Unlike the days following Osama bin Laden’s death on May 2nd, 2011, the tenth anniversary of his killing passed without hoopla in the American Homeland. A decade on from death of America’s arch enemy, no…
Posts published in “Essays”
Ukiah was among California cities hardest hit by the pottery craze of the 1970s. Ukiah suffered crippling waves of pottery fevers until they lessened and broke circa 1985. Smaller, less toxic crafts-borne plagues were reported…
No culture in the Sun? In France not long ago, a French professor of literature wore a bemused expression when I told him that California was my home, though I was teaching American literature in…
1. Some say that Jews asserting their "Right to Resign" are "self-hating." Others think resigning is the height of humanism. And cynics suspect the RtR phenomenon is a money-making scheme. It started soon after a…
In the last episode of the House of Morgan saga I described my millworker career from the humble Point job up to the celebratory Greenchain #4 puller position working next to “Highload” Hurst. This week…
At 85 there are just some things you want to do before you just cannot do them. A case in point was to go to La Verne to see a new great granddaughter. We had…
Remember going to the library? I miss the reading rooms most—the busy hush of reading and research underway; the reluctance of old pages being turned; the furtive glances at the mysterious materials laid out on…
Taking the train across country is a singular joy and I strongly recommend a berth in the sleeper car: There's that magic moment when you wake up in the middle of the night, the steel…
As my grief and outrage mount at the predictable escalations of violence in Israel/Palestine, I once again marvel at the chasms of misunderstanding and miscalculations in describing events as they unfold and the script that…