There is a popular expression — among the sort of unimaginative types who continually recycle "witticisms" until any acuity they may once have had has long been worn away — about opinions and their relationship…
Posts published in “Essays”
When Olive was taken to the animal shelter in Ukiah thousands of people reached out to me. Every day I meet people who ask me about the dog. Folks that I do not really think…
For several years my grandparents lived in a small house on the same property on Bainbridge Island as my nuclear family—nuclear in more than one sense, since our home was a dozen miles from the…
A yellow dredge sat scuttled in Richardson Bay, less than 100 yards south of the Napa St. pier, and about the same distance from the shoreline and the Sausalito Cruising Club. It was a barge with huge steel tanks for flotation, a wooden deck and 2-story superstructure.
Let's talk about vaccines for a bit — even though doing so in public forums always risks going down a rabbit hole of anti-science, conspiracy theories, and endless random nuttiness.
Last week's piece concluded with information about the rising tide of anti-Chinese attitudes in Mendocino County and the entire West during the late 1870s. By the autumn of 1878 the sentiment had spread across the…
Who says America doesn’t have a natural aristocracy? From young Bar(r)on von Trump to Lady Gaga, this country has produced legions of men, women, ADD teens, and hypoallergenic designer dogs, who radiantly fulfill Thomas Jefferson’s…
Prison is a young man's game. Or woman's; I don't want to take a sexist position here, but I will take an ageist one in that it absolutely requires the vigor and resilience of youth…
Deputy Orell Massey is Mendocino County’s first and, so far, only black patrol deputy. He has recently semi-retired, shifting from patrol to prisoner transportation. The tall, fit former Marine sat down with us recently for…