Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published in “Essays”

Gold Rush History, Revisited

One of the major misconceptions about the history of the Mendocino Coast is the idea that the sawmill at the mouth of Big River produced the first lumber in the area. The story about Jerome…

Everything Is Awesome!

If you listen to a very old person talk long enough, and I mean real old, and of a disposition toward colorful slang, you might hear a particular bygone class of word pass their lips.…

Musical Patriotism

With the ears of the body politic taking constant abuse from the choruses of recrimination echoing through and beyond White House and Capitol, we need the uplifting power of music more than ever. Your Humble…

Do You, Mr. Jones?

In case you wonder how our politics fell into such a slough of despond, the answer is pretty simple. Neither main political party, or their trains of experts, specialists, and mouthpieces, can construct a coherent…

Ryan Rocks

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan slyly removed himself to the Heartland for the congressional recess and the outbreak of this week’s political firestorm in Washington. In truth, this latest chapter in political dysfunction is…

Russian Election Meddling Documented!

For months we have all been force-fed a story few of us can digest about the hacking of the Democratic Party's email servers, presumably by Russians commanded by Vladimir Putin himself. The pundits say, "Nothing…

Homage To The Hay Makers

Some folks are already in church and at prayer in their Sunday best. Others have strapped on holsters and guns and are patrolling neighborhoods in new squad cars, looking for trouble. Then there are the…

HumCo Sets Standards For Dealing With Pot Violators

Humboldt County is grasping for ways to deal with marijuana permit seekers who have submitted incomplete applications but are proceeding with grows that violate commercial cultivation codes. The dilemma of enforcing the county’s Medical Marijuana…

Gagging Hare Creek

It started out as a grouch, a gesture of mild derision directed at an apparently uninterested city council looking the other way as big ugly box store barreled down on a sleepy city. Monday night I…

-