Previously, we examined the murder of A.J. Shrum in his Round Valley field one evening in July, 1878. The authorities decided the deed was committed by eighteen-year-old Jesse Anthony so that his older brother, James,…
Posts published in “Essays”
Berkeley, CA 5/11/2020 – Lacking, as we all are, anything like responsible, responsive, informed sources about the COVID – 19 Pandemic, we cluster, knowingly or not, around a few people who seem worth listening to.…
“Drunken Woodsmen Wreck Cookhouse-Raise Hades at Little Valley Camp.” That’s what a headline in the Mendocino Beacon reported in the November 23, 1918 issue. This is the story about cooks and their customers. North of…
I’m riding my bike from 22nd and K. Street where I live sort of uptown to 8th and J Street to the UPS store, post office and groceries. My first and foremost observation is this…
A soldier being court-martialed is entitled to an Army defender plus “counsel of choice.” Fourteen of the 27 Presidio stockade prisoners who had been read the mutiny article during their sit-down in the Presidio stockade…
Three things have bothered me about this panic-demic from the beginning: One was the realization that the reaction to the novel coronavirus was far greater than its actual impact in sickness and death, which, so…
Even though the nights have been quieter, I have been dreaming more vividly. Across the self-isolated populace there are reports of widespread nightmares—stress, fear, change of routine cited as likely causes. Maybe the lack of…
Berkeley, CA – May 4, 2020 “If it takes a bloodbath, let’s get it over with.” Thus spoke then California Governor Ronald Reagan to a 1970 farm owner’s convention in Yosemite. He was talking about…