On August 2, 1990, Saddam Hussein ordered the Iraqi army to invade and occupy Kuwait in an operation that led to Iraq’s defeat in war, rebellions crushed in blood, 13 years of UN sanctions, defeat…
Posts published in “Essays”
In the spring of 1995, Paul Farmer was in San Francisco to take part in a weekend conference on resurgent TB. This interview —all too timely today— was conducted for the Anderson Valley Advertiser. Paul…
Do readers know Oregon has a “Lost Forest”? Excuse me, the state is covered in forest, how could some of it become “lost”? The answer follows as adventures on Oregon’s back roads are shared. Rockhounding…
I pretty much burnt out on beatniks and their writings long ago. They’re mostly a young man’s fancy, as in, what can seem adventurous, romantic and yes, even cool on the page in one’s youth…
Is mural fever once again sweeping Ukiah? Ukiah went a hundred years without murals, and today you can hardly spit without hitting one, hint hint. Having learned nothing from the examples that festoon city exteriors,…
Review of ‘Loss of Memory is Only Temporary.’ By Johanna Kaplan. Ecco Press, HarperCollins. New York, 2022. 248 pp. $16.99. Mental Health, its circumstances, its manageable and unmanageable characteristics, its treatments, its colossal direct and…
Yesterday began for me before dawn when I awoke, went downstairs and watched footage of the night sky above Kyiv lit up with the bursts of artillery fire. Looking out through the kitchen window, I…
At San Francisco’s Maison Nico—an épicerie (a grocery) and a café—where I’ve been shopping, eating and sipping wine and coffee at least once a week for the past six months, I’m reminded of Paris in…