Anyone notice the recent rise of Sebastopol, CA, in the national print media? The month of May has seen handful of locals from the west Sonoma County enclave break into national consciousness (at least for those in the nation who are still conscious and can read). Though these west county chaps do not share the same publicist (I checked), their stories all share a defining characteristic ? they’re mavericks. I?d expect nothing less of the place where I nursed organic Gravenstein apple juice from bottle topped with a natural latex nipple ? a few decades before it was hip.

Among the cover boys was Jay Shafer who was featured on the cover of Parade, the national magazine inserted in to your local daily metro. Shafer was photographed in front of his 96-square-foor home for the mag’s ?Where America Lives? feature.

Likewise, Sebastopol businessman Andy Cohen got oodles of ink in a Wired Magazine profile entitled ?The Lost Tribes of RadioShack: Tinkerers Search for New Spiritual Home.? That new home spiritual home seems to be Cohen’s Radio Shack on Gravenstein Highway, which still stocks the electronic widgets and doohickeys that once defined the Radio Shack experience.

Sebastopol’s own ?Oracle to Silicon Valley? and fairy godfather of Web 2.0, Tim O?Reilly, is featured on the cover of Inc. magazine. paired with a feature about his ??lifestyle business that got out of control? ? a fine and inspiring read, which will have one thinking Gravenstein Highway is paved with yellow bricks. Read it here.