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Posts published by “Crawdad Nelson”

Borne Arms & Bare Behinds

Whistling down the Amtrak line in the region of Fernley, Nevada, about five in the afternoon, in the observation car under a lid of smoke from Sierra Nevada fires, scanning the murky sagebrush hills for…

The Mad Bomber Of Ukiah

In a Sacramento coffee shop, I was greeted by the joyous visage of Judi Bari, fist raised at some long-ago rally, with the bold question "Who Bombed Judi Bari?" printed across the flyer.

The Joy Of Sea Glass

As an inveterate, sometimes professional, forager, scanning wet sand and gravel for colorful fragments of glass is routine stuff. As far as that goes, I grew up pawing through heaps of sea glass, at Fort…

The Dirtiest Beach In California

I just cashed in 30 pounds of beer bottles, three pounds of aluminum — mostly beer cans — and about three pounds of plastic, nearly all individual-serving water bottles. Nothing unusual about it, except the…

The Worst Movie Ever Made?

Will Chuck, Arnold, Bruce, Sean and Rocky save the world or make it worse? Take all the washed-up action stars available. Give them each handguns. Let them strap up. Make sure some have automatic rifles…

Spare Change

Two things are remarkable about the last 35,000 years of human history: that things have remained so stable, and that so much has changed. If, as Pablo Picasso is said to have remarked, we have…

Squirrel Stew

The squirrels are starting to look a little better every year — not really because of anything they're doing differently, but in light of the economic situation at least 99% of the rest of us…

Rattlesnake Summit

Perhaps I deserved to spend a stormy night on the side of Highway 101 in a crapped-out Ford Courier pickup, watching the lightning flash and freezing in a wet wool blanket I had found in…

Getting Crab Out Of Noyo

From the deck of an 18-footer fully loaded for a sport crab run, the sea looked pretty nice before noon. Crossing the Noyo bridge, we noted the flat surface of the cove, with only a…

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