History is full of surprises, even in Anderson Valley. Here, as nearly everywhere, it moves at a seemingly imperceptible pace, until we look back and discover much has changed. In the last 60 years alone,…
Posts published in “Essays”
In Part 1, we examined one theory of how the 1918 influenza virus hopped from horses to chickens to humans and then how the dynamics of troop transport during World War I helped spread it…
“You say you want a revolution,” The Beatles sang in 1968, near the height of the cultural revolution in the U.S., when sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll and rebellion mingled and gave birth to a…
There are no wrong answers but most are less correct than others. All responses evaluated by licensed officials, scores published, attitudes analyzed, consequences likely. 1) Would you rather A) Be suffering from a serious wound…
Weinstein is having a drink, sweet strong coffee laced with vanilla and a jigger of over proof rum, with Ernest Hemingway on the hardwood veranda of Papa’s home in the green hills above Havana, Finca…
The recent death of Walter Mondale brings back strong memories for me, back to when I and many other Mendocino County residents had a first-hand face to face meeting with the late Vice President Walter…
Know what an Ichthyosaur is? Imagine 225 million years ago a swimming dinosaur about the size of a city bus. Traveling to central Nevada to see the fossils of this creature has been on the…
Yesterday, September 9, 2020 smoke and ashes from the nearby wildfires blocked out the sun and settled on the graves and gravestones in the local cemeteries. The ash covered everything: cars, yards, decks, and the…
Previously, I described how a small sawmill from the Timber Boom Days after World War II operated and my first week on the job at Philo Lumber doing production work. My recollection of the first…