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Posts published in “Essays”

Book Review: Maurice Tindall’s ‘Down To Earth’

Are there many of us left in The Valley who remember Maurice Tindall, never mind even know who he was? The other evening I was idly perusing my book shelves looking for some good after-dinner…

California’s Pot Farm Raids

Growing, selling and using cannabis is legal in California under state law. So many people across the country were shocked last week to see images of Alameda County sheriff’s deputies hacking through marijuana plants with…

A Brief History of Yorkville

in 1867 Elijah Hiatt along with his wife Elizabeth purchased a small piece of ground from a man named Richard York. This same year Elijah Hiatt went to work to build a large two-story house…

Balls to Masks

He had oil in his beard and defiance in his eye. Both gleamed in the October sunshine streaming through the windows at the back of the immigration hall at Heathrow Airport Terminal 2. The meticulously…

Two Days in Frisco

I moved to San Francisco from Santa Rosa in Sonoma County on May 15, and for the first two weeks I sat in my one-bedroom apartment and listened to the screeching sounds from the N-Judah…

Visiting with Ray

This morning was all about my old sports buddy Ray. First I was dragging my tax info out of a shelf and found the donation envelope for “Nick's Interns” that I hadn't sent in yet.…

Book Review: Losing It

Morningside Heights by Joshua Henkin Pantheon Books, 2021; 292 pp. $26.95 Of all the dreaded afflictions that affect the human mind, the one that has come to be known as “Alzheimer’s Disease”* is surely among…

The College Kid Runs the Ukiah Auction

So to wrap up the Ukiah Sale sheep auction management saga, here’s a description of what a grueling summer day out in the dusty sheep pens and corridors felt like to a forty year old…

Mendocino County’s Last Real Supervisor

Joe Scaramella explained the moment in his life when he got the inspiration to get into politics: “I've been on the receiving end of injustice many times. But the most significant thing that affected my…

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