Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published in “Essays”

Read No Evil

With PC outrage on the rise over several children’s books by the newly “racist” Dr. Seuss, I called up the Ukiah library to see if Dr. Seuss’s head might be next on the guillotine of…

Coming Soon, Flying Carpets

Today we explore the shabby, semi-shady spending schemes of our elected representatives who, failing repeatedly and learning nothing, plunge ahead with billion dollar projects you and I know are idiotic.  (One of) Jerry Brown’s follies…

The Hon. Thomas Langley Carothers

The terms in office at that time were for two years and he served one term (1875-1876). He did not hold a California State Bar number because State Bar numbers had not yet been developed…

Lawrence Ferlinghetti – A Veteran For Peace

In 1962 a group of San Francisco veterans of World War II and Korea - knowing the Viet Nam war was looming - marched unofficially at the end of the annual Veterans Day Parade under…

Marguerite’s Floodgate Bar Rules of Law

As I've described previously Floodgate Store was a complex retail business operation with long daily hours.  During the day Marguerite Avery was the sole attendant at the deli, convenience goods, bar and gas pumps part…

Seventh Heaven: The Year of the Worker

Bridgewater, Massachusetts, February 28, 2021 – At the end of February, I went to Gillette Stadium about 20 miles west of home in Bridgewater, Massachussetts, and got my vaccination, first round. Sunny day with a…

Dr. Wheeler’s Arrest

After the ambush of October 15, 1879, that killed two civilian members of a posse, the four outlaws escaped into the forest east of Mendocino. In town, suspicions spread. About half of the original twenty-one…

Shig’s Accusation

March 3, 2021 — When Ferlinghetti died I thought maybe I should write what I knew about Shig’s accusation. But maybe I shouldn’t. Why tarnish the reputation of a man everybody respected (including me)? I…

Murder On Asylum Road

(research by Deborah Silva) Wednesday, July 9, 1919 — Mendocino County's celebrated law man, Sheriff Ralph Byrnes, was in Fort Bragg when he got the chilling news: a newlywed woman was found murdered in her…

-