplification. 

Bands and individuals are already signing up. Past events have seen full venues, so sign up early. Call 707-274-8779 for your reserved time or come and sign-up beginning at 5:30 p.m.

Don’t miss this chance to showcase your talent. Being in the audience is great fun and free too. Music, comedy, mime, readings, and any other activity that is family-oriented is appreciated.

Room also is available for dancing and relaxing. At Open Mic Lucerne, a spaghetti feed is offered with traditional and vegetarian full meals available for $5.

Bring the whole family. All proceeds benefit Northshore Community Center, a not-for-profit serving the Northshore's families and senior populations with on-site lunches, Meals on Wheels, personal advocacy, activities, food pantry and other services.

For more information about events, call Northshore Community Center at 707-274-8779 or stop by at 3985 Country Club Drive, Lucerne.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Medical Assistant Program offered through the Lake County Office of Education honored its latest graduates at a ceremony last week.

On Thursday, May 9, students, families and staff gathered at the Cornelison Center in Clearlake to celebrate the course completion of 18 students.

Tammy Serpa, education specialist of the Career & College Readiness Department, welcomed the crowd of more than 200 as she thanked Superintendent Brock Falkenberg for his continued support of career technical education in the county.

Dr. Elyse Donald addressed the students as she prompted them to always remember that they do not get to choose their patients and to practice their new trade with empathy.

Following Donald, family nurse practitioner Christine Dalva shared her inspirational message of medicine as a holistic approach to wellness.

Each student was individually recognized by instructors Diedra Lagle and Mandy Robbins for their unique traits including courage, assertiveness and compassion.

Graduates Charlotte Horton, Salutatorian Savanah Vargo and Valedictorian Monica Collins shared their words of wisdom as they each gave a speech expressing their struggles, successes, fears and joys during their journey to complete this comprehensive program.

Whether it was a lack of sleep, overuse of highlighters, medical tragedies or missing family events, student speakers reminded the audience that each student sacrificed something to get to this moment.

Certificates of completion were presented to the graduates by LCOE Coordinator Norma Cromwell, Serpa, Lagle and Robbins.

Although externships, finals and graduation are now behind them, these students still have one more hurdle. Soon they will sit for their national certification exams with the National Center for Competency Testing. Passage of this exam will earn them the right to enter the workforce as Certified Medical Assistants.

Special thanks was offered to Konocti Education Center Principal Jeff Dixon for the use of the facility and being the sound guy for the night, as well as to Walmart of Clearlake for loaning the beautiful plants that were used to decorate the stage.

The Lake County Office of Education is currently taking applications for the next Medical Assistant Program class starting in August.

For more information on the Medical Assistant Program, contact Tammy Serpa at 707-262-8918, Extension 287, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit www.lakecoe.org .

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Join Sponsoring Survivorship in celebrating 20 years of serving Lake County and supporting local residents with breast cancer at its annual walk/run on Saturday, Oct. 1.

The fundraiser event will take place at Bank of America in Main Street in Lakeport beginning at 8:30 a.m., rain or shine.

Each year Sponsoring Survivorship's efforts have proven that we can all contribute to the battle against breast cancer.

For the past 20 years, Sponsoring Survivorship, has assisted local women and men with some of the costs associated with their struggle against breast cancer.

The cancer journey is sometimes lonely and frustrating. It also can be an opportunity for friendship, support, personal growth, humor and fulfillment.

The quality of our lives and our struggles can be defined by those who we see as our friends and to whom we offer our friendship and our support.

Sponsoring Survivorship is proud to call Lake County home and is grateful for its network of volunteers who support its mission.

More details are available at: http://www.sponsoringsurvivorship.com .

For a look at a previous Sponsoring Survivorship event, see the video above.

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Lunch will host Middletown Unified School District Superintendent Catherine Stone as the speaker at the group's meeting on Wednesday, June 15.

The meeting will take place from noon to 1 p.m. at the Middletown Senior Center, 21256 Washington St.

Stone became the Middletown Unified School District Superintendent in June of 2015.

Assuming any new position of leadership requires a learning curve, but Stone's learning curve increased exponentially on Sept. 12, 2015, when the Valley fire began.

Her first year as MUSD's superintendent was a true trial by fire, a thorough test of her abilities and character under pressure. The reports are that she passed with flying colors.

Come meet Stone and hear how the schools and district are doing, what they've accomplished this year and what they're looking forward to in the 2016-17 school year.

For only $5 per person, enjoy spaghetti, zucchini and French bread.

Reservations are required. Please call 707-987-3113 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information or to make a reservation before 6 pm Tuesday. After Tuesday evening, please call the senior center, 707-987-3113.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced the launch of the Veterans Legacy Program to memorialize veterans’ service and sacrifice through public educational programming. 

The program uses the rich resources found throughout VA national cemeteries, soldiers’ lots and monument sites. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert A. McDonald announced the program yesterday during a Memorial Day ceremony at Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California.

 “The Veterans Legacy Program is meant to bring to life the stories of veterans buried in VA national cemeteries through lesson plans, interactive maps and video vignettes,” said Secretary McDonald. “Behind every marker is a story – a story of what it meant to be a Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine and Coast Guardsman at a particular moment in time. Our goal is to ensure that our nation does not forget their stories and their sacrifice.”

Using online educational products such as lesson plans, interactive maps and short video vignettes, VA, through the Veterans Legacy Program, will engage the general public, students and educators. 

VA launched this initiative earlier this year at two pilot sites: Beaufort National Cemetery in South Carolina and Riverside National Cemetery in California.

Over the next several years, online educational products and programs will be developed for all VA national cemeteries.    

VA has also formed a partnership with the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) to co-sponsor a “Teachers Institute,” a workshop for educators who will conduct research at VA and ABMC cemeteries. Information about the program may be found at www.cem.va.gov/cem/legacy/.

More than four million Americans, including veterans of every war and conflict, are buried in VA’s 133 national cemeteries.

VA also provides funding to establish, expand, improve, and maintain 100 veterans cemeteries in 47 states and territories including tribal trust lands, Guam and Saipan.

For veterans not buried in a VA national cemetery, VA provides headstones, markers or medallions to commemorate their service.

In 2015, VA honored more than 353,000 veterans and their loved ones with memorial benefits in national, state, tribal and private cemeteries.

Information on VA burial benefits is available from local VA national cemetery offices at www.cem.va.gov or by calling VA regional offices toll-free at 800-827-1000. 

For more information about the history of VA national cemeteries, visit www.cem.va.gov/history .

I am willing to guess that not a lot of people tuned into the six episodes of the international crime thriller “The Last Panthers” that had its run most recently on the Sundance Channel.

Fortunately, Acorn, specializing in world-class television from Britain and other foreign territories, has released the entire series about a thrilling jewel thief drama on DVD and Blu-ray for the convenience of your viewing pleasure.

While smartly written and coolly compelling as a complex character-driven crime thriller, having “The Last Panthers” on home entertainment allows one the ability to either pause to catch a breath or even replay some key scenes that may require a second look.

Shot in seven countries and five languages, this thrilling reinvention of the heist drama demands close attention to the English subtitles, except when British insurance adjuster Naomi (Samantha Morton) and former MI-6 offer Tom Kendle (John Hurt) spar over the investigation.

The six-episode series is a travelogue from the underbelly of the French port city of Marseilles to the dark corners of Hungary and the war-torn Balkan territories of the former Yugoslavia. Serbian bad guys are particularly nasty criminals.

Patterned after the real-life fearsome criminal organization of the Pink Panthers, “The Last Panthers” opens with a Marseilles jewel heist orchestrated by Milan (Goran Bogdan) that bears the hallmarks of the gang believed to be retired.

The getaway is botched by one of Milan’s hired thieves as he kills a young girl during a shootout with police, and as result, the stolen diamonds are considered virtually untouchable to anyone that might buy the purloined goods.

Meanwhile, French-Algerian cop Khalil Rachedi (Tahar Rahim), having grown up in the Marseilles ghetto with a keen insight into criminal behavior, doggedly pursues a police investigation that gets hobbled by bureaucracy as well as conflict with the British insurance investigators.

“The Last Panthers,” though a crime story with complex characters, is a gripping look at the dark side of illicit activities in Europe. Often complicated in scope, the series demands your careful attention but the payoff makes it worthwhile.

TNT Cable dives into the complicated nature of a crime family that is run by a matriarch in “Animal Kingdom,” in this case Ellen Barkin’s Janine “Smurf” Cody, a grandmother with a habit of lounging around the house with her adult sons while wearing a bikini top more appropriate to a woman half her age.

Meanwhile, her four sons range from the oldest and most dangerous Pope (Shawn Hatosy), returning home from a stint in prison and eager for the next heist, to Scott Speedman’s Baz, the second son with a girlfriend seemingly anxious to have him out of the family business.

The two other sons are Craig (Ben Robson) and Darren (Jake Weary), and the family unit adds on another member when Smurf’s grandson Josh (Finn Cole) moves in after his mother dies from a heroin overdose.

“Animal Kingdom” appears to have a small budget for wardrobe, as most of Smurf’s sons run around shirtless as if they were auditioning for modeling jobs at Abercrombie & Fitch. But then they reside in Oceanside, surfing on most days while intimidating those trying to share the ocean.

As a family unit, the Codys are an unruly bunch of criminals given to thuggish and reckless behavior, which is evident from a careless robbery in the first episode that doesn’t go smoothly, to say the least.

Tensions simmer in the Cody clan, especially when Pope becomes agitated when his mother insists that he should remain on the sidelines for an upcoming heist, considering he’s fresh out of prison and perhaps a bit rusty.

“Animal Kingdom” will have a ten-episode run over the course of the summer. From the first look at the opening episode, I am not completely convinced that I will stay engaged to the end, but my curiosity is likely to give the second installment a chance.

“Gridlocked,” an intense action thriller with a high body count in its energetic shootouts, is not likely to be found in movie theaters or even television, unless it appears as a video on demand.

This high-octane crime thriller does, however, bring the kind of crowd-pleasing explosive action and extreme fight scenes that turns “Gridlocked” into a natural straight-to-video entertainment.

Former SWAT leader David Hendrix (Dominic Purcell of “Prison Break”) is down on his luck and has failed to receive medical clearance after taking a bullet on the job.

He’s now stuck at a routine NYPD job and is not too happy about his demotion from the Strategic Response Team, or SRT.

To make matters worse, this tough guy cop is forced to babysit Brody Walker (Cody Hackman), an obnoxious hard-partying celebrity who’s been sent on a mandatory ride-along as part of his probation.

Hendrix and his charge end up visiting the cop’s old crew at a remote SRT training outpost, only to arrive just in time for an assault from vicious mercenaries under the command of a corrupt former military operative (Stephen Lang).

“Gridlocked” is an unrepentant B-movie display of violence perpetrated by relentless machine-gun shootouts that are easily forgettable soon after viewing.

By the way, Danny Glover shows up as an SRT facility guard in what can only be for the reason of an easy payday.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.