Watching the Netflix show, The Crown, now in its fourth season, I reminded myself that when I lived in England in the mid-1960s, I never stood in movie theaters when “God Save the Queen” played, and when…
Posts published in “Essays”
AV High Principal Jim Snyder, landlord Barbara Goodell, and very busy Steve Wood, among others, sued me to try to add county code to my conservation easement with the Anderson Valley Land Trust. Their lawsuit…
On Monday, Dec. 14, President-elect Joe Biden addressed the nation after the Electoral College officially rubber-stamped his win over President Donald Trump and proved he’s no Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who lifted up a Depression Era…
Several months ago I did a column on place names on the Mendocino Coast. An AVA reader, Jonah Raskin, left a comment on the newspaper’s website suggesting I write a column on native place names…
The Dollar Tree store is heaven on earth, A strip mall version of a miracle birth. Candy and incense and napkins and jam, Put your wrinkled buck down, thank you much, ma'am! It's bang on…
Whether I’d been naughty or nice and regardless whether I’d shouted or pouted, Santa Claus has always been good to me. “Always” only goes back to the 1950s, but it suggests I have some history…
Christmas is a dangerous time, for it threatens social instability, political disorder, even revolution. At the culmination of the story kings kneel before a helpless baby; the powerful pay tribute to the seemingly powerless. In…
“Just before light… darkness, impenetrable.” So Aunt Mae would say, always placing the adjective at the tail end. I stayed with Aunt Mae and Uncle Carl when my sister was sick in the head. I'd…
"Oh Lord, stuck in Lodi again," the famous John Fogarty lyrics. That's about all I knew about Lodi. I've been to the Skydiving Center in Lodi but it's maybe more Galt than Lodi. Anyway. But…