Category archives for: Essays

Old Letters

by Eric Bergeson

Old Letters

The heat of last week seemed like a good reason to stay inside and sort through junk. Amongst the piles of stuff, most of which ended up in the dumpster, I found a treasure, a true historical odd­ity, something you don’t find any more: A stack of let­ters, some hand-written, others typed. The stack was [...]

On The Road To Skaneateles

by David Yearsley

On The Road To Skaneateles

The drive from Ithaca, New York, at the southern end of Lake Cayuga to the old-and-new money town of Skaneateles at the northern end of Skaneateles Lakes takes a little less than an hour, but traverses two worlds, the one affluent (at least in parts) the other rural and poor. As a member of an [...]

America’s Switzerland

by Bruce Patterson

America’s Switzerland

I can’t say how many places lay claim to being “America’s Switzerland.” Like, while driving through Missouri, how many of Jesse James’ “famous hideouts” do you pass? Mosey up Chesapeake Bay and you’ll see plenty of signs proclaiming, “George Washington slept here.” Head toward the Trinity Alps and you’ll see lots of tributes to Big [...]

Men In Dresses

by Todd Walton

Men In Dresses

If I be not in a state of Grace, I pray God place me in it; If I be in it, I pray God keep me so. — Jean D’Arc Various accounts of the life of Joan of Arc, or as they say in French, Jean d’Arc, suggest that when she first heard voices urging [...]

In The ‘Range Of Light’: Beauty & Horror, Illuminated

by Steve Heilig

In The ‘Range Of Light’: Beauty & Horror, Illuminated

“The Sierra Nevada is one mountain range, 430 miles long and 40 to 80 miles wide … a 25,000-square mile construction with granite cliffs as walls, wildflowers as carpet, and a star-studded sky as the ceiling.” So write longtime Sierra denizens Gary Noy and Rick Heide, editors of this collection of writings, des­tined to be [...]

Ode To Air Conditioning

by Eric Bergeson

Ode To Air Conditioning

Willis Haviland Carrier invented modern air condi­tioning in 1902. Although Mr. Carrier probably doesn’t deserve a national holiday, an occasional moment of silence in his honor wouldn’t hurt, especially after last week. Sure, we don’t live in Phoenix or Atlanta, hot places where air conditioning alone has been responsible for huge population booms after World [...]

Revenooers

by Todd Walton

Revenooers

“What at first was plunder assumed the softer name of revenue.” — Thomas Paine A mile inland from Highway One, the Comptche-Ukiah Road becomes a two-mile straightaway traversing rolling hills of pine and huckleberry and manzanita. There are no speed limit signs on this straightaway, no reminders of the legal maximum, and this absence of [...]

Return To The Emerald Triangle

by Lawrence Livermore

Return To The Emerald Triangle

Contrary to Thomas Wolfe’s dictum, you can indeed go home again. It’s just that there’s no guarantee home will be anything like the way you left it, if in fact it’s still there at all. Nor, flying in the face of Robert Frost’s oft-quoted wisdom, that when you go there, they’ll have to let you [...]

The Bus Leaves At Four, Charles

by Zack Anderson

The Bus Leaves At Four, Charles

When I got the news I was in Paris, sitting in the sil­ver rain outside Notre Dame. We were filming a street performer dressed in flowing red robes and on stilts. Sort of like you, Charles: a giant from another world — out of place, intimidating perhaps, but as lyrical as a strange bird. This [...]

Taurus Trouble

by Eric Bergeson

Taurus Trouble

Last week, almost one year to the day after I pur­chased my latest vehicle, the odometer turned over to 30,000 miles. Well, it is a green display light that changed to 30,000 miles. Saying it “turned over” is no longer accu­rate. The car, a 2009 Ford Taurus, has done everything asked of it. It rides [...]

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