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Posts published in “Essays”

Rating Mendo Schools

U.S. educational policy has been in freefall for the past two decades. There was the wildly unpopular No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which required states to regularly measure and report student performance against…

This Mess Is a Place

Living on the Navarro River down a long dirt road off the grid in the flood plain with multiple perils made my remote 4.2 acres available in the ‘90s for a reasonable price. Navarro River…

No Avoiding Soda Creek Store (Part 11)

Soda Creek Store sits in the middle of the Mendocino National Forest. For a time I didn’t want to drive by the place because I didn’t want anyone there knowing that I was going in…

The King of Lake County

I have now completed my first month back in rehab, and my body is still pointedly reminding me how it feels bout the regimen of meth and junk food I imposed on it last December…

According to Plan & Without a Host

For all the narcissism, self-promotion and just plain old bad taste, the annual Academy Awards have an unnerving propensity for making unwanted, Weinsteinian advances on that most alluring of sequined starlets: ontology. This time out…

Bolander

It grows to three to four feet in height, with one to nine funnel-shaped flowers. It protrudes a yellow throat and pink flowers above that often sport several purple spots. The stamens are short and…

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