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Posts published in “Essays”

Travelers, Sour & Sentimental

“I hate traveling and explorers.”— Claude Levi-Strauss, Tristes tropiques (1955) It is an illusion to think that a need to complain about travel is unique to our age of mass tourism. In 1778 Thomas Boswell…

Guest Editorial: Solving Mendo’s Water Problems!

1. Fire Jared Huffman who said, “If you tear out Scott Dam you would have more water” -- a stupid statement. Scott Dam creates Lake Pillsbury which gives year-round water to Lake Mendocino down to…

Biloxi Days: The Day I Couldn’t Get Myself Fired

It was a routine day at the office in the early 70s at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi. I had been transferred to the job of Organizational Maintenance Squadron Commander a few months…

San Luis Potosi

Okay, that's it: no more hookers. As I drove into the capital city of San Luis, mapless with still no smart phone, I nudged myself toward the shopping area but ended up at the wrong…

My Spider Problem

Spider, spider in the sink Trolling for a simple drink Then I worry late at night Does it linger out of sight I can’t sleep. Again, another night. It’s the thought of death that triumphs…

Book Review: By Choice & By Chance

 A Molecule Away from Madness: Tales of the Hijacked Brain by Sara Manning Peskin. W.W. Norton 214 pp. $25.95 Even if you’ve never had any training in science, or know what you know of science…

Dog, Gone

Twelve years ago we were heading north on 101 with our new doggie and Trophy said, Let’s stop a minute at the Hopland Superette. She went inside, dog and I stayed in the parking lot. …

Bondage at the Oscars

If ever there were steps of power that need storming by an angry mob, they are those of the Dolby Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard on Oscars Night. Truth be told, I don’t know if the…

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