The Merc’s Scott Herhold on Thursday profiled retired reporter Patricia Loomis on her 90th birthday. He pulled her clipping file out of the Merc’s library and found that on the cover, in legible script that has to have been left by Loomis herself, she is identified as “newspaper woman, historian, weather prophet, sheepshearer, moonshiner, trout fisher and critic of librarians.” She had nearly 40-year career at the afternoon San Jose News and is best known for her “Signposts” columns, historical vignettes that detailed the lives of pioneers who bequeathed their name to streets. [More] (Photo credit: Masaru Oka/Mercury News)