Nick Welsh
Anyone can write about what is there; it takes a real pro to write about what isn’t. And in this case, it’s rain. After three years of going without, even the most cautious of bureaucrats will admit we’re in the middle of a drought. For the past 25 years, Santa Barbara Independent writer Nick Welsh has been connecting dots that weren’t there in his Angry Poodle column, so who better to write about the splash made by raindrops that have yet to fall? A traditional foxhole atheist, Welsh echoed the sentiments of nearly everyone he interviewed for this week’s cover story when he said, “Pray for rain.”