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Posts published in “Essays”

Lessons from the Past: The 1918 Flu Pandemic (Part 3)

This is our final part in the series looking at the 1918 Influenza Pandemic.  It started in early 1918 and lasted about two years, officially ending in April 1920.  During those two years, it went…

It’s in the Oakland A’s DNA

Disturbing news suggests baseball has grown delirious from ill-considered changes made by owners unfamiliar with the game’s history and traditions.  Alarmed, son Lucas and I launched a 250-mile roundtrip journey to Oakland to assess baseball’s…

Probate: How To Be a Savvy Beneficiary

Wow, a double whammy, losing a loved one and discovering you are to inherit a loving gift from them, as they left a Will. Prepare for a journey into the Kabuki theater of the macabre…

Alexander Hamilton Willard

For the last several years I've been on Sacajawea's trail, literally from Montana and Idaho to Oregon. Of course Sacajawea means Lewis and Clark. Part of the trail my brother was working as a tourist…

Union Organizing in Anderson Valley

Last week's Philo Mill story left off at the encounter between the  mill Boss, Jack Davies and the sitdown strike participants gathered  sheepishly on the greenchain.  This week's rest of the story begins where I…

My First Timber Harvest Plan of 2021

Timber Harvest Plans (THPs) are like demure invitations to dance. A timber company sidles up to Cal Fire, which extends its soft hand. The music is an ancient minuet, its steps designed almost fifty years…

Pursuing the Mendo Outlaws on Two Fronts

The pursuit of the Mendocino Outlaws, wanted for the murder of two men, extended from October into November. The posse searched for the three remaining fugitives from the coast to the Eel River to Round…

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