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Posts published in “Essays”

A Trip Around the Lake

Living 45 years on the coast, but having business or family needs that take me into the Central Valley, I’ve driven Highway 20 along the north shore of Clear Lake more times than I can…

Bigfoot and the Dentist (Part 2)

John Fleming Wheeler served the town of Mendocino as dentist for less than a year and a half in 1878-1879. His name lives on because of his central role in the most notorious crime in…

California’s Upside Down Vax Plans

California has one of the worst Covid vaccine injection rates in the country. Much disrespected, impoverished West Virginia, where I began my work as a journalist many moons ago, has one of the best rates.…

Drug Use For Grown Ups

Dr. Carl Hart, a neuroscientist on the Columbia University faculty, is the most audaciously radical thinker in the drug-policy-reform field, and the bravest. His new book was mildly praised the New York Times Book Review…

Anderson Valley Village News

Anderson Valley Village is a locally inspired and managed non-profit organization. Our mission is to help older adults remain active, connected, and independent in the place they call home while enhancing the quality of life…

A Journey To Craft Beer & Back Again

Reviewing my notes and sifting through relevant historical documents, it appears the last era in which I qualified as genuinely hip (or was it hep?) was in the mid- to late-‘70s. Since then it’s been…

My Big Catch

“I was in the same mold as Joe DiMaggio. Nothing flashy. What you saw on Monday was the same thing you got on Friday.” – Henry Aaron, RIP 1/21/21 In 1957, the year the Milwaukee…

My Housemate Is Missing

The other day, my housemate thought she saw flames on the adjoining property. She called the fire department in Cotati, California where we live. Two fire trucks arrived with fire fighters loaded for bear. The…

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